Mercy Knows No Limits!

And as He sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:10-11)

I’m with the Pharisees on this one!

I know many of us were brought up believing that Nazis, Communists and Pharisees are always the bad guys. Even so, I look at this scene where Jesus is having a party with a group of ‘tax collectors and sinners’, and I find myself asking the exact same question the Pharisees were asking: “Why does Jesus eat with these people?”

This party scene follows immediately on the story of the calling of Matthew, who was himself a tax collector, and so the party is taking place in Matthew’s house with Matthew’s friends, and it makes complete sense to me that the local spiritual leaders found this offensive, as tax collectors were despicable people!

If we were living in Gaza now, watching our country being systematically destroyed – our homes demolished, members of our family being killed, and with us facing the real and imminent threat of starvation – who would we be most angry with?

We would hate the enemy, of course – those with guns and bombs doing all the damage. Even more than them, though, we would despise the collaborators – members of our own community who had turned against us and who were on the payroll of the enemy.

No, the Romans were not carrying out a genocide in Judea at the time of Jesus. Even so, theirs was a violent and ruthless occupation, and when the Jewish people did eventually have their own October 7 moment – rising up against their occupiers and attempting to throw off the Roman yoke in the year 70 AD – the imperial response was brutal and merciless!

First-century Jewish people hated the Romans with a passion, of course, but the one group they hated more was the collaborators: people like Matthew, the tax collector.

When the Romans conquered a new town, they would auction off the job of chief tax collector for that area. Zaccheus, whom we meet in Luke, chapter 19, was the chief tax collector for the city of Jericho. The role would have cost him a lot of money. Why would anyone pay a large sum for the right to collect taxes for Rome? Because it could make you an even larger sum! It was a way to get very wealthy, very quickly.

Chief tax collectors then subcontracted their work to smaller tax agents who sat at toll booths on the roads and city gates. Matthew was one of these smaller toll collectors. He was expected to charge people 2% to 5% of the goods they brought into the city, on top of which he added his own commission – an amount that was whatever he said it was, and if you didn’t like his calculations, he had the Roman army to back him up!

Tax collectors were crooks, and they were collaborators, and they were very wealthy. There were lots of reasons to avoid them, and zero good reasons for pious and patriotic people to party with them, so … “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

Some will say at this point, ‘Well, we are all sinners, so this is us’, but it’s not us. The crowd Jesus is partying with here are people we don’t want to party with.

Of course, we don’t know exactly who was there. When Jesus dines with Zacchaeus, he is like a Mafiosi boss, and we might expect other leading gangsters and, of course, their lawyers. Matthew isn’t at that level, so it’s probably mainly drug dealers and sex workers (or their equivalent). Were there known paedophiles hanging out at Matthew’s house that night?

I saw an alleged Truth Social post from Donald Trump, saying, “Nobody knows God better than me.” I believe it’s a fake post, but the genuine quotes aren’t much better:

“I have a great relationship with God.” — CNN interview, 2016
The Bible is my favorite book. Nothing beats the Bible.” — Campaign video, 2015

If Jesus were to somehow reappear in the flesh, and if I saw him make a beeline for Donald Trump, lunching with him and his friends, I would have an issue with that.

If Jesus were to come back and, instead of lunching with me and my mates, He chose to attend social events put on by those supporting the war against Iran or with those opposing all forms of immigration, or if He turned up at a social gathering of the Ku Klux Klan, I would have an issue with that!

Yes, Jesus explains why He does what He does: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew 9:12) Even so, how sick do sick people have to be before the godliest thing we can do is to avoid these people? Isn’t partying with people like this giving them the wrong message? Isn’t there a point where, if we’re going to maintain some level of moral decency, we simply need to stay away from people like this?

If we look at our larger Gospel reading from Matthew, chapter 9, it covers a series of encounters. There’s this meeting with Matthew, the tax collector, and his friends. Then there’s Jesus’ encounter with the woman who is haemorrhaging (Matthew 9:20-22), and finally, we see Jesus resurrect a young girl who has died! The common denominator in each of these encounters is that all these people are considered ‘unclean’.

