Along the Way

Recollections of Our Trip Through Samaria

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

10-18-09

Text: Luke 18:9-14

● Once again, Jesus uses the story to draw us in; to activate our imaginations and takes us well beyond the surface to what’s really going on.

            He doesn’t offer a lot of instruction or simply state a lot of truths, he just places us in the context of a worship experience and let’s us see what self-righteousness looks like.

● And although there are other themes present, Luke makes us aware from the start that the focus is “righteousness” and “how it is achieved”; how is it that one comes to be considered “righteous”.

● On a personal or communal level, nothing was more important than being considered “righteous” or “justified”.

“Who is justified? Who does God receive? Who is really part of God’s family? How can we tell right now who will be vindicated in the end?” Those questions were paramount, especially as Jesus seemed to be welcoming all these undesirables.

● In the Greek language and culture, a “righteous” person was “one who observed certain customs and accepted norms”. They would have been people who maintained an admirable standard of morality and who obeyed the laws.

            But, the story has its roots in OT Hebrew, where the righteous person was not the one who observed a particular ethical code in order to obtain the status of “righteous”, but a person(s) who was offered the status of ‘accepted by God’ as a gift.

● The word “righteous” is a meaty word with a variety of meanings, given the context: ‘innocent’, ‘right in a cause’, ‘ethical in character’, ‘just’ [or, in the 60’s, it meant a really good wave].

            But, the human dilemma kept raising certain questions about God’s righteousness: “As Creator-God, how would he remain passionately and patiently committed to setting things right and, at the same time, remain faithful to his covenant promises in the context of our unfaithfulness?”

Our relationship to righteousness? “No one is righteous, not one…” Romans 3:10

● The answer was “righteousness” or “the righteousness of God”: his ability to deal with the evil/disorder in the world without appearing indifferent toward it, and his faithfulness to the covenant promises, in the midst of human rebellion. It might be rightly translated “saving acts”.

Presumably, it would have been easy to distinguish the righteous one from the unrighteous.

Having heard this story rehearsed for centuries, the church is quick to make presumptions about the characters presented and the outcome of the story.

● Our default response to the Pharisee? he’s hypocritical, mean-spirited, heartless, contentious.

We have a fondness for the tax-collector that the original hearers would not have shared. We are more affectionate toward him because he is the type of person that Jesus seemed drawn to. We often view them as the people to whom Jesus gave a “free-pass” on sin.

● In reality, the Pharisee enjoyed a favorable reputation as devout. They hadn’t co-opted with the Roman empire. The tax-collector, on the other hand, was despised. He is essentially viewed as an extortionist.

● Jesus wants us to notice the posture of each: the tax-collector stands “far off”, that is to say, at a distance from the other worshippers. The Pharisee is described as having “stood by himself”.

● The Pharisee’s posture is easily understood: he considers himself righteous and unwilling to risk contact with those referred to as “people of the land” (those who did not strictly keep the Law). He creates distance as a means of distinguishing himself; setting himself apart. He can’t risk being ‘contaminated’ by the unclean.

The Pharisee is offering his prayer “out loud”, as a means of chastising the other worshippers and offering some insight into rightouesness. I’m sure many of us have listened in while someone assaulted another’s character in prayer. “God, wouldn’t your world be that much closer to ‘shalom’ if everyone were like me? I journal every day, I’m a good tipper, I’m not out sleepin’ around, I floss twice a day. I’m just glad I’m not like Tim and Sylvia, God. They voted for Obama and they don’t even recycle.”

● Literally interpreted, he is “praying to himself”. He neither thanks God for anything nor asks him for anything: his prayer is self-congratulatory and self-sufficient. He doesn’t ask for anything because he doesn’t think he needs anything.

Would you agree that it might be a bit intimidating to hear this prayer? Surely this guy will be justified in the end?

● The tax-collector’s posture, “standing far off” represents the guilt and accompanying shame he feels because he knows he has no right to be there. He struggles with the turmoil and inner-conflict caused by the disparity between his public and private lives. He manages to keep much of the inconsistencies hidden from those at church, at work and even from family and friends.

● He has no pretense about who he is or what he has done. His sins have distanced him from God and the others around him, many of whom who were the direct victims of his actions.

● The contrasts in their approach to worship could not be more extreme: the man with the exemplary life and impressive credentials and the man with the tainted past and long history of failure.

