Out Our Way: The Gospel According to Goliath - "Herd Snobbery"

Jesus went out once again along the lakeside, and the whole crowd followed, watching and listening closely to all he said and did. They came to the table of those who collected taxes on behalf of the enemy and there was one called Levi, the son of Alpheus. Jesus shocked the crowd by calling to Levi and saying "Follow me." Levi shocked ever one even further by immediately getting up and doing just that.

- Mark 2:13-14 (John Bruington's version)

Out our way, we know the way of critters - and we also know that being accepted by the herd, the flock or the fold is rather critical. When the movie, "Dances with Wolves" was being shot in South Dakota, buffalo from all over the state were trucked in.

Some 80 head came from across the river from the ranch of a friend of mine who was experimenting with the idea of wholesale buffalo ranching. Bad idea, he decided. At any rate, he told me about the problems the stock handlers had trying to keep the buffalo together. The herd from Custer State Park wouldn't accept the ones from the Pine Ridge or Standing Rock and forget those "east river" bison my friend had trucked across the Missouri to be in the movie. 

In my brief encounter with real "movie stars," I helped herd some of the remaining bison some years later and heard all about buffalo snobbery. Apparently some bison simply refused to mix with others and tried to run them off. Having been bluff-charged by the matriarch of the herd I was trailing because I got too close and apparently annoyed her. I cannot imagine anyone - even a full-grown bull buffalo - standing his ground.

Herd snobbery is found among humans as well - we call it prejudice, bigotry or simply "Them versus Us." In today's text, Jesus challenged that snobbery when he called on Levi - also known elsewhere as Matthew - to join his disciples.

Now, Levi was a Jew, but he was collecting taxes for the Romans and Herod, and that made him a collaborator. But in addition to that sense of being a traitor to his own people, tax collectors were notoriously crooked. They often overcharged their fellow Jews and collected far more taxes than were due. They kept the excess and became fabulously wealthy at the expense of their neighbors. Tax collectors were so universally corrupt that archeologists were shocked when on a dig they uncovered the base of a statue that had been dedicated to a tax collector who had actually been considered an honest man! 

At any rate, the good Jew considered tax collectors, by definition, unclean and despised by all good people. Although Jewish, they were often banned from the local synagogues and certainly ostracized from community and family events. They were outcasts from their own people

So you can imagine the shock when Jesus actually invited and accepted one as a follower!

Many years ago in South Africa, a young Hindu lawyer who had begun to study the faith came to a church to learn about Jesus. The people rose up and cast him out saying there was no room in the church for a "kaffir!" -the local version of the "N" word over there. That would be Gandhi. What a loss to the church.

In light of Christ's acceptance of Levi - one can hardly believe he is pleased with church snobbery. Further, open your Bible to the New Testament. It is the Gospel according to Matthew - Levi's other name. That's right - the horrible tax collector became an Apostle and the author of one the Gospels!

I imagine we can excuse bison and other critters for their herd snobbery - their refusal to allow others of their own to become a part of the family - but what is our excuse? If he who invited and accepted an outsider like Levi to become a disciple, is there anyone we can truly reject? 

(John Bruington, Scout and Goliath can be reached at [email protected]. Columns, sermons, Bruin Town tales, and cartoons are available at http://www.havrepres.org. The book "Out Our Way: Theology Under Saddle" is available on Amazon.com.)