Parable: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 Read Luke 18:9-14

I am so, so glad that I am not like so many Christians.  They look good on Sundays but by Tuesday you can’t tell them from the pagans.  They say the love Jesus but never break out their check books to tithe or make special offerings.

I am so glad that I am not like those people who use God as a vending machine, talking to him only when they need something.  I give thanks to God that I am not like those people.

I am so glad, that God has chosen me to be with him for all eternity.  So long suckers.

I am so glad that I do the things that I am supposed to do.  I can’t wait to see the reception committee that God has waiting on me in heaven.

And I am so very glad, that most everyone who knows me, knows that I sometimes get a little tongue-in-cheek in my messages, hopefully getting your attention in the process.  I am actually glad that I get to work out my salvation as the most important thing that I do and there is a little truth in these statements.

I don’t want to be a Sunday only Christian.  I am thankful that I tithe.  I do spend a lot of time listening to God.  I do try to do the things that should do.  And I do very much look forward to the age to come, but only in jest will I speak these things as if they were because of my own righteousness.

I will boast in Christ but not in myself.   Jesus paid it all.  All to him I owe.  Those words keep me humble.

If I feel a good case of hubris coming on, then Micah’s words keep me humble.  Seek Justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.

Jesus told a parable of a religious man, a Pharisee, whose prayer was more boast than prayer. 

Thank you, God, that I’ve got it all together, unlike the rest of the world.

Thank you, Lord, that you needed an All-Star Team and I was available.

The Pharisees were sticklers for the rules.  They frequently checked the boxes of compliance without fail.  They often scored high, higher than most of the common people on living by the rules.  Most of these rules came from the Law of Moses, some were additions that the Pharisees had penned themselves.

But they were good at following the rules, and some thought that everyone needed to know about it. 

Jesus could have just said a religious man offered a prayer, but he used a Pharisee for his parable.  The Pharisees were the epitome of following all the rules while missing the heart of God altogether.  They checked their boxes and had a keen eye for whether others checked their compliance boxes as well; but they missed the boat on mercy.

Confession was surely something reserved for sinners.

Jesus also included a man in his story who was often being lumped in with sinners, a tax collector.  Collecting taxes was not a sin but using the authority to collect taxes to feather one’s own nest was surely missing the honest scales standard.  Tax collectors were despised by the people.  Being despised for what he did likely registered more than whether this was an honest tax collector or not.  He was a tax collector.  He was despised.  Enough said.

If you wanted to be scorned among the Jews and you were not born a Samaritan, being a tax collector was the next best thing.  If you wanted to receive a little scorn from Jesus, just show up all self-righteous and your phylactery would promptly get put in its place.

A man whom was despised by about just about everyone he knew for he was a tax collector came to pray.  He had nothing to boast to God about.  He had no reason to show off before the people who might have been present.  He came in simple, humble, confession.

He would not even look up.  He beat his chest—not in a Tarzan fashion but in absolute repentance.  He was humble before God.  He cried out to God:  Be merciful for I am a sinner.

Jesus uses this comparison and tells those listening that this tax collector—this very despised man—went home made right with God.  There was no grain offering or blood dispersed upon the altar, but there was humility and confession.

Jesus said this man and not the other who had enumerated all of his righteousness was the one that pleased God.

Next, Jesus makes the parable applicable to all.  Whoever humbles himself before God will be exalted.  Those who exalt themselves will be humbled.  

We have looked at the last will be first model before, sometimes in service and other times with regard to stature and humility, but this parable puts us in the context of prayer and identity.

I am a Pharisee.  I am right because I do the right things.  I tithe.  I fast twice a week.  I set the standard for good.  You are lucky to have me on your team.

I am a sinner.  Have mercy on me.

Jesus liked to teach using extremes.  He would not be straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel nor would his teachings send us down that path.  He wanted some stuff to hit people squarely between the eyes and stick.

Humility is essential to every believer.  We approach the throne of grace with confidence but not hubris.

We rejoice that God has called us friend but never at the expense of reverence.

We are thrilled to be brothers and sisters with Christ but we do not forget the price that was paid.

We love being a child of God, we know we are loved beyond imagination, and we rejoice in the plans that God has for us, but we never harbor the thoughts and attitudes that we have been blessed with what we have because of our own righteousness. 

God has made us right with him.  For all the joy that we know, we must have humility in our hearts for this is all of God’s making.

We have been down this road before, but I ask again:  Am I a sinner saved by grace?

