The Subversive Parables 4
The Deviant Toll Collector

Luke 18:9-14

Traditionally called the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector or the Pharisee and the Publican.

When we read the parable in the tradition theological interpretation what do we get:

The parable raises a lot of unanswered questions when read this way. First of all neither “Tax Collector” nor “Publican” are accurate translations of the second character. Toll Collector is a more accurate description. Why bring a toll collector and a Pharisee together? What do they have in common? Why place them in the Temple court? What does the Temple have to do with toll collectors? Why does the Pharisee emphasize tithing and fasting? How could a toll collector receive atonement without reparation? How could the toll collector be acquitted so easily?

The parable depicts two men coming to the Temple to pray at the usual afternoon prayer time when a congregation was normally present. After the animal sacrifice, the people would gather in the outer court in prayer. The Temple played a key role in the self-identity of the Hebrew people. It was the place everyone was connected to, even if they did not live in the area. The religious system set in place was that the people would bring a sacrifice to the temple, pay a fee (very important) and have their sacrifice offered by the priest. For this system to work, the peasants of the nation had to buy into the idea that the Temple was the only place this could happen and that they had to pay for it. In effect, this religious act was an act of taxation officially sanctioned as devotion to the sacred.

In any functioning culture, the society has to develop ways to discharge debt. Government sets up the systems for doing this in most places. To pay monetary debt, one uses money. To pay one’s obligations to God, one uses an animal sacrifice, along with a Temple fee. The ruling elite run the Temple and collect the fee.

Playing on the superstition of the people whose naiveté meant that they thought that any slight to God would have dire consequences on their crops and well-being, the religious elite used this devotion as a way to extract obligation. Even if the peasants had to impoverish themselves by giving away the surplus of their crop to pay this toll at the temple, they would do so to prevent being vilified or stigmatized as not being good and faithful people to their God.

In essence, the Temple system was no less oppressive than the Roman occupation. The Temple tolls had become so high and so intermingled with the people’s sense of obligation to God that the whole system amounts to spiritual violence against the poor. The people could not avoid Roman taxation because of military retaliation. They could resist Temple tolls only at the risk of being shunned or intimidated. Religious leaders would brand those who resisted the Temple tolls as deviant – enemies of Torah and enemies of God. This then prepared a justification for exploitation in the name of God because these people were now labeled as resisting God’s will.

Here’s the fascinating thing about this parable – it is actually about two toll collectors – the one that worked for the Romans and the one that worked for the Temple. The Pharisees enforced the religious system that kept the Temple toll as a requirement for relationship with God in the same way that the toll collector enforced the Roman system of tribute to the occupation.

So now you get the setting for the parable – both men stood at a distance from the crowd, the toll collector because he was shunned by the crowd for working for the Roman occupation. The Pharisee stood apart because of not wanting to become unclean by being associated with the peasants. The Pharisee’s posture is described briefly while his prayer is long; the toll collector’s prayer is brief while his posture is described at length.

The listeners of this parable are given two examples that behave in unexpected ways. The “villain” toll collector seeks forgiveness. The “holy” Pharisee acts in a snobby way toward others. The toll collector unlike the tax collector was not a direct Roman employee but someone contracted to collect the indirect taxes of the empire. Thus, the toll collector was considered the lowest of the low because they often used extortion and intimidation to get the tolls they collected on behalf of the Roman occupation. A toll collector, unlike a tax collector, was considered so unreliable that they were explicitly prohibited from being able to be called as a witness in a trial. It is this one Jesus pronounces who will find justification. The Pharisee finds no justification even though, according to the parable, he has done nothing wrong. He has thanked God and declared his love for Torah by exceeding expectations. The parable is indeed a riddle.

Here’s where the parable becomes subversive. In any society different groups define themselves with boundaries of character and behavior. Those who follow the rules are raised to prominence. Those who do not follow the rules are labeled as deviant. At the same time to enlist the popular support of these boundaries, a threat to the established order must be identified convincing the population that the threat is real. This is done by 1) demonstrating that present rules do not either define the value or cover it inadequately, 2) by showing that those charged with enforcement of the rule are inadequate, and 3) emphasizing the lack of means to resolve the crisis. This creates alarm and pessimism in the population while loyalty and devotion to the threatened rule, value or system are increased. Once this process has worked so that some are labeled deviant, then stigma is applied or a status-degradation ritual (such as a trial or name-calling) is used to complete the dehumanization of the deviant.

In the same way prominence is sustained by status-elevating rituals so that positive behaviors can be emulated and honored. Those with prominence get to define the deviant. In this parable both the Pharisee and the toll collector belong to parallel systems of tribute yet one is a prominent toll collector and the other is a deviant toll collector.

The original listeners would assume nothing good could come from this deviant toll collector going to the Temple except humiliation and shame because the toll collector was one of the most shameful occupations imaginable. Up to the point of the Pharisee’s pronouncement on the toll collector, everything was going to script the way the hearers would have assumed. The toll collector retreated to the edge of the crowd near the eastern gate. The Pharisee pronounced condemnation on the toll collector in the name of religious position (and by using the language of prayer). The script at this point would have called for the toll collector to leave in shame and silence. Instead he cries out, beats his chest as an act of attrition and asks to be included in the atonement that the gathered worshipping body is there to witness. He refused to consent to the shaming religious authority’s verdict and appeals to a higher authority – God’s grace. He breaks through the intimidation and fear the religious authority has placed upon him and he challenges the Pharisee’s reading of God’s judgment. This subverted the assumed power structure, the assumed religious authority and the assumption that access to God was through the established religious processes. And if someone like a deviant toll collector can find access to God, then the whole Temple system was thrown into question. Now do you understand why the priests and religious leaders colluded with the Roman government to have Jesus executed? Jesus’ teaching allowed peasants to demystify the religious institution and its moral prominence so that peasants could name oppression and as a result rename their world. In the process, the toll collector finds the voice of the silenced and as a result discovers God.

If you saw Channel 5’s coverage of our upcoming marriage trip to Iowa last night, you saw the same thing from this parable in a modern context. When I first saw the story, I thought “Oh Mark, why did you put that spin on it?” Then I realized this was the parable of the deviant toll collector all over again. They showed Kim and Angela all excited about the chance to legally sanction their love and what a wonderful gift it is to be getting married. They showed Rev. Robyn and me talking about the excitement of participating in this historic moment. Then they interviewed the "Chief Pharisee" from the Minnesota Family Council, Tom Prichard. “They’re doing this as a publicity stunt. This will backfire and cause Minnesotans to put a constitutional amendment in place.” Do you see what he is doing? The old religious order is being threatened by people they label as deviant seeking the grace of God. Marriage is a public blessing of a relationship as a gift from God. Their response was shaming the participants (publicity stunt) and threatening retaliation (constitutional amendment).

Who did Jesus say went home justified? We are facing the same kinds of entrenched religious retaliation that Jesus was warning about in the first century. So our first response is to name it for what it is: the deviant challenging the prominent (Go deviants!). And secondly, as we establish our religious system of offering grace to those seeking God, that we not repeat the foibles of the religious authorities who went before us.

Source:
Herzog, William R. II. “Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed.” (Westminster/John Knox Press: Louisville) 1994.
Schottroff, Luise. “The Parables of Jesus.” (Fortress Press: Minneapolis) 2006.

 

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