This week Jesus teaches us to be bold and persistent in prayer. He talks about grace and about the attitude we should have as we approach God. Finally, he will remind us that his earthly ministry was always meant to end at the cross.
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Luke 18 is where we find Christ’s “Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” It provides a number of lessons, namely on prayer, humility and grace. Luke’s one-sentence introduction to the parable gives us a clear picture of what it is like when our understanding is devoid of the concept of grace.
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
What are such people thinking? And what corrective would Christ offer to their error? We are now ready to understand the parable.
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The Pharisee in the story does in fact think himself to be righteous. He seems to be trusting in himself and, in his heart, treating the tax collector with contempt. The man is convinced that God must be looking upon him favorably, since he is extra holy in all that he does. No doubt the Pharisee really was more righteous than the tax collector in all of his outwardly visible behavior.
The tax collector comes to the temple with a sense of need. We might add that there is no other way to come before God. Neither gratitude nor worship make much sense if we are not needy at some deeply known level. Prayers of petition express our need most directly. A request for mercy from God is perhaps the ultimate petition, since our very lives and standing before God are hanging in the balance. At the white throne of judgment we won’t be thinking of Aunt Betsy’s headaches.
Yet the tax collector is at least confident enough to go to the temple. He is not so ashamed as to run and hide and refuse to pray. He has a basic understanding of grace and his need for it. This is the perfect place to begin.
Performance-based religion places numerous obstacles on the path to a reconciled and satisfied soul. On our bad days, we can find ourselves striving in futility in an attempt to get right with God. On our good days, we can feel confident, but deep down we are trusting in ourselves. Neither end of that spectrum leads quickly to grace.
Grace reminds us that our best behavior is still somehow tainted by sin, even if only by a sliver of a wrong motive lurking in our heart. Grace also give us confidence, when we know we have not measured up, to go into God’s presence and seek his mercy. Like the tax collector who went down to his house justified.
Your worst days are never so bad that you’re beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you’re beyond the need of God’s grace.*
– Jerry Bridges, author, Navigators staff member (1929 – 2016).
* from Bridges, 2008. Holiness Day by Day, Colorado Springs: NavPress, 19. Originally in The Discipline of Grace
In response to some grumbling by the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus gives three parables. They are that of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost (or Prodigal) Son.
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After Jesus reassured the crowd that John the Baptist was pretty much the greatest man that ever lived, the tax collectors and various others present were satisfied. Not so much the Pharisees and lawyers, who rejected Jesus after rejecting John. Jesus went on to describe their response, or the lack of one.
31 To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.
Pastors and churches like to be relevant, and that is great – to a point. There is a temptation to let our thinking run wild in that direction. We may daydream, “Well, if we can only do this, and add this, talk like this, dress like this, and change the decor to this, then …”
The responses to John the Baptist and Jesus provide some much-needed counterweight to that tendency.
It would be hard to find two personalities or presentation styles that contrasted more starkly than Jesus and John. John was famous for wearing rough clothing, preaching in the wilderness and eating mainly bugs. Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. He never seemed to turn down a free dinner or an invitation to a party. Rather than hanging out strictly in the wilderness, he wandered all over the countryside and traveled by water. He was found in the towns and cities of Galilee, in the synagogues or on the seashore, and then in Jerusalem for the holidays.
The message of both these men, however, was more or less the same. It may have sounded different, or looked different, if one looked at the messenger. But they mainly agreed that repentance from sin was needed, and that good works were a corollary to faith. Jesus drew people to himself, which John did not, but then John also pointed people to Jesus.
In the end what they said differed little. The difference was in how they said it. So what was the difference in response? Well, there was none. The same people who followed John also went after Jesus. Those who rejected John rejected Christ.
Jesus compares his detractors to children in the marketplace that won’t join the game no matter what game is being played.
“Let’s dance!” one shouts, and begins playing a flute. No response.
“How about a nice dirge!” (OK, it’s a weird idea, but Jesus is just making a point.) No response in that case either.
For those of us who are attracted to making the message relevant, let this be a caution. Sometimes, if we are faithful to the message itself, how we say it won’t make any difference.
Central Reflections 