| In Jesus's society, a "proper" Jewish man (such as a Pharisee, for example) would never even think of associating with a tax collector like Matthew. Essentially, tax collectors were political collaborators -- they made money (and quite a bit of it) by collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans...so needless to say, their neighbors did not exactly view them with favor! Jesus may not have loved what Matthew did for a living, but at least he was willing to speak with Matthew and offer him respect even if for nothing else than his humanity -- something which most other people would not have done. One of the things which has always distinguished Jesus in my mind was that he saw people as human beings first, sinners second -- something which, I'm sad to say, I think should be the goal but which often seems lacking in many self-professed Christians. |
