‘The Parable of the Good Samaritan’- Remembrance Sunday 2011 Luke Chapter 10 verses 25 - 37

‘The Parable of the Good Samaritan’- Remembrance Sunday 2011

Luke Chapter 10 verses 25 - 37

Our Gospel reading this morning is probably the most well-known of Jesus’ parables: certainly its hero has entered into not only the English language to describe anyone who comes to the rescue of another. But this parable is very much more than just an ethical exhortation to reach out to those in need. Some of you may be wondering why I chose it for today, for Remembrance Sunday. Well, let me tell you. I did so, first, because it deals with the kind of prejudices and hatred that cause wars – so that alone, it seems to me, makes it a good choice for today: but, secondly, because it offers us a solution, an antidote to those prejudices and hatreds that fuel wars however large, however small.

The story takes place within a dialogue between Jesus and a lawyer. (Poor old lawyers; they do come off rather badly in the Gospels.) But it was not an innocent question this lawyer asked. No, if we consider the context and what has gone before, we must realise that they are out for his blood, in which of course they did eventually succeed because of his claims about himself, his claims to be God in human flesh; in short, his blasphemy.

By Jesus’ day, the idea had grown up that by keeping the law of God, a devout Jew could inherit eternal life (Heaven, if you prefer). This was a very exclusivist teaching however and went against what Moses and the Prophets had actually taught; which was that eternal life is in fact God’s gift, that he would bestow it on whom he saw fit, and that this inheritance was available to all, regardless of race: to all, that is, who would be reconciled to him – wherein of course lies the rub.

But Jesus, instead of repeating what Moses and the prophets had taught, decides to take up this popular current idea (that by obeying the law a person can make themselves acceptable to God and so gain eternal life) and pushes the lawyer’s understanding to see just where it leads. Jesus was always wanting to educate people out of their erroneous presuppositions about God and into true knowledge of him - even at the cost of his own well-being: and he assaulted any prejudices or hatred he encountered because these could have no place in his Kingdom.  Jesus, then, does not offer his own view but very skilfully gets the lawyer to think more deeply about where his, the lawyer’s, views on the law actually lead.

The lawyer – cunning chaps that they are – in reply gives Jesus Jesus’ own summary of the law. Doubtless he had heard it or heard of it. Jesus commends his knowledge but then challenges him to believe what he claims he knows. ‘You have the right belief but will you act upon it?’ That must surely always be the question for us too: it is not enough simply our knowing what we ought to do for others, or our just having sympathy for them. 

Will we act? Will we put into practice the second commandment?

Jesus is widening the discussion here from eternal life to all of life; and in his reply (verse 27) to Jesus, hasn’t the lawyer himself just stated a standard that no one, by their own efforts, can EVER fully reach?

(One of the reasons Jesus changed round the sequence in the two great commandments was because he knew that a person cannot possibly truly love their neighbour as themself unless they also truly love God. Oh yes, such an idea was as controversial in his day as it still is in ours; so we had better leave that one for another day. I am simply presenting what Jesus taught.)

So Jesus does not give the lawyer the list he wants of things that he can do: instead, in terms of keeping the law, he teaches a requirement of total commitment to God and to neighbour. Both Jesus and St. Paul teach that complete obedience to this ‘Royal law’, as it is sometimes called, is the way to get right with God: the problem, as they also taught, is that no one except Jesus has ever been able to do so! This is why Jesus (God incarnate, God choosing to be born a man) is the only solution.  He alone is able to do what we cannot do: he alone can graciously grant us eternal life as a gift through faith in him - through our humble admission that we cannot, and our grateful faith that he can.

But this lawyer, like many people who believe they do well enough on their own and deserve, by their accumulated good deeds or their success or their fine character, to inherit eternal life, persists in his belief that he can do something to gain it. He just does not realise that it is only by God’s mercy (which comes through faith in this Jesus) that he may live and inherit eternal life. He does not want to live through faith in God’s grace and mercy: he does not even know what these are. He is too proud. He actually lives by something quite different from mercy; he lives by his own good intentions and perceived ability to present himself as a righteous man before God. Human pride is indeed a most powerful force; but  how misleading it can be!