● What is easily overlooked is that the only daily service(s) in the Temple was the “atonement sacrifice” which was held in the morning (dawn) and evening (3:00 p.m.) Following the sacrifice, the time of incense was considered appropriate for personal prayer because by this time, the sacrifice had been made, meaning that fellowship with God was unhindered by sin. People knew that it was possible for them to address God only because the atonement had been made.

The sacrifices were not only reminders of the dilemma of sin, but reason to hope in that God was himself providing a means by which humanity might maintain vital relationship with God.

I have previously offered this definition of atonement: “Every movement of God toward his creation motivated by his purpose/intent of setting things right”.

● The accepted posture for prayer was to cross the hands over the chest and keep your eyes down. The chest-pounding was an expression of anguish or anger utilized by women, rarely by men. It’s a rare departure from social etiquette which signified extreme sorrow (Luke 23:48 describes those who witnessed the crucifixion as going home “in deep sorrow” --- lit. ‘beating their chests’)

● Beating the chest was a profound Middle Eastern recognition of the fact that “out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, lying, theft, etc.”

“God, have mercy upon me, a sinner”.

Without the context, it is easy to miss the significance of the tax-collector’s prayer. The word he uses for “mercy” is elsewhere used to refer to the atonement sacrifice. He was literally praying, “make an atonement for me”.

He stood at a distance, smelling the incense, hearing the prayers, watching the smoke rise from the sacrifice and he longs to feel at home with the community of worshippers; to be considered righteous/justified.

● You might notice that the tax-collector’s prayer is much shorter. It’s brief, it’s impassioned, it’s to the point. He has no résumé of righteous deeds to rehearse. He has no way of making his sin more palatable. There’s not much left to say.

The one man’s prayer is self-congratulatory and self-exalting, and the other’s is a simple plea for mercy.

● The tax-collector experiences a moment when he becomes aware of his dilemma. He knows he has no claim on God; no leverage. “Everything you’ve heard… it’s all true!” He is weighed down with guilt and he has only one hope: his only hope is that God will act; that God will move reconcilably toward him… atonement.

He is hearing the Pharisee’s prayer and he knows he can’t compete. The prayer is just a painful rehearsal of all that’s wrong with his life.

Mercy is always God’s posture toward us. It’s the only place that God will meet us.

Exodus 25… “Make an atonement cover/mercy seat (for the ark); it’s there I will meet with you”.

● The scandal of the story? Based on Jesus’ criterion, the tax-collector goes home ‘justified’. That’s ridiculous! He can’t just waltz out of here justified because he finally admits that he’s a loser. I mean, come on, let’s look at the body of work they have offered?

            In the economy of Jesus, that kind of honesty, that kind of humility (seeing God and seeing yourself and recognizing the dilemma) outweighs any performance or appeal for self-justification.

It is realization of our need for mercy that determines our proximity to the Kingdom.

            If we are honest, we all resist being exposed; we have all developed systems of protection which are meant to distract others… and hopefully distract God.

Systems which keep others focused on our virtuous contributions to society, lest they be repulsed to discover what’s going on just beneath the surface of our lives. We all know that under many conditions and in many contexts if we risk transparency, we won’t be accepted. Maybe that’s part of the real tragedy.

God will never offer us a way to be righteous without him. He can’t. There is no such thing.

Self-righteousness is such an enemy of grace; we can’t receive grace because we don’t need it; we can’t offer it, because we haven’t received it. And, the self-righteousness that it produces erodes community. It makes it impossible to be with each other.

The Pharisees were always targeting the people who they believed were to blame for the delay in realizing the Kingdom.

It is, in the end, not a matter of whether you are like the Pharisee--- committed to piety and holy living, or like the tax-collector, broken and empty. It is a matter of who or what you are trusting to save you? In what will you place your confidence when you are confronted with the right and proper judgment of God toward sin?

“exaltation”--- in the OT usage, the word means “to deliver or redeem” and is the act of God alone. The word is not used of social rank or position, but of being brought into relationship with God.

We are both the Pharisee and the tax collector.

            “Could the brokenness of the Pharisee actually have been the catalyst of grace necessary to save/recover/restore the tax collector?”

● The parable concludes with the same two men going down from the Temple (when the service is over), but with the order reversed.

The confident leave frustrated and with their foundations collapsed. The desperate leave with hope that God has acted for and with them in ways they never could.