Prayer Perspectives

November 13, 1994

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Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

Here’s a parable, a story I think we’ve rarely done justice to. Maybe we know it too well, maybe our familiarity with it has blunted the sharp edges of it. It’s almost a tame story now and yet the more you dig into it---it’s true of all the Biblical material---the more you probe, and poke, and nose around, the more treasure you find. The problem with this story is we’ve oversimplified it...We think we know it better than we do. It’s essentially a 2 character story...and we’ve turned the characters into caricatures, essentially reduced them to stereotypes.

AND IT’S EASY TO SEE HOW IT COULD HAPPEN... time goes by, you lift it out of context, you forget the historical setting...all those things blur the vividness that was there in the beginning.

And there’s really not much plot, after all... not much happens in the story---2 men go up to the Temple to pray....and you have the contrast.

It’s neat, clear, concise...We’ve heard it all our lives, heard it preached on so often we ask ourselves what else can be said about it. Isn’t it obvious? Why spend the energy and the effort to dissect and analyze what even a child can understand at a glance?

The pompous pharisee......and the humble publican; the hypocrite..............and the holy man, the popinjay..............and the penitent, the cocky....................and the contrite; the smug.........................and the self-effacing; the stuffed shirt.....and the white hat the bad guy...................and the good guy...neat contrast, all laid out.

What more needs to be added? THERE IT IS. Why bother to expound it at all? Shouldn’t we just let the parable stand in its monumental simplicity and go on to something else, place it on a pedestal, maybe, and salute it from time to time as a classic example of 2 spiritual extremes?

THIS IS A MUSEUM PIECE, NOT A SPRINGBOARD FOR A SERMON, SURELY. Why belabor the self-evident?

Or is it quite that simple, really? Could we be overlooking something? Sometimes we

miss the inner workings, the inner mysteries of the things with which we’re most familiar just because they ARE so familiar. I have an idea we’ve let it happen here.

These two men whom Jesus painted for us---and who knows whether they were actual, flesh and blood, historical men or made up men for purposes of illustration---does it matter?

Either way, they are far more than just fictional, they’re as true to life as if they were standing right now in front of us...in fact you might just see their reflections when you look in a mirror..... these two men whom He drew with such quiet simplicity are only stereotypes, straw men, caricatures when we let them become that. THEY SURE WEREN’T THAT FOR THE FIRST HEARERS. Examine them more closely and not only do their personalities grow more complex before your eyes, but the whole plot of the parable thickens.

Let’s begin with the context. You should always do that with the Bible...you should do it with all reading, for that matter, but especially the Bible.

First Century Palestine...eastern end of the Mediterranean, Roman occupied territory, society highly structured and tense....In any comparison between a pharisee and a publican in Jesus’ day, in that setting, it would always be the pharisee who came out on top...inevitably. The story doesn’t mean beans unless we see this. Far from being a bad guy, at least in public opinion, the exact opposite is the case.

A pharisee was the epitome, the embodiment, the paradigm of moral rectitude. (Paradigm is a preacher word...There are some preachers here so I like to throw in a word like that every now and then to show them I’ve read a book.)

Paradigm means model. This pharisee was a paradigm, a veritable model of virtue. A #1

first class.

A publican, on the other hand, was the quintessential villain. There was nothing lower in the minds of the people than a publican...not, of course, to be confused with REPUBLICAN which is a genre of a different sort altogether.

A publican was a tax collector, someone in that society comparable in ours to a used car salesman, or a bookie, or something... OR WORSE, EVEN.... comparable to a LAWYER--that disreputable. (I’m only kidding. What I really meant to say was lower than a District Superintendent.)

The pharisee was the honorable one in society; the publican was a scumbag. AND YET, LOOK WHO GETS THE ACCOLADE.

It’s precisely that twist, that unexpected reversal of accepted wisdom which gives the story its

punch---at least to its first hearers. Even as the point of the Good Samaritan story was

sharpened by making the hero an outcast, a nobody, a foreigner, a wetback, a Samaritan, of all things, one who in Jewish eyes was just barely a human being, so the complexity of this story, and the impact of Jesus’ probing was made more vivid by having the protagonists so entirely opposite---not only in spirit, but also in ethical conduct.