The haemorrhaging woman is unclean because she is haemorrhaging. The dead girl is unclean because she is dead. Matthew and his friends are unclean because they are dirtbags, and because they worked for the Romans, mixed with gentiles, etc.

Jesus crosses the boundary between clean and unclean in a way that I find unnerving. If He had restricted Himself to preaching to the unclean, I wouldn’t have a problem, but Jesus touches the unclean. sits with the unclean. raises the unclean, and He parties with the unclean!

I remember once watching a news report on the trial of a notorious paedophile, and I remember the cameras catching the image of a Salvation Army officer who was acting as a support person for the accused. I remember thinking then, ‘Is this really what the Gospel requires – that we reach out in compassion to people like that?’

“Go and learn what this means,” says Jesus, “’I desire mercy, not sacrifice. ‘ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. (Matthew 9:13)

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated an extraordinary Sunday Eucharist last weekend with our largest physical congregation to date!

We were at Binacrombi, where Diane and her friend, Lorraine, had been staying for the last month. Joy and I joined them on the Friday, and Brynn came up and joined us all on the Sunday. We also had two of our Binacrombi guests with us at the outset of the service, giving us a physical congregation of seven (7)! That was a first. Then we had Pastor George Capsis making his debut with us on the panel – another first!

Mind you, the Internet quality was not great, and I ended up with fewer clips than usual. Even so, I’ve posted our discussion on 2 Corinthians 13 at the end of today’s newsletter, and even if you don’t listen to it (and it’s less than seven minutes long), I hope you’ll appreciate the thumbnail graphic, featuring me with Diane and George along with AI Saint Paul, who clearly has Diane’s back.

I received another mid-week email from our virtual brother this week. He seems to spend quite a bit of time thinking about the Bible readings after our discussion is over and feels compelled to share any extra insights he’s had via email. It’s all rather bizarre!

Two short videos are below. Catch all our short videos on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page. All our videos – long and short – are now to be found on Rumble (the home of free speech). Please visit my Rumble page and follow my channel.

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, which means we have the joy of having David Baldwin and Tom Toby back with us. It was my discussion with Tom last month that had me deplatformed by YouTube. I wonder what trouble we’ll get into this time? Either way, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with them very much.

Join us this Sunday at midday (Sydney time). @ www.theSundayEucharist.com or on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, Streamyard or Rumble

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What’s On?

Sunday, June 7th – Our Eucharist from noon @ thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, Streamyard or Rumble
Tuesday, June 9th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from7 pm.
Thursday, June 11th – Noon Bible Study @www.thesundayeucharist.com/bible
Thursday, June 11th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from7pm
Saturday, June 13th – Boxing at the Legends Gym in Kensington from 3 pm

We had an extraordinary time at Binacrombi last weekend. We ate, prayed, boxed and battled the elements together. You can’t see Diane and her friend, Lorraine, in the above pics, but they were at the heart of everything that went on there too.

It was such a privilege to have Elizabeth and Tevita Funa come and join us, bringing their lovely daughter, Lavender. We’d only met for the first time the previous week. Evidently, God has something in mind for us. They joined us on the Saturday at Binacrombi, and I did my first session with them at the Brofit gym on Thursday.

I had no idea that the Brofit gyms existed – gyms focused on strengthening men’s mental health! Tevita and Elizabeth have managed to create structured programmes that mirror the sort of work I’ve been doing with at-risk young people for the last 40+ years! It’s deeply encouraging, and it’s a privilege for me to be asked to be involved.

I have no idea what God has planned in this latest venture, but it seems to involve me and Brofit and Binacrombi. All will become clear in good time, but I’m confident that it will be an opportunity to connect once again with people on the margins of our community – people who are rarely on the church’s radar but who are close to the heart of Jesus.

Continue to pray for me as I do for you.

Your brother in the Good Fight,