Parables of Jesus: Pharisee and the Tax Collector

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0:00 So the one that the parable that we're going to look at this morning is in Luke chapter 18 again. Last week, do you remember? We talked about the persistent widow, the parable of the persistent widow. And I don't know about you, but last week we talked about that idea where Jesus says in this parable that God is such a better judge than the unjust judge in a parable.

0:31 He says, will he not give his own justice and give it to them speedily? And the idea that I might ask for justice for myself has been really powerful for me this week. And I just want to remind you quickly, we were talking about that the justice of God is built on the image of God in all humanity and that God will restore the dignity, honor and glory to all image bearers.

1:04 Which means when I have not been loved to the way that I ought to have been loved, when I have not been honored or respected or cared for, the way I ought to have been honored, respected and cared for, some actual harm was done to me that God is not okay with. And I can ask that God set that to right meaning restore the love, respect, honor, dignity that I am owed, was owed in that relationship, pull it back and give it to me.

1:35 That I don't have to just like give it up as a lost cause that I am someone, as though I am someone who doesn't deserve to be loved well, to be respected well, to be honored well. No, I can pursue God for justice, for myself, for the wrongs that have been done to me. And God will meet out how it deals with the people who have wronged me, that's not my problem. I love the admonition to do that. And that was a new thought for me. It's been really kind of messing with me a little bit this last week as I think about what does it mean for me to ask God for justice.

2:11 But we're moving on. And Luke chapter 18 verse 9. He also told this parable. So series of parables here in Luke. And I was talking with a friend just in case you hadn't heard this kind of bit about the Gospels before. Remember there are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and they're in this form in first century culture called Bios, which obviously evolves into biography,

2:51 where they tell Bios of people in order to communicate truths or ideas, not necessarily chronologically factually true accounts of life. So the Bios will take true events from people's lives, but they'll organize those events in a way to communicate some message or truth. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all in this format. It's how they communicate ideas in first century. They write about a person and their life with factual events, but they arrange those events in order to communicate a truth.

3:26 This is why you might see some differences in the Gospels. One, because they are actually events being remembered by people and recorded by folk. And because Matthew is writing to a little bit different audience trying to communicate something a little bit different than Luke is. And most theologians will say that this is a check mark in the credibility column for the Gospels, that the church over the centuries and generations hasn't tried to assimilate all the Gospel accounts into one voice.

4:00 And it's like, let's all get our story straight and make sure we're saying the same thing. This is four different eyeballs on factual events, reporting them back to us. Of course, John's is the most different. We would call Matthew, Mark and Luke the Synoptic Gospels and John out over here doing something different. He wrote much later. The reason I was telling you that is because the guy Ken Bailey is talking about these parables being grouped in what's called the travel narratives in Luke. It's like groupings of teachings where Jesus is moving around and Luke has grouped them together on purpose.

4:36 And then you can determine some different voices, like when Luke sets up the parable of Jesus, the quote from Jesus. And it's fun to imagine Luke interviewing because we're pretty sure Luke wasn't one of the twelve. He probably didn't hear most of these stories firsthand. So Luke sets out, he maybe came to the church in the first century with Paul because he writes himself in the first person in Acts. But when you read these parables, it's fun to imagine Luke going down and interviewing and hearing the story from someone.

5:09 I heard this story that Jesus told about a Pharisee and a tax collector going up to pray and Luke going, oh, that fits well in the travel narrative. And the person saying why Jesus pulled that parable and Luke puts that in the little intro for us right here at the beginning of Luke chapter 18 verse 9. He says, he also, Jesus also, told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

5:41 I wonder how the person who communicated this parable to Luke characterized the folks that Jesus was talking to. That maybe Luke has put a nice language on the way the person felt about who Jesus delivered this parable to in the first place, right? To those who were trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

6:13 Now, we have an intuitive sense. We know someone who trusts in themselves for the righteousness, who is self-righteous, we intuitively know is unpleasant to be around. When you are self-righteous, it is not fun to be around you. Why? Because your perception of yourself cannot actually be true. Isn't it interesting? This will come up. Part of this whole parable is built on the assumption that people are beings for which there needs to be a tone that's made.