The whole thrust of the parable hinges on the fact that it was a good man, a recognized and acknowledged good man who received the censure of Jesus, and it was a thorough going scoundrel who received the praise.

As Gomer Pyle used to put it so enthusiastically, “Surprise, surprise, Sergeant Carter!”[1]

And yet, WHY SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED? AREN’T WE GETTING USED TO IT BY NOW? Jesus was always pulling stunts like this, wasn’t He....reversing, upsetting, turning upside down conventional judgements...and here it is again. Maybe it does warrant a closer look.

If that pharisee had really been simply the vain, pompous, arrogant blowhard of popular

imagination, one who never missed a chance to toot his own horn, one who never tired of putting others down, one who never let a conversation slip by without bringing “me”, and “my” into it, one who strutted, and paraded, and preened before people incessantly.... have you ever known anybody like that?.... IF HE HAD REALLY BEEN THAT KIND OF THOROUGHLY DESPICABLE PERSONALITY, then of course the parable would have a point so self-evident as to be banal. BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE PHARISEE WAS NOT.

And if the publican had really been as touchingly humble as he’s usually pictured...if he had really been the paradigm (there it is again...) if he had really been the paradigm of contrite meekness and lowly piety that we usually think of, then, again, the parable would have no zip. It would have been just another impossibly dull story of trite moralism.

BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE PUBLICAN WAS NOT.

Step up a little closer. The Pharisee...any pharisee, but especially this pharisee, I think, was a man who was in dead earnest about his service to God. This is important.

He didn’t play around with it. It was not something secondary, or peripheral to him. He took his religion seriously, with the utmost seriousness. We are told specifically that he tithed. When have you heard about that in recent weeks?

Nobody tithes casually. You don’t just slip up on that practice. It’s the result of an intentional decision. THIS MAN WAS COMMITTED...to the Nth degree. He was sincere, from the top of his yarmulke to the fringes of his prayer shawl.

We’re talking here about someone you’d want on the Finance Committee. You’d probably nominate him to lead the Stewardship Campaign....This is Mr. Integrity, Mr. Responsibility, Mr. Influence.......You can usually tell when a person’s heart is in a thing when it touches either their stomach or their pocketbook. Business is business, people are fond of saying, and for many that’s where sentiment, and often faith, too, comes to a roaring halt.

Maybe you remember the old story about the church member who said to his preacher one day, “Preacher, everybody in this church gives until it hurts. It’s just that some of us are more sensitive to pain than others.”

Well, that’s not how it was with this man. Not only did he tithe, he sacrificed and fasted, we’re told. He was serious about his faith. His obligation to God was just as real to him as the coins that jangled in his pocket.

And the publican? Are you kidding? Admittedly we have less to go on, but I think we can surmise. Here’s a tough-minded old coot... from the outside, at least, from appearances. Here’s a weather beaten, streetwise opportunist. He was in a position, with no balances to check him, to make a killing at the expense of his fellow countrymen.

Publicans were Roman appointees, they were company men. The Romans didn’t care how much extra they gouged out of the people how much beyond the limit they charged, as long as they turned in their quota. They were collaborators with an occupying power. People who did that with the Nazis during the 2nd World War got their heads shaved after the armistice by an irate citizenry. Some fared a lot worse. Treason is about as reprehensible an act as you can commit.

Publicans were traitors, who fleeced their own people to line their own pockets. Pretty unsavory stuff. No wonder they were roundly despised.

So on the ethical level, here we have it. This is the real contrast----the man of integrity..... the man of unscrupulousness; the man of impeccable morals..... the man of shady morals; the man who would do nothing out of line....the man who would do anything he could get away with. The man who contributes to the community.... the man who undermines it. The man who builds up..........the man who tears down. The man of respect....... the man of disrepute. The pillar of society......the scum of the earth. THERE THEY ARE.

And Jesus condemns THIS one and praises that one? What’s going on here? Maybe there’s something more we’re overlooking. Apparently what God sees when He looks at a person and what people see are not always the same.

