How far can grace be extended?

“The toll collector went back to his home justified.” He had been given a clean slate. He had a new beginning.

When asked “why are you a Christian?” My response is simple. I am a flawed person, who makes his full share of mistakes. I need lots of grace and an abundance of new beginnings. These I find in my relationship with Jesus, my Christ. Abundant grace and a stream of new beginnings are at the heart of my Christian faith.

Jesus’ message of grace and new beginnings is a minority perspective in the collection of writings we call the Bible. The Bible is full of harsh judgments and wars that are justified. Over the years of Israelite history, a handful of Israelites protested the violence and destruction that was done in the name of their sometimes gracious, but often wrathful, God.

Jesus was one of those who were more interested in peace, grace, restoration, reconciliation, healing and wholeness. He rejected the God of wrath and embraced a gracious, loving father God.

Jesus grew up with the rejects of Israel In a small town called Nazareth in the area called Galilee. Jesus’ people were poor peasants, who were kept poor by Roman bureaucrats and Jewish henchmen who controlled the farm land in Galilee and the Temple in Jerusalem about 70 miles south from Nazareth. Religiously, they were seen as unclean. Jesus was poor and became the teacher of oppressed, peasant people

Jesus constantly taught about the kingdom of God on Earth. To our benefit, a lot of his teaching material has been preserved and was recorded in the gospel writings. The core of his teachings about the kingdom of God on Earth is available to us. But sometimes we must peel away the additions of later writers.

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is found in the 18th chapter of Luke. It is one of several parables that Luke placed just before Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, where he would be arrested, tried and executed by crucifixion.

Most scholars place the original telling of the story back in Galilee. His audience in all probability was poor, illiterate Galilean peasants. Verse 9 should be removed as a Luke addition, and verse 14b should be eliminated as an unneeded conclusion. When these needed corrections are made, the parable begins to take on new meanings.

However, the most significant change is yet to be made. Most English translations identify the first key player in the story as a tax collector. The central figure in the parable was not a tax collector. He was a toll collector. Tolls and taxes were two different things.

Tax collectors were in a class of their own. Tax collectors were generally not respected; however, most taxes were seen as legitimate.

This was not true of toll collectors and tolls. Tolls were outside of the tax system. Tolls were extorted for the use of public facilities and venues.

Roads were such a service. The Romans built the roads, but they sold the collection of tolls to the highest bidder. A successful bidder paid his fee up front. He then hired toll collectors to control and collect.

Toll collectors were hired from the ranks of the peasants. They were hated by the other peasants who could not avoid use of the roads. Toll collectors were seen as common thieves and a part of a despised business. No one was lower on the pole of respect than the toll collector.

Exaggeration is an accepted tool in storytelling. Choosing a toll collector for a main character in the story was Jesus’ way of making the message of grace very plain.

A fresh look also needs to be taken at the Pharisee. He too was in a trap. He was thoroughly involved in the collection of tithes and taxes for the operation of the Temple. He was far more a servant of Rome than he was of the Israelite God.

It was ingenious of Jesus to place the story in the Temple. In the Israelite system the Temple was the place where sins could be resolved. It was the one place the Pharisee could go to get rid of the terrible burden of guilt for being a part of the collection system for the Temple enterprise.

As is often the case, a vicious sinner sought refuge in heaping scorn upon someone he sees as being a bigger sinner than himself. This became the role of the Pharisee in the story.

The toll collector positioned himself in a far corner of the Temple courtyard and cried out for mercy. He found the grace and acceptance of God. The Pharisee pointed his finger at the toll collector and called him names. In the story, the Pharisee was assigned condemnation rather than justification.

By the rules of the game, the toll collector should not have been allowed into the courtyard of the Temple because he was so unworthy. He was unclean. The Pharisee was a keeper of the rules. The role reversal in the story is dramatic.

Jesus was at times criticized harshly because of his close association with toll collectors and other sinners. He seldom visited the Temple. Grace and mercy were his first concerns. Jesus is my truest friend.

Today, many churches carefully avoid contact with the “toll collectors.” They are too busy tending to the business of the Temple.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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