Are You Surprised?
Luke 18:9-14
August 23, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
There’s a problem with the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The problem is that it doesn’t surprise you. From your years of Sunday School and listening to sermons you know that Pharisees are bad. You picture them coming on stage with sinister mustaches while the audience “boos” and “hisses.” They are the guys who antagonized Jesus, had him arrested and forced his conviction and execution.
You don’t know enough about the Tax Collector so you give him the benefit of the doubt. At least he’s humble. He knows he’s a sinner so he should leave the temple forgiven or as Jesus says, “justified.”
You’re not surprised by this parable because you have judged a whole group of people, the “Pharisees,” by the actions of a few. I hope you don’t do that with police officers or black Americans. Imagine the kind of trouble that would lead to. Oh wait, you don’t have to imagine, do you? If you’re not surprised by this parable you didn’t get it.
Let’s revisit the parable for a moment in the hopes of surprise.
Not all Pharisees were bad. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were Pharisees and they risked their lives to claim the body of Jesus and bury Him after He died. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee and he wrote the majority of the New Testament.
The Pharisees were the equivalent of really good church members. Imagine a young man heads off to college and the first thing he does is to find a solid Lutheran church to attend. He goes every Sunday. He wears a suit or at least a tie. He joins the church, gives 20% of his meager income from delivering Jimmy John’s, and volunteers to organize the youth group. When he starts dating your daughter he promises you that he will be chaste and decent in his conduct and won’t even kiss her until they are married. If we had Pharisees today you would want your daughter to marry one and your church would be delighted to have a few.
Now the tax collector. Imagine a convicted sexual predator moving into our neighborhood and then coming to Redeemer week after week. He served 10 years in prison for his crimes. His wife divorced him. His children hate him. He doesn’t have a friend in the world and when anyone finds out who he is they shun him. Your attitude toward that predator is similar to how the Jews looked upon a tax collector. The Tax Collector worked for Rome, but was likely a Jew. He collected taxes for an occupying power and padded his own pockets in the process. If Germany had won World War 2 and taken over America and you went to work for Hitler collecting taxes for the Reich how would your neighbors and friends have treated you? Now you might be getting the picture.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. One man you want your daughter to marry and one man you never want in your neighborhood. One man who was good and I mean excellent. The other man evil and despised by all. In every religion except Christianity the story ends the same way – no surprises. Good men are God’s men and bad men are of the devil. Good men get rewarded with life and God’s blessings. Bad men suffer and get what they deserve. Surprise! Not with Jesus. In the Kingdom of God men who think they are good are in the devil’s grasp, while men who confess their evil are justified before God through faith in Christ.
The Pharisee was full of himself while the Tax Collector’s soul was emptied by the sin he had committed and the conviction of God’s law. The Pharisee believed he earned everything. The Tax Collector was a sinner who deserved nothing. The Pharisees confessed himself – I thank you that I am not like other men. The Tax Collector confessed Jesus. He would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Everyone admired the Pharisee except Jesus and no one loved the Tax Collector except Jesus. Surprise.
There’s another surprise in this text that you can’t see. It’s only visible to Pastors who are really smart and studied Greek. The word this man uses for “be merciful” is not the normal word Greek word for mercy. You might know that word from the liturgy — “eleison” as in “Kyrie eleison.” The word used here is “atonement” or “propitiation” and is tied to the Old Testament word for the cover of the Ark of the Covenant – the mercy seat.
The tax collector was basically saying, “Lord, if I have any hope, You will have to atone for my sins.” This is not only a good confession, but a good confession of Jesus. God put His Son forward as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (Rom 3:25). Jesus is God’s final mercy seat – the place where God dwells, the place where God makes the payment for your sins. Jesus is the Lamb whose blood marks the wood of the cross so that death passes over you. He is the scapegoat on whose head your sins are placed and who is cast off into the wilderness of hell carrying your sins away. He is the fulfillment of every dove, goat, and bull sacrificed in the Old Testament.
Sin will kill you. You probably have noticed that. Sin breaks and busts and destroys every good thing on earth. Ultimately you too will be six feet under some good Minnesota soil. Jesus takes your sin and therefore your death. His flesh is God’s own flesh. His blood is God’s own blood. He is true God and true man, so that when His body breathes its last and His blood pours from His side your sin and death and hell are finished – just as He declared.
When Jesus was raised from the dead it was for our justification. That’s how Jesus describes the Tax Collector’s condition. This man went home justified. “Justified” is one of our favorite words as Lutherans so we should know what it means. God has declared you right / justified with Him through the work of Christ. When you believe that you have that. Your justification, your right standing before God is based on Christ not on you. It doesn’t matter if you are a Pharisee or a Tax Collector – whether you’re outwardly good or outwardly vile. Christ Jesus died for sinners – all of them, even you, for all sins, even yours. Whether you feel it or act like it, by Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection you are justified.
That should surprise you. If you’re a good person it should surprise you because you’re not good. If you were good the Son of God could have stayed in heaven and off the cross and there wouldn’t be any pandemics, hospitals, or cemeteries. If you’re a Pharisee repent – because if you’re not a sinner Jesus didn’t need to come, but He did because you are. If you’re a Tax Collector who has committed unspeakable sins, vile thoughts that you’re glad no one has heard, sins of your youth that have stained your conscience, then look down no longer. Lift up your eyes and rejoice because God has atoned for your sins in the blood of Christ. Not surprisingly we are both Pharisee and Tax Collector which is why life in the Kingdom of God is one of continual repentance for our sins and rejoicing in the justification that is God’s gracious surprise for us in the name of Jesus. Amen.