The lawyer, wanting to justify himself, wanting to hear from Jesus the then current definition of neighbour as being ‘family and friends’ (to whom obviously he reckons he has been good and can claim such) puts his next, seemingly innocent, question.                                The parable is Jesus’ response.

Jerusalem to Jericho is a 17 mile long descent through inhospitable desert. The Crusaders later built a fort half way along the route in order to protect pilgrims from attack by robbers. In the Middle East there are a whole host of different ethnic-religious communities easily identifiable by their language, their accent, and their dress. 

The beaten up, stripped naked, man could not therefore be identified: he had been reduced to a mere human being in need. The parable assumes that each passer-by could have helped. The first, the priest – priests generally fare even less well than lawyers in the Gospels! – was not only worried about the robbers but also  about making himself ritually unclean if he even approached within a few feet of a dead man.  

Were he to become contaminated, he would be unable to perform his priestly duties, he would have to go through a lengthy process of cleansing, and there would be great social stigma incurred as a result. He would be letting down his family and acquaintances. In short, his passing by on the other side shows that he was the victim of the rule book and of peer pressure. Life for him was a love restricting codified system of do’s and don’ts.  And of course there is a safety and a comfort in such systems; which is another reason why the Gospel of Jesus Christ so often falls on the deaf ears of such people. Why? Well because it demands that we submit our cosy legalism to the risky challenge of operating outside of those comforting but debilitating social and religious constraints that prevent us from keeping the two great commandments as we ought.

He passes by, and the next passer-by’s, the Levite’s, excuses would be pretty much the same as the priest.

Jesus’ listeners would have had every sympathy with both; after all, they were simply upholding the religious and social norms of behaviour. ‘I wonder who will be next along, they ask themselves.’ Jesus could perhaps have told a story about a foolish but gallant young Jewish boy who rescues the man; but no, in choosing a Samaritan, the heretical, traditional enemy, he speaks to one of his audiences’ deepest hatreds, and painfully exposes it.

Now the Samaritan was not a gentile: he was bound by the same Torah, the same Old Testament teaching, as the Jew. But he is the one who shows compassion, the one who lives out the law as Moses and the prophets had expounded it.

Almost certainly, the Levite would have known that there was a priest ahead of him on the road: this gave him in fact a kind of perverse permission to not help the man either. The Samaritan too would have known, almost certainly, who was ahead of him and that the two had not come to the aid of the man who was very probably a Jew himself. So why should he intervene? Did they know something he does not know? But no; he has compassion on the man, ‘binds up his wounds’ (the very same language used of God’s coming to the aid of the Israelites), and takes him on to Jericho and to the inn, not only at great expense to himself but also at great danger from both robbers and Jews. The Samaritan demonstrates quite unexpected love to this stranger, this fellow human being. His race is simply not an issue. This is why this parable is such an appropriate one for Remembrance Sunday: in studying it we are shown both some of the ridiculous prejudices and hatreds that cause wars and the right response to them for anyone who would follow Jesus Christ.

Jesus will not give the Lawyer his list of things to do, nor will he state who is and who is not the lawyer’s neighbour. Rather, he re-shapes the lawyer’s question, asking him – and therefore you and me – ‘to whom must we, he, become a neighbour?’

This last statement of Jesus’ is not a general admonition to good works but simply his answer to the lawyer’s question trying to justify himself. ‘You want a list of do’s and who’s? That’s not what the law is about. Here is the standard you must meet: think of the worst religious, or social faux pas you could possibly make, not only that but at great cost and danger to yourself, and then go and do it should you find any human being in need – no matter their race, their colour, their creed, their class.

