Calling
painting by Jan Sanders van Hemmeson Tax collectors aren't popular, except when they're giving out an unexpected rebate. There was once a tax collector called Levi. He sat at his desk in the customs and excise office, when Jesus turned up and said, 'follow me'. Levi wasn't someone you'd expect a rabbi like Jesus to choose. Although Levi (aka Matthew) was a Jew he would assume he was disqualified from following a religious teacher. Tax collectors were despised by other Jews, hated as traitors, collaborators with the occupying power. They were shunned as ceremonially unclean, banned from public worship and (like women) viewed as unreliable witnesses in court. In a corrupt system tax collectors charged commission on top of due rates. They were known to be unscrupulous extortioners. When Jesus saw Levi, he saw all this. Did he see something more? Levi's longing to find more meaning to life than building up a fat personal pension? His hunger for God? Whe...