Luke 18:9-14

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector”.  We can almost already tell where this parable is going when Jesus begins. There are two people from very different social standings.  The Pharisee is a religious leader. The tax collector is affiliated with the Roman government, and his livelihood depended on the exploitation of other people.  Essentially, he collected more than the necessary amount due to the government, in order to pay his own rent. By all social and moral considerations, this man would not have been considered just.  By the end of the parable, however, it is revealed that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, is justified before God, because he asks God for mercy. It’s one of those classic gospel plot-twists that Jesus seems to like so much.

I imagine the Pharisee being a lot like a person walking into an important job interview.  He has prepared for this. He has put together an impressive resume that demonstrates his dedication.  He has carefully thought out his self-presentation. He’s compared himself to the other possible candidates and determined that he is the one who should get the job offer.  And so the Pharisee goes. He goes to the temple to pray. On his lips are words that pronounce his own worthiness. “I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get”. On his tongue are words that pronounce others’ worthlessness.  “I am not like other people– robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector”. On his heart, however, is the creeping anxiety that without his resume, he will be turned away by God. So he states his case, believing that he will impress God, that if he tries hard enough, he can convince God to love him.

The tax collector also comes to meet God in prayer, but his resume is much shorter.  In fact in contains only a single word: sinner. Sinner. The word communicates volumes.  The man stands far off. He has questioned his own worth, doubted his salvation, and feared the wrath of God.  “Have mercy.” No explanation. He does not offer an excuse or a reason why God should be merciful, but he simply asks.  Just a request, a cry, a lament, a plea. Have mercy God, simply because you are the merciful one.  Not because of anything I have done, but precisely because of who you are, who you have been, and who you promise to be.  Eternally merciful God.  

This man, who has already been condemned by the world, by the religious leaders, approaches the highest power, God, and he asks for mercy.  Looking down at his own feet, he lifts his prayer up to God. He boldly goes before God, recognizing that God alone has the power to make things right.  This is such an intense moment of faith. You see, in order for him to ask for God’s mercy, he has to first believe that God has mercy to offer and then believe that God would offer it to him.

It is very easy for us to hear this parable and to think that the point is that we should be more like the tax collector.  To put it in other words, we may be tempted to think that the point of this parable is that the Pharisee is the bad guy and the tax collector is the good guy.  But if we turn around and say “Thank you, God, for not making me like the Pharisee,” aren’t we only continuing the pattern of behavior that the parable criticizes?  The pattern of condemning one another and seeking to find fault in one another? The pattern of exalting ourselves and ignoring the places in our own lives where we, too need help?  The pattern of trying to control God and figure out a ten-step method to salvation? Maybe this parable isn’t about condemning how the Pharisee prays, but instead about asking us how we, as people of God, relate to God.

This parable demonstrates that God’s love and mercy are already available to us.  They are ours as soon as we ask for them. But we do need to ask for them. We need to recognize our need for God in our lives.  Each week, we gather here as the body of Christ in the church and we confess our sins before God. We confess what we have done and what we have failed to do.  We declare that we are sinners.

In our real human lives, this is what our bondage to sin looks like:  It is not just violations of a law or wrongs committed against others.  It is the improper ordering of our very selves. Sin is a sickness, in deep need of healing.  It is not beyond care or reconciliation. It is no more a source of shame than having pneumonia, but its effects are as real and painful as physical illness.  Sin isn’t about counting the wrongs done, but it is about accounting for the places in our lives where we desperately need the help of God. We struggle to maintain healthy, loving relationships with our friends, families, and neighbors.  We fail to trust God in matters of health, provisions, and stability. We remain silent on injustices being done in our own community. We do not forgive others as God forgives us. We are all sinners.

But here is the good news:  We are sinners in the hands of a merciful God.  Our story is not done being written. Our sin does not have the final say.  Our God, the same God to whom the tax collector cries out “Have mercy on me!”, is waiting for us to call on Her, to turn to Her for forgiveness.  Jesus tells this parable to people who were confident of their own righteousness. They believed they were already set right with God because of their good deeds.  They believed in the saving powers of their own abilities, their own qualifications, their own faith. This is a false confidence. But there is a greater righteousness deserving of our confidence.  The righteousness for us is in Jesus, who came to live among us, as one of us, suffered the same harsh realities of this sinful world, yet lived without sin. The righteousness for us is in Jesus, who died for us on the cross, yet proved the power of death to be nothing compared to the power of his glory when he rose from the dead after three days.  The righteousness for us is in Jesus, who ascended into heaven to reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, keeping watch over us, guarding and guiding us, freeing us from the powers of sin even today. Children of God, I tell you today, be confident in this power of righteousness!

The parable tells us that the tax collector “went home justified by God”.  The power of God’s righteousness followed him out the door. When we ask God to make a claim on our lives, we are inviting God to abide in us, to stay with us as we leave from this place.  Letting go of the anxiety that we are sinners does not mean that we should want to go on sinning. It means that we invite God to be at work in us, and that we believe in the power of God’s redeeming work in our lives.

We may say we believe in the healing power of God’s mercy, but what does it really take for us to begin to see one another as healed?  To see one another as children of God, who heals our brokenness, our sin, and our strife? What will it take to see yourself as healed?  Are you ready? God is! You are already beloved by God. God is for you. God wants to receive you, forgive you, and restore you to unity with him.  Go, and be justified!