Matthew The Tax Collector Series

Someone said, you never could take your money with you, but

some can remember when the government would let you keep

some while you were still here. It is hard for many to believe that

our country was founded partly to avoid taxation. As bad as taxes

are, however, only two classes of people ever complain-men and

women. Taxes are nothing new, however. The Romans had just

about every tax we do today, and they were heavy. Rome needed

taxes because she built the best road system the world had ever

seen. Some of the roads built in New Testament times are still in

use today. Trade was booming because of the road system.

Soldiers patrolled the roads to protect travellers from bandits.

To maintain this system and highway patrol protection, plus build

government buildings, town halls, baths and stadiums, there was a

need for many taxes.

They taxed one tenth of crops of grain, one fifth of produce of

wine, oil, and fruit, plus they had an income tax of one percent.

On top of this, they had a poll tax for men 14 to 65 and women 12to 65.

This was one denarius a year, which was the wages of an

average man for one day. Then, of course, there were the import-export

taxes, the road taxes, the harbor taxes, and the tax for the

use of the market place. Custom officers were stationed

everywhere to collect these taxes, and they had the power to be

very unjust. It is known that some levied taxes so high the trader

could not pay, and so the tax collector would loan him the money

for his tax at a high interest rate. It was literal highway robbery.

This tax burden and the abused power of the tax collector has

survived into the modern day. Charles Brown, the dean of Yale

Divinity School, went to Palestine years ago when it was under

Turkish control. He talked to a farmer in Jericho who told him he

was required to place his harvested crop of wheat in ten stacks.

He made them as even as possible because the tax collector had

the right to come and select one of the ten for the state. To get the

tax collector to come and make his selection he had to give the

collector another of the ten stacks for his personal fee. Then to

get a paper signed permitting him to thresh his crop he had to

give another stack in final payment.

This same kind of oppression was going on in New Testament

days, and the Jews despised it, and everyone connected with it.

The Jews were not opposed to taxes, but, as a theocracy, they felt

only a God appointed man had the right to collect taxes. They did

not mind supporting their government, but the objected to the

support of a foreign government. Those who cooperated with the

Romans were considered traitors to Israel. They were so hated

that their money was not accepted in the temple. Their word was

of no value in court, and they were listed by the Jews along with

harlots and murderers. Even the Romans themselves did not

respect the tax collector. Cicero said that it was a trade

unbecoming to a gentleman, and it was vulgar. Lucian listed them

with a adulterous, informers, and money-lenders. All in all it was

a class of people highly unlikely to contribute anyone to a

religious movement, and yet Jesus chose one of these tax collectors

to be one of His 12 select men.

Matthew the publican was chosen long before the only Pharisee

Jesus ever chose as an Apostle, which was Paul. Matthew, or Levi

as he is called, also had potential which no one else would have

ever tried to discover, but Jesus not only discovered it, He

developed an used it. When Matthew left his tax booth he took his

pen with him, and was used of God to record words of Jesus which

we would otherwise not have, and be much the poorer. The

Sermon on the Mount being just one of the major examples.

In 1844 a New Testament scholar visited the monestery of St.

Catherine on Mt. Sinai. While there he saw some papers in a

basket. His eye detected Greek characters which turned out to be

the famous manuscript of the Bible called Codex Sinaiticus. It

was a copy that dated back to the 4th century. To the monks

there it was just an old Bible of no value, but to the scholar it was

a priceless discovery. So it was with Matthew the publican. To his

own people he was a worthless Jew; a disgrace to his nation, and

of no value at all, but to Jesus he was so precious that he chose him