Note: Since this message was presented in the form of a table that summarized the two reasons for coming to church some formatting may not look right.
Let me begin with a question this morning. I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so I’m not going to ask you for a show of hands or ask you to answer out loud. But this is a question I want to encourage you to think about honestly:
Why did you come to church this morning?
The parable that we’re going to look at this morning deals with exactly that question. So let’s get right to it. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 18 and follow along as I read the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector beginning in verse 9:
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Luke 18:9-14, ESV)
Before we begin to see what we can learn from this parable, I need to take a moment to clear up a common misconception that threatens to get us off track.
Because of how Jesus often addressed the Pharisees and their motives, we tend to have a pretty negative view of them. But in the first century in Palestine, they were actually among the most respected and admired people in that culture. If you had taken a poll of the most respected occupations in that society, the Pharisees certainly would have been at or at least near the top of the list. And tax collectors would have no doubt been at the very bottom.
IRS agents certainly aren’t among the most loved people in our culture, but even those who have abused their powers to target certain individuals and groups in our country are not nearly as despised as the tax collectors of Jesus’ day.
The tax collection system of that time was a whole lot different than today’s. There was no tax withholding from your paycheck. You didn’t just send in a form once a year and pay any additional taxes you owed. When you went to the market, the merchant didn’t just add sales tax to the amount of your purchase and later remit it to the government. And nobody had an escrow account from which their property taxes got paid.
Instead, the Roman government, which was particularly despised by the Jews, would basically sell “franchises” to Jews who were willing to work as tax collectors. The Roman government would establish the amount of taxes that the tax collector needed to collect from the area for which he was responsible and the tax collector got paid, so to speak, by keeping whatever taxes he could collect on top of what he had to give to the Romans. So most of these tax collectors operated by deceit, extortion, threats of physical violence and whatever other means they had at their disposal to collect the maximum amount they could from their fellow countrymen.
Not surprisingly these men were despised by their fellow Jews for two reasons. First, they were helping out the Roman government that the Jews loathed. And secondly, they were exploiting their Jewish brothers and sisters for their own personal gain.
So, in order to illustrate His point in this parable, Jesus chooses two people from the opposite extremes of the social ladder – the respected Pharisee and the reviled tax collector. Although these two came from completely different places, they both have something in common – they are both Jews and they both “go to church”. But as the parable reveals, they go for completely different reasons and they leave with completely different results.
A few minutes ago I asked you to think about why you came to church today. And although there are probably quite a few different responses among us to that question, I would suggest that all those answers really boil down to one of two reasons:
The two reasons people come to church:
1. To impress God
2. To be impressed by God
It’s not too hard to figure out which of the two came for each of those reasons. Obviously the Pharisee came to impress God. The underlying Greek in verse 11 is a little ambiguous, so we can’t tell for sure if it means, as the ESV translates it, that the Pharisee was standing by himself and praying to God, or if, as the NASB and KJV translate it, he was standing and praying to himself.
Given the context, it seems possible to me that both are true. We know from historical records that when the Pharisees went into the temple they would often separate themselves from the others there, who they considered to be “unclean”. So it’s certainly possible that this Pharisee was trying to impress God with his personal righteousness by separating himself from the “sinners” who were also in the temple.
But it also seems that there is a sense in which the Pharisee is praying to himself. It’s unclear from the parable whether his prayer was actually heard by others in the temple or not. But there is little doubt that he is putting on a demonstration for others that He thinks will also impress God.
On the other hand, the tax collector came to be impressed by God. He stood far off, not because he didn’t want to defile himself, but because he feared he might defile others. He understood that compared to the absolute holiness of God, he was unworthy to even be in God’s presence. He came, not to impress God or others with his righteousness, but to beg for God’s mercy.
This parable is quite straightforward and simple, so I’m not going to try and stretch out this sermon just to fill up time. It seems to me that a better use of our time this morning is for me to just make a few observations about the parable for us to consider and then to spend the rest of our time this morning following the example of the tax collector and taking some time to just be impressed by God.
Those of you who like nice logical, linear sermons are going to love this one. As you can see, I’ve given you a nice simple table that you can fill in as we contrast these two approaches to coming to church.
If I come to church…
To impress God To be impressed by God
I will focus is on what I do
(or don’t do) I will focus on who God is
The Pharisee is completely focused on himself. In his prayer he actually has the arrogance to thank God that he is not like all the other sinners from whom he has separated himself. He doesn’t engage in the “big” sins like extortion or adultery and he certainly doesn’t exploit his own people like the tax collector. And just for good measure, he also makes sure to tell God about all the “good” things he is doing as well. He fasts twice a week even though the Jewish law only required him to do that once a year on the Day of Atonement. And he gives tithes of all he gets which is also more than the law requires. But it occurs to me that he must have a pretty low view of God if he figures that God wouldn’t already know that or that he somehow needs to remind God of how righteous he is.