Yet here is the rub. Yes, this is the standard if you want to get to Heaven by your own efforts: but who can achieve this? Our sins are not only the bad things we do but also, and perhaps on the basis of this parable we must understand that they are much more so, the good we fail to do. And always it is a failure to love – of God or of our neighbour as ourself. But with God all things are possible. And as perhaps the lawyer and the audience were beginning to realise as they studied the ministry and teaching and claims of Jesus, here was one who acted as and claimed to be the one who could give the answers to all their questions; indeed could help them to frame their questions in the right way. ‘No one’, they were wont to exclaim, ‘ever taught like this!’

The standard Jesus taught remains, even though it is impossibly high; impossibly high for you and for me because of our essential selfishness and pride, tainted as these are by all manner of religious, social, and other prejudices.

The original audience would have been in no doubt that here was Jesus, once again, not only saying to them ‘away with all your pernicious prejudices that are the cause of the enmity between us and the Samaritans and many more besides’, but also telling them something very profound about himself. They have seen him healing people, forgiving them their sins, restoring them to life. I am sure many of them must have been asking themselves how could he tell such a story, unless....’

So today, as we remember – as we always must - those who gave their lives in order that we might live, let us remind ourselves of the pernicious prejudices and hatreds that cause wars and resolve not to allow them, whatever the cost, to get the better of us; but let us also not forget but indeed open the door of our lives to the one who laid down his life in order that we might find life in all its fullness, a life that may only be discovered through repentance and faith, and which, by walking together with the risen Christ in the way of the Royal Law, leads to eternal life.

The standard set is indeed impossible for us to achieve on our own. But God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself: he has made it possible. I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ may grant us all the wisdom to see him more clearly, the humility to accept him, and the grace to walk with him day by day and no matter the personal cost to ourselves.

STUDY/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS - Luke Chapter 17 verses 7 – 10

1. How do you see your faith and with it your discipleship of Jesus? What is important to you? Do you picture it, first and foremost, in terms of duty and service? If not, how else?

2. How would you think others/most people answer the first question? What does faith and belonging to a Church mean to them?

3. Do you think the world sees Christian faith in terms of duty and service? If not, how do you think the world views the Church today?

4. What is the sequence, so to speak, of Jesus’ thinking here for the place in the Christian’s life of ‘doing good works’? What is the relationship, as Jesus and the New Testament writers present it, between faith and good works?

5. There is much talk these days of the need and importance for people to have self-worth and self-esteem. Where do people look for them and how do they attempt to build them? Are they always healthy? How might a Christian understand these concepts? Where ought Christians to seek such things? How important are they? Can they be an obstacle to growth in spiritual maturity?

6. Closely related to the concepts of self-worth and self-esteem is the need to be appreciated. This is in one sense an aspect of the need to be loved; but is it always spiritually healthy? What exactly is Jesus trying to help his disciples to understand in the passage?

Luke Chapter 17 verses 7 – 10 ‘The Parable of the Obedient Servant’

Last Sunday we explored the very well-known parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector. It is certainly one of the most well-recognised of the parables, even if its message is not always the most well understood or, more importantly, taken to heart and acted upon! As with so many of Jesus’ parables, we discovered there both challenge and encouragement: challenge to the self confident and to those who like to advertise themselves to others; encouragement to those who are honest enough and humble enough to realise that they need God’s mercy if they are to be reconciled to him - something, says Jesus, we all must do, regardless of any social or intellectual advantages, lest by failing to do so, we disqualify ourselves from Heaven.

This week we encounter a parable, the Parable of The Obedient Servant, with a significance that far outweighs the attention it usually receives. I think in part at least that is because the parable serves as a stark and sobre reminder to the disciples - and therefore to you and to me - about our position and responsibilities vis-a-vis our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: it is certainly a clear rebuttal to any who have too pally an idea of their relationship with God.

