Look Beyond the Surface by Father Ian Maher
Matthew 9.9-13 Tax collectors in the time of Jesus were held by many in the same sort of low of esteem as some politicians are today. Just the very mention of their name was enough to evoke a negative response in people. In neither case is every person working in those professions dishonest or bad and, in fact, most are conscientious and sincere in their work.
Not surprisingly, the religious elite of the day saw Jesus’ socialising with ‘tax collectors and sinners’ as an affront to their understanding of what it meant to live a good and holy life. ‘Keep your distance from the likes of them’ could have been their mantra – ‘them’ being any category of person that did not fit their standards of what they regarded as upright and clean.
It is, however, very easy to fall into the trap of categorising a whole group of people in accordance with the failings of the few. Not every tax collector in first-century Palestine was on the fiddle and not every politician in 21st century Westminster is crooked. Those respective professions have been tarnished severely by the bad apples in the barrel.
Thus, any tax collector in their society was dismissed in their view simply by virtue of their profession – judged not by the best but by the worst behaviour of some individuals. In contrast, what Jesus saw was a human being, pure and simple. That was his starting point and maybe for the first time Matthew felt seen and heard for more than his despised role, and it was instrumental in the change that he made to his life.
So there is something important about not jumping to conclusions too quickly about a person whose occupation, status, political allegiance, religious affiliation and so on, rings negative bells for us. That word ‘person’ is what we need to hold on to because it helps us to see beyond the stereotypes that affect us in how we regard and respond to other people.
One thing that the story of Jesus and Matthew the tax-collector does is encourage us to see the person first; to look beyond the surface of any prejudice or stereotype that we or the society we live in might hold towards particular professions or groups.
Jesus’ treatment of Matthew the tax-collector demonstrates this approach. It is almost certainly the case that Matthew was despised in his community. Not only were the tax collectors gathering payments on behalf of the Roman occupation force, some of them – not all, but some – were skimming off extra profit for themselves.
One thing that the story of Jesus and Matthew the tax-collector does is encourage us to see the person first; to look beyond the surface of any prejudice or stereotype that we or the society we live in might hold towards particular professions or groups.
I am a priest and minor canon at Sheffield Cathedral. My last post prior to retirement from stipendiary ministry was as the Multifaith Chaplaincy Coordinator and Anglican Chaplain at Sheffield Hallam University, where I worked for 12 years. https://imaherblog.wordpress.com/ Twitter @IanMaher7 - 50 -
