25^th October 2010

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley

Lessons -- Psalm 51:1-17; Luke 18:9-14

I tell you [said Jesus], this man [the tax collector] went down to his house justified rather than the other [the Pharisee]. (Luke 18:14 RSV)

Today we come to this parable expecting the Pharisee to be the bad guy. It's obvious to us that his prayer is 'crude, bombastic and hypocritical (W Clarnette, The Year of Luke, vol 2 p49)'. He is the epitome of smug, non- inclusive, legalistic religion. Our sympathies are with the outsider.  We are conditioned to read it as a call to be tolerant of those who are different and as a judgement on narrow conservatism. 'Thank God,' we say, 'we're not pompous or hypocritical like this Pharisee.'

It was not so for Jesus' audience! The Pharisee was the good guy -- a man of impeccable piety and moral character. He would have been admired by 'conservatives' promoting 'traditional values' and 'progressives' promoting 'social justice'. He knew the law and the prophets. He is against injustice, corruption and oppression. He goes way beyond the call of duty by fasting twice a week (instead of once a year). He is generous and voluntarily pays a 10 percent GST on all his purchases. He is against sexual immorality and for the sanctity of marriage. He is a good, decent bloke. He has a social conscience and he is a pillar of his church!

In stark contrast, the tax collector is a man of dubious character. He is a Jewish agent of a repressive foreign power who is hated because he profits at the expense of his own people. He is unjust, corrupt and brutal in plying his trade. He is a good-for-nothing fraud. He is shunned at worship.

Astonishingly, the bad man is 'justified' -- the good man condemned.

This is preposterous! Those who are often in conflict with each other -- conservatives and progressives -- are both appalled by the parable.  Neither of them is prepared for such an outcome. Doesn't it mock the efforts of all sincere, devout folk and trivialise the harm done by the corrupt and unjust? It defies logic. A crook is rewarded and a saint is sent packing!

It seems so unfair, especially when the good man is genuinely thankful that God has spared him from a life of godlessness and immorality (v11).  He gives God credit for enabling him to fulfil the law by loving God and his neighbour. He is also mindful of the fact, as he looks at the tax- collector, that 'there, but for the grace of God, go I'. He is thankful to God for so graciously making him so virtuous but he recoils at grace shown to his distraught, penitent neighbour.

Why then is this just man not justified?

The positioning of the two men in the temple provides a clue. The good man 'stands in a prominent place', arms outstretched and eyes lifted to heaven, confidently thanking God for saving him from the vices so evident in his neighbour. He compares himself favourably to the bad man. The bad man, however, stands 'at a distance', eyes lowered, beating his chest, confessing his unworthiness before God (v13). He doesn't say that he is a worse sinner than others. In fact, he doesn't compare himself to anybody.  He simply tells it as it is to the One who is wholly good and just -- God.

A second clue is given in learning that the good man 'stood and prayed with himself'. In reality, his prayer is a self-righteous monologue in which his superior virtue is paraded by comparing himself to the unvirtuous man.

That is the problem! Because the good man sees no need to be forgiven for his self-righteousness, he can't identify with his neighbour's distress at being unrighteous. That is why, instead of standing with his fellow- worshipper in his plight, he stands apart from him in the very act of thanksgiving. He is not moved by the fact that his neighbour's life is in disarray but sees him as a hopeless case. He is so busy justifying himself before God that he fails to see that he, too, is justified by grace alone -- not by his pious good works.

Ironically, therefore, it is the bad man, not the self-consciously good man, who stands close to God. Unlike the good man, for whom God is merely a spectator applauding his virtue, the bad man acknowledges before God that 'he doesn't have a leg to stand on'. With heartfelt sorrow and genuine humility he faces up to the truth about himself.

As GB Caird notes, 'Two men went into the temple to pray, but only one of them prayed!' (The Gospel of St Luke, p202.) The other man was speaking to himself.

The parable illuminates the magnificence of God's grace and the terrible effects of self-righteousness. Whether we think of ourselves as 'conservative' or 'progressive', it confronts us all with our poisonous tendency to be experts on the sins of others. All too often we delight in comparing others unfavourably with us -- standing apart from them, being grateful to God for our superior virtue and incapable of sharing in their heartfelt confession.

It's not that it's wrong to stand firm on matters of social justice and traditional values. The Pharisee isn't criticised for so splendidly fulfilling the demands of the law. His commitment is exemplary!

No, his problem is that he is 'confident of his own goodness and looks down on others' (v9 JB Phillips translation). Because he doesn't see the need for him to be humble and contrite before God, he can't stand before God with his broken and penitent neighbour in his need.

The parable is unsettling to those paragons of virtue who trust in their own righteousness. And it is also liberating to those whose lives have spiralled out of control because of their unrighteousness.

As always, when the message that God's grace has come into the midst of our broken world in the words and actions of Christ is heard, everything is turned upside down.

The reversal of traditional expectations is brilliantly portrayed in the icon on the cover of order of service. (The icon can be found at <www.stlukeorthodox.com/html/iconography/publicanandthepharisee.cfm>.)

• The self-righteous man, expecting to be heard by heaven (arms and eyes uplifted), leaves the temple (eyes downcast).
• The penitent man, ashamed to look to heaven (eyes downcast) leaves the temple (arms and eyes lifted to heaven).

It is a striking portrayal of the parable -- a reminder to 'progressives' and 'conservatives' alike -- of the dreadful effects of trying to justify ourselves and dodge the grace of God who justifies us.

May each of us, personally and in our life-together as a congregation, continue to be unsettled until, in seeing our own need, we stand with, and not at a distance from, our distraught brothers and sisters who have come to their senses before God.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.