6:55 That there needs to be something done. Something wrong needs to be set right. And in general, I would say we, and if maybe not, we, us as a culture, are very uncomfortable with the notion that someone might have to tone for me. And yet, we are certain that people who are self-righteous are not good to be around. We are certain that if you feel like you are all good on your own, that you don't need anyone's support or help.

7:29 As a matter of fact, that you are, quote, good no matter what, that that's not pleasant. Especially if you feel like you're better than other people. And it seems like Jesus is talking to that group here. He says, two men go up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other to a tax collector. Anytime people go up in the story of scripture, something important is about to happen. They go up on the mountain to talk to God. They always go up to Jerusalem.

8:03 Anytime you see something, they go up to the mountain transfiguration. They go up to the Garden of Gethsemane. They go up to Mount Sinai. Anytime they're going up in the story of scripture, something important is about to happen. And then the Pharisee and the tax collector go up to pray. Meaning they go together. They go together up to pray. It doesn't say that there's any specific day. And what Ken barely reminds us is that actually at the beginning of the day and in the evening of every day, they would run sacrifices for people.

8:33 They would run a general sacrifice to cover the sins. Then they would burn the fat of the animal and the smell of the fat of the animal would go up to God. Now that the animal has covered your sin, the smell of the fat is incensed to God. Your prayers can go up. You can be heard. Your sin has been covered. Go to the God. Then at the end of the day, they have another sacrifice so that your day happens in between these two sacrifices where God can hear your prayers. The Pharisee and the tax collector go up together. Because he doesn't mention a specific day, what would happen to people hearing this story in the first century is they would assume it was either the morning or the evening sacrifice.

9:12 They're going up for a regular daily prayer experience. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One is Pharisee and the other is tax collector. I think most of us know the Pharisees are the church lawyers and they follow all the rules to the tea. The tax collectors are national traders and tend to be extortionists. So they're not to be associated with and they are definitely not righteous. Verse 11.

9:44 The Pharisees standing by himself or kind of apart from the group of people, prayed. I did not know the cultural context of this at all until Ken Bailey enlightened me. But I guess the cleanliness laws, not associating with sinners, was a very big deal, especially for a Pharisee, a church lawyer, because you never wanted to be unclean. Because it meant that you couldn't come in and get your sacrifices, which meant you couldn't follow the rules explicitly.

10:18 And you know that they had directed a bunch of rules outside of the rules in order to keep themselves from breaking the first rules. So they wouldn't break the first rules the way they knew they wouldn't break the first rules was they set up second rules, which they wouldn't break. But then what they did is they started not associating with people who broke the second rules because if they associate with people who broke the second rules, they might be around people who actually also broke the first rules. So now they have first rules, second rules, and rules about association. And actually what it turns out is the Pharisees had rules where you couldn't lean against something that was unclean.

10:57 Because it might pass on to you. You couldn't lean onto something that was unclean, a place, a tomb, a person. You couldn't rob up against a person that was unclean because their uncleanness might get on you. Isn't that interesting? So it's such like a literal picture of a metaphor of self-righteous disassociation from people.

11:44 Of what might rub off of the people that we don't associate with. And our disassociation is completely illogical. The one thing you can say about the Pharisees is they were not duplicitists. They just said it's straight up. We don't associate with those folks. We don't even touch them. So the Pharisee goes to the temple for a regular prayer. There's a lot of folks there.

12:17 So he conspicuously stands where no one is touching him because he doesn't know how clean the rest of the jokers are. And he wants everyone to know he is clean. And so he can't be touched by the folks who are not clean. So it says that he stands apart. To me, I'm the temple to pray. One Pharisee of the Tascals. The Pharisees stand by himself, pray, thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men.

