“Righteousness and Justification”

Luke 18:9-14

Many years ago, Paula and I were at a social gathering, eating lunch with some friends. They asked how our kids were doing, and at the time, both of them were having some difficult struggles. I said something along the lines of, “Well, they are doing “okish,” and then mentioned how frustrating it was when other families would mention how perfect and excellent their families were, how one of their kids was negotiating peace in the Middle East, while their other child was one of the top 10 most successful business people in America, etc. The couple then went on to proclaim that their two children were perfect, excellent, and incredibly successful. I listened and sighed inwardly as they went on bout how great their family was. Then the word, braggadocio, popped into my head, which means “empty boasting, arrogant pretension, cockiness, the air of swaggering.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary online)  

At first glance, “braggadocio” certainly fits when we listen to the prayer of the Pharisee in this morning’s passage. He is praying a prayer of thanks to God for the wonderful and holy life he leads. In contrast, a tax collector asks God for mercy. What is Jesus’ teaching in this story?

This parable interrogates our moral centers. The Pharisee raises questions about self-understanding; the tax collector raises questions about how repentance works and about becoming righteous and justified in God’s eyes.

You will note that the audience shifts from disciples in the last parable (Luke 18:1-8 about the arrogant judge and persistent widow) to a broader audience, possibly to the young, forming congregations in Luke’s world to which Luke was addressing in the latter half of the first century. This parable is meant to address those who see themselves as righteous while others are not. Theologian Judith M. Lieu, in her book,  The Gospel According to Luke, writes, “It is natural to think that the Pharisees were in mind. However, Luke does not say this, and his more general phrasing suggests that he knew that such could be found elsewhere, perhaps even within his church.” 

The setting for this teaching is the temple, where a Pharisee and a tax collector have gone for public prayer, which occurred at either 9 am or 3 pm. The Pharisee is standing before God, with perhaps two audiences in mind: God and the tax collector standing near him. How would Luke’s readers have received these two characters?

Let us begin with the Pharisee. Theologian Matt Skinner says the following about Pharisees.  “The Pharisees of the first century were not “legalists” who were trying to earn God’s favor. They were a Jewish movement that emphasized the importance of obedience to the law of Moses. Living in accordance with torah was a way of making God’s benefits visible and accessible in all aspects of life for all who were Jewish.” For Jesus’ Jewish audience,  the Pharisee would epitomize being right before God. Pharisees were public lay leaders who not only taught others how to be right before God but also practiced righteousness themselves. The Pharisee in this parable is a fantastic example. He is one to emulate, not despise. He did more than the Torah required. No one was expected to fast twice a week as a form of spiritual discipline; no one was required to tithe everything. The Pharisee has done more than any Pharisee was expected to do. He is the perfect example of righteousness, the holy one to emulate for Luke’s audience.

It is unfortunate that for many Christians, when we hear the word “Pharisee”, we may think of the word as a synonym for hypocrite or judging. Those prejudices we may hold can resurrect anti-Jewish tropes, especially by simplistically equating modern Jews with Jesus’ adversaries in the gospel narratives. Remember that both Jesus' and Paul’s teachings arose from Pharisaical teachings. In this instance, it is not about who the people in the story are; it is about how they act. The word in the Pharisee’s prayer does have that sense of braggadocio. However, at its core are a prayer of thanksgiving to God and a prayer of comparison: that he leads a holy life, especially in contrast to the tax collector praying nearby. So now that we have explored the Pharisee a bit, let us look into character #2.

Tax collectors were viewed by Jewish society as slimy opportunists and collaborators, willing to victimize their own neighbors while assisting the occupiers. They upheld Roman interests at the expense of the people of God. They traded their social consciences and religious self-worth for financial gain. They sold out their own people in the interest of maintaining an unjust Roman occupation and profiting from unjust gains. Most likely, anyone from the first-century society would have prayed a similar prayer as the Pharisee did, had they been standing near a much maligned tax collector.

