Eleventh Sunday after Trinity - August 23, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 23, 2009)

“Confident of Righteousness”

Readings:
Psalm 50:7-23
Genesis 4:1-15
Ephesians 2:-10
Luke 18:9-14

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 18th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “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.’ 14 “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.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Jesus told the parable in our Gospel lesson to some who were in the crowd around Him. But quite frankly He knew that He was telling this parable to us all. The Pharisee in this parable would be by definition a fictional person, but his attributes are shared by all mankind. The Pharisee was confident of his own righteousness because he thought that he was made perfect in simple words like…I thank, I am not like, I fast, I give, I get, I, I, I. Then there was the tax collector who did not speak with I’s nor could he even bring himself to lift his eyes toward God. So we have a Pharisee pointing to himself for righteousness and a tax collector who couldn’t stop bludgeoning himself with the shame of his own guilt. One person declaring himself to be righteous and high and the other holding himself as unrighteous and lowly. We also know that it is God, who will always be the righteous judge. It is God who makes the determination of who is righteous and who is not righteous. And it is only by the Word and actions of God that anyone hearing this parable can be eternally..

“Confident of Righteousness”

In this parable the proud Pharisee sought to define righteousness by human standards, well better stated in the standards he set for himself. He prayed to God speaking words that reflected only the things that were of his own making. He thanked God for something that he had accomplished without any help from God. He was glad that he was not like all those other people, those bad people, he thanked God that he was not a robber, not a bad man, not an adulterer. He fasted twice in the week, although God never said how often Jews should fast. He set apart for the Lord a tenth of everything he acquired, all that he did was on his own. And in stating his righteous in this manner he failed to mention that for all, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”(Ps. 124:8) Oh but he did thank God that he was “not like other men.”(v.11)

And what of the tax collector in the parable? Jesus said, "This man went home justified rather than the other one."(v. 14) He did not justify himself, he was justified from an outside source. The story of salvation in the whole Bible is summarized in one sentence: "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6. Righteousness comes to sinful people, not by their own works or worthiness but by the grace of God through faith. Paul explains this in Rom. 4. The last vss. reads, "It was not written for him (Abraham) alone that it was counted to him, but also on account of us, to whom it is counted, to us who believe in the one who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead who was delivered for our sins and raised for our justification."

So, we could hear this parable in several levels. Don’t be like the Pharisee who thanked God that he (the Pharisee) was high and mighty, but that means he held himself above God. We could hear how lowly the tax collector was and model him as the person whom we should model our lives after. We could see this whole parable as a good guy bad guy story, and cast our angst against people who hold themselves to be high and mighty and then smiling only at those who would join us in our own stellar striving toward our own perfect Christian nature.

Or maybe we could reflect upon the suffering and death of Jesus Christ who gave us forgiveness for all our sins and reckoned unto us His righteousness to our account. That's what the tax-collector believed. He could not even bear to raise his eyes toward God because he knew of all his sin, also knew that righteousness does not come from within. This is not man’s standard, rather it is God's standard. All the prophets in the Old Testament told the people to repent of their sins. And John the Baptist also said: "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is here." When John the Baptist baptized the people, they confessed their sins. And so the tax-collector said: "God be merciful to me, a sinner."(v. 13)

Martin Luther wrote, “If you truly wish to know an individual, then you must not look at outward pious show, which any scoundrel may simulate, but you must rather assess what is righteous before God. As far as his outward life, the Pharisee is pious; in fact, one would wish the whole world were like him. But such outward piety even a scoundrel can duplicate. Therefore, don’t judge by outward appearances. You will find that hidden under such an apparent holy life is a devil’s haughtiness” (House Postil).

Under our appearances we all live according to the principle of sin. We all live under the law, and we can not keep the law of God. When we raise our own opinion to exceed the Word of God, to place our thoughts and opinions as the standards above scripture, we raise ourselves, and our opinions above God Himself. It is not the task for self appointed humble people to being down the self-indulgent, self-righteous people. God in Christ Jesus will humble those who exalt themselves.

So, be comforted that you are given Jesus Christ who humbled Himself to be born of the virgin Mary, and He was made man, and He was crucified and He died for our sins. In your baptism, in the water combined with God Word, you were brought forth as a humble sinful person, and there Christ exalted you. For He washed away all your sins. Each week as we begin the worship service we humbly seek God’s forgiveness, and He grants that to us, and in so doing He exalts us, because He said, “he who humbles himself will be exalted.” And when we confess our sins we no longer look inside ourselves to measure how the world should be. Rather we look to God and His incarnate Word Jesus Christ whose life, death, and resurrection makes the world as it always should be. Christ is the one who is exalted to the “right hand of the Father”(Acts 2:33), and that is the “highest place.”

So which of the two men in the parable are we most like? We are both. We are sinners who thank God we are not like others, we are saints who thank God that He has set us apart. Either way it is not by our own reason or strength that we can be confident of our righteousness. That can only come by the power of the One who authored the parable. For the author of the parable is Jesus Christ who has written the story of our salvation. And your story is no parable, for in fact it is the true story of how Jesus will humbly exalt you in His kingdom for all eternity. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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