23 August 2020
Text: Luke 18:9-14 (Gen 4:1-15, 1 Cor 15:1-10)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Most of the greatest teachers in history were storytellers. For that is naturally how we learn. And so when Jesus, the greatest Teacher in history, wants to teach us about the kingdom of God, He tells stories.
And most stories have a “good guy” and a “bad guy.” A famous western added an “ugly guy” too. But most morality tales include two types of characters: those that we would consider ethical, and those that we would consider immoral. Our Lord’s parables often have this “good guy” and “bad guy” dichotomy. And today’s Gospel certainly reflects this theme.
But our Lord throws in a twist to really make us think about the kingdom of God in a different way.
He creates two characters in this story: a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now it’s important to hear the story as His original hearers did. When we say “Pharisee” today, we usually think “bad guy.” That’s because we have been listening to Jesus. But to really grasp how controversial this story was as our Lord told it, you need to clear your mind of what you think about the Pharisees.
Here is how our Lord’s listeners thought of the Pharisees: these were the really good people. They were religious. They took their faith seriously. They attended synagogue and temple services all of the time. They prayed even more than was required. They were also the big donors. When something needed to be done, they did it. They sacrificed. They worked. They encouraged others to be hard working for the kingdom of God. They strove to be good people. They were the ones who helped out the poor. They knew the Scriptures. They were never ashamed of who they were. They wore symbols of their religion. They were no slackers. They avoided worldly and scandalous behavior. They were always careful to be pious in everything they did.
These were the ultimate “good guys.”
The tax collector is the only other character in this story of Jesus. Now, nobody likes to pay taxes. But in the days of the Jews being ruled by Rome, the tax collectors – especially if they were Jewish – were hated. They were shunned. They were shamed. They were seen as traitors. For they collaborated with Rome and their filthy money with the image of the false god Caesar on it. They typically were permitted to take extra and keep it – so the more cruel they were with the people, the richer they became.
These were the ultimate "bad guys."
And so, you could not find two more opposite characters. The Pharisee was not just good, but extremely good. The tax collector was not just bad, but downright ugly.
And in our Lord’s story, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” If you are listening to this story with first century Jewish ears, your mind has already put together a picture. You would be thinking that the Pharisee deserves to be in the temple. He is a person who does many good works. He certainly must love God, and God loves him in turn. You would also be thinking about the tax collector. Why that hypocrite ought to be afraid that lightening would strike him: the filthy traitor and cheat! He isn’t even worthy to stand in the shadow of the good, religious Pharisee man.
And so let us listen in on the prayers that our Lord puts in their mouths. “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you….” You see, the Pharisee must be very humble. He first gives thanks to God. And he reflects on goodness: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” Our Pharisee then calls to mind his own good works: “I fast twice a week.” Wow, dear friends, once a week is what is required. The Good Pharisee works twice as hard! “I give tithes of all that I get.” Wow, this means he faithfully gives ten percent of his entire income to the temple. He gives to the poor on top of that!
What’s there not to love?
Well, let’s check in on our tax collector. It seems that he, “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.” Well, that’s good. He’s a cheat and a thief. At least he has the common decency to grovel before God and not to offend the Pharisee by getting too close. He knows that he is a gross sinner. He “beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” And so he admits it!
So the Pharisee focuses on his good works, and the tax collector focuses on his sins. The Pharisee puffs himself up by thanking God for making him so much better than the tax collector, while the tax collector shows a contrite heart in confessing his sin and actually asking for God’s mercy.
Do you see what has just happened, dear friends? The Pharisee is exposed as a shallow braggart who seems to think God should bow down to him. The tax collector is humble, confesses his sin, and seeks forgiveness. The Pharisee never asks for mercy because he thinks that he doesn’t need it. The tax collector pleads for mercy because he knows that he does need it.
And so the guy we thought was good is the phony; the guy we thought was bad is the one who is righteous – not because of his own works, but by God’s grace. For Jesus, God in the flesh, says that the tax collector “went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” And here is the point, dear friends: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
In the world, what makes you “good” is how you appear to others. But in the kingdom of God, there is no-one who is good but God alone. We are all poor miserable sinners. We are all bad. In fact, we are all ugly. We just pretend to be good, and we expect the world – and God – to praise us. But in fact, we are all like the tax collector deep down inside. For we daily sin much in thought, word, and deed. Not a single one of us is that person we like others to believe that we are. What makes the tax collector actually “good” is his honesty. He confesses. He seeks mercy. And because of his prayer, Jesus says that he is “justified,” that is, made righteous by God’s decree. And having been justified, he is empowered to live a life of repentence, to turn from his sins, to be changed from the inside out. For the ultimate mercy of God is found in the storyteller, Jesus, who is more importantly, the Savior. He is the Rescuer. His blood shed on the cross cries out to the Father, not unlike Abel’s blood from the first time a man killed another man. For Jesus was killed by men, crucified, sacrificed, “died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,” so that we, who confess our sins, who seek His mercy, who receive Him in faith, “should not perish, but have everlasting life,” should not die an everlasting death, but will be raised, like Jesus, “in accordance with the Scriptures.” The tax collectors who turn to Him will be raised to eternal life because of their heartfelt plea for God’s mercy.
In His earthly ministry as the Great Teacher, most of the Pharisees rejected Jesus. Most of them felt that they had no sins to confess. Most of them “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt,” and how wrong they were, dear friends! It was the tax collectors (like St. Matthew, who wrote the first Gospel) who were drawn to our Lord’s call to repent and His promise of mercy. It was the thieves and scoundrels, the prostitutes and drunkards – even the hated Samaritans and other Gentiles – who heard the Word of God and were transformed by His mercy.
For although our Lord tells stories to teach, His life is a true story that does even more than teach: His life, death, and resurrection forgives us, saves us, justifies us, and will raise us in the body on the Last Day – because He indeed hears our confession and our prayers for mercy. That is the Christian life. That is the kingdom of God. Let us go to our houses justified, dear friends, knowing that we are saved by grace through faith – not by works of the law, not by personal religiosity, and not by appearances and the praise of men. We are saved by humbly submitting to our Teacher and Savior.
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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