The theme of reversal, choosing the anti-hero as the hero, is consistent with Jesus’ teachings. Here at the end of the parable,   Jesus ends the parable by telling those gathered that the tax collector went away justified/set right, rather than the Pharisee, who trusted that he was righteous. The contrast between the two is that the Pharisee trusts himself to be righteous through his deeds and his position. At the same time, the tax collector sees himself as worthless through his deeds and position, and trusts in God to give him mercy so he can become right with God, or justified in God’s eyes. The tax collector understands his flaws and is declared righteous by Jesus because he earnestly seeks mercy. The tax collector, NOT the Pharisee, ends up the hero. If I were someone sitting in a house church in the first century listening to this parable, I would be raising my hand and saying “WAIT a minute!” out loud.

 The tax collector has nothing to celebrate or be thankful for. He realizes what he does is sinful. He cannot even raise his eyes to God, because he sees himself as unworthy. He beats his breast, a sign of grief and atonement, and asks God for mercy. It is interesting to note that he does not say he will repent—that is, turn from his sinful work as an agent of the state. He shows no interest in changing his job or in reconciling himself to those he has wronged, unlike another tax collector in Luke’s Gospel, Zacchaeus.

When Jesus says, “This man went down to his home justified,” we should imagine his words taking his audience’s collective breath away. It is rather outrageous that God shows mercy so easily to such a villain. The grace on display here is as absurdly generous as what we see in the prodigal son’s return home (Luke 15) and the end-of-the-day payment of the workers in the vineyard (Matt 20).

What can we learn from this parable?

First, as God is absurdly generous in bestowing mercy, we are called to do the same.  American Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote, "God has left sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which God cleanses our souls, but the manifest forgiveness by which we have mercy on one another and so give expression to the fact that God is living, by mercy shown in our own hearts."  By all accounts, this tax collector deserves retribution, punishment for his profession and unjust living. However, instead, God justifies him and bestows mercy. Who are the tax collectors in your life in need of mercy?

 Second, Jesus was instructing those around him away from religious braggadocio: that because we have been attending worship faithfully every Sunday for decades, we have gone to seminary to learn Hebrew and Greek, bring food to the Little Free Pantry every week, have served as elders, deacons, and Sunday school teachers, we are “holier than THOU,” as the old phrase says. We may believe, like the Pharisee, that, by the things we do (supporting the church financially, taking part in religious activities, being upstanding members of society) OR by the things we do not do (Being thieves, rogues, tax collectors, etc.), justify us and make us righteous, at least a little, in God’s eyes. That reasoning leads us to self-righteousness, to the belief that we are better, holier than others. Theologian and Presbyterian pastor Meda Stamper writes, “ Until we let go of that notion, the parable suggests, we will not go home justified. We will be prisoners of our own self-righteousness. Moreover, we as a church will present a face to the world that does not invite it in.” As Paul tells us in Romans,  “ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” (Romans 3:23)  We are justified by God’s mercy and grace as a gift, not earned, not because of our actions, but given freely through Christ.

A third lesson comes when we identify too much with the tax collector, focusing not on the mercy bestowed but instead wallowing in our imperfections. We may beat ourselves up because we see ourselves as unholy, unworthy, and stained in some way beyond redeeming.  This self-image was called the  “Lowly Worm” theology of the Middle Ages by one of my seminary professors. The phrase "I am a worm" in Early Christianity symbolized a declaration of insignificance, sinfulness, and vulnerability. This statement emphasized the lowly position of an individual in the broader context of existence, highlighting the importance of humility in spiritual life and the recognition of human limitations.  We hear a small amount of that wormy theology in the hymn we will sing after the sermon, Amazing Grace,  “ who saved a wretch like me.” If we wallow too much in this way, identifying with the unworthiness of the tax collector, we will overlook the love and grace God bestows upon us. Friends, we are not lowly worms. God knows us, loves us just as we are,  and claims us in the water of baptism as heirs, offspring of our loving Creator.

This parable calls us to extend mercy, to understand we are no better than anyone else, and that grace is given freely, not because we somehow deserve it. Furthermore, it invites us to cast off our perceived imperfections and throw ourselves into the arms of an absurdly generous and merciful God, who is waiting and who desires more than anything to lift us up and fill us with grace. We, too, like the tax collector, can leave this temple of God justified, worthy, and loved. Alleluia! Amen.