The tax collector, on the other hand, is focused on God. That leads us to the second contrast we see:
If I come to church…
To impress God To be impressed by God
I will focus is on what I do
(or don’t do) I will focus on who God is
I compare myself to others
I compare myself to God
Compared to other people, the Pharisee actually was much more righteous than most of the other people in that culture. As I mentioned earlier, we tend to look down upon the Pharisees, but even the tax collector would have readily admitted that this Pharisee was much more righteous than he.
But the tax collector didn’t really care how he compared to that Pharisee. Because his focus was on God, he compared himself to a holy God, not to other people. This difference leads us directly to the third contrast we can see in this parable…
If I come to church…
To impress God To be impressed by God
I will focus is on what I do
(or don’t do) I will focus on who God is
I compare myself to others
I compare myself to God
I will become prideful
I will become humble
It’s interesting that in this parable, neither the Pharisee nor the tax collector looked up as he prayed. But they failed to do that for completely different reasons. The Pharisee was too proud to look up; the tax collector was too humble to do that.
The words of C.S. Lewis are quite appropriate here:
A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you."
The fourth contrast deals with how their motivation for going to church affected their closeness to God:
If I come to church…
To impress God To be impressed by God
I will focus is on what I do
(or don’t do) I will focus on who God is
I compare myself to others
I compare myself to God
I will become prideful
I will become humble
My religion will
hold God at a distance My relationship will
draw me near to God
Because of our familiarity with this parable and with the gospel in general, I think we often miss just how radical this parable was to Jesus’ audience. Nobody, not even the tax collector, would have expected Jesus to say that he and not the Pharisee, was the one who was justified, or made right before God. Everyone knew that the Pharisees meticulously observed the law and carried out their religious activities far better than anyone else.
But in his book, Parables from the Back Side, I think J. Ellsworth Kalas gets at the heart of this parable when he writes:
…the Pharisee was using religion to hold God at a safe distance and other humans at a level below. God wanted a place in the Pharisee’s heart; the Pharisee wanted to give God a place in the ritual. God wanted truth and sincerity within; the Pharisee wanted a set of rules he could follow.
On the other hand, the tax collector wasn’t nearly as interested in religious ritual as he was with pursuing a relationship with God in which he could humbly just be himself before God without any pretentious religiosity. And, as a result, he is actually the one who was drawn near to God.
Finally, there is one last contrast, and it’s a crucial one:
If I come to church…
To impress God To be impressed by God
I will focus is on what I do
(or don’t do) I will focus on who God is
I compare myself to others
I compare myself to God
I will become prideful
I will become humble
My religion will
hold God at a distance My relationship will
draw me near to God
I go away the same
I go away changed
The Pharisee left the temple the same as when he entered. In fact, I think we could even make the case that the barrier between him and God was even greater than when he arrived. He had once again missed out on God’s offer of mercy and grace because he didn’t think he needed it. He was so wrapped up in his own self-righteousness that he couldn’t understand the need for humility and repentance that would actually bring him closer to God.
The tax collector, on the other hand, went away a changed man. Even though he wasn’t particularly religious and certainly not as well educated in the Scriptures as the Pharisee, he knew enough about God to recognize his sinfulness compared to a holy God. And that led him to mourn over that sin and to have great sorrow, a fact that is demonstrated not only by the words of his prayer, but also by the action of beating his chest. And that sorrow over his sin led him to a place of repentance that resulted in him leaving the temple a changed man, one who Jesus said was “justified.”
That word “justified” is a big theological word that simply means that he was made right before God. We see once again, as we’ve seen consistently throughout our journey through the parables of Jesus, that what we do can never make us right with God. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor or deserve His salvation. The tax collector clearly understood what Paul would later describe like this:
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
(2 Corinthians 7:10, ESV)
So let me ask you again the same question I posed to you earlier: Why did you come to church today?
Did you come here as an act of religiosity in which you are trying to impress God and earn His approval and favor? Or are you here today because you want to be impressed by God and allow Him to send you away changed?
If we’re completely honest, I think most of us would admit that we probably have some mixed motives. I think most of us are here today because we really do want to focus on God and let Him reveal Himself to us and let us see ourselves as we really are and remember just how much we need Him.
But at the same time, I can’t help but think that all of us have some Pharisaic tendencies as well. And so we can be tempted to look around at others and congratulate ourselves on just how righteous we are compared to others. But when we do that, the problem is that our religion actually holds God at a distance and as a result we leave here the same as when we arrived. But I’m convinced that God never wants that to happen when we come to church.
So, as I mentioned earlier, we’re going to take some time to be impressed by God. The worship team is going to come up and lead us as we sing about God’s grace in our lives. As we do that, I encourage you to not just mindlessly sing those familiar words, but as you sing, take some time to think about what you’re singing. Take some time to consider who God is and what he has done for you. During our singing time we’re going to give you a chance to take some time to pray to God as you reflect on Him. And as you do that, I encourage you to pray like the tax collector, keeping your focus on Him and begging for His mercy and asking Him to change you. Hopefully that’s why you came to church today.