And that leads to the real complexity, the heart and core of the story---WHY Jesus told it, and why it’s so penetrating....We move from context to concept. THE APPROVAL OF THE PUBLICAN AND THE DISAPPROVAL OF THE PHARISEE ISN’T BASED ON THEIR DEEDS AT ALL. We have to go deeper.

God’s acceptance or rejection, that is, whether one is in a right relationship with God or not, doesn’t depend on what you do, on your record of loving and charitable actions, or the lack of them.

It depends, simply, but, oh, so profoundly, on his GRACE, totally apart from moral worthiness, and on whether you’re willing to accept it---ON HIS TERMS.

Classical theology puts it this way: Salvation is not by works at all. It’s by FAITH. “By grace are you saved through faith.”

Both Luther and Wesley wrestled with it for nearly the first half of their lives respectively. Some of us are still wrestling with it.

I have heard that in some of the more extreme forms of fundamentalist Islam, the belief is that on the day of Judgement, the Muslim believer will appear before Allah, dressed only in his nakedness, except that around his neck there will hang a slate, divided in half. On the one half will appear a mark for every good deed performed in life, and on the other half will appear a mark for every evil or wicked deed. If there are more of the latter, the person will be plunged immediately into eternal punishment. If there are more of the former, the person will immediately enter eternal paradise. SIMPLE AS THAT!

It is not so in Christianity. Deeds alone don’t determine destiny. GOD LOOKS ON THE INSIDE, at the motive.

Not that deeds don’t matter, not that performance is peripheral, but there is something more basic---the attitude of the deed doer, the set of the soul of the performer. THAT’S WHAT GOD IS CONCERNED ABOUT, what prompts the performer. The best deeds come out of the best faith, and it’s faith that’s paramount.

That’s why Jesus always went straight for the heart. “Out of the heart,” he said, “are the issues of life.”

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

 “Seek ye first the Kingdom...” SEEK--that’s a heart word... Want, desire, yearn for, hunger for the Kingdom and all these other things will be added. He knew that if people wanted the right things, they’d follow those wants to the right choices. He knew if the motive was right, the rest would take care of itself. It was what was going on down inside, down at the center that he wanted to claim.

And here it is, so graphically reflected in the attitude of 2 men at prayer in the Temple ONE with a strong A... let’s give him an A PLUS in conduct.... but with a spirit of self-congratulation about it....

THE OTHER with an absolute F in conduct...a flunking grade there... but with a spirit of

heartfelt repentance.

Friends, there’s good news and there’s bad news... and both of them are in this story.

WHAT SHAKES ME UP MOST, I GUESS, WHEN I LOOK AT THESE TWO MEN, whose actions are so different, whose life styles are so far apart, and whose approaches to God…in prayer are so divergent....

WHAT SHAKES ME UP MOST, I GUESS, IS THAT I SEE SOMETHING OF MYSELF IN BOTH OF THEM. It’s scary!

Sometimes I am just like that pharisee... doing the right things, good things, maybe even occasionally noble things, and yet doing them, so often, for, at best, questionably reasons.

And sometimes I am just like that publican, doing unscrupulous things, and feeling terrible about it. Sure I see these two guys in the mirror, both of them, and I know Jesus was right on target.

It’s possible, isn’t it, to knock yourself out making points, to establish a splendid record, to perform an impressive number of worthwhile acts, to be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight, to earn accolades, to win awards, even to be an impact for good in your community, neighborhood and church, but to do those things not for their intrinsic value, not for their own sake, BUT FOR THE SAKE OF IMAGE.... so that people will think well of you.

Sometimes I do things from that motivation.... do you, ever?....with one eye on the chore and the other on who might be watching, with a careful cultivation of humility, so it won’t be too obvious, but it will be noticed?

Sometimes I take a kind of perverse pride in all the ways I can display my selflessness, making   I’m the first to arrive and the last to leave, going to the back of the line, not the front, staying around afterward to help clean up.... IMAGE!

Why, do you know, sometimes I may even let what I think people may think influence what I stick into a sermon.

Oh, I recognize that pharisee. I’ve prayed that prayer, too. Did you notice, did you catch the wording? Luke says, “The pharisee stood and prayed with himself---that’s the giveaway---self-communion, self-absorption, self-adulation...SELF...all focused on me. Even the next line where he thanks God is not a true thanksgiving prayer. “Thank you for making ME....