12:47 Exhaustioners, unjust adulterers, or even like the sex collector, who I see over here. Now, Ken Bailey says that the best interpretation of this sex is that the former lists of things are things he's assigning to the tax collector. It's not a random grouping. I'm glad I'm not like the unjust in the world, the extortioners in the world. He says he probably just throws in the adulterer for good measure, assuming the guy is an adulterer as well.

13:21 So he is like, I'm glad I'm not like other men. Exhaustioners, everyone knows the tax collectors as extortioners. Unjust, everyone knows the tax collectors unjust, and this guy is probably an alter. Or even like this guy right here, the sex collector. I fast twice a week. I give ties with all that I get. But the tax collectors stand in for a fast twice a week, and I give ties with all that I get. This is the Pharisees were notorious for this.

13:51 And I guess the ties had evolved. Like, originally there's only certain food products that you would tie, and then slowly you tied everything. You would tie the tenth of the spices that you had. Anything, especially going to food you would tie it against. And then they had different first-fruits offerings for your harvests and stuff. And what's interesting, if you look what the Pharisee is saying, almost doesn't really qualify as a prayer.

14:24 Right? I mean, we use prayer in a kind of general word for a conversation with God, but he's mostly just making an announcement about how he is righteous. Right? For the whole room to hear. I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like the sex sector. I fast twice a week. That's way more than he was required to fast. And I give ties with all that I get.

14:57 The last thing is, Pharisee is asked a sacrifice for atonement and does not ask for atonement. In fact, announces he doesn't need it because of the choices that he's made, because of the things that he's done. I thank you that I am not like these other men. But the tax collectors standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.

15:37 But beat his breasts, saying. So the beating the breath thing is really interesting. It's a sign of deep sadness or conviction. Culturally, I guess, can barely educate us. It is not uncommon to see women in the culture like beat their breasts in sadness. It is very rare to dudes do it. And in the sort of scripture, it only happens here and at the crucifixion.

16:12 So everyone went away beating their breasts. What I'm trying to say is, the tax collector in the story, the parable that Jesus tells, the tax collector is separated from everyone else. Not like a Pharisee standing apart, but like almost like I'm not. I don't qualify to be here, but I've come anyway. And then is moved the way followers of Jesus would be moved at the crucifixion.

16:45 Like the hero of this story is like when he hears that the tax collector, a man in public, is beating his chest. The guy is not faking remorse, heartache, sadness. It's not manufacturing emotion. You don't do that with that symbol. It's a reaction to gut level emotion that the guy has. But the Tesla to staying far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breasts in God.

17:22 Be merciful to me, a sinner. The interesting thing is that Ken points out that this phrase, be merciful to me, a sinner, is a Greek word that's more clearly translated mercy that Luke uses in other places. That this one is kind of clumsily translated as mercy and is more closely related to the idea of the term of atonement.

17:55 And it would be appropriate that the tax collector is asking God for atonement. Not a general category of mercy, but at this experience, this daily experience where they go up to prayer about atonement, that the tax collector would be asking for atonement. Hey, set me to write again. God, have that kind of mercy on me.

18:26 I am a sinner. I tell you this man, this is a kicker, which up until this point, it's like the parable is kind of rolls along about as we'd expect the Pharisee fits into how we think about Pharisees in the gospel, the tax collector. It's a little surprising, but Jesus associates with tax collectors a lot, right? So the tax collector is like the hero in the story, the Pharisee is the villain, the Pharisee is self-righteous.

19:02 We get that, but he feels like he doesn't need atonement because he's done enough good things. The tax collector has done, agreeably, like, recognizably, the tax collector has made bad choices, probably has extorted lots of people, probably is actually very, probably is crummy. Like, maybe not a guy you'd want to associate with, I don't know, it's a fictional person, but at least we know he's a tax collector, he's undressed, and an extorter, and a term to it for his nation.

