Sermon Manuscript:
It will be helpful for us to consider what the two men were
like in our Gospel reading this morning. The point of the parable turns on
these two being quite different from one another outwardly. So that is how we
will begin today before getting into the meaning of the parable itself.
The more important character to properly understand to get
Jesus’s point is the Pharisee. Pharisees, understandably, do not have a great
reputation among us because they were often Jesus’s enemies. But we must understand
why they were Jesus’s enemies. In a sense, it was because they were so dedicated
to their important task of preserving the church at that time. Something that
is not widely understood is that all of God’s people owe a debt of gratitude to
the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were those especially dedicated people who
kept the religion of the Bible going in the couple hundred years before Jesus
was born. About 300 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered almost the whole of the
known world at that time. This included the Jews. While the Jews lived under
Greek rule they were sorely tempted to become like the sophisticated Greeks.
The Greeks were thought to be much more advanced than those Jewish simpletons
who believed in the revelation contained in the Bible. If Jews got rid of the
Jewishness it also opened up doors to them for personal advancement. They were
much more likely to get good jobs from their Greek rulers.
If this situation would have gone on without anybody crying
foul, the religion of the Bible would have passed away within a few
generations. The Jewish children would have been brought up the way the Greeks
wanted them to be brought up. They would have studied Greek thinkers instead of
the much more roughly hewn Scriptures. But God, in his grace, raised up a group
of people who eventually became known as Pharisees.
The Pharisees were the people who championed the Bible
regardless of how it might be made fun of by the Greeks. They encouraged people
to be faithful to what the Bible said regardless of the consequences. One of
the very important things about them is that they were honest. If one of their
fellow Jews abandoned the teachings of the Scriptures it was not just brushed
under the rug. They were called out for their unfaithfulness. They were disciplined
and eventually shunned as a pagan and a tax collector if they would not repent.
Not only did the Pharisees teach the Bible, but they followed up with the
consequences.
This work of discipline and integrity is vital for the
church at all times so that it can continue to be strong and healthy. With any
body there has to be a way to get rid of waste. If you don’t get rid of that
which is toxic, then the healthy tissues will become infected and be destroyed
too. If you think about the efficient way our bodies get rid of waste every
day, you realize how important this unpleasant and stinky work actually is. If
we couldn’t get rid of the waste in our bodies we wouldn’t live very long. So
it is with a church body too. Without the Pharisees championing God’s Word the
Jewish people would have simply been taken over by the Greek world around them.
In our day our people’s souls, also, are being taken over by
the unbelieving culture around us. Unfortunately, we do not have Christians
with the strength of character that the Pharisees had to be distinct in our
beliefs. As a result all our people’s hearts, souls, and minds are being
colonized and taken over without much of anything standing in the way.
Thus our people are more or less agnostic about spiritual
things because that is precisely the way that they have been trained to think.
There are a few things they are sure of: they know that the Bible can’t be
right—at least not if it is understood literally. They know that there are
multiple genders and sex is for the purpose recreation instead of procreation,
so who’s to judge what a person might enjoy doing with their sexual recreation?
They know that believing in themselves is the key to success. They know that we
are the best and most advanced people who have ever lived on this planet, and
only more goodness lies in the future. These are all like the Greek thoughts
that were invading the Jewish people in the time before Christ. If the
Pharisees hadn’t worked their whole life, preserving the teaching and preaching
of the Word of God it would have gone away entirely. Nobody would know of God’s
promise of a Savior.
So when Jesus speaks of a Pharisee going up into the temple
to pray, he is not saying something negative as we might otherwise suppose. Pharisees
were very serious about the Word of God, which is nothing to be ashamed of. This
particular Pharisee was especially outstanding. He didn’t take what didn’t
belong to him. He paid people fairly for their goods and services. He wasn’t
trying to rip anybody off. He was faithful to his wife. He didn’t get drunk at
home or in the taverns. He fasted twice a week. He gave ten percent of all that
he received in income as well as ten percent of all that he spent to the church
and to support the poor and the widows.
These virtues, unfortunately, are not that impressive to our
ears. So in order for you to get a sense of the excellency of this man, let me
put it into the lesser virtues that are popular today. This fellow was like the
honor roll student who volunteered at the homeless shelter on the weekend. He
graduated from college summa cum laude, married his high school sweet heart and
moved back to his hometown to do his part in improving his people’s way of
life. He has a beautiful wife and two dogs. He always gives money to St. Jude
when he shops at Kmart and works out every morning. He is a beautiful specimen
of Americana.
Almost all of Jesus’s parables are shocking in one way or
another, and this one does not fail to deliver. What is shocking is that this
outstanding man is not justified. That is to say, God does not have regard for
him and his offering like Cain of old. God prefers someone else—the tax
collector.
