Trinity 11 (Historic)
Luke 18:9-14
Vicar David Wurdeman
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our LORD
and savior, Jesus Christ.
The Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee almost sounds like
one of those classic underdog stories. There's a Pharisee, who is
wicked and arrogant---we remember them from Bible study and even
Sunday School, and then there's a humble tax collector. Sure he's a
sinner, an embezzler, BUT Jesus loves sinners! And so the story goes
that after both were praying in the temple, the Pharisee is rebuked
for his vanity and the tax collector “wins” against all odds and he
goes home justified. The tax collector, not the Pharisee, is exalted
before God. We are left with the tax collector's powerful words of
repentance echoing in our ears: “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”
...God be merciful to me, a sinner: These words have some heft to
them. They nicely summarize the overall message of the parable, and
furthermore these words tell us a short-but-sweet version of the whole
Gospel account. We are all sinners and we are all in need of God's
mercy. These words apply to you, me, the tax collector, and the
Pharisee alike.
First let's look at how they apply to the Pharisee. As I mentioned
before, it's very easy to typecast the Pharisee as the villain. We
hear so many stories in Scripture about Pharisees' vanity and pride
that they've become our go-to “bad guys” in the New Testament. Yet
when we look at the Pharisees in the context of their day and age,
they were actually pretty great people by our standards. The
Pharisee's lived very outwardly righteous lives. They were so
concerned with piety that they added their own additional laws to the
established Jewish ceremonial law, just to be safe! They wanted to be
even more clean and pure than God had commanded them to be. To put it
into today's terms: think of that “one guy” in church. You know the
one, the person who is seemingly involved in every single outreach
group at church. They donate to every mission project, they're in the
pew every single Sunday, they eagerly enlist in helping with VBS or
Sunday school. And even then, during the week they're active members
of the community too. They volunteer constantly, selflessly. They're
so good at life in fact, that we're a little bit jealous and try to
find some reason to dislike them. But even THEN they're just too
friendly and pleasant to stay mad at! That guy is how we should
picture the Pharisee—incredibly “good.”
And so when Christ proclaimed to His disciples that this Pharisee did
not leave the temple justified, it was quite the scandal. But Christ
was just: the Pharisee was a sinner like you and me today and he
deserved judgment. But unlike us, the Pharisee did NOT have faith. The
Pharisee's prayer is not sincerely offered to God, but rather is his
way of bragging about his deeds to the other people in the temple. He
“prays” about his good deeds so that others will hear him, but he
shows no remorse for his sin and does not believe he needs God's
mercy. He believed that he had justified himself, by himself-- through
his seemingly righteous outward life and deeds. And so, through his
arrogant pride the Pharisee made himself his own God. He did not
repent and he did not have faith. God has told us this in Holy
Scripture, and we are familiar with it from our liturgy: He who says
he has no sin deceives himself and the truth is not in him. The
Pharisee deceived himself, and in his arrogance he rejected his need
for forgiveness and rejected faith.
This was part of Jesus' message: you cannot justify yourself through
your own deeds. And indeed, if you think you are sinless, you are
unrepentant and do not have faith. Even when we don't believe
ourselves to be without sin, our sinful nature is always inclined to
try to justify ourselves partially through our works. As fallen
creatures, we want to somehow earn our forgiveness. We are
uncomfortable with the notion of free grace, and so we like to think
we somehow are part of the equation. And yet, by all standards of the
Law, the Pharisee led a WAY holier life than any of us here today, and
it still wasn't enough! God's Law demands perfection, and only Jesus
Christ lived that life. Thanks be to God, we are judged on account of
Christ, not our own feeble efforts.