There is a tendency in some churches these days to avoid the reading or discussion of some of the more challenging passages of scripture like this one for fear that they will make people feel uncomfortable about themselves and about their relationship with God, perhaps even causing them to leave and to seek a church where they may hear only an interpretation of the ‘good news’ that comforts and consoles them; one that simply confirms them in their prejudices about themselves and in their delusions about the kind of God they are prepared to worship; a God for the modern man or woman who doesn’t ask too many questions about their lifestyle, behaviour, or priorities.

This parable, however, is a sobering reminder that duty calls; and that we must have no expectation of special merit or reward simply because we have done our duty. Luke includes it, I think, because some people and even some churchgoers still today, think that by their service of God they can somehow expect some special reward or dispensation from him. I have myself heard from the mouth of more than one churchgoer, echoing the words of Louis XIV on hearing of the defeat of his army by Marlborough at Blenheim, ‘How could God do this to me after all that I have done for him.’

But whilst this parable is indeed a sobering challenge to any thoughts of special merit on our part for what we do for God, a closer examination and understanding of its cultural background in the Middle East reveals some truths that are all too easily missed in a superficial reading or understanding, truths which do indeed serve to encourage us in our discipleship of Jesus. Jesus’ first audience were his disciples, some of whom may well themselves have had servants or slaves (the Greek allows for both translations), and he is appealing here to the common Middle Eastern understanding of the master- servant relationship. V7. He expects the answer ‘Of course not!’ Now I realise that some modern clergy will quote parables such as this one to support their argument that much of the bible is no longer relevant to modern people because society is now so different from Jesus’ day: but actually it is in a profounder understanding of the servant-master relationship, not its irrelevance, that we are able to appreciate more clearly our own relationship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There are two aspects to note here.

Let me deal with the less obvious one first, the one disguised by the gap between our culture and his, though less so perhaps to those Downton Abbey afficionados among you who, for all the very real inequalities and differences between ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’, recognise nonetheless the genuine concern of compassionate souls from ‘upstairs’ for those in difficulties ‘downstairs’.    Of course, if you believe that all ‘upstairs’ were incapable of compassion, and the shortcomings of all ‘downstairs’ to have been the direct fault of those ‘upstairs’, then my parallel may well not help you. 

Certainly in Jesus’ day, the master-servant relationship implied the servant’s acceptance of authority and obedience to that authority but also – and this is the vital thing for us today to understand here - a security, sense of worth, and meaning that was deeply felt on the part of the servant who served a great man.

Now perhaps that does all sound nonsense to the modern mind and to the modern worker who has just been laid off on account of the whim or gambling instinct of some investor in the City of London; but to the Middle Eastern servant, the benefits of working for a noble master were enormous. This is the first aspect of our relationship with Jesus this parable teaches us.

That relationship is very much an appropriate model for the Christian’s relationship to Christ, especially so when we consider, with the benefit of hindsight, that our Master was prepared to lay down his life for those servants whom he came to call ‘friends’: friends indeed; but friends who understood so very deeply what it was he had done for them, so that there was never any question of making claims upon that friendship; only a desire to serve him.

The disciples, then, you and I, are called to identify with the servant of the parable. Now we need to bear in mind here two phrases in particular in order to be able to understand the second aspect of the relationship conveyed by this parable: ‘special merit’ v9 and ‘nothing owing’ v10. The parable speaks of work accomplished and its results. After all of this work, is the Master indebted to the servant? Has he, the servant, earned any special merit? Is anything still ‘owing’ to the servant? It is a question that in Jesus’ day would have produced a resounding ‘no!’ in response: of course the servant, having only done his duty, can expect no special favours. But I do not think that such a response would be so automatic these days, even in some churches: sometimes there is, instead, a sense that well, actually, I do deserve special thanks or mention for what I have done for God or for the Church. (I am assuming here, of course, we agree that everything we do in and for the Church we do for God.)

