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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