Luke 18:9-14
Barry Unwin. Venue: Hanley Castle, Upton, Welland on 23 Oct 2016
9 Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. 10 “Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there. 12 I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you,” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.” (Luke 18:9-14 – Good News Translation)
You’ve possibly noticed by now, That sometimes vicars are weird! On Tuesday this week I was on Facebook and came across some vicars arguing about whether they were morally better than Donald Trump or not. Like I say, vicars are weird. But what an interesting question to debate! Are you morally better than Donald Trump?
But before you start losing sleep over the answer, Let me point you back to our parable. Do you remember how it began?
…Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else.: (Luke 18:9)
Right – who’s Jesus speaking to? To anyone who has a tendency to look at themselves and then look at others and say, “I’m morally better than them.”
So that’s the non-smoker who despises the smoking crowd by the office door.
That’s the fitness fanatic who looks down on the fatty.
That’s anyone who looks down on Donald Trump or has contempt on those who might vote for him.
This is a parable for people who have a tendency to be self-righteous. Which could be just about any of us.
- You can be left-wing and self-righteous. (Let me tell you about my latest virtuous cause!)
- Because you can be right-wing and self-righteous. (The country’s going to the dogs…)
- You can be in the centre-ground and self-righteous about your British Values and tolerance.
The point is – whoever we are – we are all tempted to look down on someone. We are all tempted to be self-righteous. So what Jesus says here is directed at us. So what’s he saying?
Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. (Luke 18:10)
Pharisees were respected religious establishment figures. They knew the Old Testament well, and lived lives of real moral discipline.
Unlike tax collectors…. When the Romans conquered Israel they taxed the country to fund the occupying army – and they employed locals to collect the taxes. So this man’s not a nice friendly civil servant, but a traitor, a quisling, and everyone hates him. Especially the Pharisees,
The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like this tax-collector..” (Luke 18:11)
Pompous isn’t he? He thinks he can look down on others because he keeps a few commandments. And his boasting’s barely started:
I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income (Luke 18:12)
So he’s also keeping the extra religious rules the Pharisees invented. The Old Testament required Jews to fast for one day a year, the Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees ramped it up a bit – they fasted for two days – a week and were very public about it. They were on the 5-2 diet. And that was great – because it gave them another reason to look down on people.
And of course religious people still do that sort of thing today. We’re really good at finding religious reasons to look down on other Christians.
You see it in modern trendy youth churches – where they look down on the sort of churches old people like.
You see it in intellectual churches – where they look down on people who don’t understand.
You see it among people who love a certain type of service, you know the sort – the people who only come to church for communion.
The saddest moment of my curacy involved a lady like that. The vicar was rushed to hospital with a heart problem, So the 9:30am communion was suddenly reclassified as Morning Prayer. And one person– on discovering this – decided to go home rather than pray with us, because she’d only come to get her communion. How sad. And how sad that I’ve just invited you to look down on her, just like Jesus told us not to. You see, there’s a bit of the Pharisee in all of us.
Okay, so our self-righteous Pharisee’s up the front praying. Meanwhile, what’s our tax collector doing?
But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13)
It’s a plea for mercy from a self-confessed sinner. And you know what? There’s nothing surprising about that at all. Everyone in Jesus’ audience knew tax collectors are bad, just as much as they knew that Pharisees were moral. So what’s the point of telling this story?
Well it’s there in v14, where Jesus turns the world on its head. He says,
I tell you,” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home.. (Luke 18:14)
In other words, the Pharisee is going to Hell and the Tax Collector is going to Heaven.
Jesus audience would have gasped at that. They’d have shouted Outrageous!. Ridiculous! Just like you’re doing. You aren’t are you? You see we don’t get just how much of a shock this is.
Suppose we called this story the “Prison guard and the paedophile”. And the prison guard is praying in the prison chapel “Lord, thank-you that I’m not like all the perverts on B-wing, especially the paedophiles. Thank you that I do my rounds diligently and never accept a bribe. ” And meanwhile the paedophile is on his knees praying, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner” and Jesus says, “I tell you – the prison guard is going to hell and the paedophile is going to heaven.” That’s what Jesus is saying here.
That’s shocking isn’t it? Why does Jesus tell us this outrageous story? Well he wants us to understand something. That self-righteousness is a huge barrier to having more of God in our lives. So if we’re the sort of people who look down on others – we’re never going to be able to enjoy all that God has for us.
So between you me and Donald Trump – we’ve got a problem here. So what can we do about it? How can we deal with our self-righteousness so that we can go deeper into God?
Well I want to suggest that The way to can have more of God Is to think less of ourselves.
Let me ask you a question: Do you consider yourself a good person? And if you’ve said YES – let me ask another question – If you consider yourself a good person – who are you comparing yourself with?
When I was at junior school I was captain of one of the school chess teams, unbeaten for the whole season. I was very proud of my record. If you’d asked me “Are you a good chess player?” I’d have said yes.
Then I moved to secondary school and joined the chess club. My first game was against a geeky 13-year old with Thick glasses and a pizza-face rash of spots. And pizza face slaughtered me in 5 minutes flat. So did his friend onion breath. And pretty soon I began to realise that I was a good chess player but only compared to the people I had known at junior school.
And the same is true in the whole moral, spiritual world. We can only say we are good when we compare ourselves with people less good than us. You see compared to Adolf Hitler or Fred West or Mick Philpott, we’re all good. At least I hope you are. But what if we were to compare ourselves to Florence Nightingale instead Or Mother Theresa? Or Jesus? Compared to Jesus we all fall a long way short. That’s the moral standard for heaven. And compared to that we all fall short. Compared to Jesus, none of us are good people. And that leaves us with a problem Because left to our own goodness, we aren’t good enough for Heaven. We can never know God.
Well Jesus isn’t so cruel as to give us a problem like that without also proposing a solution, but what is it? Well do you remember what the tax collector said? Rather than saying “I am a righteous man”
He stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13)
Rather than boast about his goodness, he admits his failures, and asks for God’s mercy. You see, in order to receive a pardon, you’ve first got to plead guilty. And when we admit our guilt before God, When we turn to him and Humble ourselves before him by saying SORRY, something wonderful happens. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, Our Loving Heavenly Father forgives us. And we’re set free to enjoy him forever. And the only way we can have that, The only way we can have more of God, is by thinking less of ourselves
And the thing is – That’s not just how we start the journey with God, It’s how it continues. We continue humbling ourselves and saying sorry. That’s why we confess our sins every week here in church – but please don’t wait for church to do that, We can and should be doing it daily. As often as we need to. And as we do that – As we humble ourselves and ask afresh for God’s mercy, the barriers between us and God are broken down And we can get more and more of him in our lives. The only way we can have more of God is by thinking less of ourselves.
For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great. (Luke 18:14b)
So let me finish with a question. Do you want more of God in your life? Do you want God to make you great? Well don’t be like the Pharisee, Stop looking down at others, And start looking up to Jesus, When we look down at others it makes us self-righteous. But when we look up to Jesus, we can know his righteousness. And that’s the only way we can go deeper into God.
Let’s pray.