And so while the Pharisee was boastful, the tax collector on the other
hand realized his sinfulness. In Jesus' own words: He stood far off,
he would not lift up his eyes to heaven, he beat his breast, saying
God, be merciful to me, a sinner! He stands before God in sincere
repentance; he cowers before his maker like a scolded dog. And he has
good reason for such trepidation: while the Pharisee was esteemed by
society, the tax collector would have been reviled and hated. It's
common knowledge that throughout the history of the world, people have
always dreaded taxes. And unfortunately tax workers often suffer the
brunt of our frustrations. But in Jerusalem, tax collectors were
worse, they were seen as traitors by the Jews. They worked for Caesar
after all; they took money from their own people to give it to an
oppressive ruler. Worst of all, they usually collected more than what
Caesar asked for, pocketing the difference. And so this too, is a very
scandalous part of the parable. People did not want to hear that this
horrible man was justified! He ought to pay somehow! He needed to
atone for all of his wretched thievery and extortion of his own
people! But Jesus radically tells us that we are not saved by our
works, but through faith. The tax collector walked away justified only
because of Christ, because of the grace of God! We do not need to
atone for our sins ourselves, and we do not need to pay penance to
earn our forgiveness. Christ paid for our sins. Christ lived a perfect
life that we could not and he died on the cross for the sake of the
world. Christ's made atonement for us, and we are justified in
Him...Again, to quote from Holy Scripture that we hear in our liturgy:
But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will
forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
-----
So to review: the Pharisee did not repent and thus did not have faith
so he was not justified. The tax collector, on the other hand, did
have faith and repented and so he was justified, by Christ, who died
on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world so that we may
have eternal life. Alright, that's a pretty straightforward sermon,
makes sense. But wait a minute....this is starting to sounds an awful
lot like decision theology! That is to say, Jesus message at first
sounds like the tax collector had faith because of his repentance, he
had faith because of his sincerity and his personal commitment to
Christ as his savior.
Now, this is not what Jesus teaches us. It is a subtle difference but
a dangerous interpretation. God has told us in His Word that we are
saved by grace alone, through faith. We heard one of the clearest
passages supporting this doctrine in the epistle lesson today! (Eph.
2:1-10) Faith is given to us in God's Word and Sacrament. It is not a
teamwork decision, God does not reach down and offer us a gift where
we must then reach up and decide to take it for ourselves. Instead,
faith, as a gift is placed upon us purely by the grace of God. It's
like somebody walking up to you and just shoving a twenty dollar bill
in your pocket before you can do anything about it! If we believe that
we accept grace partially through our own decision, our personal
commitment to Christ, or the sincerity of our repentance, we become
Pharisees ourselves.
The Pharisee rejected God's Word and did not have faith, but the tax
collector had been given faith by the Holy Spirit. He heard God's Word
and believed. The sincerity of his repentance was therefore a fruit of
faith. His repentance did not create his faith, but rather came from
the faith which he had been given. The tax collector and the pharisee
were both sinners, but without faith you cannot receive God's grace.
Christ knew that the tax collector had faith when he heard his
contrite repentance.
And so now we've come back to that phrase: God, be merciful to me, a
sinner! We can take comfort in that phrase because we know that God
has mercy on us. We are sinners. We do not live half as piously as the
pharisee. We are greedy, lazy, and quarrelsome. We are by nature
unclean, We have sinned against God in thought, Word, and deed. We do
not love God with our whole heart, nor have we loved our neighbors as
ourselves, we justly deserve God's temporal and eternal punishment. We
are rotten fruit in God's sight, wicked thieves, tax collectors,
traitors who are dead in our trespasses.
But despite it all, God is merciful to us sinners. God mercifully sent
his Son to the cross. In Christ's bitter sufferings and death, He
atoned for our sins and justified us. He paid for us with His holy,
precious blood. He cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Christ is the
vine and we are the branches, and through Christ we bear good fruit
and serve our neighbor in His love! We have been given faith through
God's Word and the Sacraments. In the waters of Baptism, the preached
Word, confession and absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar we
receive forgiveness and our faith is constantly renewed and restored.
By free grace we are forgiven of our sins and God's mercy abounds. We
are exalted before God. And so,“God, be merciful to me, a sinner” is
not a matter of uncertainty. These are words of promise. God is
merciful to us sinners. Thanks be to God, Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding,
guard and protect your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our LORD.
Amen.
