Forgiveness connects the call of the tax collector to the healing of the paralytic – Christ’s authority to forgive sins – Mark 2:13-17.
When
Jesus pronounced the paralytic man’s sins forgiven, he offended the Scribes and
Pharisees and alienated them further by showing mercy “to sinners,”
individuals considered unacceptable by religiously observant Jews. Seeing the
Nazarene eating with “tax collectors,” the Scribes and Pharisees insinuated
that Jesus was also a notorious sinner – (Mark 2:1-17).
Jesus calls his disciples to
emulate the same attitude and behavior that he did, to pursue mercy rather than
hatred and vengeance, and especially mercy given to enemies and those who are marginalized
and rejected by society.
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| [Photo by Todd Rhines (Chicago) on Unsplash] |
Tax collectors were despised in Jewish society. Their occupation required them to handle coins from pagan and Jewish sources, and they interacted with men from all walks of life. Physical contact with pagan symbols and Gentiles meant they were ritually unclean. Moreover, patriotic Jews viewed tax collectors as collaborators with Rome.
- (Mark 2:13-17) - “And he went forth again by the sea, and all the multitude was coming to him, and he began teaching them. And passing by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting over by the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me! And arising, he followed him. And it came to pass that he was reclining in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they began following him. And the Scribes and Pharisees, seeing that he was eating with the sinners and the tax collectors, began saying to his disciples: He is eating with the tax collectors and sinners! And hearing it, Jesus said to them: The strong have no need of a physician, but they who are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners” – (Parallel passages: Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 5:27-32).
This tax collector was in the service
of Herod Antipas. The Roman government collected land taxes directly.
Taxes on transported goods were contracted to local tax collectors who collected predetermined amounts of revenue. Whatever sums they collected over
the contracted amount became their profit.
Religiously scrupulous Jews
avoided employment of this kind since it required them to engage in
transactions with Gentiles, compromising their ritual purity. The actions of
Jesus were doubly scandalous because he associated with politically
objectionable and ceremonially unclean men. He compounded his offense by eating
with tax collectors, and others viewed as intolerably sinful by the critics of
Jesus.
Table fellowship was important in
Jewish society, especially to the Pharisees, and eating with less observant Jews
infringed on their ritual purity. The category of “sinner” could include
immoral individuals, but in this case, it was applied to Jewish men simply considered
ritually impure, regardless of any greater moral failure.
The sect of the Pharisees adhered
strictly to the Mosaic Law and its body of oral traditions for interpreting the
regulations of the Torah, the ‘Tradition of the Elders’, which
often concerned ritual purity and dietary rules.
The concluding statement of
Jesus emphasized that his Messianic mission is about redemption, not
condemnation or destruction. The version of this story recorded in the Gospel
of Matthew adds the following:
- “Go and learn what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!” – (Matthew 9:9-13).
- “For I desire goodness and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” – (Hosea 6:6-7).
- “With what should I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the high God? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has taught you, O man, what is good, and what Yahweh requires of you, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” – (Micah 6:6-8).
God does not reject animal
sacrifices in the passage from the Book of Hosea, but He preferred
righteous deeds and mercy from His people over religious rituals.
MERCY TRIUMPHS
Acts of mercy are superior to
the Levitical rituals valued above all else by his opponents. Jesus expressed
the same idea in his ‘Sermon on the Mount’, and later, in his denunciation of
the Scribes and Pharisees:
- “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” – (Matthew 5:7).
- “Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and have dismissed the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. It was necessary to do these, but those not to dismiss” - (Matthew 23:23).
By calling sinners to repent and
turn from their sins, Jesus was fulfilling his role as the ‘Servant of
Yahweh’ sent by God to restore Israel and bring salvation to the nations of
the Earth:
- “And now declares Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be his Servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered for him. For I am honourable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God is my strength. Yes, He declares, it is too light a thing that you should be my Servant to lift the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel? I will also give you for a light to the Nations, that you may be my salvation to the ends of the earth” - (Isaiah 49:5-6).
- “And again, Isaiah declares, There will be the root of Jesse, And he that arises to rule over the nations. On him the Gentiles will hope” - (Romans 15:12, Isaiah 11:10).
Whether forgiving sins or healing the sick, Jesus came to redeem the lost and restore us to all that God originally intended for mankind. On this particular day, Jesus demonstrated mercy by healing the paralytic man, forgiving the tax collector, and welcoming the latter into his fellowship. The Servant of Yahweh restored a son of Israel to the Covenant Community.
The mercy granted to the tax
collector provides us with a concrete demonstration of what it means to have “mercy
rather than sacrifice.” We emulate the God who made all men by doing the
same, especially to the marginalized and the enemy:
- “You have heard that it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the same? You, therefore, will be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” – (Matthew 5:43-48).
- “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy” – (James 3:17).
[Note:
Text printed in small capital letters
represents quotations of or allusions to Old Testament passages]
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SEE ALSO:
- Forgiving Sin - (Jesus healed a paralytic. By doing so, he demonstrated the authority of the Son of Man to discharge the stain of sin – Mark 2:1-12)
- The Word of the Cross - (The power and wisdom of God are revealed in the proclamation of the Messiah, who was crucified by the World Empire)
- Misericordia, no Sacrificio - (El perdón conecta el llamado del publicano con la curación del paralítico – la autoridad de Cristo para perdonar pecados - Marcos 2: 13-17)