A sermon based upon Luke 18: 9-14
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
October 24th, 2010, Proper 25C
This story of Jesus aims to undo the lie of this Pharisee when he prayed: “God, I thank you that I’m not like other people; thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (18:11).
Notice especially how this fellow can only offer his over-inflated prayer, when he is “standing by himself” (vs. 11) all alone. You can’t pray this in front of somebody because they will call your “hand” on it. This prayer is short-sighted and short-circuits because this guy thinks people can be easily divided into groups of “us” against “them, when the potential both for evil and for good run right through the middle of each and every one of us.
In his book “Evil and the Justice of God,” Tom Wright says we humans normally tend to ignore the truth about evil “except when it hits us square in the face” (IVP Books, 2006, p. 24). That is what exactly what happened when after the 9/11 terrorist attack, we listened to President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair frame the whole attack as an a terrible “evil”; and it was. The same kind of language surfaced shortly after the Economic crash of 2008 and people began to talk about the “evil” greed on Wall Street; and it still is. Now, again, images of evil might pop into our minds as we observe just how “down and dirty” American politics are becoming. It can seem very easy and tidy to try to divide this world up into distinct, precise categories of “us versus them”; “good versus evil”; or “right versus wrong.” Even when we come into God’s house, just as this Pharisee did, we can become “misguided” into thinking we have God’s blessing because of who we think we are and who other people are not.
But is this really the way things are? Does God simply and neatly divide up the world into good versus bad, right versus wrong or us versus them? Of course there is good and bad or right and wrong in the world, but what this Pharisee didn’t understand and what this publican came to realize is something else entirely. Jesus wants us to know is that both of them are “dead ducks” in their standing before God. This Pharisee thinks he is good, but he’s not. This “publican” Tax Collector knows he’s a bad guy and he really is. He would not have made any of our “good ole boy” lists. He’s like a crooked IRS agent who gets rich finding errors in our tax forms. The point Jesus is making is the point the Bible has made all along: “For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Roms. 3.23). No matter how bad people become and no matter how good we think we are, we must not let the most obvious become oblivious. God’s perspective of how things really are is that “there is none righteous, no not one.”
Another thing Jesus wants us to understand is that there is a form of evil which is worse than any other. While humans have lists and laws about what we consider good or evil, those lists can be subject to change. When we listen to the evening news our own ears will practically ignore some kinds of evil, mostly because we have gotten so used to it, while there are still some forms of evils which still might cause our ears to perk up, our hair to raise, or can send a chill down our spine. This week when I heard that the government thinks Osama Bin Laden is hiding in private homes of northwest Pakistan and that he is not hiding in caves, that kind of news got me unnerved.
Have you ever thought about what kind of evil brings “chills” down God’s back? Jesus wants us to know something which the great 18th century evangelist George Whitfield recognized as the kind of sin that God finds most “offensive?” Some have named this most offensive evil hypocrisy, pride, selfishness, or self-righteousness, and those are all right up there among the worst. But what I think Jesus names as the most offensive to God, is the evil we cannot see in ourselves which makes us believe we don’t need God’s grace.
What we must not miss in the parable is that this Pharisee was not a bad person, but a very good person. The problem was that this Pharisee thought he “good enough” and that he was immune to the very “disease” that was invading his heart that very second. He did not realize he was a “dead duck” in the water. He did not think he needed God’s grace any longer. He thought he had made it. Even at the very moment he is worshiping God and right in the very moment he thinks he is most secure, most saved and most spared from the wrath that is to come, it is right here in the middle of his own sense of elitism, superiority, and snobbery, that he cannot see himself as God sees him.
This fellow is all dressed up in his religion and his piety, but he isn’t going anywhere. He isn’t going anywhere because he has only compared himself people who are worse than him. He’s looking at everything from the wrong perspective. John Jewell thinks there should be a warning along beside of this guy which says: “Warning! Your relationship with God has nothing to do with how terrible other people are!”
So, if both these guys are “dirty rotten scoundrels”, and the Pharisee is even worse because he thinks he’s better than others, but he’s not. How does this story get to have any redemptive ending at all? How can we call it gospel “good news” when it seems so bad?
I might have told you once about the youth in my Bible study who was being introduced to the idea of sin for the first time. When he first heard the concept of all humans being “sinners” he had to raise his hand to ask a question, which, I can only imagine, was the first question he ever asked a preacher. For all I know, it might have been his last. But this intelligent, sincere, curious young man listened to what I was teaching and wondered out loud: “Why does God call us sinners, when we are the only people God has?” What I think he was asking was this: If God created us as his children, why does still need to call us sinners or have us call our ourselves sinners? We are just who we are, aren’t we?
Such a question might sound silly to those who grew up in church, but to someone growing up under communism without the gospel, calling someone sinner sounded harsh, and it must have sounded like God was out to get us all. To those of us who know the gospel for what it is really worth, we know that the reason the Bible tells us we are sinners is not to merely to judge nor to condemn. In fact, for the most part, when most of us encountered the gospel, it was because we felt judged or condemned already. No, the reason the Bible names us sinners is so that we can come to know God’s grace as our only hope.
Perhaps you have heard the story of the man who came to the gates of heaven to be greeted by St. Peter. Peter asks the man if he can give a brief history of his life with an emphasis on the good deeds he had done in order to gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. "You will need 1000 points to be admitted," Peter tells the man.
"This will be a cinch," the man thinks to himself, "I've been involved in church from the days of my youth." Then he begins to list his activities for Peter. He was an officer in his youth group, served in every possible position he could as a youngster. He was on the Church Council and every committee the church had to offer. His list was extensive.
"That’s very impressive," Peter smiles. An angel standing with them also smiled and nodded as he tallied the points and then whispered in Peter's ear. Peter tells the man, "This is quite striking -- we seldom see men of your very good works. You will be pleased to know that you have 327 points! Is there anything else you can think of?"
The poor soul breaks into a cold sweat and begins to reach deep for every single act of kindness he could think of. He listed them as the angel scratched furiously on his angelic clip board and nodded his head in admiration. Peter looks at the clip board and says, "This is quite exceptional! You now have a total of 402 points. Can you think of anything else?"
The distressed guy strives to recall good deeds -- like the time he helped a little old lady across the street. He finally arrives at a grand total of 431 points and cries out... "I am sunk! There is no hope for me! What more could I have done? O Lord, all I can do is beg for your mercy!"
"THAT," exclaims Peter, "Is a thousand points!"
“Even while we were sinners, Christ died for us!” This whole text from Paul is worth repeating here. In Romans 5: 7, the apostle Paul writes: “Rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Rom 5:7-8 NRS).
However Jesus’ story speaks to your heart, don’t miss that the only “advantage” the publican has is because he realizes he is a sinner, just like everyone else. We will never become who we can be if we don’t start with who we really are. God’s grace makes only one absolute demand of us. We must never try justify ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. Only God can justify. Only in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, do any of us ever have a prayer. Amen.
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