I know it is natural to want to be thanked, to be appreciated for what we do: however, in my time as, first, a churchwarden and then a parish priest, I have witnessed the dangers and the damage that, believe it or not and strange though it may seem, a preoccupation with being thanked and thanking can bring. For some individuals, it really isn’t good for their souls! For others, it is their wealth that allows them to do things for the church and for God, things which others cannot do, and therefore makes those others feel inadequate.                  

I won’t labour this point; but I do find it so refreshing, as well as a sign of spiritual maturity, when I receive a hushed word or a short note from people asking me not to thank them publicly. Just to illustrate how ridiculous it can get, one clergyman told me of how his churchwardens and PCC were so concerned to thank people for their contributions to some small fund-raising event that they actually spent more on the ‘thank you’ cards and their postage than they raised for the charity! 

You see there is a very real spiritual danger to this ‘need to be appreciated’; and I think our Lord knew this only too well, which is why he warned his disciples about the dangers of expecting special merit or mention for having done, well, simply one’s duty.

But of course this parable will not make any sense to those who cannot see that the reconciliation, the salvation, won for them by Jesus through his atoning death on the cross, does demand from anyone who has truly appreciated the cost of their freedom in Christ much more than just a sigh of relief, a token ‘thank you,’ or occasional appearance in the pew. Jesus speaks here and elsewhere in terms of duty and of service, not only because that is a fitting response but because it is also a liberating one. ‘His service is perfect freedom’; and we will not discover this unless and until we take on the responsibilities of our calling as his disciples. You can imagine how such thinking strikes the modern man and woman with their rights-based priorities and agendas - as shockingly as Jesus’ question here about the servant – ‘can you imagine?!’ No, the disciple is not to be envisaged as an employee who can work and expect payment; rather, a slave for whom the master accepts total responsibility but who also enjoys total security and who, at the same time, takes up his or her cross out of a sense of duty and loyalty and thankfulness, and not in the hope of gaining rewards. Clearly this parable is talking again about salvation and good works, but also about the related topic of motivation for service and its results. It is a demand for the renunciation of all ideas of self-righteousness or the earning of favour with God through good works.

Will we not be rewarded in Heaven? Are there not elsewhere in the Gospels passages where rewards are mentioned for the faithful? Yes indeed! Jesus promises rewards - to those who are obedient without thought of reward.   You can understand, I’m sure, how alien so much of this and Jesus’ teaching elsewhere must sound; so alien, so unfair even to many people today. That is because they have not appreciated the spiritually parlous state in which they live, nor accepted the gift of freedom so costly won by Jesus for them. 

And no one can truly appreciate the peace, the joy, and the opportunity to become more truly human, more like Jesus, until they put behind them any thoughts of merit or special mention and simply offer themselves for duty, knowing that in Jesus, and in him alone, they will find any peace, joy, fulfilment or self-esteem worth having. It is a tough message; but it is also a liberating one for those who will take him at his word, take up their cross and follow him to freedom.

Bible Study Questions (Luke 18:9-14) Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

1.      Jesus targets this parable at those who are confident in their own righteousness and who look down on other people. Do you think this problem of self-righteous people is as much a problem today as back then?

2.      How does the Pharisee’s view of himself affect his relationship with God and others?

3.      What did each man do and what was his reward?

4.      What was the rule Jesus used from which He judged these men and how can we apply this to our own lives?

5.      Is it okay to be better than others? How can we grow in righteousness without becoming self-righteous?

6.      Many people who have a religion or philosophy can be self-righteous, because they think their ways are better than others. This is also true sometimes of those who profess to be a Christian. Who can we look down on?

7.      How are people saved? Are we justified (seen as righteous) by our deeds and actions or by faith in Jesus Christ? Discuss.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18: 9 to 14)

As he often does in his parables Jesus here again uses extreme scenarios to demonstrate his point. Thus he presents us with two characters who in Jewish eyes at that time – were at polar opposites of the social spectrum.

Tax collectors were despised. They worked for the Roman authorities and were seen as collaborators. Furthermore they were invariably corrupt, collecting more tax than the Romans demanded and keeping some for themselves, often becoming wealthy in the process.

