What the Bible Says About Tax Collectors

 

Thanks for joining our study about tax collectors in the Bible. Let’s begin with a musical introduction — a famous song about this profession.

From the Beatles to the Bible, today we focus on the relationship between Jesus and tax collectors. The enemies of Jesus (and even his friends) were critical of how He befriended fellow Jews who were considered traitorous — whose jobs were to squeeze money out of their community on behalf of the Roman authorities. In the process, many tax collectors were corrupt and enriched themselves.

With all that in mind, we examine “The Calling of Matthew” — my NIV Study Bible’s subtitle for this multi-faceted story where Jesus proclaims a significant aspect of His earthly ministry.

In the book of Matthew 9:1-8 immediately before Jesus met Matthew, Jesus healed a paralytic man. But unstated in the passages that follow is whether or not Matthew saw or heard about this miracle:

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him” (Matthew 9:9).

Unanswered is “Why Matthew obeyed Jesus with no hesitation?” Perhaps Matthew had heard about the paralytic’s miraculous healing while “sitting at the tax collector’s booth” and was moved by the Spirit. Maybe, Matthew thought, “Take this job and shove it.” Or, “I am destined to write a self-named first chapter of the world’s bestselling book, and Jesus is my agent.” Whatever Matthew’s reason for obedience, the next verses read:  

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” (Matthew 9:10-11). 

Later, upon hearing that question posed by his disciples, Jesus brilliantly answered:

 “‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’” (Matthew 9:12-13).  

However, on the cross, Jesus, the Lamb of God, sacrificed Himself for the forgiveness of our sins and those of the world. 

We know Matthew — a hated tax collector in need of what Jesus was offering, became one of His 12 disciples — an example of transformation through forgiveness. Also note that in addition to the book of Matthew, this foundational lesson appears in Mark 2:13–17 and Luke 5:27–31. And in both gospels, Matthew is referred to as “Levi,” his given Hebrew name.

Now we jump to another inspiring tax collector story found only in Luke’s gospel. The story begins when crowds gather as Jesus passes through Jericho. There, a short man named Zacchaeus, unable to see over the masses, climbed a tree to gain a better view. Although Zacchaeus was short in stature, he was tall when he stood on his riches earned from his job as chief tax collector. Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree and says:

“‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter [about Jesus] ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner’” (Luke 19: 5-7). 

Immediately we read that Zacchaeus had major guilt about how he made his money. So he was anxious to turn his life around, seek forgiveness, and start anew:

“Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount’” (Luke 19:8). 

Notice that Zacchaeus addressed Jesus as “Lord” and quickly admitted his sin. All Jesus did was order Zacchaeus off the tree and invite Himself to the chief tax collector’s house. But Jesus turned Zacchaeus's actions into a lesson for all sinners:

“Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’”(Luke 19:9-10).

Jesus and Zacchaeus were perfectly paired for this lesson. First, Jesus announced the respected Abrahamic lineage of the chief tax collector loathed by his community. (Akin to a member of royalty cheating his subjects.) 

Second, Jesus calls Himself “the Son of Man” — a title in the Hebrew Bible reserved for the Messiah of which the ancient Jews were very familiar. (See Vol. 53 for more about “Son of Man.”) 

Then Jesus tells Zacchaeus (and the crowd) that He forgives sin and “came to seek” and “save the lost.” Remember, because only God can forgive sin, Jesus has revealed His identity. 

The term “tax collector” is often used in the New Testament gospels as an example of a shunned man at the lowest rung of society. Thus, if Jesus can associate with tax collectors — forgive and heal their sins — He can easily forgive those who think of themselves as more worthy or hold higher titles.

These two gospel lessons can apply to all modern-day sins. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, can heal and forgive those who believe in Him. About that concept, here is what St. Paul poignantly wrote in 1 Timothy:

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). 

Those who love Jesus know He is available 24/7. And for those who don’t, you can pray, read His Word, and invite Him into your heart. Jesus already knows who you are and is ready to call you down from your tree

CNN Admits Biden Has Told Several Lies While Campaigning For Dems

 

While campaigning for Democrats in key states ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, President Joe Biden has been caught red-handed lying about several things. 

According to CNN, Biden has made several “false or misleading statements,” all while attacking Republicans. 

The first lie Biden was fact-checked on, was his claim that former President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts only benefited the top one percent. However, not only did the top one percent benefit from the tax break, but middle class Americans also received a significant break from Trump’s legislation. 

Biden also claimed that on his watch “for the first time in 10 years, seniors are getting an increase in their Social Security checks.”

