In my world of catastrophic care, families sometimes blame case management or social work for denials instead of their insurance company.
The answer could be in Matthew 21:31.
Jesus tells the religious elites: "Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you."
He puts two groups on the same moral level. But the pairing is jarring. Why would tax collectors rank alongside prostitutes as symbols of communal betrayal?
Because in Roman-occupied Judea, tax collectors were the worst kind of betrayal.
Rome didn't send soldiers to squeeze money from villages. They hired locals. They hired your neighbors, the people you grew up with. The tax collector collected taxes from his own community on behalf of an empire that stayed invisible. When a farmer lost his harvest to taxes, whom did he blame? Not the emperor in Rome. He blamed Shimon, the guy from the next village, who chose money over loyalty.
Rome stayed clean. Rome profited. Your neighbor absorbed all the rage.
That's why tax collectors ranked with prostitutes in Jesus's teaching. Not because of what they did, but because of whom they betrayed. Locals who sold out locals.
I think about this every time I sit with a family and watch them realize their insurance won't cover what they thought it would.
And I watch them look at me like I'm the tax collector. Even when they nod, even when they understand that this isn't my decision, I still feel it. I know better. The situation is dire. And I'm reminded of this verse every single time.
Insurance companies are Rome. UM vendors are running the extraction. Case managers and social workers are the face of it. Families are stuck in the middle, angry at the wrong person because that's how the system is built.