‘Tax Collectors’ Need Jesus, Too! Share The Word With Them!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘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)
Today is a first for me, the start of collecting Social Security. Like some of you, I am appreciating life as a retiree; it’s been one year since I left my career as a government contractor, working as an IT program manager for the latter portion of a 43-year stint either in the US Army as a soldier, or working alongside Department of Defense organizations in various capacities as an contractor. It was exciting, as well as sometimes thrilling, but often frustrating. Nevertheless, it was a good career overall.
I don’t miss it, though; especially when we would win a new contract. It is good for a government contractor to win a new contract as it is guaranteed revenue for at least a set number of years. The bad is when you need to execute the plan developed to support it. The saying that ‘a plan is good until the battle begins’ is very true.
A start of a Government program for a ‘Combatant Theatre Command’ is usually has the winning bidder hitting the ground running with everything ready to go. The insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result) to this is we will walk in, tell the Government what we will do (‘ABC’ per the proposal they accepted) and show them all of our preparations, and the Government in turn will tell us scrap all that and do it in ‘XYZ’ fashion. We then will scramble to do ‘XYZ’ instead.
But this is the life of a Government Contractor. We often are reviled over the stories of the $600 toilet seat for astronautic platforms (spacecraft and airplanes), but the truth is someone in the Government had to request said toilet seat, and put in requirements specifying the materials used, the shape and size, installation, etc. Then the Contractor engineers started designing it and (usually) there is introduced ‘scope creep’ during the design and/or assembly phase.
‘Scope creep’ is when the Government (and sometimes the contractors themselves, to be honest) come up with one or more ‘by-the-ways’. ‘By the way, please ensure the weight is under 3 pounds’, then ‘by the way, please add a cooling/heating device into the seat’, and with a few more by-the-ways changing the design plans; as the contract is written to cover engineering costs, the total cost of materials and assembly of said toilet seat is $65.00, with engineering labor (once bid at $535.00) is now $25,000.
Some bean-counter (a financial analyst or accountant) screams at the cost overrun and eventually the company will ‘eat’ some of the cost and find ways to disperse the cost until it is down to $600 for a specifically designed toilet seat for one specific application (say the International Space Station) weighing 2.75 pounds that can be heated or cooled depending on personal preference of the user (until some commander or department boss dictates a set temperature based on his or her liking).
The completion is promoted by the company in a press release that few will read, until some ‘watchdog’ glances over the release and sees ‘toilet seat’ and ‘$600’ ignoring the specifics. Then a congressperson who either hates the company, contractors in general, or the particular government agency or military branch involved goes to a home improvement store, buys a home replacement toilet seat for $14.99 and tells the public in a press release there’s been a big rip-off while holding the said toilet seat over his or her head. (IT support, which I was in, can somewhat be the same.)
The public then reacts with disdain over the perceived greed of the government contractors. When asked, I would mention I was a program manager, I typically got the positive curiosity response of ‘Wow! What does a program manager do?’ I would respond with ‘I manage or support the management of the government contracts we have with the US military‘. Some would continue to be curious and ask more questions, but a few folks would have their countenance change, a slight frown would appear, then grunt ‘okay’ and get quiet in showing their disdain.
I never took it as (too) personal, as there are certain occupations we find distasteful – but someone’s got to do them. We often look at certain jobs with some disdain as they appear to be distasteful, despite being necessary in some aspect for things to work properly. No one really wants to see (or smell) the septic service bubba until your septic tank needs pumped out, or deal with the tow truck guy until you need a tow when your car breaks down.
No one cares for government contractors until astronauts ‘can’t do #2 in the loo’ because their toilet seat froze up, then folks are happy to see that $1,200 replacement toilet seat (expedited build/assembly fees included but not the $60 million rocket launch to get it there) arrive at the ISS and there is again harmony in the universe (at least with the astronauts).
In the time of Jesus, there were ‘government contractors’. They were called ‘tax collectors’. Unlike today, where the tax collectors are typically a locally-elected position , and are typically not despised (taxes, yes – today’s tax collectors, no) the tax collectors of Jesus’ time in Israel were seen as un-civilized dregs among the people.
In a vernacular of the Mafia of the mid-20th century, the tax collectors were extortion or shake-down artists. When it came time to pay taxes (believed to be a 1% income tax plus sales tax, import/export taxes on goods, crop taxes (pay to grow and harvest food and more), the Roman ‘IRS’ folks hired Jews on a volunteer basis or no direct pay with the understanding the Jewish tax collector could charge the taxpayers whatever rate they desired for their services.
So perhaps a 3% Roman official tax rate (income plus all the other taxes) became a 6% or higher rate, with the Jewish tax collector keeping the difference. It is likely the tax collectors were wealthy and had folks who they kept on the payroll (and with them at all times) to ensure the people paid the amount requested – the whole amount including their cut (‘Has I got a deal for you, but first let me introduce you to my friend, Knuckles…’).
Thus, the tax collectors were not on the social calendars of anybody (except perhaps other tax collectors) and no one wanted anything to do with them. Like the septic bubba, it was unlikely people talked to them until they absolutely had to go talk to them, and then the conversation was likely short, to the point, and lacked any personal interaction as it was all business, get in – get out.
It is likely Matthew was a lonely man who saw people avoid contact with him except for those with a tax bill that they needed to pay. If he did interact with them at their house it was possible he had ‘Knuckles’ with him which put a crimp on any sociable discussions.
Then that day came when Jesus walked by, and instead of trying to look away from Matthew in disdain, He looked at Matthew in His love, and walked up to him. We don’t know if anything was said in addition to ‘Follow Me’ but we know when Jesus told Matthew to follow, Matthew listened. Matthew may have not completely knew who Jesus was initially, but he knew Someone was paying attention to him, not as a tax collector but as a person. Matthew went because Someone cared enough to come to him, to talk to him, and even invited him to ‘Follow Me’.
Who is your ‘tax collector’? (All of you talk to me so it isn’t really government contractors, per se – and, I’m retired!) Who do know see on occasion that you would rather ignore than share the Gospel with? Who is it you only deal with because you have to? Open up and share the Gospel with at least one of the ‘tax collectors’ in your life (that septic bubba, or the tow truck driver), and you might be surprised they will want to hear more about the Gospel…
