Year C

Luke 18:9-14

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Grow into the Mercy of God

The Parables Jesus likes to tell can be a lot like fishing lures: they are full of attractive features like feathers and bright colors but they usually end with a sharp little barb – Got ya! The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector today is just such a parable. On the surface, it appears rather straightforward. It is a story about the dangers of spiritual pride and the benefits of confession but when we look under the surface, we feel the sharp barb because this parable tells us something about ourselves as followers of Christ. If it makes us twinge with remorse at the thought of acting like the self-righteous Pharisee, it also inspires us with the humility of the tax collector. If we come away from the text thinking, “Thank God I’m not like the Pharisee,” we’ve missed the point because we are all Pharisee’s and tax collectors.

Jesus tells this story to overturn the conventional religious wisdom of that day and today also, that the good will be eternally rewarded while those who partake in evil will be eternally damned. This parable speaks to the great reversals that the kingdom of God brings and through the details of this story, a vision of God’s mercy, love and forgiveness becomes clear. Therefore, if we are to understand the shock effect this story had on Jesus’ first listeners, and if we are to understand the nature of God’s mercy, we need to first have a better understanding of what a tax collector did in the time of Jesus and what a Pharisee sought to do also.

In Luke’s gospel, no other occupation was more despised or looked down upon than the tax collector. He would have been the kind of man capable of betraying a friend if it meant a profit. The tax collector in this story, a Jew himself, was squeezing revenue out of his fellow citizens so that a foreign power could continue to occupy their land. He was also, as common practice, dipping into these revenues lining his pockets while his countrymen scraped and saved up their last shekel. He would have been at the opposite pole of the social strata from the respected Pharisees.

All those listening to Jesus would have been familiar also with the Pharisees; those individuals who were regarded as the most devout religious people in first-century Palestine, someone passionately in love with his country, his people and his faith. The name “Pharisee” derives from a root word that means “pure”. The Pharisees sought purity in all things. Purity in the way they observed the law, in their unswerving nationalism, and in the care they took to avoid all contacts with the impure. They were an elite group who were the very pillars of society; a group meant to be examples to others.

But, as sometimes happens with good people, some of these Pharisees began to believe that they were good. The respect they enjoyed became familiar and anticipated. The Pharisee in this story prays, but, whereas in prayer the focus should be upon God, this man’s concentration is upon himself and worse still; upon the failings of his fellow human beings. The humility went out of his faith and was replaced by pride and contempt. He gives thanks to God that he is better than those other sinful people and he is proud of his religious acts of fasting and giving. He therefore justifies himself, bolstering his own self-image by putting down this tax collector.

In contrast, the tax collector stands at the very back, scarcely lifting his eyes to heaven, praying simply that God be merciful to him, a sinner. We aren’t told what brought him to his knees, but he seems to genuinely recognize his misdeed, and his brokenness. And so our Lord, as he often does, points out that God’s view reverses both. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Jesus, who knows the mind and heart of God, no doubt did shock his audience that day because they were sure that the Pharisee was the one who would win the approval of God, but Jesus told them that this man, the sinner, went home justified, rather than the Pharisee who trusted in himself and when we trust in ourselves, we do not recognize our need of God.

The tax collector admitted he needed God and God’s forgiveness. He had at last assumed the stance that held the most promise for growth, which is possible only when we honestly acknowledge what we are and who we are, and accept our need of God’s forgiveness and mercy, the exact opposite of what our culture demands. Admission of human weakness and failure is taboo in our culture. It is not cool to admit our mistakes or that we need help. Yet, it is this admission that gets the attention of God. It was the tax collector who went home right with God. If a tax collector can find mercy before God, who is excluded?

There are times for all of us when our hearts are weighted down by doubts, hurts and sins that are too heavy for us to bear. Moments when, unlike the Pharisee, we are not proud of what we’ve done, and when, like the tax collector, we don’t know how to make it right. But it is in these moments that God finds us; when we believe ourselves the farthest from God, we are actually the nearest. When we think ourselves most wretched, we are most loved. For in all these times, when we call on God, it is not to validate what we have done, but to acknowledge we need God. We need God’s love and mercy in our lives, and it is only when we can humble ourselves and allow the attitude of Christ to become our example, will we be able to truly give our lives to God and have giving lives. It is not easy for us to humble ourselves or to admit we need God’s help.

I certainly have been the Pharisee many times in my life, filled with pride and self-righteousness and have had to learn the hard way through experience that it is best if I am more like the tax collector. It is best when I acknowledge I need God’s help that I don’t have all the answers or that I can do this work I am called to do without going to God first in prayer for strength, wisdom and guidance. Humbling myself with a real desire to change and yet, I continue to fail and then I remember once again that I need God’s grace and mercy, and I remember how thankful I am that God continues to love and be merciful to me, a sinner.

The Pharisees, tax collectors and all the variations in humanity, stand convicted by the truth that “none of us has a prayer.” Yet, we can be comforted by the certainty that when we give up the need to trust in ourselves, we can pray with the best and the worst of us: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” How blest are those who know their need of God! In our worship we pray: “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.” We can trust that the One who saw deep into the heart of the tax collector saw his real desire to change and his willingness to receive the divine help he needed to grow in his love of God. And God saw into the heart of the Pharisee, who loved God and hopefully who came out of the temple with a desire to move deeper into God’s ultimate fullness. There is something bigger and that is the grace of God. If we keep our eyes fixed on that goal, we will finish the race and keep the faith.