October 24 sermon

Text: Luke 18:9-14
Preached October 24 at Trinity Lutheran Church in West Concord, MN


Grace and peace to you from God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well, Jesus is at it again. Upsetting norms and reversing expectations. Just a couple weeks ago we heard that Jesus healed 10 lepers, and the only one who came back to praise God was a Samaritan—an outsider. This was very unexpected.

Today we hear that “two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Well, we can stop right there because the norms have already been upset.

Tax collectors worked for the Roman government. They were known for being corrupt. They often lined their own pockets by charging the people more than they actually owed. Because of all this, tax collectors were considered unclean, and wouldn’t normally have been allowed into the temple.

But, somehow, the tax collector Jesus speaks of made it into the temple to pray near the Pharisee. And praying near this particular Pharisee on this particular day might not have been easy. Jesus tells us the Pharisee was “standing by himself…[and] praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’”

In just these few words, this Pharisee manages to remove himself from relationship with God and with pretty much everyone else on earth. Let’s break it down and talk about two ways the Pharisee goes off-track, and two effects of his attitude. Then we’ll contrast it with the tax collector’s attitude and talk about the results of these two men’s different prayers.

First, the Pharisee tries to justify himself by means of a checklist. He says he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all his income. There is certainly nothing wrong with this! Spiritual practices like fasting and tithing are good for us and pleasing to God. But, even though we may do good things like this, we are still broken people living in a broken world. We can never do enough good to heal our sinfulness by ourselves.

The Pharisee presents himself before God as self-sufficient, and therefore distances himself from God. He trusts in his own goodness and seems to feel no need for God’s forgiveness, healing, and love. He makes God into nothing but a rubber stamp that validates his checklist of virtues.

Second, the Pharisee tries to justify himself by means of comparison. “God, I thank you that I am not like other people,” he says. He compares himself to others in terms of how well they keep the law, and he seems to decide that almost no one can match his accomplishments.

How often do you find yourself doing this? Do you watch the news and think, “Boy, I may not be perfect, but at least I’m not as sinful as some people. I might think bad thoughts about people all the time, but at least I’ve never killed anyone! God ought to be pretty happy with me compared to some of the others out there.”

It’s a classic technique. We try to make our own sins look smaller by pointing out the bigger sins of others. But this creates a false sense of security. Just like the Pharisee’s checklist of good works, his comparison to others allows him to feel good enough on his own that he thinks he has no real need of God. But, in reality, we are never good enough on our own, regardless of how much worse other people may seem to be.

This is the first effect of the Pharisee’s attitude—it distances us from God and makes God’s work unnecessary. God’s work is not about checklists or comparisons. It is about relationship. Jesus Christ came to dwell among us as a human being, in relationship with all of humanity. He went to the cross to restore our relationship with God, to forgive our sins, and to heal the brokenness that we can never heal ourselves.

The Pharisee refuses to acknowledge his brokenness and sin in the first place, so he sees no need of God’s work of healing and forgiveness. After all, if our good works can save us, the cross is unnecessary. If being “better” than others can save us, the cross is unnecessary. If we can save ourselves, we don’t need Christ.

The second effect of the Pharisee’s attitude is that it destroys relationship with others. If God becomes nothing but a rubber stamp to validate the Pharisee’s goodness, then the people around him become measuring sticks for his sense of virtue. And you can’t communicate with a measuring stick any more than you can a rubber stamp. Using others as tools like this cuts us off from relationship with them.

Once the Pharisee starts this business of comparison, he ends up dividing the world into two groups—those who are virtuous and those who are not. The first group seems to be awfully small, possibly just the Pharisee himself, and he has contempt for everyone else.

Division and contempt are certainly not unfamiliar to us. With elections coming up, we divide ourselves into conservative and liberal camps. In the church, we sometimes divide ourselves into those within our congregation or denomination, and those outside. In everything, we divide ourselves into those who agree with us and those who don’t. We too often view with contempt those on the other side of the lines we draw. And where there is contempt, there cannot be relationship.

Now, as Jesus tells this parable, he contrasts the Pharisee’s attitude and behavior with that of the tax collector. Remember, the tax collector normally wouldn’t have been in the temple in the first place. His job makes him unclean. He’s an outsider.

Jesus tells us the tax collector was “standing far off, [and] would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner!’” This tax collector understands the reality of his position before God. He knows he is a broken person in a broken world. He stands before God in humility, depending not on his own goodness, but on God’s forgiveness.

This is the reality the Pharisee refused to acknowledge, and it is our reality as well. No matter how long our checklist of good works gets, we still stand in need of God’s forgiveness. No matter how much more sinful we think other people are, we still stand in need of God’s forgiveness.

The prophet Jeremiah understood this very well, as we heard in our first reading. He says, “our iniquities testify against us,…our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you.” Our sin is a reality, and when we are honest with ourselves, we know that, just as the tax collector did.

The tax collector also knew that God alone could heal his brokenness. He did not try to justify himself with a list of his good works. He did not point to the sins of others to look better by comparison. He did not divide himself from other people, nor did he look at them with contempt.

When we are aware of our need for God’s forgiveness and healing, we are joined with the many others who also stand in need before God. Self-sufficiency and self-justification isolate us and cut us off from others, but humble dependence on God fosters unity and relationship.

So what was the result of these two men’s prayers? Jesus says the tax collector went home justified. Here’s another reversal of expectations. Not only did the outsider get into the temple in the first place, but he’s the one who knew how to approach God. The Pharisee—by all accounts the insider of the story—was convinced of his own superiority over the tax collector. But he was not the one who went home justified.

As I said earlier, God’s work is all about relationship. Being justified is about being made right with God. It’s about God restoring us to relationship with himself. The Pharisee had cut himself off from relationship with God. He saw no need for God’s love and forgiveness, so he could not receive them. The tax collector was painfully aware of his need, and therefore was open to receiving the mercy he asked for.

We, too, go home justified when we approach God aware of our need. We are born into a broken world. But in our baptism, we are joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and are set free from our sin and brokenness. As we sang earlier with the psalmist, “happy are those who dwell with God,” because here in God’s house we receive forgiveness. Here we are restored to right relationship with God. Here we find new life.

And, through Christ, we are united not only with God, but with all of God’s people. God offers us forgiveness and reconciliation, and there are no divisions within the body of Christ. Even those to whom we compare ourselves, and those we view with contempt, can receive forgiveness in Christ, and we are united with them as well.

It is not easy to be reconciled to all of God’s people. Even today, we are drawing a line between the tax collector and the Pharisee, and we want to align ourselves with the tax collector. We want to say, “Thank God we aren’t like that arrogant Pharisee.” And by doing that, we become just like the Pharisee, fostering division, trying to appear less sinful in comparison, and looking on him with contempt.

See, there’s a reason almost all the preachers I know have been struggling with their sermons more than usual this week. This story is a trap! Jesus sets up a comparison for us to learn from, but then he sweeps that comparison right out from under us. We cannot divide God’s people. None of the lines we draw will stand up to the unifying power of God’s grace. God alone is judge of people, and God draws or erases lines according to God’s will, not ours.

This is good news, because God is merciful. In Christ, all our sin is forgiven. All our brokenness is healed. In Christ, we are set free from the isolation of self-sufficiency. We are released from the contempt of comparison. We are liberated from our guilt. We are restored to right relationship with God and with others, so that we can go forth to share God’s love and compassion with all those around us. Thanks be to God! Amen.