Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 18:9-14)
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Kä cu thuul tho̱l-bo̱kä cuɔ̱ŋ a na̱n, a cäŋɛ ni nhial /kenɛ jɛ liɛc. Kä duundɛ ɣöö cuɛ cuɛ lɔcdɛ pa̱t wëë i̱, 'Kuoth, a lɔcdu kɔ̱c kɛ ɣä, ɛ ɣän gua̱n dueeri!' Ɣän la̱rä jɛ yɛ, ci wut ɛmɔ loc dhɔrɛ a cɛ cuɔ̱ɔ̱ŋ jek nhiam Kuɔth kä ram in dɔ̱diɛn. Kɛ kui̱ ɛmɔ ram mi kap rɔɔdɛ nhial ba jɛ luɔ̱ɔ̱c piny, kä ram mi loc rɔɔdɛ piny ba jɛ kap nhial.
Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In our gospel reading today, we have two prayers.
One goes like this: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I get tithes of all I get.
The other prayer goes like this: God, be merciful to me, a sinner!
The first prayer belongs to a Pharisee standing up straight.
The second prayer belongs to a tax collector, with his eyes cast down, and his hands beating his breast.
One prayer is wrong, the other prayer is right.
One prayer is bad, the other prayer is good.
One prayer God hates, the other prayer God loves.
So which is the good prayer? Which is the bad prayer?
Actually, we all know the answer to this question. We’ve all heard the story today, we know that the tax collector’s prayer is the good one. But why?
We all know the Pharisee’s prayer is the bad one – but why?
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First of all, we all understand that there is something wrong with the Pharisee’s prayer. We all recognise a mile away someone who thinks he’s better than someone else. Australians are good at recognising hypocrites.
The Pharisee says: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tithes of all that I get.”
At the end of the reading, Jesus says: everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
But what exactly is wrong with the prayer?
First of all, we hear the words: “God, I thank you.”
There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s good to thank God for things, isn’t it?
In fact, St Paul starts the letter to the Romans with the words: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.” The book of Romans starts in the same way as this Pharisee’s prayer. And later on, Paul preaches the anger and judgment of God upon unbelievers as those people who don’t give thanks. He says: Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
So we can see from Romans that we should give thanks to God. The psalms tell us: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.” Isn’t this what the Pharisee is doing? Yes, he is. He’s thanking God and it’s a good thing to give thanks to God.
The Pharisee says: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”
Is it a bad thing that he’s not an extortioner? Of course not! It’s a good thing! Good for him! We’re happy that he’s not an extortioner, we’re happy for him that he’s not unjust, or an adulterer. Good for him if he fasts twice a week – there’s nothing wrong with that. Good for him if he wants to give 10% of all his earnings – there’s nothing wrong with that.
But there’s one little thing that he says, “I thank you that I am not like that tax collector.” These are dangerous words. They are dangerous, because that Pharisee has forgotten something. Jesus says: the true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth. The forgiveness of sins is applied to a person’s heart, and that is something that the human eye cannot see. We can’t hear the secret prayers and thoughts of people. Only God sees that. 1 Samuel 16 says: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.”
“I thank you that I am not like that man, like that man over there. I can see everything that is worth seeing, I can judge everything about that man that is worth judging, and I thank you, God, that I am not like him.”
The dangerous thing is this: the tax collector says: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! And Jesus says: this man went down to his house justified.
He went down to his house with the blood of Jesus dripping off the cross and onto the top of his head. He went down to his house with the list of all his sins ripped up by God himself, burnt on the cross and given to him in a little urn to go and scatter across the water. The tax collector went down to his house with all the accusations of his conscience stilled, all of his worries brought to an end. The tax collector went down to his house with the devil locked up and on a chain, and nevertheless, the Pharisee says to God, “I thank you that I am not like him. I thank you that I am not pleasing to you. I thank you that I don’t need the forgiveness of sins. I thank you that I don’t need the blood of Jesus, that I don’t need absolution, that I don’t need Holy Baptism, that I don’t need the Lord’s Supper, because I can quite easily cope by myself, because I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I have.”
I thank you God that I am not justified by faith alone.
Well, what do you make of the Pharisee’s prayer now?
But before we all run off and pray to God, “I thank you God that I am not like that Pharisee”, let’s have a look at the tax collector’s prayer:
We read: But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
You know, a lot of people can see why the Pharisee’s prayer is wrong, but they still don’t like the alternative. Sure, we can easily say that we’re not Pharisees, but do we really have to run around bowing and scraping?
Comedians throughout the centuries have ridiculed this sort of prayer. People don’t generally like it. Many people complain, including many pastors and “theologians”, about the confession of sins in the divine service. “Why do we have to start on a miserable thought? Why do we have to come to church and beat ourselves up and sit around and feel sorry for ourselves?”