Luke 18:9-14
Vicar David Wurdeman
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our LORD
and savior, Jesus Christ.
The Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee almost sounds like
one of those classic underdog stories. There's a Pharisee, who is
wicked and arrogant---we remember them from Bible study and even
Sunday School, and then there's a humble tax collector. Sure he's a
sinner, an embezzler, BUT Jesus loves sinners! And so the story goes
that after both were praying in the temple, the Pharisee is rebuked
for his vanity and the tax collector “wins” against all odds and he
goes home justified. The tax collector, not the Pharisee, is exalted
before God. We are left with the tax collector's powerful words of
repentance echoing in our ears: “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”
...God be merciful to me, a sinner: These words have some heft to
them. They nicely summarize the overall message of the parable, and
furthermore these words tell us a short-but-sweet version of the whole
Gospel account. We are all sinners and we are all in need of God's
mercy. These words apply to you, me, the tax collector, and the
Pharisee alike.
First let's look at how they apply to the Pharisee. As I mentioned
before, it's very easy to typecast the Pharisee as the villain. We
hear so many stories in Scripture about Pharisees' vanity and pride
that they've become our go-to “bad guys” in the New Testament. Yet
when we look at the Pharisees in the context of their day and age,
they were actually pretty great people by our standards. The
Pharisee's lived very outwardly righteous lives. They were so
concerned with piety that they added their own additional laws to the
established Jewish ceremonial law, just to be safe! They wanted to be
even more clean and pure than God had commanded them to be. To put it
into today's terms: think of that “one guy” in church. You know the
one, the person who is seemingly involved in every single outreach
group at church. They donate to every mission project, they're in the
pew every single Sunday, they eagerly enlist in helping with VBS or
Sunday school. And even then, during the week they're active members
of the community too. They volunteer constantly, selflessly. They're
so good at life in fact, that we're a little bit jealous and try to
find some reason to dislike them. But even THEN they're just too
friendly and pleasant to stay mad at! That guy is how we should
picture the Pharisee—incredibly “good.”
And so when Christ proclaimed to His disciples that this Pharisee did
not leave the temple justified, it was quite the scandal. But Christ
was just: the Pharisee was a sinner like you and me today and he
deserved judgment. But unlike us, the Pharisee did NOT have faith. The
Pharisee's prayer is not sincerely offered to God, but rather is his
way of bragging about his deeds to the other people in the temple. He
“prays” about his good deeds so that others will hear him, but he
shows no remorse for his sin and does not believe he needs God's
mercy. He believed that he had justified himself, by himself-- through
his seemingly righteous outward life and deeds. And so, through his
arrogant pride the Pharisee made himself his own God. He did not
repent and he did not have faith. God has told us this in Holy
Scripture, and we are familiar with it from our liturgy: He who says
he has no sin deceives himself and the truth is not in him. The
Pharisee deceived himself, and in his arrogance he rejected his need
for forgiveness and rejected faith.
This was part of Jesus' message: you cannot justify yourself through
your own deeds. And indeed, if you think you are sinless, you are
unrepentant and do not have faith. Even when we don't believe
ourselves to be without sin, our sinful nature is always inclined to
try to justify ourselves partially through our works. As fallen
creatures, we want to somehow earn our forgiveness. We are
uncomfortable with the notion of free grace, and so we like to think
we somehow are part of the equation. And yet, by all standards of the
Law, the Pharisee led a WAY holier life than any of us here today, and
it still wasn't enough! God's Law demands perfection, and only Jesus
Christ lived that life. Thanks be to God, we are judged on account of
Christ, not our own feeble efforts.
