Sermon for Trinity 11
1 Corinthians 15:1-10 + Luke 18:9-14
We have one of my favorite parables before us again today, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It’s one of my favorites, because it presents the chief article of the Christian faith so simply that a child can understand it. How can a person stand before God and not be condemned? How can a person stand before the righteous God and be accepted? The Pharisee is our negative illustration; the tax collector, the positive—which is, by the way, the exact opposite of what anyone would expect. You stand by God’s mercy, or not at all.
Jesus told this parable to certain people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and who despised others. That alone tells us most of what we need to know. There’s a problem that Jesus, the Great Physician, has diagnosed among His patients, among His hearers. Trusting in yourself, that you are righteous, on the one hand, and despising other people, on the other hand, are two sides of the same twisted coin, two common symptoms of the same disease.
The Pharisee, in Jewish society, was the hero, the role model. But not in Jesus’ parable. In Jesus’ parable, the Pharisee is the villain, the one who trusts in himself, that he is righteous, and who despises others. He goes to the temple with that attitude, and we’re allowed to listen in on his prayer. O God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’ Let’s take a look at the features of this prayer.
First, you notice what the Pharisee doesn’t do. He doesn’t acknowledge any sin or wretchedness on his part, not even any weakness or shortcoming. He doesn’t humble himself before God at all. Instead, he exalts himself. He points out his goodness to God, the shameful sins he has successfully avoided, the good works he regularly does: his righteousness, his worthiness, his religiosity. And, in sort of a backhanded way, he puts down the tax collector who’s there in the temple with him. “Thank God I’m not like him!”
Then we’re also allowed to listen in on the tax collector’s prayer as he stands off in a corner by himself, beating his breast and not even daring to look up to heaven. The tax collector, in Jewish society, was the villain, the wicked sinner who stole from his fellow Israelites for a living. But in Jesus’ parable, this tax collector is the hero, the role model we are urged to follow, if we wish to see eternal life. His prayer is simple: God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
What does he do right? Well, first, even though he knows he’ll get dirty looks from his fellow worshipers, he goes to the temple, where God has promised to hear the prayers of His penitent people. That’s important. People today think that it’s the people who go to church who are the hypocrites, and those who stay home from church who are the real children of God. Not true at all. Both the Pharisee and the tax collector went to the temple to pray.
But unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector goes, not in pride, not to make a show, but in obvious repentance, clearly acknowledging and mourning over his past crimes and his sinful heart. He confesses himself to be “the sinner.” And he offers nothing to God, no righteousness of his own, no good works, and no excuses. He stands there, in the temple, before God, with nothing but a plea for God to do something for him, to deal with him according to His mercy, and not according to what he deserves.
That man, says Jesus, went down to his house justified rather than the other. Again, the tax collector is the role model here, not the Pharisee. In spite of the outwardly good life he had lived, the Pharisee went down to his house still under God’s decree, “Guilty!”, still under God’s sentence of eternal condemnation, because he tried to stand before God by offering God his own righteousness. But in God’s sight, there is no one righteous, based on his own record or on the cleanness of his own heart. All are guilty. But, as Jesus makes clear, there is a way for guilty sinners to receive a righteous verdict from the Judge: Humble yourself before Him. Acknowledge your guilt. And instead of offering Him your righteousness, instead of listing all the good things you’ve done, or the bad things you’ve successfully avoided in your life, plead for His mercy, for the righteousness of Christ to cover you, to stand for you, to count for you. Seek forgiveness from God, not praise. Seek His approval for Christ’s sake, not your own.
Those who exalt themselves before God will be humbled, will be rejected, will be cast away from God’s presence, because He sees their hidden sins, and the ones they hide from everyone else, the ones they refuse to acknowledge, including the sin of pride and of pretending that God owes them something. But those who humble themselves before God will be exalted, will be approved, will be forgiven. Because God is faithful, and gracious, and merciful. It’s His mercy that led Him to send His own beloved Son to the cross, to suffer and die for your sins. That’s why His mercy is wrapped up in the Person of Jesus. All who seek His mercy for Jesus’ sake will find it. You stand by God’s mercy, like the tax collector in the parable, or, like the Pharisee, you don’t stand at all.
See how this plays out in the life of a Christian. You saw the example of the tax collector in Jesus’ parable. Now look at the example of the apostle Paul. When he was still unconverted, he was, literally, a proud Pharisee, offering his own righteousness to God and despising those who were less righteous than he. But then he was led to see the truth: His works were rubbish (as he himself referred to them later on). His righteousness was paltry and worthless. He couldn’t stand before God by his works. He could only stand by seeking God’s mercy in Christ. As he wrote to the Philippians, I count all my works, yes, all things as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. And so he finally humbled himself before God, and was exalted.
You can hear that humility in today’s Epistle: The risen Lord Jesus was seen also by me, as by one born at the wrong time. For I am the least of the apostles. I am not even fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. Does that sound to you more like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable or like the tax collector? It sounds more like the tax collector, doesn’t it?
And notice, too, what effect God’s mercy had on Paul’s life, and on his attitude, going forward. His grace toward me was not in vain; but I toiled more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. God’s mercy shown to Paul was not “in vain,” was not without effect. The effect of God’s mercy on Paul’s life was that Paul, recognizing just how great God’s mercy was toward him, who deserved only God’s wrath and punishment, toiled more and harder than all the other apostles. He loved much, because he had been forgiven much. And yet, even as he truthfully and accurately describes his good works as a Christian, he adds, in genuine humility, “yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Unlike the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, Paul gives himself no credit, even for the truly good things he had done. He gives God, and the grace of God, all the praise and glory for all the good he did as an apostle, as is fitting for one who stands by God’s mercy.
So stand, Christians, each day, by God’s mercy, and don’t even think about praising yourself or thinking highly of yourself, as if you deserved praise from God. And then, if you stand only by the mercy of God, it won’t even occur to you to compare yourself with your neighbor, or to despise him or her because they aren’t as righteous as you. Because, after all, you don’t stand by your own righteousness, but by the mercy of God in Christ. Let your focus always remain on God’s mercy, not on your goodness. And then you will always go down to your house justified. Amen.