Modern psychology would tell you that sitting around, beating your breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” is not good for your self-esteem.
But you see, here’s the catch: There’s no halfway prayer. You are either one of these people or the other. You are either the Pharisee or a tax collector. If you don’t want to be the Pharisee, then the only alternative that you’ve got is to be the tax collector. If you don’t want to be the tax collector, the only alternative you’ve got is to be the Pharisee. God doesn’t deal with fractions. You can’t be have saved or half damned. You’re either saved or your not. You’re either in or you’re out.
So what is it that the tax collector says that is so special? What is it that makes his prayer so good in the eyes of God?
He says: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
God, I have nothing, you have everything.
God, all I see is my sin, you have forgiveness.
God, I am messing up my life, you can fix it up.
God, I am a fool, you are wise.
God, I am a sinner, you are holy.
There is nothing that you can give God that can reconcile you to him. The only thing that is worth anything is the suffering and death of Jesus, and you are called to trust in him alone.
Isaiah says: “All my righteousness is like a filthy rag.” It’s a dirty tissue. A dirty nappy. It’s worth nothing. Nobody wants it. It goes in the bin. It’s a bit of filth.
Yes, you might think you are not an extortioner. You might not think you are an adulterer. Whatever! Who cares! On the last day, it won’t be worth the paper it’s written on. All your righteousness is like a filthy rag.
All your righteousness is given to you by God, but you throw it back in his face if you carry on like he didn’t give it to you.
But what about all my good work? – It’s corrupt.
But what about all the good things I do for people? – You do them for the wrong motives.
But what about all my church going? What about all my prayers? Aren’t they worth something? – Not if you think they’re worth more than the blood of Jesus. And if you want to make your peace with God with your piddly, cheap-shop, two-dollar righteousness, then go ahead. But you won’t go down to your house justified. Your prayer will be: “I thank you that I am not like that tax-collector, over there.”
Jesus on the other hand says, “If you want to learn to pray, then you should say, “I ask you, Jesus, I beg you, Jesus, make me like that tax collector over there.” Put away from me all my self-righteousness. Put away from me all my pride.
Say: God, be merciful to me, a sinner!
Even a prayer like this doesn’t earn you anything. The tax collector doesn’t waltz into the temple like he owns the place, says, “God be merciful to me a sinner”, and struts himself out as if he’s done his bit of religion for the week.
This man is a man who knows his sin. And when you know your sin, you have to know who’s going to forgive it. And God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.
We don’t earn our salvation before God by beating our breast. We don’t earn our salvation by saying these words or those words. We don’t earn our salvation by beating ourselves up and making sure that we feel as miserable as possible all of the time.
But St Paul says: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”
It is a serious thing to walk into the presence of God. You don’t deserve to be in the presence of God. You don’t deserve to walk into heaven on the Last Day. You don’t even deserve to have your backside on the pew that you’re sitting on. You need to recognise that when you enter the presence of God.
But Jesus died for you. When you come into the presence of God, when you pray, you can do so, only because Jesus died for you. Jesus blood poured out of his nailed hands and feet, and you can be so certain, so sure, so confident in the power of that blood that you walk into the holy presence of God with all your sin, you can even show it to God who knows it already, and you can say: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” What else are you going to say? You’ve given him nothing that he doesn’t have already. He doesn’t need anything from you! But God has given you everything. He has given you your life. He has kept you and preserved you from every danger and all the harm that you could possibly think of. He has sent you his Son Jesus. He has baptised you. He has given you the Holy Spirit. He has forgiven you. He feeds you with the body and blood of Christ. And he promises to raise you up on the last day together with all believers.
We’re not talking about self-esteem here. We’re talking about real things! We’re talking about the fire of God’s own presence, his power, his majesty, which becomes a cool stream, a flowing river, it becomes a pasture next to still waters, not because you are so good to have put the fire out with your lack of extortion, or your fasting, or your tithing, but because Jesus came into the world to save sinners, including you. And when you know that one fact, that you are a sinner, then you need Jesus. And he is sitting at the right hand of God, enthroned in the church of God on earth, waiting for you, blessing you, praying for you, counting your tears, lifting up your head, drying your eyes, and filling you with his Holy Spirit.
So as we come into the presence of God today to pray and receive the holy supper, let your prayer be: “God, make sure that I am like that tax collector over there in every way.” “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus was not ashamed to be like that tax collector. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under the Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. And when Jesus comes to you, and sees all of us tax collectors and sinners sitting here, he says: “I want to be like those tax collectors over there.” And I want to forgive them, I want to breathe on them the Holy Spirit, and I want to love them.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Amen.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Amen.
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