And so while the Pharisee was boastful, the tax collector on the other
hand realized his sinfulness. In Jesus' own words: He stood far off,
he would not lift up his eyes to heaven, he beat his breast, saying
God, be merciful to me, a sinner! He stands before God in sincere
repentance; he cowers before his maker like a scolded dog. And he has
good reason for such trepidation: while the Pharisee was esteemed by
society, the tax collector would have been reviled and hated. It's
common knowledge that throughout the history of the world, people have
always dreaded taxes. And unfortunately tax workers often suffer the
brunt of our frustrations. But in Jerusalem, tax collectors were
worse, they were seen as traitors by the Jews. They worked for Caesar
after all; they took money from their own people to give it to an
oppressive ruler. Worst of all, they usually collected more than what
Caesar asked for, pocketing the difference. And so this too, is a very
scandalous part of the parable. People did not want to hear that this
horrible man was justified! He ought to pay somehow! He needed to
atone for all of his wretched thievery and extortion of his own
people! But Jesus radically tells us that we are not saved by our
works, but through faith. The tax collector walked away justified only
because of Christ, because of the grace of God! We do not need to
atone for our sins ourselves, and we do not need to pay penance to
earn our forgiveness. Christ paid for our sins. Christ lived a perfect
life that we could not and he died on the cross for the sake of the
world. Christ's made atonement for us, and we are justified in
Him...Again, to quote from Holy Scripture that we hear in our liturgy:
But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will
forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
-----
So to review: the Pharisee did not repent and thus did not have faith
so he was not justified. The tax collector, on the other hand, did
have faith and repented and so he was justified, by Christ, who died
on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world so that we may
have eternal life. Alright, that's a pretty straightforward sermon,
makes sense. But wait a minute....this is starting to sounds an awful
lot like decision theology! That is to say, Jesus message at first
sounds like the tax collector had faith because of his repentance, he
had faith because of his sincerity and his personal commitment to
Christ as his savior.
Now, this is not what Jesus teaches us. It is a subtle difference but
a dangerous interpretation. God has told us in His Word that we are
saved by grace alone, through faith. We heard one of the clearest
passages supporting this doctrine in the epistle lesson today! (Eph.
2:1-10) Faith is given to us in God's Word and Sacrament. It is not a
teamwork decision, God does not reach down and offer us a gift where
we must then reach up and decide to take it for ourselves. Instead,
faith, as a gift is placed upon us purely by the grace of God. It's
like somebody walking up to you and just shoving a twenty dollar bill
in your pocket before you can do anything about it! If we believe that
we accept grace partially through our own decision, our personal
commitment to Christ, or the sincerity of our repentance, we become
Pharisees ourselves.
The Pharisee rejected God's Word and did not have faith, but the tax
collector had been given faith by the Holy Spirit. He heard God's Word
and believed. The sincerity of his repentance was therefore a fruit of
faith. His repentance did not create his faith, but rather came from
the faith which he had been given. The tax collector and the pharisee
were both sinners, but without faith you cannot receive God's grace.
Christ knew that the tax collector had faith when he heard his
contrite repentance.
And so now we've come back to that phrase: God, be merciful to me, a
sinner! We can take comfort in that phrase because we know that God
has mercy on us. We are sinners. We do not live half as piously as the
pharisee. We are greedy, lazy, and quarrelsome. We are by nature
unclean, We have sinned against God in thought, Word, and deed. We do
not love God with our whole heart, nor have we loved our neighbors as
ourselves, we justly deserve God's temporal and eternal punishment. We
are rotten fruit in God's sight, wicked thieves, tax collectors,
traitors who are dead in our trespasses.
But despite it all, God is merciful to us sinners. God mercifully sent
his Son to the cross. In Christ's bitter sufferings and death, He
atoned for our sins and justified us. He paid for us with His holy,
precious blood. He cleansed us from all unrighteousness. Christ is the
vine and we are the branches, and through Christ we bear good fruit
and serve our neighbor in His love! We have been given faith through
God's Word and the Sacraments. In the waters of Baptism, the preached
Word, confession and absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar we
receive forgiveness and our faith is constantly renewed and restored.
By free grace we are forgiven of our sins and God's mercy abounds. We
are exalted before God. And so,“God, be merciful to me, a sinner” is
not a matter of uncertainty. These are words of promise. God is
merciful to us sinners. Thanks be to God, Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding,
guard and protect your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our LORD.
Amen.