However, the left-wing outlet called out Biden’s lie, stating that “in reality,” there has been a cost of living increase every year since 2017 and onward, including an increase between the years 2012 and 2015 as well. 

As with the debt and deficit, CNN pointed out two major problems with Biden’s claims regarding the federal debt. 

According to Biden, he “reduced the federal deficit this year by $1 trillion $400 billion. One trillion 400 billion dollars. The most in all American history. No one has ever reduced the debt that much. We cut the federal debt in half.”

CNN noted that this is just not true.

In October, the U.S. national debt soared past $31 trillion for the first time, catching Biden in yet another lie. 

“It’s highly questionable how much credit Biden deserves for even the reduction in the deficit,” the liberal outlet said. 

“Biden doesn’t mention that the primary reason the deficit plummeted in fiscal years 2021 and 2022 was that it had skyrocketed to a record high in 2020 because of emergency pandemic relief spending. It then fell as expected as the spending expired as planned,” CNN points out. 

It’s bad when even the few that are left still rooting for Biden can’t even hide his mistakes and lies. However, it is about time the president was fact-checked and called out for his repeated false statements.

5 Places Where World War III Could Erupt in 2022

Entering 2022, the world looks more dangerous than it has at any time since the late 1980s. Real conflicts of interest in Eastern Europe and the East China Sea have set the table for the first serious great-power conflict in decades. Crises in the Middle East, Northeast Asia, and the Himalayas continue to smolder.

Here are the five most dangerous flashpoints for the eruption of World War III, in descending order of peril:

Ukraine

Easily the most likely flashpoint for great power war in 2022 lies along the border between Russia and Ukraine.

Over the past six months, Russia has steadily built up forces along the frontier as Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington have traded barbs. Russia’s immediate concerns involve the Ukrainian acquisition and use of Turkish drones along its border regions, along with a general increase in Ukrainian military power. Moscow’s long-range problem is its inability to reverse the Western orientation that Kyiv has adopted since 2014.

Russia has publicly argued that it wants to resolve the issues of Ukraine and of Russia’s relationship with NATO on a permanent basis. The United States and NATO have not responded positively to these overtures, but have notably failed to guarantee Ukraine’s security. If Russia launches an invasion of Ukraine things could get ugly quickly. Despite improvements in Ukrainian forces, most analysts expect that Russia would win quick victories along the border, potentially gaining access to the Ukrainian heartland.

Direct Russian military action would put immense pressure on the United States to respond in some fashion. However, the US can support Kyiv in several ways without direct intervention. This includes economic sanctions against Russia, cyberattacks against Russian infrastructure, the transfer of weapons to Ukraine, and the sharing of real-time intelligence with Ukrainian forces. The use of any of these tools, especially if they show some success on the ground, could lead to a confrontation between Moscow and Washington.

Taiwan

Over the past year, long-simmering US concern over the Chinese threat to Taiwan has seemed to come to a boil.

Chinese military capabilities have grown rapidly over the past decade, and now constitute a major obstacle against US intervention. At the same time, China’s military remains untested, and an amphibious assault across the Taiwan Strait would constitute one of the most sophisticated military operations in history.

The potential for miscalculation is immense. The United States maintained a studied ambiguity towards Taiwan for the past forty years as it developed a strong economic relationship with the People’s Republic of China.  This “strategic ambiguity” was designed to remove the incentive for Taiwan to declare independence while not giving China an excuse to invade. Some in Congress have now called for an end to this policy, and for more full-throated support of Taiwan’s international position.

A war could begin in several different ways. China could launch a “bolt from the blue” attack designed to catch US and Taiwanese forces unawares. Alternatively, tensions in other aspects of the US-China relationship might convince Beijing of the likelihood of a change in the US stance towards Taiwan, leading to a pre-emptive attack. Finally (and least likely) Taiwan might attempt to make its independence an accomplished fact, which most analysts believe would incur Chinese military intervention.

In any eventuality, escalation would be difficult for either side to manage, and a fight over access to Taiwan could quickly degenerate into a general war.

Iran

Any honest appraisal of US policy towards Iran now recognizes that then-President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, was a disastrous mistake.

The US effort to increase military and economic coercion against Iran has failed.  Iran has stepped up its nuclear efforts while improving the sophistication of its missile forces and increasing its covert activities across the region.

