Tax Collectors and Roman Soldiers

Luke 3:11-14

The context of this passage starts at the beginning of chapter 3. John is teaching and people are coming out to hear what he has to say. His message is one of repentance, that people need to change their ways. When they ask him to be more specific, he says, share what you have with those in need. Then two groups of people ask what they can do in terms of repentance. This is where I wanted to focus this blog post. Both groups were notorious for cheating people. Tax collectors collected money for the Romans, which alone would have made them hated. But there weren't any IRS manuals or Turbo Tax programs in that day. Instead, people had to "trust" the tax collectors that they were being charged the correct tax. And of course, being entrepreneurs, the tax collectors found that they could say whatever they wanted to in terms of how much tax was required. So they would collect the Roman tax as well as more than a little extra on the side, which they were allowed to keep for themselves. Soldiers were also hated because they represented Rome, an occupying force. But in addition to that, soldiers could require someone to "help out" with various tasks and the person was required to comply. So if they didn't want to carry their equipment, they would "recruit" someone else to do it for them. Now they were limited in that the person was only required to carry something one mile. But still, would you want to walk a mile doing someone else's work only to then have to walk a mile back to your house? Soldiers were also known to extort money from people in exchange for protection or sometimes just for not harassing them. So tax collectors and Roman soldiers were among the most despised people in all of Judea.

These are the people that Luke reports came to John, wanting to repent. You can imagine the shock and possibly a little sarcasm from the others that came to hear John. "Yeah, right, like the Messiah will ever have a place for those people. He's coming to overthrow your kind." But John basically said, "just treat people fairly." Don't charge more than people owe. Be satisfied with what you have. Don't extort money. In other words, be fair.

We generally have laws that are supposed to protect us from some of these things. But people constantly find loopholes, trying to get ahead at the expense of someone else. Luke, using John's words, is calling us to be fair in our business transactions. Just because you can make a buck at someone else's expense doesn't mean that you should do it.