Tax collectors were hated in Palestine, and despised in Israel. The Romans raised funds by setting a goal and then letting contracts out to various tax farmers who would then collect more than this amount, making a profit by coercing fees, taxes and certificates. With the backup of a few hulking legionnaires, who were not averse to a little gathering of their own.

The way Rome worked was more like a series of motorcycle gangs than a modern state: the factions raised their own monies, contributing to their tame senators. The system was corrupt, deliberately so.

And in Israel these pagan overlords were despised, and the tax collectors treated as traitors. Killing the local tax collector was seen as good thing by nationalists.

And then Jesus called Levi, and made him a disciple. He went and ate with a man who had been damned by all right thinking people as a traitor.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

(Luke 5:27-39 ESV)

We do not live (praise God) under the Roman yoke. The age of the imperium was considered past (although it is worth considering that both Putin and the fanatics of ISIS are, in their own ways, trying to restore the Russian Empire and the Islamic Caliphate).

What we have to consider is if nationalism is itself now an old ideology. The end of empires was driven by an ideology of national self-determination and democracy: the progressive project of Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations.

But there is a risk here. That people will consider their nation as akin to God, call themselves patriots, and justify all kinds of acts of horror. For the liberation of the people. This dynamic existed in Israel in Christ’s time: and it is worth noting that two of his disciples were nicknamed Zealot: the Zealots were a group who were continuing to fight the Romans, to the point where they died at Masada.

So what can we take from this?

Firstly, Christ gives us hope in shame and repentance: as Levi was called, so he calls those who have been collaborators, traitors. Who the state despises, and tells us we should hate. No man is immune to the call of God, and no person has disqualified themselves.

Or, reversing this, we are all disqualified: each act of repentance and salvation is an act of great mercy from the creator: we are not worthy, we cannot earn our salvation.

Secondly, something greater than our tribe, our nation, is here. And that is Christ. We do not need to strive as much in needless ambition, for we have sufficient to do in this existence. So our judgment need not be marred. as ambition so often does.

Fairfax approached Mr Cunliffe with that theory last night. @TamBabe67 was shut soon after.

“I have only just become aware of this Twitter account,” Mr Cunliffe told Fairfax. “It has nothing to do with my campaign.

“My understanding is that it was started by a family member who wanted to defend me at a stressful time. The Twitter account was activated on September 26, and has been closed down.”

The anonymous account reportedly let rip at the NZ Herald, which published candid photos of Mr Cunliffe on the beach on September 26 (Saturday, the day he resigned ahead of Labour’s primary race).

@TamBabe67 also called Labour MPs Trevor Mallard and Clayton Cosgrove “long past their use-by date” and said “The jealousy of Cosgrove and Mallard knows no bounds.”

MPs who did not back Mr Cunliffe should be expelled from the party, @TamBabe67 tweeted.

Mr Parker called for contenders to conduct the leadership contest in a “seemly” fashion.

[Yeah, right. This is the Kiwi left. Nasty is their default position.]

It is natural to love your nation: to appreciate its beauty, to love the members of your tribe. If one said that one should hate the members of your family, your very flesh and blood, because of racism, and instead admire the very enemies of your children that person would be speaking nonsense (or be of the US left).

But our nations will fail and fall. At times to our regret.

But Christ will not. And he chooses from all nations, and all roles. So let our biases not disqualify us from preaching to all, praying for all, and keep us from putting effort into failing causes.