There’s a rancid smell about it, isn’t there, a sour odor of self-congratulation, as if God perhaps should be offered a tip for having helped produce such a wonder.

The bad news? We always have to hear that before we’re broken down enough to hear the Gospel: PRIDE IS THE ENEMY...ingrained, tenacious pride, the arrogance to think you can do it all yourself, the gall to believe you can handle it all.

Until you throw yourself on His mercy, without reservation, without restriction clause, then there’s no opening for His grace to get in.

Ah, but look! LOOK! The GOOD NEWS! Turn it around. If salvation, reconciliation, wholeness, acceptance---call it by whatever name you like---if communion, genuine spiritual shalom can’t be secured by works and deeds, neither will lack of them hold back the offer of His hand. If you want Him, and need Him, and ask for Him, and are willing to let Him change you, sincerely, NOTHING IN YOUR PAST IS SORDID ENOUGH TO WITHSTAND BEING DISSOLVED IN HIS TRANSFORMING LOVE. That’s the good news. You can’t be bad enough to be beyond redemption.

Isn’t that the beautiful truth of the publican’s experience? He knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on before God, but he admitted it. He confessed it. That’s the key...no sham, no pretense, no cover up. He was what he was, and he said so. He wasn’t justified because of his record, he was justified in spite of it. His record was terrible. He was justified because of his honesty, and a sincere, heartfelt repentance.

He took what he was, everything he was, the good, the bad, the indifferent, the ambiguous, the confused, the dirty, the soiled.... everything, and laid it on the line before God. AND THE GRACE OF GOD WAS SUFFICIENT. Gospel!

Have you heard it in your own life?

There may be someone here this morning with a blemished record. Maybe nobody else is aware of it. Maybe nobody else knows. BUT YOU KNOW.

Maybe you’ve been carrying around, even for years, some burden of conscience that’s lodged, still, like a lump of lead in your gut.

Maybe it’s a pattern, or a tendency, an unholy ambition, an urge, an obsession, something too strong to control with just your own resources.

Maybe it’s something you’ve done, the remembrance of a past act of unkindness, or unfaithfulness, the recollection of some cruel thing you did once to another person, and that thing now is gnawing away at you.

Maybe you let somebody down, or backed away from a moral challenge...

Maybe you did something dishonest when everything in the situation depended on your being honest, and now you regret it with every fiber of your being.

Maybe nobody else in the world is even aware of any of it, but there it sticks inside of you, churning, festering.... You may have said, “Not even God can forgive this.... not this.

He may be able to forgive other things, other people, but not me. I don’t deserve to be forgiven. I’ve done it, I have to live with it, THAT’S IT.

Listen! LISTEN! Haven’t you heard? Won’t you hear? If you think that---I don’t care what you’ve done---if you think that, look at this slimy reprobate of a publican, and take heart.

This is just about humanity’s bottom drawer exhibit, and yet God accepted him....on the spot.

This klutz didn’t have a prayer... OR MAYBE THAT WAS ALL HE DID HAVE. Grace awaits nothing more than our asking for it. If God can justify him, He can do it for you.

How did old Isaiah put it, speaking for God? “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will wash them whiter than snow.”

And wasn’t it Corrie ten Boom, who said, “No pit is so deep, but what God’s love is deeper still.” Astounding! But that’s the Gospel.

There is the possibility of redemption for anybody.... anybody... even for you and me.

Why, there is even, thank God, the possibility of redemption for a pharisee.

Two men went up to the Temple to pray.....If only the pharisee had kept his eyes shut, and looked only at God instead of around to compare himself with another human being, especially one whose heart he couldn’t see.... he might not have been so cocky. He would have been chastened, but he would have been closer home.

Yeah, I know these two men, know them only too well. In the light of God’s scrutiny, our best efforts are unworthy, but in the light of God’s love, our worst fears are unfounded.

And, by golly, if that isn’t good news, there ain’t none.

 --

[1] Gomer Pyle is a fictional character from a popular television show which ran in the 1960s.