So what kind of man was the tax collector? I don’t want to
spend a lot of time describing the tax collectors of Jesus’s day. They were bad
men. They took wherever they could. Jesus one time lumps them together with
prostitutes, which are not the most honorable of people. In our day we know that
prostitutes live wretched lives. The reason why they sell their bodies is
usually so that they can get high on one drug or another. I doubt that the tax
collectors were putting away money in their 401ks. They spent their ill-gotten
gains on the dishonorable things available to them. So when you picture the tax
collector in your mind you middle class people have to put in mind someone that
you enjoy looking down on—some wretch who dresses in a way you don’t approve of,
who isn’t responsible, who has many kids from different lovers, and so on. Yet
this man goes to his home justified rather than the other.
How come? It was because God had mercy on him. Like the old
song goes: “‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears
relieved.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True fear of the
Lord is something that only God can do. He strikes terror into the heart of the
sinner. A person can fake this fear, try to convince one’s self that he or she
has it, but only God can really do it. This fear makes someone want to be far,
far away from God. It makes them believe that they cannot even lift their eyes
into heaven, because they know that God doesn’t hear the prayers of evil
people. This is the despair that sinners experience when God reveals to them
what they deserve for the life that they have lived.
Somehow, someway, however, it was revealed to this tax
collector that there was hope for forgiveness in God. Accordingly he strings
together what is a miraculous sentence: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
The reason why this sentence is miraculous is because of the faith that is in
it. Sinners do not deserve mercy. Sinners deserve punishment and damnation. The
more sin there is the more punishment and damnation are thoroughly deserved.
But this fellow says to God, “Do me good.” More exactly he says, “Have
mercy on me.” Or more precisely still: “Propitiate me.” To
propitiate means to make atonement. It is the blood sacrifice that is given
because of guilt.
All the prayers that sinners make to the one true God to be
merciful to them are grounded in propitiation—the propitiation of Christ’s
sacrificial death on the cross. This was not the blood of goats or bulls. It
wasn’t even the blood of a mere man. This was the bloody sacrifice of the Son of
God, begotten of the Father from eternity, born of the virgin Mary. This was a
powerful and effective sacrifice, to say the least.
Luther liked to talk about how just one drop of Jesus’s
blood was of greater value than the entire world, the entire cosmos. So if you
heaped up all the money and gold in the world, and threw in the stars and the
planets to boot, this still wouldn’t be even close to enough to compare to but
a pin prick of Jesus’s blood. But Jesus pours out his blood thoroughly and
liberally. Jesus gives you his blood to drink in his last will and testament
for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus thy blood and righteousness, my beauty
are, my glorious dress. Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall
I lift up my head.
Therefore, by faith in God’s propitiation of him, the tax
collector is justified. He is truly righteous. He is given God’s own
righteousness as his own possession, and, let me tell you, God’s righteousness
is very good. In fact it is so heavy and weighty that it overcomes all that
might be put in opposition to it.
So think of one of those old fashioned scales where there is
a pan on one side as well as on the other. The weight of something can be
figured out by putting something on one side as well as the other. Whichever
side is heavier will make the other side go up. Now let’s think about your
justification. The devil knows that you have not been a good person. He’s put
together a very strong case against you with God’s own Law as the standard
backing it up. All your sins get put on one side of the scale and it is a
mighty heavy load. But then on the other side is put God’s own big, fat
righteousness. This righteousness is so heavy, and slams down on the scale so
hard, that all your sins are thrown off on the other side because they are
lifted so quickly and easily. In fact, we could probably carry this analogy a
little further and say the whole scale gets busted, for you are not justified
by the Law. Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe. You are not
received like a slave who is only esteemed by his master if he does well. You
are received as God’s very own son in Christ. God the Father loves his Son. He
is justified and righteous in the Father’s sight. Therefore God is also well
pleased with you who are in him.
And so it happens that although you are a sinner by thought,
word, and deed, you are righteous according to God’s own declaration concerning
Jesus’s death and resurrection. Jesus did not die for his own sins. He died for
your sins. Therefore, you are propitiated. By faith in this propitiation you
are in the same shoes as this tax collector. You are righteous, just as he was
righteous.
The devil, the world, and our flesh, however, do not want to
believe that Christ is the end of the Law. All these enemies of God do not
believe that Jesus’s death on the cross does a darn thing. Everybody should be
judged according to his merits. What makes the world go round for them is not
the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’s sake, but the supposed progress that comes
from whipping everybody into shape. Accordingly, all who do not believe will
hate this parable of Jesus’s if they will only take it seriously enough. They
will say that it isn’t fair that the hometown boy is cast aside while the
repentant thug is received scot free. Instead, everybody should get what he or
she deserves. The devil is especially interested in preserving this tenet of
justice. The devil wants everybody to get what he or she deserves because the
devil wants everybody in hell. And if we are talking about what we deserve,
then hell is the answer. God has consigned all to be under sin so that he might
have mercy on all.
Therefore you must not think too highly of yourself. Maybe
you are seen by our society as more honorable than the other wretches. Good for
you. That righteousness still doesn’t cut it, which you have to admit if you
will only be honest with yourself. The only righteousness that avails is
Christ’s own righteousness, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all
your sins. Think less of yourself and more of God’s righteousness that has been
given to you.
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