The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Pentecost 23(Proper 25),Year C
Luke 18:9-14
Wouldn’t you love to be a member of a perfect church? Unfortunately, there are none of them around. The Church seems to collect folk who aren’t our type, or who see things very differently from us. What we consider to be a major matter, other church folk see as mere trifles. Shouldn’t the Church run background checks on potential members? There could be members in this congregation that others find a bit embarrassing!If a church had run background checks on the Pharisee and the taxman in today’s Gospel, neither of them would have got through the church door. The Pharisee misuses prayer to compare himself with a disreputable taxman.
To compare ourselves with others is always a mistake, because we don’t know the difficulties they have to deal with in their private lives. “Christians are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites” is a charge often levelled against churchgoers by outsiders. Who isn’t a hypocrite? No one practices perfectly what they profess. The difference is that Christians are more ashamed of their hypocrisy. What makes us Christian is our awareness of how bad we are. We ask God to help us do something about it, and deeply regret our failure to practice the faith we profess.
If you study the lives of the saints, they have these things in common - they love every one and they point us to Jesus. Despite being aware of their sin, they radiate goodness and gratitude. Jesus is the only example they hold up. They don’t hold themselves up as examples for others. Rather, they overflow with gratitude for God’s mercy to them and His forgiveness of them. When a fellow Christian falls, they confess: “There but for the grace of God, go I.”
Now, hypocrisy is a unique sin. It doesn’t begin with any desire to do wrong. It considers its actions and comments to be well-meaning. It is slow-growing and difficult to detect. Distraction from intended good ends up as hypocrisy. The good intention, done from a position of spiritual superiority, does more harm than good. Hypocrisy is fully grown when it thinks “I’m not like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable.”
The parable in today’s Gospel is the only story told by Jesus that takes place in the temple. All of His other parables take place in ordinary, everyday situations. Jesus’ audience would have been shocked by it, especially its unexpected conclusion. His listeners would have recognised that what the Pharisee said was true. He really had done good deeds, doing way more than was expected. He was no conspicuous sinner. He represented all that the Jews thought was good about their community. You see, the Pharisees did a lot of good for their religion. Their religious zeal was exemplary and something that motivated others to aim higher.
This Pharisee’s religious commitment was good, but his self-righteousness wasn’t! God is mentioned once only in his prayer. The rest of the prayer is all about himself. He prayed aloud in order to inform the taxman what a good guy he was. His prayer was all about what he was doing for God, as he patted himself on the back. He’s typical of those who see themselves as more spiritual than others, who compare the best in themselves with the worst in others. They have no compunctions about putting others down to make themselves look better. To compare ourselves with others can only harm the good relationship we have with them, especially if we come off better in the comparison. No amount of evidence to the contrary seems to disturb the good opinion people like today’s Pharisee have of themselves.
The word “Pharisee” means “separate one.” The Pharisees separated themselves from folk they saw as their inferiors. We, however, cannot cut ourselves off from others without cutting ourselves off from God. Instead, we ask God to always help us put the best construction on the actions of others.
The taxman’s body language speaks volumes. Standing far off, he makes himself as inconspicuous as possible. Echoing the opening words of Psalm 51, he throws himself totally on God’s mercy. He realises how rotten he is. He makes no excuses for what he has done; he doesn’t seek to justify himself in any way. The problem of humanity is his problem too. In his confession, he speaks as if he’s the only sinner there is: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” It was rare for men to beat their chests back then. This taxman is so overcome by the error of his ways that he beats his chest where his heart is, the source of the sins that pain him so much. There’s only one person’s sins he can see, and they are his own. He acknowledges that God’s verdict over him is just.
A man named Christian was worried about his friend Jim. Jim was always so hard on himself. He blamed himself for everything. He told Christian he felt guilty for not caring for his family as well as he should have, guilty for not spending as much time with his children as he should have, guilty for not being as successful at work as he should have. The load of guilt he carried affected his sense of well-being, as well as his relationships with others. Christian didn’t know how to help Jim. One day as he read the Letter to the Romans in his Bible, he was enlightened. He read of how we’re justified, that is, put right with God, by what Christ has done for us. This means that no further charge can be brought against God’s people because the verdict of “not guilty” has been pronounced over them (Romans 5:11). Immediately, Christian thought of Jim. He couldn’t wait to tell his friend that in God’s eyes, he wasn’t guilty. Jesus had taken Jim’s guilt on Himself. Through faith in Christ, we’re declared no longer guilty. We read in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” God declares this taxman no longer guilty.
The word the taxman uses for “mercy” means “making atonement for.” He’s literally praying, “God, make atonement for me, thesinner.” He’s come to the temple where atonement for sins took place. There’s no prayer that delights God more than “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Our God is the God of those who despair of themselves because they’re making so little progress in living a Christian life. To be truly close to God is to be keenly aware of our own unworthiness. God eagerly welcomes the broken-hearted, and those overwhelmed by their sense of unworthiness. As we sing to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages, who has made atonement for our sins:
“Nothing in my hand I bring; / simply to your cross I cling.”
In telling us this parable, Jesus was pointing to what He’d soon do for every sinner on Good Friday. This parable, like many of our Saviour’s parables, had a twist that would have shocked Jesus’ audience. They would have thought the Pharisee, and not the tax man, merited God’s approval. Jesus reverses their expectations - a man considered the lowest of the low, with no righteousness of his own, is put right with God by grace alone. The Pharisee, who asked for nothing from God, got what he asked for - nothing. The taxman received what he asked for. He received the mercy of God. God declares this sinner to be a saint in God’s eyes.
The difference in the taxman’s prayer from that of the Pharisee, was that he asked God to do something for him that God alone could do, a request that God was pleased to answer. The taxman returns home certain that God’s favour now rests on him.
This parable asks each one of us “Who do I identify with?” There’s something of both the Pharisee and the tax collector in most of us. Salvation by grace alone eliminates all ideas of spiritual superiority. The Pharisee can be found among “tax collector” church folk who exempt themselves from active involvement in the life of their church by criticising what others are or aren’t doing. We have no right to cast stones at any Pharisee, ancient or modern. Instead, we cast ourselves at Jesus’ feet and plead, “Lord, have mercy.”
Don’t be discouraged if you’re not the kind of Christian you’d like to be. Jesus tells this parable to give you hope. He will act on your admission of failure, and through it, draw you closer to Him.
Our hymns, like Hymn 317 sum up so well the message of today’s parable and of the Reformation begun by Martin Luther:
On God’s grace we have no claim / Yet to us His pledge is given;
He hath sworn by His own name / Open are the gates of heaven.
Take to heart this word, and live / Jesus sinners doth receive.
We pray:
Gracious God, help me to be more like Jesus and less like the Pharisee, day by day. Amen.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guardour hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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