Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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 to me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, send us all your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well, and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
On one occasion, a lawyer explained the commandments to Jesus like this: "You love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself." And Jesus answered him and said, "Do this, and you will live."
On another occasion, when he preached to a large crowd from the top of a mountain, Jesus said, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
This is such a well-known verse in the bible, and shouldn't be taken lightly. In Australia, many people often say to me as a pastor, "I don't believe in God, but I believe that I should treat others in the way I should be treated." Even the aggressive British atheists, like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, talk like this. But what these people don't realise is that they wouldn't have this life-philosophy if Jesus Christ, true God and true man, hadn't taught it to them. Not everyone around throughout the world thinks like this--and even if they try to live like this, they constantly fail and disappoint themselves and despair of their life. And when people come to hear these words of Jesus, to do unto others who you would have them do unto you, there is a certain joy that comes to a person's eyes, when they realise just how wonderful this little sentence is, and what wonderful common sense it makes. There is a certain longing that is imprinted in them, either a longing for the Garden of Eden, or for the Paradise of the next life. They realise what a utopian society we would live in, if everyone actually did this.
But if we as Christians are going to make practical sense of this little word of Jesus, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them," we also need to listen to what Jesus says afterwards. He says: "for this is the Law and the Prophets." In other words, I'm not teaching you anything new than what Moses and Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets of the Old Testament have already told you. Jesus also says about the dead rich man's five brothers, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead."
So let's take a few moments and go back to Moses and the Prophets. If we want to understand Jesus' words about how we should treat our neighbour, we need to look at the first three chapters of Genesis.
In Genesis 1:27 it says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And
God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
We are part of this history of creation. God created the first people in his own image, and we are also part of that same creation. God is the one who has created us--sometimes we might think that our parents are the ones who created us, but that's not true. All they did was go to bed--God made the child. People who have problems with fertility understand this well--they realise that they can't make a child without God giving them the child as a gift.
So every child, even human being on earth has come into the world by a special creation of God. Every single person, from the highest to the lowest, has been spoken into existence by our loving Creator. Even though each person is born into a family, and into a society, with certain structures where we have a special responsibility for other people and where we owe a certain obedience to other people, each person is equally created by the same gracious and loving hand. And so, right from the smallest child, to the most helpless unborn child, to the most helpless refugee, to the mentally ill, to those with down-syndrome and autism, to the sick, to the weakest old person in a nursing home--God loves them all and has brought each of them into existence. Jesus himself even talks in such a way that he identifies himself with all these people, and wants us to recognise his face and his true and bodily presence in each one of them when he says, "As you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
But also, in Genesis 3, we read that Adam and Eve fell into sin. But this means that each of us is no better than any one else before God, because "all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God."
James says, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it."
So this means that each person, and each Christian, is on the same page as the most hardened of sinners: we are no better than the greediest of businesspeople, the worst of the world's liars, the cleverest and most devious criminals and extortioners. We are no better than the dirtiest of perverts, than the bloodthirsty of murderers, the most rebellious and disrespectful children, than the most bitter and twisted of workers. We are no better than those who are apathetic to God's word and sleep in on Sunday mornings, we are no better than the worst of the heretics, and we are no better than the most foolish of idol-worshippers. You see, whether or not we worship wood and stone, our hearts are still hearts of stone and we are all heading towards the same just punishment, as St Paul says, "The wages of sin is death."
And so, on the basis of all this, Jesus tells us a little parable.
We read: "[Jesus] told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt."
Our parable today is about contempt, and trusting in ourselves. It's funny, as Christians, we come to church week after week, because we know the power of the gospel unto salvation and we know the great joy that comes from the pure forgiveness of sins which comes from Christ's lips. But then, as soon as we get a little crumb from God's table, we carry on as we're the one who cooked it, and we immediately rush out to kitchen to cook up our own spiritual banquet. We have received many gifts from God, but then we start to idolise the gifts. We look at others with contempt--we think that we're better than other people because of the way we act, because of the way we think, and because of the way we feel about ourselves.
