Sermon - Trinity XI 2020 - Luke 18:9-14

 Sometimes the parables can be hard to figure out. Not this week, since the parable’s preface clarifies the issue for us: “Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” The point Jesus makes here is that trust in oneself leads to pious or impious damnation, but trust in God leads to a contrite heart, justification, and pious living. Jesus illustrates this by means of a common Biblical trope, namely that of a pharisee and a tax collector.

The way this trope is typically understood today is that Pharisees are the bad guys, the upper class elites, the high brow, hoity toity, jerks who don’t let the common people come and associate with them. The tax collectors then are the underdogs, the ordinary, humble Everyman, just trying to get along and escape from the long arm of the Pharisees. So many a Christian reads the Bible and would rather identify with the tax collectors and prostitutes, than with the pharisees. 

It is true that there is a common biblical trope between pharisees and tax collectors, but it’s not what I just described. The pharisees were simply the most devout, faithful, and pious group of Israelites. They merely desired to live according to God’s will for their lives, as it’s laid out in Psalm 34: Whoever desires to love life and see good days, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

Instead of seeing the Pharisees as these evil tyrants wanting to put everyone down, try to see them as faithful, caring, kind, loving guys who were trying to be obedient to God. 

Also, instead of seeing the tax collectors as the good guys, the underdogs you hope will win in the end, see them for what they were. They took money from citizens, charging exorbitant rates to extort the people and line their own pockets, while giving that hard earned money to a foreign power ruling over them from afar.

Imagine if America were taken over by a Mexican drug cartel or Islamic terrorists. The thugs who show up to take your money and give it to the Islamic terrorists or drug cartel are the tax collectors of 2000 years ago. See them as the rich pimps, the wealthy drug dealers, or the extravagant human traffickers.

Now, there’s the trope. Imagine both of those guys show up in church on Sunday. Praise the Lord! Both of them are exactly where they need to be! The pharisee is there every week, but this is the first time in years for the tax collector. Regardless of that fact, both of them have come to the house of the Lord, because they know that this is where God is present for them.

The important distinction between these two men rests in their hearts. “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’” The problem here is not that he isn’t an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer; his problem isn’t that he fasts and tithes; those are good things that he’s doing. The problem is that he’s trusting in himself, he has faith in himself, for his righteousness.

The Lord spoke clearly through the prophet Hosea: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,  the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Or St. Paul spoke even more plainly, “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

No one is justified, is declared righteous, is saved because of their own actions. The pharisee, who in great piety desired to be obedient to God, ended up going awry by trusting in himself for salvation instead of God. He boasted in himself and his own actions, he condemned others for their actions, but he failed to trust in the one thing that actually justifies Him; namely, God.

In the heart of the tax collector we see just the opposite. “But 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!’” This man came to God in humility with a contrite heart, feeling badly about his sins which were painfully obvious. He felt ashamed to even enter the temple, standing far off, not assuming any of it was owed him. He closed his eyes, bowed his dead, beat his chest, and prayed silently, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” 

His focus wasn’t on himself nor others around him, except to denounce himself as a sinner. His plea was focused on God, the One who is merciful, the One who has the power and authority to declare righteous, to justify. His faith wasn’t in himself, but His faith and trust were in the Lord! Thus, in contrition, repentance, and faith “this man went down to his house justified.”

But what do you think the rest of that day, and everyday thereafter, looked like for the tax collector? Do you think he just went back to being an extortioner, living the thug life? No, of course not! In faith his life changed, and for the better! His life probably began to look a lot like the pharisee’s from that point on. 

We do have an actual example in the Bible, in the very next chapter, Luke 19, where a well-known tax collector, short in stature, but apparently a good climber of sycamore trees, came to faith in Christ. Zacchaeus joyfully received Jesus and then said to his Lord: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

The fruit of faith, the fruit of being justified and saved, is that one’s life changes. Instead of being so self-centered, so navelgazing and condemnatory of others, the Christian sees himself as a sinner, focuses upon Jesus for salvation, and recognizes his neighbors as people whom he might serve. 

Seeing what this parable means for the Christian makes it obvious why this one is a favorite among us. God is rich in mercy and He graciously showers His forgiveness upon those who repent. You, whose sins plague your heart, who are grieved by shame and regrets: God mercifully forgives you for the sake of Christ. So you’ve been a tax collector, a prostitute, a drug dealer, a pimp, a human trafficker, whatever your sins might be, God forgives you. Christ has taken your shame and guilt to the cross, all of it, and wiped it away.

You who live like a pharisee, living a pious life devoted to God but ultimately centered upon yourself, God forgives you, too. Have you looked down upon others for their sins, while exalting in your holiness? Have you judged others as being unloving or hateful, while boasting of how good of a person you are? Then pray like the tax collector or a little child, fold your hands, bow your head, close your eyes, and beg God to be merciful to you, a self-righteous sinner. God forgives you for your self-righteousness, just as the Lord showed mercy to two other pharisees, Nicodemus and Paul. 

As all of us return home from the temple, the Divine Service (which is exactly where we all need to be, because this is where God comes to serve us), let us each go down to our houses a sinner, but justified by Christ; humbled, but exalted by God; contrite, but living piously. Above all, let us not be distracted by our good works or by others’ evil works, but let us focus our faith and trust in God who declares us righteous through the all-atoning death and resurrection of our Lord, the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.