No.  I am a child of God loved more than I can explain in anything short of a lifetime; but my history that let me realize who I truly am is that I was a sinner and I was and I am saved by grace.

To identify myself as a sinner saved by grace makes the work on the cross transactional—tit for tat.  It surely took away my sin but this divine sacrifice goes beyond transactional to transformational.  My sin is not just paid for; I am now a child of God who can stand holy and blameless before the Lord.

I am not just a sinner whose debt is paid.  I am put in right standing with holy God as his very own son or daughter.

We must never forget our history as we enjoy being who we are, a child of God.  Remembering our history as a sinner, as the old man, as the Adam-natured creation is what keeps us humble. 

Compare this with God identifying himself with his Chosen People as the God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  They were no longer slaves, but were wise to consider their history in relationship with God.

We could not make ourselves right with God.  We could not and were not getting right with God as the human race or even in our personal lives in this modern time.  None of us can boast.  So while we were not loving God, he loved us and made us right with him through the blood of Christ Jesus.

What God did for us is cause for joy—eternal joy.  Remembering our history helps us remain humble as we live out our salvation.  Remembering that Christ Jesus stepped out of heaven to live a human life and give that life for us gives us a model of humility.

I think most of us understand parable and this model of humility.  I think that we want our lives to please God so we wrestle with boldly putting our gifts and talents to work—game on if you will—and being ever so humble.

Do we look to the heavens when we pray or do we bow our heads?  Yes.

Do we run a race of faith giving it all that we have or do we kneel before almighty God?  Yes.

Do we boldly proclaim the good news of life in Jesus Christ or humbly live lives of light and love?  Yes.

The world likes to put things into dichotomies—either/or choices.  God has not restricted us so.  We have a much simpler model.

God, his kingdom, and his righteousness are first in all we do.  If that is our starting point and our direction, our choices are clear.

We live in humility; yet our lives are abundant.

God is first in all things; yet we are blessed in great measure.

We humble ourselves before almighty God and God almighty exalts us before all creation.

I am not going to live out my life hanging my head because I was a sinner.  I rejoice in what the blood of Jesus has done for me; however, I will not forget who I was and that God rescued me.

I will lift my face to the heavens and I will bow and kneel before holy God and I will pray all day long in the middle of so many other things.  I can do this because my heart is humble, yet full of joy.  God made room for both.

Now that old person that I used to be keeps trying to get his old job back and sometimes gets the better of me.  God made this wonderful sort of prayer that we call confession. 

But the good news for us is that we don’t confess wondering if God will forgive.  We confess with the assurance of his pardon.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

He is faithful and just to forgive, and James reminds us that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  We are not right because of what we have done but because of what God has done for us.

Living in the right standing that God has granted to us through the blood of Jesus, we can go beyond confession and petition God for what we need.  We do so exercising great humility which translates to thanksgiving in the prayer of the redeemed.

Jesus puts two extremes in his parable.  He follows with a clear explanation of his Father’s heart.  He humbles those who exalt themselves and exalts those who come humbly before him.

Humility does not restrict our abundance. It very much enables it as we are liberated from the world’s metrics.

Humility does not preclude using our gifts and talents.  It beckons us to exalt holy God before men with what he has equipped us to do.  Jesus said that would bring glory to this Father.

Humility does not slow us down, but gives pause to consider the plans that God has for us thus eliminating rash decisions.  In modern vernacular, if you don’t have time to do things right, make time to do them twice.  

Humility says I don’t have to live at the world’s pace.  I will live by God’s pace.

Humility does not leave us orphaned in wisdom but leads us to trusting God with all of our hearts and away from being anchored in our own understanding.

Humility always puts God first and above any selfish desire.  In turn, God grants us so much including many of the things that the self-exalting world desires as their gods.

I am thinking that I would like to get really good and being humble.  In my humility, God does for me things that I could never do for myself.

Remember our history.  We were sinners.  We are saved by grace.  We are loved by holy God beyond any measure that we can comprehend.  We rejoice in being his children and brothers and sisters in Christ, but we will remain humble before almighty God.

Amen.

Parable: The Persistent Widow

Read Luke 18:1-8

If you scroll through the television listings, you will see a lot of sports, never-ending commentary disguised as news programs, and a lot of crime and justice shows.  You find NCIS in many variations, CSI with multiple locales, Criminal Minds, and others that I have surely not watched.  Courtroom dramas get a lot of attention.  Law and Order gives you investigation and courtroom action.

