Sunday October 27, 2019
Scripture:
Luke 18:9-14
Preacher:
Kate Jones
So Jesus has been
throwing some pretty tough parables our way, and this week is no
exception! Today we have a parable about
two people going to the temple to pray.
The Pharisee seems to have a pretty high opinion of himself, and he
prays, “Thank you, God, for not making me like those guys over there. Thank you for making me a good and holy
person. Not only do I do all of the
things that you want me to, but I go above and beyond in how I pray and in what
I give to the poor.”
The Tax Collector, on
the other hand, hides away in a corner.
He keeps his eyes turned downward, afraid to look up in case he
accidentally made eye contact with God, and he prays, “God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.”
I invite you to
consider, digging deep into your heart – in your life, do you relate more to
the Pharisee, or more to the Tax Collector?
For me, on first
reading, I really don’t like the Pharisee.
I don’t like the tone of self-satisfaction in his voice; I don’t like
his smugness; I don’t like the way that he looks at the people around him as
being less worthy, less human. The tax
collector, on the other hand, he seems to be able to see himself with
clarity. He knows where he stands in
relation to God. On first reading, this
is the guy that I can get behind.
But what if we were to
dig a bit deeper into who these people are, who are praying in the temple. The Pharisees, no matter what impression we
might get of them from the gospels, weren’t necessarily the bad guys. The Pharisees as a group made faith
accessible to everyone. Anyone could
make themselves holy, anyone could come into relationship with God through how
they lived their lives. And so maybe
there is a bit of a heartfelt prayer of gratitude mixed in with the smug
self-satisfaction. “Thank you, God, for
giving me the means to draw close to you.”
Then there is the
humble Tax Collector who prays for mercy from God. And believe me, the Tax Collectors needed
mercy from God. In this world system,
Tax Collectors were agents of the Roman Empire.
Rome required a certain amount of money to be extracted, I mean
collected, from the local population, and so they would contract out the
work. And without a doubt, it was
lucrative work! Because if the Tax
Collector could squeeze more money out of the people than he needed to pass
along to Rome, then he got to keep the excess for himself. He wasn’t paid a salary by Rome, but he got
to demand from the people whatever amount of money he thought that he deserved.
And so from the
perspective of the people of the day, Tax Collectors were the lowest of the
low. Not only were they agents of the
invading and oppressive Roman Empire, but they were also usually scoundrels
getting rich off of the backs of their own people, because who but a scoundrel
would want to be in this line of work?!
Two people praying
very different prayers in the temple, but interestingly enough, they are both
praying from the Psalms, the ancient prayers and songs of the Israelite
people. The Pharisee’s prayer echoes
Psalm 17:
If you try my heart, if you visit me
by night,
if you test me;
you will find no wickedness in me;
my mouth does not transgress.
As for what others do, by the words
of your lips
I have avoided the ways of the
violent.
My steps have held fast to your
paths;
my feet have not slipped. (Psalm 17:3-5)
The Tax Collector’s
prayer, on the other hand, echoes Psalm 51:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2)
So maybe there are
more layers of complication to this story than there appears to be at first
glance. A good person giving thanks for
what God has given to him; and a scoundrel and a thief praying to God for
mercy. Maybe I need to reconsider who I
relate more with. Maybe I can relate
more to the Pharisee in this story?
I find that both of
the characters in this short story that Jesus tells to be complicated
people. With the Tax Collector, his
wrongdoings are obvious on the surface – he cheats and exploits people on
behalf of the Empire in order to get ahead himself, but he has good
self-awareness and recognizes that he his nothing next to God. The Pharisee on the other hand – he is living
a good life, worshipping God and giving to charity; but he seems to lack
insight into himself – he doesn’t seem to understand that he isn’t God!
I think that I
mentioned last week that as humans, we tend to like judging, and that is
exactly what my tendency is to do with this story. I am trying to judge which of these two
people is worse; I’m trying to figure out which one I want to associate with,
and which one I want to condemn.
A story has been told
about a preacher who preached on this parable, preaching about the awfulness of
the Pharisee – about his lack of compassion for his neighbour, about his
smugness, about his inflated ego. And
when the sermon was over, the preacher turned to the congregation and said,
“Let us pray.” And the preacher’s pray
began, “Oh God, I thank you that I am not like the Pharisee in this story…” And
as soon as his prayer began, this preacher was guilty of the same sin he was
accusing the Pharisee of.[1]
I wonder what this
parable would look like if we were to view it through the lens of grace rather
than the lens of judgement? What if,
instead of trying judge, instead of trying to figure out which of these two
people was the worse sinner, we were to see them as God’s beloved children,
whom God has forgiven, and whom God loves unconditionally, not because of
anything that they have done or anything that they haven’t done, but simply
because they are beloved?
At the end of this
parable, Jesus tells us that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all
who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Jesus doesn’t say that the Tax Collector is a good person, worthy of
love and forgiveness, who will be raised up above the Pharisee. And at the same time, Jesus isn’t saying that
the Pharisee is a vile and evil person who is going to be knocked down below the
Tax Collector.
I read this verse
instead as a great leveller. Yes, the
proud are going to be knocked off their high horse, and yes, the humble are
going to be raised up, but that brings both of them to the same place in
relation to God. We are all human. None of us is God. Only God is God. And God loves everyone equally, with God’s
whole heart. More love for you doesn’t
mean less love for me – it isn’t a zero-sum game. We are all God’s beloved children, whether we
relate more to the Pharisee or the Tax Collector in today’s story.
To quote the Pulpit Fiction Podcast this week, “to place grace in a pecking order is to not
understand grace.” In God’s world, there aren’t some who are
more beloved than others.
None of us is perfect
– we are all human and we all fall short at times. To quote the perhaps infamous words of Paul
writing to the church in Rome, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God.” (Romans 3:23) No one in the history of the world has been
able to fully love God and fully love our neighbour 100% of the time.
But in God’s eyes,
that doesn’t matter. We are all God’s
beloved children. There is no pecking
order in grace because there is enough love to go around. If we were to finish that quote from the
Apostle Paul, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; but they
are now justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24).
God loves you. The grace that was extended to both the
Pharisee and the Tax Collector is extended to each one of us here. We are all human – none of us is God – but
God loves each one of us, and calls us beloved child.
Thanks be to God!
"The Pharisee and the Publican" - JESUS MAFA
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