Excusing Ourselves

            As Christians, we take the Bible seriously.  And we should.  After all, we’re talking about the word of God here.  We’re talking about words that can influence how we live and whether we’re saved.  That’s pretty serious stuff.

           

At the same time, when Jesus was on the earth, he was fully human as well as fully divine.  Being fully human, that means Jesus had a sense of humor, just like we all do.  Jesus used that sense of humor to get his points across sometimes, and that’s what Jesus was doing in the story we heard tonight.

           

Listen to what Jesus has the Pharisee doing in this story.  He has him standing in the temple before God and praying, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

           

I mean, that’s funny.  Imagine me doing that.  It’s time for prayer on Sunday morning, and I stand up at the front of the church, and I take the microphone, and I say, “God, thanks so much that I’m not like all these other people here.  I mean, let’s face it God, those other people are a bunch of sinners.  They’re terrible.  Look at all the things they do.  I sure thank you that I’m so much better than them.  I’m especially glad I’m not like Joe over there.  I mean, think about what I do.  I tithe, I pray regularly, I preach sermons, I do all kinds of good things for you.  And I’m so humble about it, too.  I especially want to thank you for my humility about how great I am, God.  Amen.”

           

The Pharisees would not have thought what Jesus said was so funny, of course.  The Pharisees were not known for their sense of humor, especially when it came to making fun of themselves.  The rest of Jesus’ audience would’ve eaten it up, though.  They’d have though it was hilarious.

           

We’d better not laugh too hard, though.  We’re all tempted to do this sort of thing sometimes.  Not this blatantly, of course.  Not this obviously.  None of us would get up in front of everyone and brag about how great we are, especially not in a prayer. 

Still, we’re tempted to think it sometimes.  We know we’re not perfect, of course, but sometimes we’re tempted to think we’re pretty good.  Good enough, anyway.  Better than a lot of people.  We know we still have things to work on, but a lot of times, we don’t really have any sense of urgency about it.  We don’t really feel like we need to focus on those things.  After all, we’re not that bad.  We do a lot of good things, too.  We do more good things than a lot of people do.  We may not be perfect, but we’re doing okay.

From a human perspective, some of that may even be true.  I’m not saying any of us here is the biggest sinner in the world.  There are people who do a lot worse things than we do.  From a human perspective.

The thing is that God does not look at us from a human perspective.  God looks at us from God’s perspective.  And God actually is perfect.  So when we start thinking we’re pretty good, good enough anyway, doing okay, God looks at us and says, no.  You’re really not.  You’re really not good enough.  You’re really not “okay”. 

            Now, God does not necessarily say that in an angry way.  God knows that we’re not perfect and that we’re not going to be.  I think God just says it in a factual way.  God says, look, I know what it means to really be good.  In fact, I’m the only one who really does know.  And I’m here to tell you that you’re not it.  I am.  Compared to me, no one is actually “good”, and certainly no one is “good enough”.  God says, compared to me, there is no such thing as “good enough.”

That’s why Jesus contrasts his Pharisee with a tax collector.  Now, remember who the tax collectors were considered to be.  We’ve talked about this before, but the tax collectors were the lowest of the low in that society.  They were rich, but nobody liked them.  They did not earn their money, they got it by force.  They took it from people, often people who could not really afford to pay it.  The reason the gospels so often refer to “tax collectors and sinners” is that tax collectors were considered a special category of sinners, lower than any other sinners in society.

But the tax collector knew who he was.  He knew he was not even worthy to come before God.  He did not come up to the front of the church.  He stayed at the back.  He stared at the ground.  He did not try to justify anything he’d done.  He just said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Now, you can say that, being the lowest of the low, it was easier for him to recognize who he was, but that’s not how it works.  We’re all really good at justifying ourselves to ourselves.  That’s what the tax collector must have been doing in the past.  After all, he was a tax collector.  He knew what he was doing.  He was doing it deliberately.  Somehow, he must have convinced himself that it was okay.  He must have convinced himself that he deserved it.  Again, that’s something we all have the ability to do.  We’re all really good at convincing ourselves that it’s okay for us to do the things we want to do.

Somehow, though, at some point, this tax collector realized that what he was doing was not okay.  He came to God and acknowledged exactly who he was.  He begged God, “have mercy on me, a sinner.”  And as a result, Jesus tells us that he went home justified before God.

As with most of Jesus’ stories, we’re not told the ultimate outcome.  We’re not told what these people did after they left the temple.  Most likely, the Pharisee did not do anything different.  He’d have seen no reason to.  He thought he was good enough the way he was.

Did the tax collector do anything different?  We’d like to think so.  We’d like to think he’d have had to.  After all, he’d just acknowledged to God that he was not “good enough”.  He acknowledged to God who he was.  He’d begged God for mercy. 

When we do that, if we’re really sincere when we do that, we cannot just go on as if nothing has happened.  Because when we do that, when we’re really sincere when we do that, something does happen.  That’s why the tax collector was able to go home justified.  He had seen who he was, he knew how wrong he was, and he knew he could not continue to be that person if he wanted God’s mercy.

The question is, did it stick?  Because there’s a temptation involved here, too.  The temptation is to acknowledge who we are, but to not do anything about it.  The temptation is go back to justifying ourselves to ourselves.  The temptation is to convince ourselves, again, that what we’re doing is really not that bad.  The temptation is to convince ourselves that what we’re doing is okay.

Now, I’m not saying that we should beat ourselves up and convince ourselves that we’re the worst person in the world.  We’re not the worst person in the world.  That’s not the point.  The point is that whether we’re the best person in the world or the worst person in the world is irrelevant.  Whether we’re the best person in the world or the worst person in the world or somewhere in between, we’re still sinners.  Again, God does not look at this from a human perspective.  God looks at this from God’s perspective.  God looks at each one of us, from the best person to the worst person, and sees the same thing:  a sinner who needs to ask for forgiveness.

We’re not supposed to beat up on ourselves.  God does not want to beat up on us, either.  God does not want us to acknowledge who we are so we can feel bad.  God wants us to acknowledge who we are so we can receive God’s forgiveness and God’s mercy.

Jesus said, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  Paul wrote, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
           

God does not condemn us for being sinners.  God knows we’re all sinners.  God wants to give us forgiveness and mercy for our sins.  But God cannot do that give us forgiveness and mercy if we don’t recognize that we need it.

Let’s stop justifying ourselves.  Instead, let’s see ourselves for who we are, and let God justify us.  That way, we will receive God’s forgiveness and mercy, and we can be the people God wants us to be.