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Saturday, October 26, 2019

Mercy and More

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 27, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Luke 18:9-14.


            Jesus was a storyteller.  In the church we usually refer to his stories as “parables”, but really, what they were was stories.  Stories with a point, but still, stories.  
            Jesus did that for a few of reasons.  For one thing, he knew it would keep people’s attention.  Everyone loves a good story, right?  He also knew it’s easier to remember and understand a good story than it is to remember and understand a speech.  That’s why we remember his stories so well.  You say, “Good Samaritan” or “Prodigal Son” and everyone knows the basics of the story you’re talking about.  There’s even a TV show this year called “Prodigal Son”.  I don’t know if the show’s any good, but it shows how that phrase is still very much a part of our culture two thousand years later.  On the other hand, you say, “Beatitudes”, and...well, people might have a vague idea about them, but unless you’ve just deliberately sat down and memorized them, you probably cannot say exactly what they are.
            So today, we have a story Jesus told about the danger of arrogance and the importance of humility.  We have a Pharisee, and we have a tax collector.  And a lot of times, what we do when we read this story is beat up on the Pharisee.  And it’s easy to see why.  This Pharisee is arrogant, ludicrously arrogant.  To stand there and talk about how great he is.  To thank God that he’s so much better than all these other people.  And to do that right in front of the other people.  To say, “God, thank you that I’m so much better than old Joe here” when Joe’s standing right there next to you. 
            Now, like any good storyteller, Jesus was probably exaggerating a little to make his point.  That’s part of what makes the story memorable.  But in reality, even if the Pharisees had a problem with arrogance, I doubt that any of them would’ve been this blatant about it.  To stand up in front of everybody and say, “God, thank you that I’m so much better than these other people around me here.”  That seems pretty unlikely.
            So while it’s legitimate to beat up on the Pharisee, we make a mistake if we stop there.  After all, the Pharisee is only one character in the story.  Today, I want to focus on the other character.  I want to focus on the tax collector.
We’ve talked about this before, but it’s important to understand who the tax collectors were.  They were basically independent contractors who worked for the Roman government.  They made a deal with the Roman government that said that periodically they had to send so much money to Rome.  I don’t know if it was monthly or every three months or six months or a year or what, but the tax collector had to get that money to Rome.  And the tax collector was authorized by Rome to get the money from the people in his jurisdiction.  Rome did not really care how the tax collector got the money, as long as the right amount got to Rome when it was supposed to.  And the way the tax collector got paid was by collecting more in taxes than he was obligated to send to Rome.
            And that meant that the tax collector had every incentive to try to collect as much as he possibly could from everyone in his jurisdiction.  Now, I’m sure some tax collectors were basically honest people who only kept enough for them to make an adequate living.  But there were some who would take and take and take until the people hardly had anything left.  The tax collector would get rich off of other people’s money.  And again, Rome did not care, as long as the government got the money it was supposed to get when it was supposed to get it.  And because a tax collector had that kind of power, tax collectors, as a group, were about the most hated people in society.  People had to respect them and treat them well, because of the power they had.  But hardly anybody really liked them.  They had a lot of money, but they basically had no friends.
            So that’s who this tax collector was.  He was someone who had overcharged people, who had cheated, who had taken from people who had very little so he could live in luxury.  And he comes to the temple to pray.
            And when you think about it, that’s pretty remarkable.  What’s this tax collector even doing there?  I mean, yes, he’s a sinner in need of forgiveness, but think about it.  It’s not like he’s been cheating and overcharging these people by accident.  He did it on purpose, as part of a deliberate policy.  Probably he’s been doing it for a long time.  He’s known what he was doing, and he continued to do it.  And yet now, he comes to the temple to pray.  Why?
            It’s possible, of course, that he was just going through the motions.  It was the time when people were supposed to come to the temple to pray, so he did.  Got to make it look good, after all.  Got to keep up appearances.  That’s possible, but I doubt it.  There’s nothing in the story to indicate that.  In fact, it seems to say just the opposite.  The tax collector stands off by himself.  He won’t even look up to heaven.  He begs God for mercy.
            Somehow, this tax collector has had a change of heart.  He knows that what he’s been doing is wrong.  And not just a little wrong--he knows what he’s been doing is really wrong.  Blatantly wrong.  Loud wrong.  And he knows he’s got to do something about it.  And he knows that the first thing he has to do is go to God and ask for mercy.  Not even forgiveness--the tax collector knows he does not deserve forgiveness.  But just mercy.
            What do you suppose happened to make him change?  We don’t know, obviously.  Did something happen in his life, some sort of traumatic experience, that made him realize that his earthly wealth was meaningless?  Did some person, a friend or a relative, talk to him and manage to show him the error of his ways?  Did God’s Holy Spirit come down and touch this man’s heart, convincing him to go to the temple?  Was it some combination of these things and maybe some other things, too?  We don’t know.
            What we know is that when this man went to God and asked for mercy, he got it.  Jesus said he went home justified before God.  He had humbled himself before God, and he would be exalted.
            We don’t know what the tax collector did when he went home.  Did he try to give money back to the people he’d taken it from?  Did he quit his job?  Did he continue to be a tax collector, but one who was honest and did not keep any more than what he needed?  We don’t know.  But it’s a pretty good bet the tax collector did not go back to doing things the way he had done them before.  Something about the way he did things changed.  The way he did things changed because he had changed.  And he was never going to go back to the way he had been before.
            So what’s the point?  Well, there are a few of them.  One is that anyone turn to God.  Literally, anyone.  At any time.  No one matter who we are or what we’ve done.  No matter how old we are or how young we are.  No matter where we are or what’s going on.  We can always change and turn to God.  It’s never too late.  No one is too far gone to turn to God.
            Another is that we never know who or what will make someone want to change, or when that change will happen.  It could happen soon, or it could happen a long way in the future.  It could be a traumatic experience.  It could be the work of God’s Holy Spirit.  It could be a friend or a relative talking to someone, making sure they know about the love and grace and mercy Jesus Christ offers, and convincing them that they need to change.  Maybe you or I could be that friend or relative.
            But perhaps the most important point is that when the tax collector asked God for mercy, he went home justified before God.  You know what that word “justified” means?  It means more than just his sins were forgiven.  Saying the tax collector was “justified” means that he was made righteous in the sight of God.  Think of that.  This tax collector, this man who had done all these things, is now righteous in the sight of God.  He had not even dared to ask for that.  All the tax collector had asked for was mercy.  And when he did that, humbly, and sincerely, yes, he got mercy.  But he also got so much more.
            That’s what’s available to you and me.  Are we sinners in the same way the tax collector was?  Maybe not.  But that does not matter.  God does not see sins the way you and I do.  God does not look at my sins or your sins and compare them.  God does not see my sins as better or worse than yours, and God does not see your sins as better or worse than mine.  God looks at all of us and sees the same thing--a sinner.  A sinner in need of salvation.
            That’s why Jesus came to earth.  And if we believe in Jesus as the Savior, and if we recognize what we’ve done, and if we humbly ask God for mercy, God will answer our prayer.  God will give us mercy, but God will give us so much more.  We will be justified.  We will be made righteous in the sight of God.  No matter what we’ve done or who we’ve done it to.  It’s an amazing thing.
            It’s fun to orally beat up the Pharisee in this story, and it’s legitimate to do that.  But if we stop there, we miss the most important part of the story.  If we believe in Jesus, if we humbly ask God for mercy, we will be justified!  We will be exalted!  We will be made righteous in the sight of God!  It happened for the tax collector.  It can happen for you and me, too.

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