"the Great Mercy Of God"

“The Great Mercy of God”

Luke 18:9-14

Have you ever driven past another person holding a sign “will work for food” and felt a bit of disgust or even contempt in your heart toward them…kind of like a feeling of “I’m better than you”?

Have you ever felt superior to a prostitute, a drug addict, an unhoused person, or someone who is different from you in some way?

How about someone whose sin is different than your sin?

Have you ever felt as if you were better than them?

I have.

“Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt…”

I don’t know about you, but this parable speaks to me.

I need Jesus to talk to me through this parable this morning.

I need to hear it.

I need to be convicted by it.

I need to be changed by it.

I need to be humbled by it.

The moral of this story is so clear it’s hard to miss: “Don’t think too highly of yourself like this hypocritical Pharisee; rather, be like the humbled tax collector.

But here’s the thing: whenever one of Jesus’ parables seems this clear, this simple, and this straightforward, we better be careful.

So, let’s take a closer look at these two characters.

First, the Pharisee.

In all honesty, this guy is telling the truth: he is righteous.

He lives a blameless life according to the Jewish Law.

He fasts and gives a tenth of all his income and, on the outside, he looks nothing like the repulsive folks he compares himself to.

So, what in the world is his problem?

Why does Jesus say that he goes home guilty?

While the Pharisee might be right about the kind of life he should live, he is extremely confused as to the source of that kind of life.

For while he prays to God, in truth, he is really just praying to himself.

And because he misses the source of his blessing, he despises those other people that God loves just as much as God loves him and everyone else.

He misses the most important aspect of the Law or the heart of the Law which is love for God and love for neighbor.

And so, although outwardly, he seems to be righteous according to the Law he is not.

That is, he is not called righteous by God.

For it would never occur to him to ask God to make him righteous.

He’s doing it all just fine on his own, thank you very much!

In Matthew 23 Jesus called the guys like this hypocrites… “whitewashed tombs which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of filth.”

He said they have “neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.”

I often find myself neglecting justice, mercy, and faith as well—how about you?

It’s easy for us to try and take the speck of dust out of someone else’s eye while not noticing the log in our own.

It’s easy to judge other people and miss the fact that we are guilty of the same things and often much more.

Jesus told this parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”

When we act this way we are making ourselves righteous rather than allowing God to make us righteous.

In fact, when we are acting this way, we feel we have no need for God at all.

We often call this self-righteousness.

And self-righteousness follows a common tendency to define ourselves by defining others.

What do I mean by that?

Well, instead of looking at our own selves, and our own need for improvement we focus on what makes us better than others.

Have you ever judged another driver who is either driving too slow or too fast for your taste?

Have you ever called them an idiot or worse?

Ever judge someone who is overweight or isn’t wearing what is, in your opinion, the proper clothing for whatever they happen to be doing or wherever they are?

Have you ever thought of yourself as better than someone else because of the way they talk or walk or whether or not they have tattoos up and down their arms or piercings in their nose and lips?

It’s easy to do.

It makes us feel better about ourselves, does it not?

“I’m so thankful that I’m not like them.”

And there is often a group dynamic to this as well.

It’s a kind of game we play, shoring up our group identity by joining in a chorus of condemnation of others.

Ever been in a group where people were saying “Aren’t they awful?” about another group of people or type of people or whatever?