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
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