Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
EVEN INFANTS
Theme: The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is designed to make
you an infant.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell about people bringing children to Jesus
so that He could touch them. The Greek word that Matthew and Mark both use for
“children” can mean “toddler” or “young child” (Matthew 19:13, Mark 10:13) and
it can refer to someone who might even be five or six years old.
Luke uses a different word in today’s Gospel, and he sounds a little surprised
by what he says. Luke does not use the Greek word for “toddler,” but he uses
the word for “infant” – a word that can be used of children either newly born
or in the womb yet to be born. Luke wants to impress upon you how young and
small these children are, and as I said, Luke sounds surprised by his own
report: “Now they were bringing even infants to [Jesus] to have Him touch
them.” Even infants! Infants have no list of accomplishments, such as the
Pharisee in the parable had; infants have no seared conscience on account of
the sins they have committed, as this tax collector seems to have had; infants
do not even have a supposed “age of accountability” as dreamed by those who
deny Baptism; “they were bringing even infants to [Jesus]” and the only thing
an infant has is a poopy diaper.
The whole point of today’s Gospel is to turn you into an infant.
The point is NOT that you would make yourself into an infant.
The point is that Jesus MAKES you an infant, reducing you to infancy.
Dear Christian friends,
Today’s Gospel will show you that no one can ever become a master of
God’s Scriptures. Today’s Gospel is a great example of how Jesus uses His
Words, not to make children into scholars, but to make scholars into infants
and children. Jesus wants you to be rock-solid certain about your salvation and
eternal life, and in order to give you that certainty, He uses today’s Gospel
to create a sense of uncertainty inside of you. I know that sounds strange, so
I will say it again in a different way: In order for you to be certain about
your salvation, Jesus in today’s Gospel makes you feel uncertain about
yourself, about who you are, and about what you are able to do or not to do.
Jesus creates this feeling of uncertainty about yourself by telling you
about two men, a Pharisee and a tax collector.
· From the way Jesus tells the story, the Pharisee is clearly the bad
guy. But isn’t this the guy we are raising our children to be? The Pharisee has
the Ten Commandments in mind and he treats his neighbor decently according to
the commandments. He doesn’t take things that do not belong to him, and that is
good. He doesn’t cheat on the wife, and that is even better. This Pharisess
doesn’t ignore the worship life of the Church and he is by no means stingy. In
fact, he gives more generously to the offering plate than most Christians are
willing to give. A year or so ago, someone on the Versailles Ministerial
Alliance came up with the boneheaded idea of offering a scholarship to the
graduating senior who showed the best Christian example in life. If this
Pharisee were in the graduating class of 2011, he would win the award!
· You already know, simply from hearing the parable, that Jesus wants you
to be like the other guy—the miserable guy who looks bad and sounds worse:
The tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.
Here is how Jesus uses today’s Gospel to create this sense confusion
and uncertainty about yourself that I mentioned earlier:
· Clearly Jesus wants you to be like the tax collector, but as soon as
you say, “I will be like that tax collector,” you end up being like the
Pharisee. Did you catch that? As soon as you say, “I will be like that tax
collector,” you end up being the Pharisee.
· Alternatively, as soon as you say to yourself, “I am just like that
Pharisee,” you become the tax collector who “went down to his house justified.”
That is why I told you earlier that Jesus uses His Words, not to make children
into scholars, but to make scholars into infants and children. That is also why
Luke so carefully reports to you, “Now they were bringing even infants to
[Jesus].”
I am NOT trying to be clever with you. I am trying to help you map out
and understand what happens inside your brain (if you are listening) when Jesus
speaks the parable in today’s Gospel:
1. Obviously, you wish to be justified, that is, declared righteous by
God. (Who wouldn’t want that?) When you hear Jesus say to you that the tax
collector is the one who “went down to his house justified,” your brain
naturally responds, “I need to be more like that tax collector. I need to make
myself humble, like he is humble. I need to confess my sins, as he confesses
his sins. I need to beat my breast in misery—or do something equally
self-effacing—to show that I, like this tax collector, qualify for God’s
justification.” Did you catch the key word? I, I, I, I…
a. When you hear Jesus commend the tax collector, you think about needing
to be more like him.
b. When you think about needing to be more like the tax collector, you end
up thinking about what you must do in order to be like him.
c. When you think about what you must do in order to be like tax
collector, you end up becoming the Pharisee, who focuses on what he has done.
2. Now your brain is in a bit of a pickle. The Pharisee is clearly the bad
guy, unworthy of God’s justification, but your brain already headed in the
Pharisee’s direction when you started thinking about what you must do to be
more like that humble tax collector.
a. When you try to be like the tax collector, you end up being like the
Pharisee, focusing on what you can do.
b. When you start seeing yourself as the Pharisee, of course you do not
like what you see and you do not want to end up being like him.
c. So you say to yourself, “I do not want to be like the Pharisee! Lord
have mercy on me!” (Gee, I wonder who spoke those words in today’s Gospel.)
d. As soon as you say, “I am just like that Pharisee,” you become the tax
collector who “went down to his house justified.”
My point is this, dear saints: Today’s Gospel is designed to send you in
circles! Your Lord Jesus Christ tells you the parable of the Pharisee and the
tax collector because He knows you will naturally try to place yourself into
this parable. Jesus forces you into the dilemma running back and forth between
these two men, feeling uncertain which one you should choose that best
describes you. Jesus wants you to feel uncertain about what you see and feel
inside yourself because He doesn’t really want you to spend all that much time
looking inside of yourself. If you do, you will either commend yourself like
the Pharisee or condemn yourself like the tax collector.
What is the end result of this back-and-forth confusion that Jesus
creates for you in this parable? Jesus wants you to throw up your arms in
resignation. He wants you give up trying to be like the tax collector and
trying to avoid being like the Pharisees. Stated another way, Jesus wants you
do despair of trying to be anything and He wants to reduce you to infancy. Luke
immediately explains at the end of the parable, and he even sounds a little
surprised by what he says: “Now they were bringing even infants to [Jesus] to
have Him touch them.” Even infants! Infants have no list of accomplishments,
such as the Pharisee in the parable had; infants have no history of regret, as
this tax collector seems to have had; infants do not even decide who they are
or what they shall do; “they were bringing even infants to [Jesus]” and an
infant has nothing. By chasing us around between the Pharisee and the tax
collector, Jesus forces you and me both to
conclude that we—like infants—also have nothing.
Infants can only receive, that that is the best thing about them.
Infants receive their justification purely and miraculously, as the gracious
gift of God. Infants have this moment right here and right now, neither
regretting the past nor fearing the future. Infants have safety and security in
the arms of their father and they have supply for every need in the care of
their mother and that is all that really concerns them. Infants do not think
about their past, and Jesus does not want you to think about your past,
either—it has all been washed away in His blood. Infants do not boast about
their present and Jesus does not want you to boast about your present,
either—good or bad, right or wrong, all of your accomplishments of this moment
are nothing but a grain of sand lying upon the vast seashore of Christ’s
eternity. Infants do not worry about the future and Jesus does not want you to
worry about your future, either. Your future has been made
secure by the resurrection of your Jesus Christ from the dead and made
personally certain for you by the gift of adoption your God gave you in
Baptism. Infants receive.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray” and neither one of them is
you. As soon as you try to chase after one of these men, you end up being the
other guy. Allow yourself to drop out of the bottom of this parable,
unassigned, and place yourself one verse later, for that is where your eternal
life will be found:
Now they were bringing even infants to [Jesus] that He might touch them. And
when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him,
saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such
belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
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