Rev. Charles Lehmann + Trinity 11 + Luke 18:9-14
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Our Lord has a way of turning our thoughts about what the church should be
like on its ear. Two men went up to the temple to pray. It's important for us
to consider that both of them went up to the temple. Both were religious men
who desired to be in the presence of God. Both were praying in the temple. So
far, so good. The first few words seem fine. But then we find out who went up
to the temple: a Pharisee and a tax collector.
This would still seem fine if we could figure out a way to keep the parable
from applying to us, but that's not an option. We are in the parable. There
are two options. Either we are a legalistic and self-righteous Pharisee or we
are a despicable tax collector. That doesn't seem like much of a choice, does
it?
The Pharisees were one of the most frequent opponents of our Lord. They
believed that obeying the actual Law of God wasn't enough, and so they devised
hundreds of man-made rules in order to convince themselves that there wasn't
even a possibility of disobeying God's Law. They figured that if you didn't
ever speak the Name of God, you could never take it in vain. They ignored the
fact that God wants us to call upon Him by Name, and that He desires to put His
Name on us when we gather together to receive His gifts.
The Pharisees also set up complicated rules to define what it meant to work
on the Sabbath. They counted out how many steps you could take and made sure
that they lived close enough to the synagogue to get there. The Pharisees were
great at obeying their elaborate rules, but when it came to caring for the
needs of their neighbor, and showing compassion to each other, they failed
completely. There's no way we would want to be the Pharisee in our Lord's
Parable.
But the other option isn't much better. Tax collectors were even less
popular in first century Palestine than they are today. In the Roman Empire if
you wanted to be a tax collector for a particular area, you would tell the
Empire how much tax you could collect over the next few years. If you were the
highest bidder, the Romans would give you the job. This was a tricky business.
At the end of your contract, you had to deliver what you promised. If you
did, Rome would pay you a certain percentage as your salary. The key to being
a successful tax collector was to bid low enough that you could collect the
full amount and high enough that you'd beat out your competition.
Unfortunately, the Romans didn't mind if the tax collectors collected more
than they were entitled to. Whatever the tax collectors got that they didn't
send on to Rome was pure profit, and, in the eyes of the people, pure theft.
And so in today's parable, our Lord gives us two extremely unpleasant
options. Are you the self-righteous hypocrite who thinks that he's earned good
things from God because he obeys his own made up rules but ignores what the
Lord actually desires? Or, are you the thieving traitor who squeezes your
neighbors for every penny you can get, all so that you can live in the lap of
luxury while the rest of the community lives in poverty?
Though we really do not want to be either of the people in this story,
there is a very real way in which we are both. We are all tempted to be like
the Pharisee. We parade out everything we do that is good and hope that people
will ignore our sin. The Pharisees wanted to be regarded as virtuous. They
wanted people to think they kept the Law perfectly. They were utterly
unwilling to acknowledge their sin. And though this morning we have all
confessed our sin and received the Lord's absolution, we are not free from the
sin that afflicted the Pharisee either. Pride infects us all, and none of us
can ever escape from it completely. And so, we all will tend to brag about
ourselves from time to time. We all want to make ourselves appear a little
better than we actually are.
The Psalms put it very simply. They say that all men are liars, and we can
see how true this is when we look at ourselves. When we tell stories about
ourselves, we always take center stage. We are always a bit more important in
the story than we were when the event actually took place. If we tell the
story well, we come off looking witty, kind, honest, and clear. What usually
happens when you tell someone about an argument that you've had. You often
make the person you were arguing with look a little less reasonable and a
little less right than they actually were? You leave out the moments when you
got a little angry, and in the retelling your argument is almost always a
little better than it was in reality.
We want to be respected. We want to be thought well of. We want to have a
good reputation in our community and in our neighborhood. We almost never tell
the story if the other guy comes out looking better than us. We keep those
memories to ourselves because they shame us.
The tax collector didn't have that option. He couldn't keep his sins
secret because everyone knew about them. Even if he was honest and only
collected what he was contracted to collect, he was a servant of the filthy
Romans. He was regarded as a traitor by his people. His reputation was worse
even than murderers and prostitutes.
Both the Pharisee and the tax collector were sinners in need of the Lord's
mercy. Both of them stood condemned on their own and had absolutely no hope of
life or salvation apart from the Lord's mercy. The difference in the Pharisee
and the tax collector was not whether they were sinners standing under the
judgment of God. The difference was that while the Pharisee went before God
talking about how he was a good man deserving of the Lord's favor, the tax
collector was terrified to be in the presence of God. He acknowledged his
faults and said, “Lord have mercy upon me, a sinner.”
That, dear Christian friends, is the key point. If you are not a sinner,
then Jesus has nothing to offer you. Jesus is the Great Physician. He is the
merciful one. He offers His life to save those who deserve death and hell.
If you are whole and healthy, then the Physician cannot heal you. If you
are innocent, then there can be no mercy for you. If you do not deserve hell,
then you cannot be given heaven.
If I were to hire one of you to build me a bookshelf, the money that I paid
you afterward would not be a gift. It would be a wage. It would be the amount
that we had agreed beforehand that you should be paid for your work. You would
deserve it. The money would be yours by right.
I would not write out the check and give it to you because I was having
mercy on you. Mercy is only given to those who don't deserve it. That's what
mercy is: undeserved favor.
Jesus spoke today's parable “to certain people who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” The Pharisee
wanted to be paid his wages. He thought that he deserved good things from God
because he was not like the rest of men. He set himself apart and claimed that
he was deserving of divine favor. He did not know that the wages of sin are
death. He did not realize that God has only wrath for those who come before
Him on their own merits.
The tax collector knew that he had nothing to offer God. He knew that his
sins meant that he deserved eternal wrath and punishment. He was afraid even
to lift His eyes to heaven. And that is why he received everything from God
except for what he deserved. He went down to his house justified. He received
from God what he did not deserve. He received love, mercy, the forgiveness of
all his sins. Though he was guilty of countless cries against heaven, the tax
collector was declared not guilty. He would not serve a day of the sentence he
deserved because the punishment had been laid on Jesus' shoulders.
The Pharisee would have to bear all the punishment for his own sin. The
Pharisee wanted to be judged on his merits rather than on Christ's. He wanted
to receive what he deserved rather than what Jesus gives. And so the Pharisee
did not go down to his house justified.
And so, dear Christians, do not offer your own deeds on your behalf.
Rather, receive what Christ wants to give. Come before your Father saying,
“Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” Sinners Jesus will receive. He has gone
to the cross and paid for your sin. He is raised to life and cannot die.
Your Lord and Savior has come to you today to give you all the gifts of
life and salvation that He has won for you on the cross. These gifts are for
sinners only. You cannot convince Jesus to give you good things because you
are a good person. You are not a good person. You are a sinner. You are a
beggar in need of the Lord's mercy. You are one for whom the Lord has died and
won every good gift. There is no need for fear. You may lift up your eyes to
heaven knowing that the Lord has mercy for you. You are forgiven. You are
free. All the gifts of heaven are yours not because you deserve them but
because Jesus loves you and has made you His child.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://www.stjohncove.org
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