In Jewish tradition, Scripture is not merely read and applied: it is debated and examined from multiple angles. Like a gem, the sages say, “The Torah has seventy faces.” We turn it around and examine each angle carefully. I think we should do the same with the New Testament, because its compilers clearly intended that we have multiple angles: That’s why we have four Gospels, right? That’s why I love the story of Zacchaeus.
A tax collector was a greedy combination of embezzler and extortionist, a traitor to his people and a sinner of the worst sort—or so I’ve been told in countless sermons. This is why they are lumped together with prostitutes and other sinners. Jesus himself uses tax collectors in parables designed to shock his hearers (Luke 18:10). Although Jesus counted a tax collector among his disciples (Luke 5:27), the most notorious tax collector in the Bible is Zacchaeus (Luke 19), that tiny weasel of a man who was loathed by his neighbors.
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