Explanation: In this passage Bill O'Reilly explains how Jesus acquires his disciples at the docks. I picked the part about Matthew because Matthew was a tax collector. This is a excellent description of tax collectors at the time
There are a few reasons for the low view of tax collectors in the New Testament era. First, no one likes to pay money to the government, especially when the government is an oppressive regime like the Roman Empire of the 1st century. Those who collected the taxes for such a government bore the brunt of much public displeasure.
Second, the tax collectors in the Bible wereJewswho were working for the hated Romans. These individuals were seen as turncoats, traitors to their own countrymen. Rather than fighting the Roman oppressors, the publicans were helping them—and enriching themselves at the expense of their fellow Jews.
Third, it was common knowledge that the tax collectors cheated the people they collected from. By hook or by crook, they would collect more than required and keep the extra for themselves. Everyone just understood that was how it worked.
Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-tax-collectors.html#ixzz3aHApY0eH
Analyze: Here is the son of God the holiest person to walk the earth, recruiting the "scum" of the biblical time. What can we learn from this? First observe how the word despised is used. Pretty much all Jewish people hate tax collectors yet here is the king of the Jews recruiting A tax collector as a disciple. This shows Jesus excepts everyone for who they are not what they are.
Relation to real life: Judging everyone does it, but does it make it OK ? what are some advantages and disadvantages of judging some one? How do we have the right to judge people when not even the son of God Judged people?