Sermon 10/28/07
Model of Piety - Luke 18:9-14
(view lectionary notes for this text)
A few weeks ago, we talked about the Pharisees to whom Jesus was directing his parable about the rich man and Lazarus, and I told you we’d be coming back to look more closely at the Pharisees soon. Today, we get our chance to take a deeper look. Jesus is telling another parable, a parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector. “Two men went up to the temple to prayer,” Jesus says, “one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Jesus lets us peek in on the prayers of each man. The prayer of the Pharisee goes like this: “God, I think you that I am not like other people; thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” The tax collector, on the other hand, was standing far off, and would not even lift up his eyes. He beat his breast, a sign of extreme distress or grief, and said simply, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector who went to his home more justified than the Pharisee. And so, Jesus says, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Parables about the Pharisees are so easy for us to pass over quickly. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we tend to look at parables like some kind of equation – we hear a parable and try to figure out what everything stands for. We know that in the parables, we’re supposed to find the person we are supposed to act like, and the person we aren’t supposed to act like. And so we tend to look for the “good guy” and the “bad guy” in parables. From our 21st century perspective, having a whole collection of Jesus’ parables, and knowing enough about Jesus to know what he taught, what he valued, what his basic messages were, we know enough to pick out who are the “bad guys” and the “good guys” in the parables. We know in the parable of the Good Samaritan that the good guy is, well, the Good Samaritan. We know that in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Lazarus is the good guy and the rich man is the bad guy. And we know in this parable about Pharisee and the tax collector that the Pharisee is the bad guy and the tax collector is the surprise good guy.
But, if we think this way about the parable, make our judgments too quickly, we can miss a lot of the message that Jesus is trying to share with us. In a parable where the two ‘characters’ are a tax-collector and Pharisee, it might surprise you to know that Jesus’ audience would have most sympathized with the Pharisee! Tax collectors in Jesus’ day, in his culture, were extremely despised by their communities. They worked for the Roman government, and were consider somewhat as traitors to the Jewish people. They collected not only taxes, but also fees for themselves, and were viewed as going outside of Jewish law to make a profit for themselves. Tax collectors were even less-liked then than today! But it's harder for us to get a handle on who the Pharisees were and how they relate to our world today. We’ve talked a bit about them already. Pharisees were part of a sect of Judaism. Other sects that we meet in the gospels are the Sadducees, who we'll hear about in a couple weeks, and the Essenes, of which John the Baptist was part. But the Pharisees emphasized upholding the law, the rituals, the traditions. They insisted that oral tradition was as important as written tradition in the faith – that that oral wisdom on a topic could help people understand the written word. The Sadducees, on the other hand, insisted on a much more literal interpretation of the text. The Pharisees were behind such movements as the synagogue as centers of worship and education, extending learning to the whole Jewish world. They added prayers to the Temple services of animal sacrifice, and insisted that priests were "but deputies of the people." They added qualifications to laws like "an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" so that executions took place in less situations. On the other hand, however, their additions to the law through oral code sometimes added many new requirements for people to follow, so that being a ‘proper’ Jew in good standing required following hundreds of rules. And their learning and education began to set them apart from the rest of the people, elevating them above others. (1) Basically, the Pharisees were not the bad guys - they weren't people who were trying to hurt or destroy the faith. They were, in fact, trying very hard to live faithfully and to create a tradition that inspired faithful living. And because of that, people would have admired the Pharisees, and looked to them for religious leadership and wisdom. When we see the Pharisee in this parable, there’s more to see than a “bad guy.” That’s too easy, because it lets us think Jesus must be talking about someone else, not us in this parable. Instead, look and see yourself in the Pharisee. How are you like him?
Jesus himself was more like a Pharisee than a tax collector. Jesus was educated and articulate about the scriptures. He, too, added his own oral interpretation to the laws that were written. The apostle Paul was a Pharisee. Are we Pharisees? What does Jesus want us to see of ourselves in this parable? If we return to the text, we’ll see that Luke tells us that Jesus directed this parable at “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” In other words, some of his hearers thought they were doing pretty well. To be righteous means, essentially, to be in good standing with God. Do you think you are in good standing with God? Jesus directed his words at those who trusted in themselves that they were in good standing with God, and told a parable about just such a person – a Pharisee.