I enjoyed JAG and Boston Legal and many shows that had proceeded them.  Perry Mason was surely the granddaddy of them all, or at least of many.  There have been some good courtroom movies.  A Few Good Men tells a good story where you want to pull for everyone or you might pull against everyone.  The Judge is a good courtroom story.  How can you pass up a Robert Duvall movie.  Even To Kill A Mockingbird or Inherit the Wind pull us all into the courtroom.

We like the courtroom drama and stories because everything is neatly wrapped up in an hour or two.  All competing interests come to some resolution in that hour which is really only about forty-some minutes in television story time.  It’s all neatly packaged.  The drama is compressed.

Unlike most real days in court, the movie and television stories keep the action moving.  Most courtroom action drags on most of the time.  In my service as a commissioned officer, I have served on Court Martials (that’s like being a juror), have served as President of the Court (that’s like being the jury foreman), and the last will sound crazy to anyone who was never in the military.  I served as a Summary Court.

How can a person be the court?  I was prosecuting attorney.  I was defense attorney.  I was judge.  That’s a Summary Court Martial.  The prosecuting part was usually pretty easy.  The commanding officer that sent their Marine to court martial, generally had their ducks in a row with evidence.

Now understand that a Marine can decline to accept a Summary Court Martial and demand a Special Court Martial.  The stakes go up but the accused has rights.  Actually, the accused’s rights in the military justice system are better protected than most in the civil system.

So why would anyone accept a Summary Court Martial?  Probably because they did what they were accused of and didn’t want to push their luck.  Most Marines who came to a Summary Court pleaded guilty.  Why?  Because they generally had done what they were accused of doing.

I have said these words many times.  “Do you understand that by entering a plea of guilty, this court need consider no further evidence and may render its verdict based on this plea alone?”

The answer was always in the affirmative.  But I was not only judge but defense counsel as well.  When the accused pleads guilty in a Summary Court, you don’t need to fill the role of prosecutor any longer.

So I would say, “But you are going to tell me what happened.”  Part of my job was to see if there were any mitigating factors.  Sometimes in searching for mitigation, I found aggravation, but the search took place nonetheless.

Even in state and federal courts where the parties have reached a plea bargain, the court requires an allocution.  The court will hear the facts and determine if what the parties have agreed to conforms to the letter and spirit of the law.  At least they try.

I have served as a member and President of Special Courts Martial.  What do I remember?

Witnesses, evidence, more witness, argument, pleading—all of which was usually pretty boring.  It took a lot of effort to stay focused.

Some we found guilty and awarded punishment.  Others we didn’t.  I remember one particular case in which a staff sergeant was accused of a laundry list of things mostly involving financial mismanagement.  There were extended sessions of interviewing witnesses and documents.  At the end of all of this the judge explained the law as it applied to the charges and we adjourned to deliberate.

When I was the president of the court, I was cautious not to influence other members.  The president is the senior officer, and I wanted to manage the process without exerting my influence on the outcome.  But in this one case, I just had to beg the question.

We gathered in our deliberation room and I asked, “How many of you think the accused is an idiot?”  Everyone raised their hands.

I followed with, “Does anyone think the government got anywhere near proving any of the charges?”  Everyone shook their heads side-to-side.  What a waste of a day.  Why bring a guy to court if you have no case.  That’s what sergeants major and first sergeants take care of creatively somewhere outside the formal legal system.

But that’s life in the legal system, and the legal system that I knew was much more efficient that what we have to deal with today.

So, Jesus tells a story about a Judge who doesn’t really have any regard for God or even the principles that hold society together.  Somehow, he is the judge and people just have to deal with it.

There is a widow who has pleaded her case.  We don’t know what the case involved.  We don’t have facts or witnesses.  All we know is that she brought her case to this judge and he did not see fit to grant relief or justice or whatever she was asking for, at least not at first.

In the world of television courtroom dramas, this one bombs out.  You must have some facts and circumstances and things to get the audience hooked or you get cancelled by the third episode.

But the parable is not about the facts of the case.  It is about the fact that this judge who had no regard for anyone or anything would grant this widow’s petition just so he didn’t have to deal with her anymore.

Her persistence, not her legal argument or acumen or extensive witness list, is what the judge considered.  He didn’t want this pain in the neck to consume any more of his time, so he granted her request.

And the moral of the story is, keep praying until you wear God down and he gives in!

No!  This is not what Jesus is teaching.  I’m jumping to Matthew’s 7^th chapter for just a moment so we can bring in a little framing with what Jesus is giving us in this parable.  These few verses are from The Message.

Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?

Now, remember how Jesus introduced this parable.  It was so his followers would continue to pray and not lose heart.

So do we ask God for what we need?  Absolutely!

Does he hear us?  Absolutely!

Do we always get what we want?  Not exactly.  Sometimes it’s an outright no or a resounding yes!  Unlike the judge in the parable, God cares for each and every one of us.  He loves us.  He answers prayers for us as a good, good Father.

Doesn’t he already know what we need before we ask?  He certainly does.

Do we stop praying?  Never.

Should I be persistent in praying for what I think I need or is once enough?  Yes.

If it is on your heart, pray for it until it’s not.  Sometimes your petition is granted exactly as you requested.  Sometimes, it is something different.  Sometimes, God changes your heart.

A judge who didn’t care about anything granted a widow’s petition.  The judge had no moral compass but was governed by his personal comfort and convenience and he granted the request because he wanted the case off his docket.  He didn’t want to see this woman any more.  He didn’t want to have to deal with this.

Know with certainty that God hears the prayers of his people.  The words of Jesus say he hears the cries of his elect—that’s us if you didn’t know—and he responds to them speedily.  He does not delay.

The fulfillment of that response may take a while in our time, but God does not put our requests on the back burner.  His receipt and answer come with all deliberate speed.

We are told to approach the Throne of Grace with confidence!  It’s not like God doesn’t understand our trials.  Jesus Christ is our great high priest and he knows what it is to live in these clay vessels. He knows the trials of being human.

We are told to bring all of our requests to God and to do it with thanksgiving.  We are not to worry or become anxious about our circumstances.  We have faith that God will provide us exactly what we need.  Sometimes the best thing that we need is peace that goes beyond anything that we can figure out on our own.

Sometimes what we need is just to know in our hearts and minds that God’s got this.  The peace that passes all human understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

We are to pray with faith.

·       Faith that God hears us.

·       Faith that God answers us.

·       Faith that God loves us.

·       Faith that God gives his children good gifts.

·       Faith by his stripes we are healed.

·       Faith that following Jesus and being his love are exactly what we are supposed to do!

Jesus wraps up this first of two parables concerning prayer with this admonishment given in the interrogative.

When the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth?

If Jesus were to come today, would he find us trusting in the Lord with all our hearts or would many of us still be anchored in our own understanding?

Will we persist in our faith?

Will people know that we are his disciples by our love?  Will we be easy to pick out of the masses who have made a home in this world, who are friends of this world?

Let me talk just a little about persistence.  I am going to tell you that if you know how to walk and if you have ridden a bicycle, then you understand persistence.

You likely don’t remember learning to walk, but I assure you that you didn’t get it right the first time.  Fortunately, you were still low to the ground and didn’t have far to fall.

Riding a bicycle was a different story.  Perhaps you had training wheels, but one day it was just you and two wheels.  It might have been wobbly.  You might have fallen a few times.  Skinned knees are the badges of learning to ride a bike.

At some point, you might have decided to throw in the towel.  You might have fallen, skinned your knee, and thought, “If I had been walking, I would have been there by now.”

But you didn’t throw in the towel.  You got back on the bike.  You made it passed this check-out point where your own understanding tried to convince you to give up.  But you didn’t give up and you rode your bike everywhere you went…

At least until you found a girlfriend and decided it was more fun to walk with her, or until you were old enough to drive a car.

You understand persistence in the things of this world.  Will we persist in our faith to the end of the age or the end of our lives in these vessels of flesh?

Will our faith put a smile on the face of Jesus?

I say that it will, at least in the company of this assembly.  We don’t’ do everything right.  We make mistakes.  We slip and fall and skin our theological knees but we do persist in our faith.

More and more and more we look to God and his kingdom and his righteousness first—not as a last resort.  We don’t want sermons to tickle our itching ears.  We want God’s word full strength whether in affirmation or stern challenge, for we want to please the God who has called us friend and made us right with him through the blood of Jesus.

More and more we do walk by faith and not by sight.

I say, we will persist in our faith.  We may not produce any theological giants but we will persist in our faith.

To quote Peter, when many thought the teachings of Jesus were too hard and they deserted him and Jesus had asked the disciples if they wanted to throw in the towel as well:  “Where else would we go.  You have the words of life.”

We will persist in our faith.  We probably won’t get the world fixed (sorry if that was on your bucket list), but we will persist in our faith.

We will persist in our faith!

Amen.