Pharisees on the other hand were highly respected by the Jewish people. They were seen as especially religious and good. They meticulously kept the Jewish law, so they thought, and prayed a lot. If anyone was going to make it to heaven, in Jewish eyes the Pharisees would be at the front of the queue.

In fact the Pharisee presented to us in this parable is extra super religious because he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of everything he gets. He actually goes beyond what was required by the law.

So Jesus’ Jewish listeners would have been shocked to hear him tell them a story in which their idea of who was acceptable to God was turned on its head.

I was trying to think of a modern day analogy to these characters. If we were to call it the parable of the Bishop and the Drug Dealer we might start to get an insight into how surprised Jesus’ listeners would have been.

Personally I think this parable has something to say about the attitude of our hearts towards other people and before God and I’d like to look at both of these strands.

Firstly let’s look at our heart attitude towards other people.

The Pharisee in this story looks down on the Tax Collector. He is proud of himself and his religious observances which make him righteous in his own eyes. Because of this he looks down on others who he considers morally and socially inferior.

I wonder if some of us can be a bit like this sometimes. Perhaps in our own eyes we are quite moral or religious people who have certain standards and we do therefore tend to look down on others who don’t come up to our standards.

Perhaps a bit like the Pharisee we are proud of our own way of being a Christian and we look down on those of other denominations who in our eyes haven’t got it quite right.

The Pharisee lists those he looks down on. Robbers, evildoers, and adulterers.  I wonder who might be in our list?

Rather than being morally or religiously proud, perhaps we are socially or intellectually proud. 

Perhaps we look down on people because of their social standing or because they are less intelligent than us.

What is our heart attitude towards others like? You see if we view others from a proud standpoint we will tend to treat them accordingly. We will tend to be rude and judgmental and impatient with them.

However if we view others with a degree of humility we will tend to treat them with dignity and respect and patience.

I think that when we realise our own shortcomings and see that we ourselves are far from perfect we become more patient with the failings of others.

Paul says in his letter to the Philippian church; “in humility consider others better than yourselves. 

Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of the others.  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.”

The root of the Pharisee’s problem however in addition to having a proud heart, is spiritual blindness and a basic misconception that very many people still have today, which is that he can make himself holy and righteous through his own efforts.

Many people I talk to believe that God will judge us according to how good a person we’ve been. 

They believe that so as long as they go to church now and again, perhaps give a bit of money to charity and do nothing too bad they’ll be OK. They believe that God keeps a record of our good deeds and when we get to the gates of heaven he’ll let us in provided the good deeds outweigh the bad.

But this is not at all what the bible teaches.

The bible teaches that all human beings are infected by sin which came into a world that God had initially created to be perfect. This is what the story of Adam and Eve is about. Adam and Eve are tempted to disobey God by the devil and in so doing allow sin and death into the world.

Biblically, sin is falling short as in an arrow falling short of a target. It’s not only doing bad things we know we shouldn’t do but also failing to do good things we know we should.

So since the creation of the world mankind has been afflicted by what the bible calls our sinful human nature. This is the desire to please ourselves rather than God, and to go our own way in life without reference to God.

Every single human being who has ever lived – apart from Jesus - has this sinful nature inside them and it is this which alienates and separates us from God, because it causes us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hate, to commit adultery, even to murder, and so on.

Paul tells us that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Our sinful human natures are the root of mankind’s problem. So although mankind may progress technologically we don’t progress morally. There is just as much conflict in the world today as there ever has been.

God however is Holy and Perfect and without sin, and heaven where He dwells is a perfect place.  If God were to allow people with sinful human natures into heaven, it wouldn’t stay perfect very long.

We can give bucket loads of money to charity, we can meditate till the cows come home; we can strive all we like to do good deeds to impress God but this won’t do anything to deal with our basic problem – our sinfulness.

If we are to be put right with God, somehow the problem of our sin needs dealing with.

