Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God through which the Holy Spirit touches our hearts this evening is recorded in Luke 18:9-14
To some who were confident of there own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ’God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ’God have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 NIV)
This is the the word of our Lord.
Dear friends who walk with Jesus,
When a son chooses to stay and work the family farm, we may say he is walking in his father’s footsteps. To follow in someone’s footsteps means that that person is our example, our role model, our mentor.
During this Lenten season we want to walk with Jesus in his passion, but we do not want to merely follow in his footsteps. Although Jesus is the best role model, mentor, or example we will ever find, Jesus is much more. During Lent we see Jesus serve and pray, suffer and die. But our primary purpose for walking with Jesus is not to learn how to do those things. Our primary purpose for walking with Jesus is to see that he did them all for us. He did them in our place, to take away our sins. He did them as our Savior.
So our focus in Lent is not to walk with Jesus, our role model. Our focus is to walk with Jesus, our Savior.
Although many different kinds of attitudes and beliefs can claim to walk with Jesus as a role model, only one attitude can truly walk with Jesus as the Savior. What attitude is that? The attitude of repentance. In the Gospel for Ash Wednesday Jesus illustrate repentance. As we begin are Lenten walk with our Savior in his passion, we walk in repentance. That’s the theme we focus on. Walk in repentance. Walk 1) humbled by our sinfulness and 2) justified by God’s mercy.
1) Humbled by our sinfulness
As Jesus heads to Jerusalem for the last time, he continues to teach God’s Word to the people. He knew that many listening to him were confident of their own righteousness. Instead of trusting in the Lord for forgiveness, they trusted that God accepted them for who they were. To prop up their trust in themselves, they were quick to see the faults in others so that they could look down on those people and think themselves higher up.
Jesus told this parable about a Pharisee and tax collector to topple their attitude. Although, when we hear the word Pharisee ,we have a strong negative impression, in Jesus’ day it was just the opposite. Pharisees were the leading citizens. They were the church-goers. They were the ones that everyone thought did the right things.
So also the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable. He appears very religious. He is at the temple. He prayers. He says the right words: “God, I thank you.” But then the rest of his words reveal the true attitude in his heart. He doesn’t really thank God for his grace and mercy; rather, he brags about himself. Instead of comparing himself to God’s standard of perfection in the Commandments, he compares himself to the worst of mankind: robbers, evildoers, adulterers. In lovelessness he criticizes his fellow worshiper, the tax collector, as just another one of those degenerates. Then he thinks that he has done even more than enough to satisfy God, fasting twice a week and giving a tenth of all that he gets.
It wasn’t wrong for the Pharisee to do good or fast twice a week or to give a tenth of what he had. The problem was his attitude. He trusted in his own goodness and so exalted himself.
You and I can fall into the same trap as the Pharisee. We know the right words to say, like the Pharisee. We know how to appear religious, like the Pharisee did. We easily fall into this kind of thinking: “I am glad I’m not like those people you read about in the newspaper. Why can’t they behave decently. I’m glad I’m not called to the principal’s office, like so-and-so. Look, I go to church twice a week during Lent. I give a lot more in the offering plate than a lot of others do, especially considering how much they earn.”
Rather than comparing ourselves to others, look at the holy requirements of God’s Law. Love the Lord your God, not just by doing things that appear religious. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You and I have nothing to brag about. We have failed to give our God the total devotion and love that is rightfully his. We have trusted in ourselves instead of in him alone. We have loved our own comfort pleasure, and entertainment more than him. We have honored our TV’s, paychecks, families, retirement accounts, desires, recreation before him. Even when we do our best, even when we come to church and give our offerings, our hearts and minds are not totally focused on him. And what about those times we feel humble? We face the temptation to brag? “God I thank you that I am so humble.” When we look at God’s Law, we have nothing to brag about. We see our sin, our death, our hell.
The tax collector knew his sinfulness. He knew he was not worthy of anything from God. He didn’t even look up to heaven. Rather, like a mourner at an ancient funeral, he beat his chest. He grieved over his sins. May the Holy Spirit work in us the same humbleness that grieves over our sins.
2)Justified by God’s mercy
But grieve, sadness, humbleness is only part of repentance. Judas Iscariot was truly sad about his sin of betraying Jesus. He wanted to make up for it, but knew he couldn’t. He was filled with grief and humility. But he wasn’t repentant.
What is the difference between Judas and this tax collector? They have the same humbleness and sadness, but the tax collector trusts in the Lord for full and free forgiveness. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He believes that even though he is an unworthy sinner, God, in mercy, will justify him. That faith is the key in repentance.
When we take a closer look at the tax collector’s prayer, we note that the word translated have mercy is not the usually word for mercy. The word the tax collector uses, asks God to turn away from his just anger because of a payment that has been made.
What payment is sufficient to turn away God’s anger from a sinner? Not any amount of good that we can do. No amount of sadness or crying or remorse on on our part. No sacrifices that we make. No prayers that we say no matter how sincere. No amount of asking or pleading or begging. No degree of humility on our part. What payment alone is sufficient to turn away God’s anger from us sinners? Only the blood of God the Son. Only the perfect sacrifice of himself that Jesus made. Only the holy Lamb of God slain on the cross for you, for me, for all – yes, even for robbers, evildoers, and adulterers – even for the tax collector.
The sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, was what all the animal sacrifices in the temple pointed forward to. So as the tax collector saw the sacrifices in the temple, he trusted in the sacrifice of the coming Savior. He knew that only the Savior could take away his sin so that God would not be angry but merciful.
The innocent sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is the only basis for the holy God to declare a sinner justified, not guilty, acquitted. Trusting in the Savior’s sacrifice, the tax collector went home justified, forgiven, because of the payment Jesus would make to satisfy God’s justice and turn away his anger.
The Pharisee did not receive forgiveness. Jesus’ sacrifice was for him too. Jesus paid for all his sins. But the Pharisee was too filled up with his own imagined goodness that he did not have room in his heart for Jesus and his forgiveness. What a rude awakening he will have in God’s courtroom when the rickety ladder of his own goodness crumbles beneath him and he falls!
So we see that the only reason the Holy Spirit humbles us with God’s Law is to empty us of our own imagined goodness so that he can fill us up with the Good News that Jesus has fully paid for all our sins and that God has freely justified, or forgiven, us. This is what repentance is all about. In repentance, two attitudes walk hand in hand: Humility and faith. For you see, the Greek word for repentance means “a change of mind.” In repentance the Holy Spirit changes our mind about sin so that we humbly confess our worthlessness, and he changes our mind about God, so that we trust that Jesus has fully paid for our sins so that God freely justify and forgives us..
Walk with your Savior in repentance. Walk with him as you fill your heart and mind with the Good News of what he has done for you. Picture yourself in God’s court room. The Law clearly shows that you are guilty. But the Judge hands down the verdict: “Not guilty!” How can this be? Instead of punishing you, the Judge has punished his own Son in your place. As you see Jesus hanging on the cross, marvel at his great love that suffers all this for you and for me, sinners though we are. When you see Jesus risen from the dead, rejoice in God’s verdict, “You are not guilty because Jesus has fully paid for all your sins.” As you receive Jesus body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, remember his death, the only payment that has turned away God’s anger and brought you his mercy. Then like the tax collector, go home forgiven, justified. Amen.
