Luke 18: 9-14
There are two idioms…one from China and one from Spain…that apply to our gospel reading for today.
- The Chinese idiom is translated: “A crane among a flock of chickens.”
- Referring to someone who is better than those around them.
The Spanish idiom is translated: “You think you’re the last Coca Cola in the desert.”
- It refers to someone who is proud…someone who acts superior to everybody around them.
- Those are the people Jesus is speaking to in today’s scripture lesson.
- People who think they are the last Coca Cola in the desert.
Our story begins with these words:
- Two men went up to the temple to pray…one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: God…I thank you that I am not like other people…robbers…evildoers…adulterers…or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
- This is a man who thinks he’s the last Coca Cola in the desert…A crane among a flock of chickens.
The Pharisee in our story seems to think he’s God’s gift to the world.
- That he created the heavens and the earth.
- But…according to conventional values…he’s an upright guy.
- Jesus is holding him up as an example of how we should all live.
- But Jesus began this story by saying two men went up to the temple to pray…a Pharisee and a tax collector.
- Now…the Pharisee was the polar opposite of the tax collector.
Tax collectors were hated by the Jewish people.
- They were often Jewish citizens who were hired by the Roman government to collect taxes from their fellow Jews.
- And Rome looked the other way if the tax collector added a few extra surcharges on top of the already-high taxes.
- Tax collectors were held in such disrepute that they were not allowed to give testimony in court.
- They were considered societal outcasts…and utter disgraces to their families.
- So much so that they were excommunicated from the synagogue.
Now let’s listen in on the tax collector’s prayer:
- The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven…but beat his breast and said…God…have mercy on me…a sinner.
- OK then…this man knows what he is…a sinner in need of God’s mercy.
- Then Jesus delivers the punch line:
- I tell you that this man…rather than the other…went home justified before God.
- For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled…and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
- So…what does Jesus want us to learn here?
Over 1600 years ago…the theologian and philosopher St. Augustine wrote to one of his students about what it takes to understand the truth of God.
- He said it requires three qualities.
- The first is humility…the second is humility…the third is…humility.
We protect our ego…our image…our self-sufficiency as much as possible.
- I’m a good person…especially compared to them!
- Look at all the good things I’ve done.
- We try to earn God’s love.
- But we cannot earn something that is priceless.
- God desires that we simply receive his love…his grace…his mercy.
- The tax collector stood before God…utterly broken.
- And then opened his arms and simply received God’s goodness.
In our story today…the tax collector prays: “God…have mercy on me…a sinner.
- He uses an unusual word for mercy.
- He uses a Greek word that refers to pardoning a criminal or making atonement for another’s sin.
- Atonement in the Hebrew Bible is translated as…to cover.
- God instituted the practice among the Hebrew people of making an animal sacrifice to cover over their sins.
- When the tax collector pleads for mercy in his prayer…he is saying:
- God…I’m a sinner. I’ll never be good enough to deserve your forgiveness. I need you to take my place…to cover my sin.
- Christ himself came to cover our sin.
- To offer us the mercy we could never be good enough to earn on our own.
Paul said: Instead…put on the Lord Jesus Christ…
- Wear the robe of Christ.
- And so…we cover ourselves with his grace. (Romans 13:14)
The tax collector stood in the presence of the holy God and did not try to hide his sin and his brokenness and his shame.
- He recognized God’s holiness and his own helplessness.
- So…he confessed his sin and cried out for mercy.
- And he received the fullness of God’s love.
- Justification by God’s grace.
- Not because he deserved it.
- But…because…that is who God is.
The Dutch Catholic priest and author Henri Nouwen seemed to understand our struggle with self-righteousness and humility when he wrote this beautiful prayer:
- Dear God:
- I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
- (Man in the parking lot at Dockside).
- Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
- Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
- Please help me to gradually open my hands.
- And to discover that I am not what I own.
- But what you want to give me.
Two men went up to the temple to pray.
- Only one of them left there pardoned…changed…set free from the burden of his sin.
- What made the difference?
- One man showed up…broken…with empty hands…
- And asked God to do for him what he could not do for himself.
- And God did the rest.
ke 18: 9-14