So what we need is a saviour, someone who can save us from our sin and do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.

And this is why Jesus came into the world. He came to save us from our sin and to rescue us from our predicament.

Jesus endured the agony of the cross so that you and I could be put right with God.

He bore our sins in his body on the cross. He took your sin and my sin upon himself on the cross so that we could be free of it. He offered his own perfect life to God on our behalf.

And he took the punishment that should have been ours, all so that we could be put right with God and one day be free from sin.

So if we can’t earn God’s approval through our own efforts what do we have to do?

God simply asks us to repent and believe in Jesus and what he has done for us.

Repenting isn’t necessarily about putting on sackcloth and ashes. To repent means to turn around or to change direction. To stop going our own way in life and to turn towards God.

Repentance is about reaching a point where we truly start to see our need for God and for the forgiveness he offers, and are therefore prepared to invite him into our lives and to seek to live in a way that is pleasing to him.

The tax collector in this parable has come to a point in his life where he has recognised that he is a sinner and that he desperately needs forgiveness and mercy.

Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector realises that there is nothing he can do himself to atone for his sinfulness except to get down on his knees and ask for mercy.

Because his prayer and his repentance are genuine, God hears him and forgives him.

His body language reflects humility and how sincerely he feels the need to be forgiven. He feels unworthy to even approach God so he stands at a distance. He doesn’t look up to heaven but bows his head and beats his breast.

His heart attitude is totally opposite to that of the Pharisee.

The most amazing bit of this parable is that Jesus tells us that he goes home justified. To be justified means to be declared righteous.

This act of falling on his knees in genuine repentance realising his own sinfulness, and asking God to be merciful to him, results in him being forgiven and put right with God.

He hasn’t fasted twice a week or given a tenth of his spices like the Pharisee; he’s simply come before God with a humble and repentant heart and asked for mercy. And he’s found it.

And this is what God wants us to do.

God is filled with mercy and compassion towards us. He wants to forgive us. That’s why he came to earth in the body of Jesus to save us. That’s why He gave his life for us.

But before he can forgive us, we must come before him with a humble and repentant heart and recognise our desperate need to be saved and forgiven.

So today if you are trying to earn God’s favour and to impress him by doing good works, by giving money to charity or by coming to church even, realise that these things although commendable, won’t save you. They won’t make you righteous in God’s sight.

The only thing that can save you and make you righteous in God’s eyes, is Jesus’s sacrifice of himself on the cross for you – his blood spilt for you and his body broken for you.

Listen to what John writes in his gospel.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Now I don’t want to leave you with the impression that how we live our lives isn’t important and that doing good deeds and giving money to charity doesn’t matter.

Of course these things matter but our motivation for doing them shouldn’t be to earn salvation or forgiveness. Rather we should do them as an outworking of our gratitude for what God has done for us in Jesus.

We express our love for God and our gratitude for what he has done for us by being obedient to his commandments and seeking to love those around us.

Indeed James tells us in his letter that good works should follow salvation; that those who have genuinely repented and have found forgiveness should show the authenticity of their repentance by the lives they lead and the deeds they do.

So to conclude, salvation and being put right with God, is a gift of God’s grace. It’s not something we can earn or deserve.

As Paul; says in his letter to the Ephesians; “It is by grace that you are saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

This is the gospel – the good news; that Jesus has done everything necessary on the cross for you to be put right with God for eternity. As you come to him with the same attitude as the tax collector in this story, recognising that you are a sinner and genuinely seeking forgiveness with a repentant heart, you too will find grace a mercy, a loving God with his arms open wide towards you, eager to forgive you and to welcome you into his family.

Amen.

Lets pray.

In a few moments of quiet thank Jesus for dying for you on the cross so that you can be forgiven and put right with God.

If there is anything particular you want forgiveness for – however bad it may seem to you - lift it to God now and ask him to forgive you.

Now silently in your hearts, in your own words ask God to justify you – like he did the tax collector – to save you and to put you right with himself