And what is the fault of the Pharisee? What makes him the bad guy? Does he do anything so unusual? He is praying, not for anyone to hear, not in a loud voice or with big gestures, at least not so far as Luke tells us. He, like the tax collector, is standing by himself. What he does is give thanks to God. He thanks God that he is not like those in society who are sinners. He gives thanks that he doesn’t have to resort to stealing, that he doesn’t have to be part of a hated profession like the tax collector. He tells God that he’s faithful – he fasts, he tithes. Is his prayer so bad? Is it so different from our conversations with God? Do we not often give thanks that we don’t have it as bad as others do? Do we even show as much discipline in our spiritual practices as this Pharisee? On the other hand, the tax collector doesn’t seem to be a model of piety, does he? Why would we want to be like him? He doesn’t repent for his life as a tax collector, or promise to lead a new life, or promise to give back money he’s earned, or anything like that. He just asks, with perhaps a guilty conscience, for God’s mercy.
So what’s wrong with the Pharisee’s prayer? One of my least favorite qualities in a person is if a person is a brag. I hate bragging. I hate it when people want to tell me how good they are at something. And yet, we always have to walk a fine line there, because so much of how we relate to one another is through giving our status, our credentials, our roles and positions, so that others can know what to think of us and how to view us. One pastor writes, “We'll invoke almost anything to justify ourselves – intelligence (GPA and SAT), your alma mater ("This is where I went to school thirty years ago"), money ("I'm frugal toward myself and generous to others"), family ("Great kids!"), sports ("I'm in shape, you're a slob"), politics ("My vote is enlightened, yours is ideological"), and work ("I work at X; what do you do?"). A common form of self-justification invokes your zip code ("Where do you live?"), a thinly veiled insinuation that net worth is a reliable index of self worth . . . [S]elf-justification assures me that "I'm better than the next person." (1) We brag, or at least talk ourselves up a little bit, to impress, to look good, to show that we’re good enough.
And I think there’s no one we’re trying harder to impress than God. What is the fault of the Pharisee? He’s not so bad. It’s just that he doesn’t understand anything about what God wants from him or about what he needs from God. He’s busy trying to show God how good he is, and I suspect it isn’t because he’s a terrible person, but because he wants to be good enough for God – good enough to be accepted by God, loved by God, worthy enough for God. The world tells us over and over that our worth is determined by how we look, what we have, who we know, and how successful we are. And that’s what the Pharisee tries to show to God to prove his worth.
Jesus says that this is where the Pharisee’s gone wrong, because we’re talking about the Kingdom of God here. And in the Kingdom of God, anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will find themselves exalted. What gives you your worth? Do you know? Do you know what you’re worth and why? Here’s what the scriptures say over and over again: You are created in God’s very image, and so you are of infinite value, precious creation, worth so much, of so much value, that God will try anything to try to get to know you, be part of you, get your attention, have you as a disciple. You are a precious child of God. But that worth, that immeasurable worth that you have comes from within, comes from God, and has nothing to do with where you live, or what you have, or what you do for a living. And that worth that you have comes from nothing that you can do for God, no act that you can do to earn God’s favor, but comes to you as a gift, a free gift, offered without price, and offered freely to each person.
The Pharisee missed the point, because he was so busy trying to show God how good he was, and he was so sure of himself and his position, and he had no room left to be guided by God, taught by God, forgiven and loved by God. The tax collector knew he stood in need of God’s forgiveness, and so he found himself ready to be directed by God.
What gives you your worth? We need to empty ourselves out, so that we can be filled by a worth that God’s hand will bring to our lives. We need to be humbled, so that God’s actions in us are what exalt us. We need to confess just that we stand in need of God’s mercy, so that we can be ready to feel our worth that comes from God’s love of us.
God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.
(1) Daniel B. Clendenin, The Journey with Jesus,
http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20071022JJ.shtml
(1) Parable can be found in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
(2) Thompson, James. http://jockeystreet.blogspot.com/2007/05/utah-part-3.html