August 20, 2023 The Sunday of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

Trinity 11

Luke 18:9-14

August 20, 2023

“The Power of Grace”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“What are your symptoms?” “Well, doctor, I look down on other people all the time. I complain about them. I even despise them. Some of them my own family and friends even. I’m constantly talking about other people and how annoying they are.” “Okay, I see,” the doctor says, “That’s not good. So you’re pretty proud of yourself then.” “Well, that’s just it, doctor. I’m really not proud of myself at all. I feel like I’m never good enough. I’m constantly trying to prove myself. I’m constantly comparing myself to other people and trying to be better than them. Doctor, do you know what’s wrong with me? Is there a medicine I can take?”

Yes, there is a medicine for you. A powerful medicine. A medicine that puts you at peace and gives you love for others. But it’s not at the pharmacy.

Jesus told this parable to “some who were trusted in themselves to be righteous and were looking down on other people.” Treating others with contempt. Do you know that He could’ve actually been telling this parable to His own disciples? That maybe they needed to hear it? Some of them may very well have been treating Matthew with contempt and looking down on him because he had been a tax collector. So it’s not just about Pharisees. It’s about the Pharisee in all of us.

Now for some honesty. You and I have looked down on others. We have treated other people with contempt. Even despised some people. Even said something like, “I hate her.” Lord, have mercy on us. Some of us have done it more than others. Some of us need this sermon more than others. But we all need it. We’ve looked down on our fellow man – maybe one of our siblings, someone we go to school with or work with, someone at Church, someone of another political stripe. We’ve hated them.

And we’ve done that because that Pharisee in us still struggles with trying to justify ourselves and prove ourselves. Enough isn’t good enough for us. We often feel the need to be better than others. We’ve been proud and self-righteous.

But that’s why we’re here. Because this Doctor, Jesus, is the only person in the world who can give you the medicine for self-righteousness and for treating others with contempt. Powerful medicine. Right here in the Divine Service, within the Temple of Jesus, God gives mercy. And that mercy and grace and forgiveness in His Word and Sacrament are so powerful, so powerful, that they put an end to all this foolish self-validating and self-proving and give real and true peace with God. And secondly, the grace of God is so powerful it gives you true love, not contempt, for everyone around you.

Let’s take two examples of this from the readings this morning. First, Paul. He says there, “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle….but by the grace of God I am with I am.”

Now before the grace of God, Paul was a “Pharisee of Pharisees” by his own admission. He looked down on everyone because no one, in his eyes, was as good as him. He gladly stood there while St. Stephen was stoned to death and thought, “He deserved this.” He would go around house to house dragging Christians away, trying to trick them into blaspheming, so that they could be put to death. He was an evil man, proud and self-righteous, who despised and hated others.

Until the grace of God appeared. This powerful medicine of mercy. He was struck down and humbled on the road to Damascus and Jesus put him in a new place, in the place of the Tax Collector, beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Look how powerful the grace of God is. Paul goes from a guy who thinks he’s better than everyone, dragging people off to be killed, to a guy who says, “I’m unworthy to be called an apostle.” That’s the power of forgiveness. He goes from the Pharisee to the tax collector. Paul went from a guy who thought no one was good enough to a guy who thought everyone, everywhere needed to hear the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. He trusted in Christ, not himself, and he loved everyone.

That’s the power of grace. Now for a negative example, Cain. Cain struggled with social comparison syndrome before those words even existed. He struggled with social comparison syndrome before there was Facebook or Instagram or TikTok. Social comparison syndrome is a title they’ve now given to this phenomenon where you’re continually comparing yourself to others, especially on social media, and feeling that you must compete all the time to be better than others.

Cain pulled out his phone and saw Abel’s Instagram photo. He saw Abel there offering his animal sacrifice to God with a smile on his face. He saw Abel’s caption, “The Lord provides.” And Cain became very angry. He hated Abel. And God called out to Cain to give him the powerful medicine of mercy. He said, “Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen? Sin is crouching at the door…you must rule over it.”

