A Taxing Proposition

As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me."And he got up and followed him. - Mark 2.14

These are the guys who got Capone. Now they're coming for you.

Americans owe some $138 billion in back taxes and the federal government wants it. Congress has adopted a bold new strategy to gin up the shortfall: farming out collection to private agencies which work for a percentage of whatever they squeeze out of delinquent citizens. Eager to earn their twenty-five percent, these mercenaries employ such tactics as suggesting that deadbeats borrow money from their bosses, max out their plastic, or mortgage their homes.

Well, a bold strategy, perhaps, but hardly a new one.

The Roman Empire, like all wealthy regimes, never seemed to have enough money. To feed the beast of a bloated bureaucracy, they laid off the action to locals who agreed to Hoover up the fees with a generous vig tacked on for their services. They didn't much care where the money came from - only where it was going.

Levi was a low-level bagman for this first century mafia. He would have worked for a capo like Zacchaeus, with rake-offs at each level of the flow chart. As a point-of-sale collector, he was the face of oppression for a proud people who found themselves at the bottom rung of the financial food chain. To make things worse, his was a Jewish face. Respectable Jews regarded tax collectors as traitors, excommunicated them from the synagogue, and refused to accept their charitable donations.

Of course, the voice on the phone that pressures you to risk your financial future and threatens you with legal action has no visible face; but imagine if it did. Imagine that the law required a video call or a personal visit. Then imagine that you showed up in church the following Sunday and saw that face sitting in the pew beside you. When he belts out, "Blessed Be the Tie that Binds," all you can envision is a pair of handcuffs ratcheted onto your wrists. When he dumps a fistful of fifties into the offering plate, you want the gift credited to your account. So you complain to the pastor who replies, "Yeah, I invited him. But look at it this way: As long as he's in here, he can't be making any calls."

When Jesus picked Levi for his fantasy follower draft he struck against two powerful social structures: He radically undercut the righteous anger of the religious; he also destabilized the efficient systems of empire. Sure, Levi's boss had another flunky on that corner by the next day - or even sooner - but symbolically at least, Jesus did away with official oppression.

Radical Christian forgiveness strikes at the roots of all kinds of evil. It liberates the forgiven; it liberates the forgiver; and it gives birth to a larger liberty.

For more information, see I.R.S. Enlists Debt Collectors to Recover Overdue Taxes and Outside Collectors for I.R.S. Are Accused of Illegal Practices.