19:38 At least that. So this is kind of predictable, like, I think we could roll through this going, yeah, this is about right. This resonates with me, I like it. But what got me here was the last verse, verse 14. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who's else himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

20:13 Jesus, the guy who on the cross, as they're killing him, says, father forgives them for they know not what they do. Jesus, the embodiment, like the incarnation of love and truth, says someone remains on the wrong side of relationship with God.

20:43 There is people, there are folk who are unjustified, Jesus says. This is a real kicker for me. Jesus says the two guys come up, Pharisee tax collector. They both come up to the temple for the regular sacrifice of atonement. And they pray in these two ways. One, so does it pray, announces that he does not need atonement and talks about all the things that he has done.

21:19 The other one asks for atonement and acknowledges he's a mess. The second one is in good standing with God, the first one is in is not. I mean, sometimes I think our notion of Jesus loves me just I know. Like somehow God moves out of the position of being the one who announces justification or doesn't.

22:02 It's crazy to me. This like message of atonement is consistent all the way through the whole story of scripture. I mean, all the way in the beginning at the garden, God says, guys, this is the mess. You try to be God, your life is going to be harder and you're going to die. Let me try to figure out a way to fix it. And he starts at the very beginning, kind to figure out a way to fix it.

22:33 And people continue to be a mess. And so he instills the sacrificial system and says, this will work for a while. And when Jesus comes, he says, I didn't come through a bollocks along the prophets, but to fulfill them. And he walks up, John has him actually killed when they're crucifying the Passover lands. The other three make a significant point of saying that he will reinvigorate the Passover meal. The feast of atonement. The reason this animated me this week is because I wanted us to remember as we move into start to new church here.

23:10 That the God of creation and life, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Christ in the church has made a way for you into new life. And the way into new life is to recognize part of you needs to be put to death. Like, if you recognize you do not have it all figured out and you have got yourself in such a mess, you cannot fix it. You have relationships that you cannot restore.

23:41 You have patterns of living and being and thinking inside of your heart and your mind that you cannot amend. You have mistakes you have made in the past that you cannot repair. I don't care how many good choices you stack up. You can't unwind the clock and restore justice to the moment that is passed. Only the God can do that. You and I need to be in a regular practice like the tax collector of saying, Good Lord God have mercy on me because I have made a mess of all of the things.

24:24 Nobody told in Jesus' story the Pharisee and the tax collector which one went away justified before God. Isn't that a kicker? They both walk home. God does. And if they were paying attention to the words coming out of their mouth and the words of sacrifice, they might have a window to believe if they were paying attention.

25:02 But for all accounts and purposes in the story the Pharisee goes on thinking, He's just fine. I do not want to be a Pharisee. I do not. I would like to be a sinner who is justified. I would like to be. I am committing God to this year.

25:33 Lord I am okay with you pointing out the ways in which I am a big old sinner. Open up avenues of repentance for me, good Lord, because your atonement is consistent and sufficient as long as I am interested. The tax collector was interested in the justification of God and he got us. The Pharisee was not. So we did it.

26:05 We did it. When I read that I thought about the parable of the parable of the parable of the parable of the son, the older brother ends up on the outside of the party. He doesn't want to go in. I thought of the ten spies of Egypt that were offered the promised land and didn't want it. They didn't think they could apprehend it or take it. That it is true. God's judgment, we go through God's judgment into God's blessing, but if we don't want His blessing or are unlearned to take His judgment, we get needed.

26:45 That's it. That's the story. I pray that we could take both. Let me pray for that for us. Hey Lord, make us into people who believe in the efficacy and the righteousness of your judgment. I guess people who believe in the efficacy and the righteousness of your judgment so that we would move through it however painful or confusing and into your judgment.

27:20 Your new life, your freedom, your forgiveness, your justification. And as people who live justified by you, by ourselves, the real justification that is offered. You just had to take the cold of that today and Jesus really could.