Proper 25C

I want you to picture in your mind

our local drug dealer.

Every town has one or two

and by the way the local news talks about the drug crises

we have more than one or two in Franklin.

I want you to try to picture our local drug dealer,

wandering down Buffalo Street, thinking about his business,

when he stops and looks up at St. John's doors.

For some reason, he decides to walk in

and say a prayer.

He says, Hey God, to you, I'm messed up. Forgive me, will ya?

Also in the church at that time is one of our long time faithful regulars,

praying.

This long time member is giving thanks for something going really well in their life.

Then Jesus walks in with a bunch of people and points to the two people praying.

He says that the drug dealer is in better standing with God at that moment

than the long time faithful member.

What?

Its a confusing and shocking and harsh parable.

What can Jesus possibly mean?

Interestingly, this parable only occurs in Luke,

so the question can also be asked, what is Luke trying to say?

After last weeks' parable about the unjust judge and the widow,

where Jesus is in the midst of teaching his followers about prayer,

we could easily see this parable as another admonishment about how to pray.

Humbly.

That is the most common interpretation of this passage.

And we do need to learn humility,

not only in our prayers,

but also in other aspects of our lives.

But there is more going on in this parable than simply reminding people to be humble before God.

You know how what I say about parables,

there is never just one interpretation.

Lets start with the first verse.

"Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:"

Ohh...

Well, there is a lesson here about humility

but also two others,

one about salvation and another one about our relationships with others.

Being righteous in the Jewish tradition at that time

meant following all the rituals and observances,

giving alms, praying at certain times a day, and if you were a man,

spending time learning Torah every week.

We can already see from this description,

that there was some understanding that doing all these things

meant that you were saved,

as long as you kept doing them.

In this way, they trusted in themselves and not God.

As such they also found it hard to have grace in their hearts

for those who couldn't live up to those standards.

They had contempt for those who couldn't keep all the rituals and observances.

But here, unlike in some of the other gospels, Luke doesn't call out the Pharisees

right away.

Unlike the gospel stories of Matthew and John, where the authors are against the Pharisees,

Luke has nothing against the group

and doesn't immediately identify those who trust in themselves

as the Pharisees.

In fact, I'm sure, the group of people trusting in themselves is much bigger and not exclusive of the Pharisees.

Luke is much more accepting than Matthew or John of the Pharisees

and he shows Jesus eating with them and speaking with them

not always throwing them under the bus, so to speak.

So knowing all that, we go into the parable itself

"Two men went up to the temple to pray,"

nothing too remarkable about that,

men were always going into the temple to pray.

"one a Pharisee"

in a literary sense, Luke sets up the parable to surprise those listening,

he introduces the Pharisee first, as the good guy in the story.

Naturally the Pharisee will be going to pray, they do that regularly.

then, "and the other a tax collector."

Cue the dun dun duhnnn music...

You can hear the audience start to boo...

Tax collectors in ancient Israel were traitors

collaborators

working with the Roman rulers to take money out of the hands of the Jewish people

and put it to work for the Roman government.

They were Jews themselves, but instead of placing that identity first,

like good family members,

they put their own good first.

Not only were they working with the oppressors and enemies,

they also were skimming off the top,

taking more than required so that they could pay themselves

Embezzlement, fraud, extortion, traitor.

We have to remember that Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi

trying to reform the Jewish faith at that time.

Both the prayers which follow, 

the one said by the Pharisee and the one said by the tax collector

follow typical Jewish formats at that time,

they use the same Jewish prayer language

all the people in the audience would have said as well.

"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.

I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'"

The Pharisee sets himself apart

in order to help himself stand out.

He has bought into the idea of making yourself righteous in the sight of God,

the pulling yourself up by your bootstraps mentality.

He isn't like others, he does more than the rituals command 

by fasting twice a week,

and he does as he is supposed to by tithing his income,

giving a tenth back to the temple.

He holds other in contempt for their actions and their failures,

and he doesn't mention any of his own.

The Pharisee gives himself away, he doesn't love all his neighbors.

He separates himself from the rest of the community.

Then we come to the tax collector's prayer,

"standing far off,

would not even look up to heaven,

but was beating his breast and saying,

'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'"

Here we have the traitor,

acknowledging that he isn't doing the right thing.

We don't see that he is going to change his life,

but he at least knows he isn't doing it right.

He has also separated himself from the others in the room,

but because he feels himself too much of a sinner,

too much of a mess-up to belong with the community.

His prayer is seen better by God

because he isn't trying to save himself.

He is asking for mercy,

he recognizes that he cannot be good on his own.

Naturally, to end the passage, Jesus chimes back in.

"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."

We get a 'first shall be last and the last shall be first' moment here.

The end of the parable sees the justification, the exultation, the flip flop

of who is on top and who is on bottom.

It is those who trust in God to save them

who are in better relationship with God

than those who trust themselves.

This idea is one of the biggest points Jesus makes throughout his ministry.

We are not supposed to try to save ourselves.

We don't have to try to save ourselves.

We are never going to be able to save ourselves.

God has already taken care of saving us through Jesus.

It doesn't matter what we have done in our lives.

Traitor, collaborator, embezzler, drug dealer,

adulterer, thieves, rogues, fornicators, murderers,

worst mom ever, unemployed,

it doesn't matter what mistakes you have made

or what you have messed up in your life,

God has already forgiven and saved us through Jesus.

As we pray and recognize that we need God's help in our lives,

we are saved by grace

and we can let go of all the burdens we carry.

Loving God means recognizing God has our savior

recognizing that we cannot save ourselves

Loving God means loving our neighbors,

loving all those in the community.

Loving God means recognizing our humility 

in the face of God's mercy and grace.

As we stand today together to pray, which are you?

The Pharisee, trying so hard to be righteous and save himself,

or the tax collector, recognizing its all up to God?

Amen.