"we Are Judged By The Company We Keep"

“We are Judged by the Company We Keep”

Matthew 9:9-13

Imagine, if you will, inviting the most reviled, hated, person in your town or city to hang out with you.

Imagine there being a person that all your friends hate—despise—wouldn’t be seen giving the time of day to…

…and then imagine that YOU invite them to church.

You take them with you to your Sunday school class or small group.

You insist that they sit next to you in the sanctuary.

You introduce them to everyone…

…and of course, everyone already knows them or knows of them…

…and they wouldn’t be seen with that person if you paid them.

That would be a pretty radical thing to do, would it not?

Or imagine being in Middle School or High School.

And imagine you have friends.

You aren’t the MOST popular person in class—but everyone is, after-all, vying for that position.

And of course, everyone is known by the company they keep.

So, everyone does their best to sit at the “popular table” at lunch or be seen with the so-called “beautiful people.”

But there are always the major casta-ways—the people that, for some reason or another NO ONE seems to like.

They are the butt of many jokes.

Your friends and classmates bully and make fun of them on a regular basis.

And the popular people, oh, they make the MOST fun of these persons.

Well, imagine a person like that.

Even the other outcastes don’t want anything to do with them.

They eat alone at a table all by themselves at lunch.

They don’t smell good; perhaps they come from a very dysfunctional family—they have terrible social skills--whatever it is.

But imagine making the decision to go over to that person, talk with that person and invite that person to come sit with you at the popular table.

Can you imagine doing that as a middle schooler or high schooler?

The Scripture Passage we are looking at this morning might well be a record of one of the most socially radical things Jesus ever did.

Our story takes place in Judea.

And Judea was a province that was under the occupation and protection of Rome.

And because Judea was under the protection of Rome the people enjoyed privileges such as economic trade and relatively safe passage throughout Rome’s vast empire.

People were even granted access to Rome’s luxuries and goods.

But the privilege of the “Pax Romana” or the Peace of Rome came with a price.

The Jews had to endure the humiliation of being ruled by despised Gentiles.

They had to tolerate their offensive pagan worship and practices which threatened to undermine the Jewish way of life.

And the Jews also had to submit to Roman laws and customs.

This included paying taxes to Rome.

In order to carry this out, Rome would hire local Jews to collect the taxes.

And this had the potential to be a pretty lucrative situation for the person who did the tax collecting.

With a Roman soldier on either side of him—and it would have been a “him”—the tax collector had the power to collect the taxes.

And the tax collectors were given the power to decide what people owed the empire as well, and there were no fair courts where people could appeal any corrupt demands.

So, tax collectors were notorious for overcharging way beyond what would have been expected.

They taxed their neighbors unbelievably high rates, keeping the excess for themselves.

And everyone—every one of the tax collector’s countrymen would have considered him to be a traitor, a disgrace to his family—who were forced to disown him—and he certainly would not have been welcome in a synagogue or Temple.

As a matter of fact, the Jews thought of those who collected taxes to be as good as dead.

They were completely hated and completely shunned.

No one liked a tax collector.

No one would have been caught dead hanging out with one.

The radical nature of Jesus’ calling of Matthew the tax collector is very well brought to life in a new series called “The Chosen.”

How many of you have seen “The Chosen”?

You can look up “The Chosen” in the App. Store on your phone or on Google Play.

It’s free to download.

And it is well-done.

What it is—is the story of Jesus and His disciples put on the screen.

In the first few episodes we get to know what this Matthew character might have been like.

They portray him as someone who would have been sort of a social misfit even if he hadn’t been a tax collector.

He is somewhere on the autism spectrum, but is a genius with numbers.

That’s why Rome chooses him to be a tax collector.

Early in the show, Peter is just about to lose everything he owns, the fishing business—everything to this unscrupulous Matthew guy.