And so, Jesus is telling this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
Righteousness never comes from us. The forgiveness of sins never comes from the human heart. It has to be received into the human heart and it has to live there and dwell there, but it doesn't come from there. Righteousness does not pour out of our heart, it pours out of God's sanctuary. As soon as we stop wanting to receive Christ's own righteousness, which he won for us on the cross, we stop being Christians and we become pagans. Righteousness comes to us here on earth through the preaching of Christ crucified, through the absolution of all your sins completely and totally freely because of Christ's death and resurrection, through holy baptism, through the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given for us and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins.
And so now, Jesus tells us his parable as a little warning to us.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: "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." 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!" 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.
What a wonderful gift it is that God had protected this Pharisee from sin and temptation. What a wonderful gift it is that he has given him such a capacity to fast and pray. What wonderful gifts God had given him in his finances, such that he was able to give a tenth of all his earnings.
But there is one thing that he is wrong about. He says, "I thank you that I am not like other men." Yes, Mr Pharisee! You are exactly like other men. You are putting yourself up, and you are pushing others down to make yourself look good. You are exactly like other men. You don't have any sympathy for all the other victims of Satan's roamings all throughout the world. There are plenty of extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and tax collectors that were simply born into dysfunctional families, and don't know any better. Are you going to help them? Are you going to pray for their well-being? No, your selfish--you worship yourself and your own piety, and in that sense, you are exactly like other men.
Everyone born on this planet wants to be saved by works and wants to be their own God. If they're going to be saved, they must be saved by Jesus Christ and his works alone: his death, his resurrection, his baptism, his supper, his absolution. These are the things that make for peace.
And then the tax collector, over in the corner, standing afar off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
What a wonderful confession that Jesus teaches us to make here: a sinner. And the tax collector asks God to be merciful, not just in such a way that God would preserve him from physical harm in this life or heal him in his body or give him the physical strength to face the day. We should pray for these things, but this is not what the tax collector asks for. The normal word in the New Testament for "Lord have mercy" is Kyrie Eleison. But the word here means, "Make atonement for me". The tax collector says, "I can't see anything good in my flesh. All I see is my sin. If I'm going to be saved, if I'm going to live forever, then I leave my body and soul in your hands, God. I'll leave it up to you and your judgment."
But this isn't the end of the story.
Jesus says: "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."
The end of this story is not the man's prayer, but God's verdict on these two men. "This man went down to his house justified."
In the church, we don't just leave people with their prayers for mercy and their prayers for atonement. We actually preach mercy and we preach atonement. Jesus has died on the cross for us and has actually made atonement for us. He promises his mercy to everyone who asks. He promises exaltation to everyone who is humble.
And we might think, "But I'm not humble! I'm proud and self-centred!" Good for you! Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in your heart, but also listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit preached in the church which says, "Even though you might not feel it, I love you nevertheless." "Even though you are a sinner, Christ still died for you."
What a wonderful loving Saviour we have who has come to meet with you in his church today, to speak his gracious words to you, and to feed you and fill your cup to the brim with his own body and blood. And what a wonderful person Jesus is that he is not ashamed to eat and drink with sinners like us, and he rules in the midst of his enemies!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful to us who are sinners, and send us the Holy Spirit. You know even better than we do how totally corrupt and sinful we are. But we also thank you for your word of promise, and your holy gospel, which speaks to us the free forgiveness of all our sins, and cancels all our debts. Amen.
I received comments from some of my parishioners about the expression "we are no better than the greediest of business people". This was not intended as a slur against business people in general, as if it's wrong to have a business. Many Christians in fact have a hard time making an honest living in the realm of business in the midst of people who sometimes have no qualms about ill gotten gains. The remark should be taken exactly as it reads in that it is referring to the "greediest", and not therefore implying that all business people are necessarily greedy, even though the temptation lays close at hand for both employees and employers.
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