There was an answer for Cain. If Cain simply bowed his head, beat his breast, and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” God would’ve given him that powerful grace and mercy right there, to rule over his sin. And Cain could’ve seen, “Hey, God loves both me and my brother, Abel. And God provides for both of us. And I’m no better than Abel and he’s no better than me. I love my brother. He’s just happy that the Lord is so good and I’m happy that the Lord is so good too.” And they lived happily ever after, right?

No, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Just as Paul had hated and killed Stephen and other Christians. Just as we have tried to justify ourselves, have tried to make ourselves right, and how we’ve looked down on others with hatred.

But there is an answer. There’s a medicine. The blood of Abel cried out to God for vengeance against us. But the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than Abel. The blood of Jesus cries out for our forgiveness. For mercy and grace. And God gives you that mercy and grace right here in the Divine Service. In His Word and here at the altar.

Now earlier in this service we stood far off and said, “Together as His people let us take refuge in the infinite mercy of God, our heavenly Father, seeking His grace for the sake of Christ and saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Do you hear that? We took the exact words of the Tax Collector in the parable and made them our own. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And then we said together, “Almighty God, have mercy upon us, forgive us our sins, and lead us to everlasting life. Amen.” And that’s what God is doing here. Forgiving us. We Pharisees, who have tried to justify ourselves, who have looked down on others with contempt, we took the place of the Tax Collector and asked for the medicine of mercy. And God has given it.

A little side note here, this morning, about why we use the liturgy. I wrote a short little article in the sermon insert about this also. The Tax Collector is a perfect example of why we continue to use the liturgy just as Christians have been doing before us for thousands of years. The liturgy keeps us from being the Pharisee. The Pharisee in us wants to come in here to worship and say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you God that you are so great and that I’m so great too.” A lot of worship today that’s called “praise and worship” ends up being very much like the Pharisee. It starts with how good and great God is but quickly evolves into thanking Him for how good and great we are. It becomes a big praise and glory fest of ourselves. We become the center of attention – my praise and my worship – rather than God and His grace.

The liturgy has place to tell God how great and good He is also. But in the liturgy the main focus is kept on God’s grace in His Word and Sacraments. So we start with Confession of our sins and with the Kyrie, “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.” The liturgy keeps the main thing the main thing – it keeps the first things first. And that’s God’s Word and Sacrament. Because that’s the healing medicine for us Pharisees. Beware of any church that starts going away from the liturgy. Even in small respects. There’s a reason Christians have been using the liturgy for all these years.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector are really the same exact person. They’re both sinners just like us. Equally sinners. And the liturgy helps to take us from the Pharisees that we are to the Tax Collector we need to be who begs for mercy and grace.

The Pharisee in us must be killed. All of our excuses and self-justification. “Oh, I fast twice a week and give tithes of all that I get.” Big deal. God isn’t impressed. He’s also not impressed with us who give about 1% of what we get in offering. I can’t say this for a fact (because I don’t know all of your incomes) but I’m fairly confident that hardly any of our members actually give a full 10% of their annual income in offerings. I’m also nearly certain that hardly any of our members fast twice a week. And yet would we be arrogant before God like the Pharisee?

That Pharisee in us must be killed. Drowned in the waters of our Baptism. Washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. So that the healing medicine of Jesus Christ, His Word and Sacraments, may exalt us like the Tax Collector. Like Matthew the Tax Collector and Zaccheus the Tax Collector and like Paul the murderer turned apostle.

Lord, have mercy on us. That’s what we pray right here and now. Let’s pray. “Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us our sins. We admit it. We’re not good enough. Other people are much better than us. We admit it. But you love us. You have given us Your Son. You invite us to Your table here where we come with nothing and we go home justified. Help us to love all people, every single person as one of Your children, to treat them well and to help them in their journey to eternity. Humble us so that we may be exalted in Your grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.