Negotiations have thus far failed to restore the status quo, as the United States has stumbled over its inability to commit and Tehran has taken a tough attitude.  If negotiations fail to bring Iran into some kind of a deal, the threat of military action lurks in the background. While the Biden administration doesn’t seem excited about the prospect of war, US allies in Riyadh and Jerusalem could try to trigger a confrontation. Similarly, if Iran comes to believe an attack is inevitable, it could pre-empt with all the tools it has available. Iran lacks committed great power backing, but a conflict in the Middle East could open opportunities elsewhere for Russia and China.

North Korea

The North Korea front has gone quiet over the last couple of years, as the DPRK has struggled too much with the covid pandemic to bother making much trouble internationally.

Japan, South Korea, and the United States have similarly been happy to let sleeping dogs lie, focusing on bigger international and domestic problems rather than trying to cut through the apparently intractable Korean situation.

To the extent that North Korea has made the headlines the news largely seems to be positive, with the US and Seoul coming to a mutual understanding on the prospects for a formal end to the Korean War.

And yet… the problem of North Korea remains unresolved. It is not a failed state but it faces enormous economic, social, and political problems. Historically, Pyongyang has used external belligerence to attract international attention and force a resolution of its concerns. While North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon in several years, a resumption of testing, combined with additional tests of its missile arsenal, could erase much of the calm that has ensued over the past few years.

Himalayas

Tensions between China and India have mellowed over the past year, but we should not forget that the border between the two countries witnessed lethal confrontations over the past two years.

India and China have worked hard to reduce tensions along the border, but basic disagreements over territory and disposition remain. Both countries have continued to build up infrastructure in the region that could support rapid military mobilization.

Neither Beijing nor Delhi seem particularly interested in throwing down over control of remote mountain regions. But it is not difficult to envision renewed skirmishes that then draw in other problematic aspects of their relationship. Although China enjoys considerable military superiority, some trends appear to favor India. The burgeoning technological relationship between Delhi and Washington is a source of concern for Beijing, especially given the newfound willingness of the United States to engage in long-term technological agreements such as AUKUS. If China comes to understand renewed tension along the border as part of a general encirclement strategy rather than as a bilateral problem with India, it might become more willing to take serious risks to resolve the situation.

World War III in 2022? 

The Covid pandemic has demanded much of the world’s attention over the past two years. This hasn’t stopped geopolitics in its tracks, but it certainly has redirected the priorities of global leaders. The pandemic isn’t over, but it is becoming part of the background noise of international politics, and great powers are recalibrating and reasserting their interests.  We shouldn’t expect great power war in 2022, but we should always be aware of the potential for things to get out of hand. Most importantly, we should take care to consider that the conflicts above are interactive and interdependent.  If war breaks out with Iran, it affects decision-making over the whole world.

 

Biden Admin Sued Over Withholding Baby Formula Shortage Information

 

The Biden Administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is being sued by an ethics watchdog for reportedly withholding key information on the baby formula shortage. 

According to a complaint, the FTC ignored an August FOIA request from The Functional Government Initiative for records on its investigation into the shortage that affected families all over the country. 

“FGI anticipates that officials and staff at FTC discussed and participated in making and implementing decisions about the investigation into the infant formula crisis… the public does not have an ability to easily evaluate the decision-making surrounding FTC’s investigation,” according to the lawsuit. 

In May, the director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese admitted that the Biden Administration knew about a possible baby formula shortage months before in happened. 

However, in a September report, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) blamed the shortage on a manufacturing problem at the Abbott Nutrition plant in Michigan. 

Earlier this week, it was reported that one third of households are still struggling to get baby formula nearly a year after the crisis began. 

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According to the Census Bureau’s House hold Pulse survey, 20 percent of families are still struggling to find a week’s worth of formula. 

Roughly 18 percent of powdered formula was out of stock in September, which is down from a 30 percent high in July. 

Market research firm IRI says that typical out-of-stock rates for food is about 5 percent and that anything above 10 percent is problematic. 

The Biden Administration did not do a single thing for four months after a whistleblower sent a report to the FDA alleging unsafe and unsanitary working conditions at the Michigan facility. 

It wasn’t until February 2022 that the FDA initiated a shut down of the plant, causing a nationwide panic and shortage of formula.

Warning! Crime Deniers on the Ballot in All 50 States!

Next Tuesday, voters, please remember that Democrats will never run out of excuses for criminals. They drone on about “racism,” “root causes,” “poverty,” “drug addiction,” “his gun dropped,” “mental illness,” “learning disabilities,” “he made a mistake” and “prison doesn’t work”!

It’s not the government’s job to probe criminals’ psyches. These are predators, monsters, feral beasts attacking civilization, with no regard for your property, bodily integrity or life. The government’s only job is to keep them away from us, not to ensure that they have fulfilling lives.

