Scripture/Sermon of the Day. October 23, 2022

Luke 18:9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Reflection/Sermon:

I.We’ve heard these stories of Jesus so many times, they’ve lost their shock-value. But in this story we just heard, there’s a good guy and a bad guy, and God likes the bad guy.

The Pharisee was the shining example in his society of what a good, law-abiding, church-going citizen is. He prays, he thanks God, he fasts and practices all the religious observances, he gives a tenth of his income to charity, he tells the truth. He is what all good people are supposed to be. So he tells God, “Thank you.” He doesn’t steal, he’s faithful to his wife, he’s a wonderful father, he sends his mother a card on her birthday.

II. The other guy is a liar and a thief. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for Rome, the enemy, and they made themselves rich by taking more tax from mostly poor people — most of them Jewish — than was required. They stole from their own people — often using violence — and Rome looked the other way.

III. So there’s a good man, a “pillar of society,” and a violent thief who betrays his people. And both pray to God. The good one says “thank you,” the bad one says, “I’m sorry.” Notice — he doesn’t say he’ll stop being bad.

IV. And Jesus said God blessed the bad man and rejected the prayer of the good man. What’s going on here? Deuteronomy says God rewards good people. But the bad guy in Jesus’ story got rewarded. Why? Because the bad guy needed God and begged for mercy. The good guy knew he was good — — and he thanked God but didn’t need God anymore. He said, “Thank you God for making me like this — I don’t need you now — I can do my life from here.”

V. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Don’t let people know what you give to charity — and when you pray, don’t make a big public deal out of it. Do it quietly, alone, in your room and shut the door.”

VI. Wow — we do make a big deal out of it. We keep trying to make prayer public thing — and we say we are better than other people because we want to pray in schools. We are better because we want to force everyone to pray — even people who don’t believe in God — even people who practice other faiths — like Buddhists, who don’t pray to any god.
Let’s pray at football games, some say. And if people won’t let us make a public display of how religious and good we are, we’ll sue them — take it to the supreme court! Yes, by god, we will force everyone pray!!!

We need to go back to the Bible and look more closely at Jesus. We try to make our religion into something that we do. Like the Pharisee. He did all these wonderful “religious” things, and he thought that made him better than people who didn’t do them. THE PHARISEE WAS AN ANCIENT VERSION OF A WHITE SUPREMACIST. But when we think we’re better than others, we give ourselves permission to do immeasurable evil to them.

VIII. Our religion isn’t about what we do for God — it’s about what God does to change us. The self-righteous Pharisee hated the person who was not like him. Jesus — the lover — embraced him. We need to be clear who we’re following — the Pharisee or Jesus.