Nobody likes the taxman. But don’t let that be a sufficient analogy as you read the account of Jesus calling Matthew as a disciple. Think instead of losing the Battle of Britain, of a Nazi occupation of the UK, and of your hard-earned money going off to pay for the Third Reich’s ever increasing empire. Taxmen now wear jackboots and have armed guards accompanying them. A little different to our current situation.

Just what was Jesus thinking when he called this most despised of men into his band of followers? An agent of empire the taxman was among the most marginalised within 1st century Israel. And yet Jesus says to him, ‘Come on. Follow me’.

Really loving your enemy – it’s the kind of policy that could change the world.


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