At the New York gubernatorial debate last week, feisty Republican challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin hit Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, hard on the crime wave engulfing New York. Finally, he said, “We’re halfway through the debate, she still hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes.”

In a city where citizens are afraid to leave their homes because of crime, Hochul’s blithe response made headlines. She said: “I don’t know why that’s so important to you.”

Her unfathomably out-of-touch reply was so infuriating, viewers might have missed the first part of her answer: “Anyone who commits a crime under our laws, especially with the change we made to bail, has consequences.”

“Has consequences.” Take note, New Yorkers! She did not say, “will go to jail” or “will be prosecuted” or “will be removed from the streets for the welfare of society.”

“Has consequences” is progressive code for “restorative justice.” In lieu of actual punishment, the criminal will be required to write a letter to the victim, hug it out or attend a family “mediation.” Thus, if a pack of teenagers beat the crap out of your kid at school, he will be forced to sit down with his attackers so they can tell him, Hey, sorry, man, we thought you dissed us.

One of the major drivers of New York’s unprecedented increase in crime is the “no bail” law — meaning “no jail.” The same predators are arrested over and over again but can never be put in jail, thanks to the Democrats.

Apart from their overriding objective of keeping “black bodies” out of jail — as opposed to, say, protecting the white and black bodies of their victims — the Democrats’ argument for never jailing arrestees is that bail “discriminates” against the poor, who can’t afford to pay. First, show me the rich person mugging New Yorkers or shoving commuters in front of subway trains.

Second, we’re lucky when we can even catch one of these monsters. And, if caught, the vast majority of guilty criminals will never spend a day in prison. Only about 30% of those arrested for a violent crime go to prison — and those were the statistics before Soros-backed district attorneys started releasing criminals all over the country. Those were the statistics before the racial reckoning.

Another fantastic Democratic idea for reducing crime is to deploy “violence interrupters,” i.e. otherwise difficult-to-employ ex-cons who get a nice social work job from the city. Or to fund endless “mental health” services, the sole purpose of which is to create more useless government jobs for Victim Studies majors from Bard College.

Look, if some idiot wants to counsel rapists and muggers in prison — fantastic! They can volunteer. But the counseling needs to take place behind prison walls, where their clients belong.

Though I think it’s kind of important to mention that there is no evidence that “mental health” counseling has ever worked. The New York Times admitted as much in an uncharacteristic burst of honesty in 1983: “Dozens of studies … have found that rehabilitation programs in prison have failed, that there is no reliable way of telling whether a prisoner has reformed and that many released early commit new crimes.”

No matter what they call it, liberals have been pushing their anything-but-prison plans forever.

Here are some Times headlines from as far back as the 1980s:

1982: “According to a recent Rand Corporation study, [putting fewer criminals in prison] could reduce both the prison population and the crime rate.”

1987: “After years of increased sentences, and an extraordinary drain on our state’s treasury, we need to acknowledge that longer sentences do not deter most crime.”

1988: “An Answer to Jails Is Reading”

1989: “Prison Can Be a Dumb Solution”

1991: “Alternative to Prison Mends Fences and Lives”

Note that it wasn’t until 1994, and the election of Rudolph Giuliani, that crime actually, for the first time, went down. (Giuliani did not follow the Times’ advice.)

And leaping ahead to the present, here is the Times in 2020: “Can Prosecutors Be Taught To Avoid Jail Sentences?”

(I couldn’t help but notice that every one of the writers above was a female. So the good news is, we have no shortage of prison volunteers!)

“Alternatives to prison” never have worked, never will work, and liberals don’t care that they don’t work. They just don’t want criminals in prison.

This is a parlor game of one-upmanship for Democrats:

I’m the most compassionate!

No, I am!

Look — the object of my compassion is way worse than yours! He’s a rapist and a murderer!

The purpose of the criminal justice system is to lock up bad guys, not to allow liberals to feel good about themselves. (Least of all is it to ensure that all ethnicities are incarcerated at the exact same percentages.)

In fact, now that I think about it, separating criminals from the law-abiding is the government’s most basic responsibility. It’s also the only government program where liberals suddenly become hard-nosed fiscal conservatives. In just this one case, we get detailed breakdowns of the cost of prison. How much do the public schools cost? How about the cost of subsidized housing for able-bodied (but nonworking) Americans? How about food stamps? How about the endless layers of “social workers”?

Democrats can’t change and won’t change — they can only be defeated at the polls. (Even that’s only a start.) If you ever want to leave your home again, without fear of your body or property being violated, vote Republican on Nov. 8.