God, I thank You, that You cover me with Jesus.

 

Sermon for Trinity 11, August 15, 2021

Grace, mercy, and peace to you all from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Luke 18:9–14  ⁹Jesus told this parable to certain people who trusted in themselves (that they were righteous) and looked down on others: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple courts to pray.  One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.  ¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  ¹²I fast twice a week.  I give a tenth of all my income.’  ¹³“However the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but was beating his chest and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  ¹⁴“I tell you, this man went home justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (EHV)

God, I thank You, that You cover me with Jesus.

Dear penitent sinners,

            As we consider this text, the absolute worst thing any of us could do is to think we are better people than this Pharisee.  Naturally, it would be easy for us to think we would never act so proudly arrogant as he did.  Who could be so cocky and bold to brag before God that he is so much better than his neighbors?  Yet, I suspect that if God was willing to testify against us, that is exactly what we would hear ourselves saying in our daily lives:

“God, I thank You that I am not like that drunk driver who killed those kids.  God, I thank You that I am not like that jerk who so piously sits in church every Sunday then goes home to beat his wife, or cheat on her.  God, I thank You that I am not like that gossipy old lady down the street (you should hear what she told me yesterday).  God, I thank you that I am not like those politicians who tell us how to live but don’t do the same themselves.  God, I thank you that I am not like that drug dealer who causes so many people so much trouble.  God, I thank you that I am not like that cop who pulled his trigger too quickly.  God, I thank you that I am not like that girl who sells drugs, or her body.  God, I thank You that I am not like that man who gets his girlfriend pregnant but then abandons her.”

It doesn’t take very long at all to see that most of us “good” people find it very easy to judge others’ faults, even while we are quite willing to overlook our own.  It may be that we are not so perfectly humble as we would hope to be.

On the other hand, it would also be easy for us to hear this parable and imagine that Jesus is telling us just to humble ourselves like that tax collector, as if should we have virtuous humility, God will overlook every fault and welcome us into heaven as we are.  This parable is easily misunderstood to mean that God doesn’t hold firm to actual justice.  There are modern-day theologians who preach just that.  Repent and God doesn’t care what you do.  But, is that true?  Could our questionable humility actually cover our great guilt?  Not when God says, “You therefore shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45)

Jesus rightly condemned that Pharisee’s prayer because that man wasn’t actually confessing anything before God other than his firm belief that God should be proud of the Pharisee’s obedience of law.  Indeed, the man was proud of himself and his efforts.  Modern sociologists and psychologists would be duly impressed by that man’s self-esteem, but it won’t ever hold up in God’s courtroom.

The tax collector, however, is the complete opposite; he simply begged, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  Whenever an Israelite came to the temple to plead for forgiveness, it was expected, even commanded, that he would bring a sacrifice to offer to the Lord, a sheep, or goat, or perhaps a young bull, or whatever it was they could afford.  The animal gave its blood for the sin of the one making the offering.

Jesus didn’t say whether either of those two men offered that typical sacrifice, but it would be unlikely for either to neglect it.  The Pharisee would have made the offering proudly to fulfil the law.  Yet, the tax collector would have brought that lamb knowing full well what the writer to the Hebrews later explained, “Nearly everything is cleansed with blood according to the law.  And, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:1)  All those Old Testament sacrifices made it clear that God doesn’t forgive just because He is a softie who doesn’t really care about sin and justice.  Instead, God is perfectly just in His judgement that “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)  And, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” (Ezekiel 18:20)

At the same time, it is clear from that tax collector’s plea that he knew the blood of his sheep couldn’t clear him before God.  Whatever sacrifice he had made, that man knew it could never be enough.  Yet, the tax collector came before the Lord, sorrowful for his sin, knowing nothing he offered would make it right, but simply pleading for God to overlook the guilt because of a greater sacrifice God had promised.

The true Old Testament religion God had given the Israelites pointed them toward the Savior to come.  The writer to the Hebrews explains, “The fact is that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.  Therefore when he entered the world, Christ said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me.  You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings.  Then I said, “Here I am.  I have come to do your will, God.” (Hebrews 10:4-7) 

Because all of mankind has sinned, all of mankind deserves death and everlasting punishment.  God in His mercy, however, allowed one perfect, righteous Man, His own beloved Son, to humble Himself in true humility so that He could become the substitute for the world’s deserved punishment.  In other words, “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

When Jesus judged the prayers of that Pharisee and the tax collector, He said, “I tell you, this man went home justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  The tax collector wasn’t justified because of the value of his humility, or for the perfection of his confession.  He was justified because he relied solely on the righteousness of the One truly humble Man, who we know as Christ Jesus.  Through faith, Jesus’ blood covered that tax collector’s guilt, and Jesus’ blood covers your guilt and mine as well.  Therefore, because of Jesus, you and I can go down to our houses, like that tax collector, praying God, I thank You, that You cover me with Jesus.

The point of this parable is that no sinner deserves God’s kindness, yet when we despair of anything in ourselves and simply rely on God for mercy in Christ, He gladly grants us forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.  Confirming this, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

One other aspect of this parable we might consider is the status of those two men.  That Pharisee was likely well respected in society.  He was everything the people thought someone should be.  He had respect, money, power, and important friends.  Most of the people of Judea would have considered him a good man to emulate.

The tax collector, on the other hand, was an outcast in Jewish society.  Oh, he likely had money and perhaps lots of it, but his fellow Jews considered all tax collectors to be thieves and traitors.  Good Jews wanted nothing to do with them.  Whether he cheated his neighbors or not, the people counted him a traitor for collecting taxes for Rome.  Therefore, the Pharisees often derided Jesus because He was willing to associate with tax collectors and sinners.

We need to point out, however, that Jesus didn’t associate with the outcasts of society because He approved of their sin.  Rather, Jesus came to them because the outcasts and sinners needed Him.  Jesus said, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)  The only righteous Man who ever lived gave Himself to rescue us sinners from the fate of eternal death.  He healed us with His sacrifice and by sending His Holy Spirit to work in us the faith that believes in Him.

The modern world often disapproves of many different kinds of people.  It disapproves of Christians because of our connection with Jesus.  In fact, Jesus said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you.” (John 15:19)  Of course, we know the world often hates sinners too.  Hate is widespread simply because of skin color, language, background, or social status.  If you are in jail for a crime, you feel every day the slap of society saying you don’t belong with the rest of us.

In the kingdom of God, however, all of this disappears.  St. John wrote by the power of the Holy Spirit, “If we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)  Through faith in Jesus, we have fellowship with other Christians, but even more importantly, we have a real family connection with God. 

As we hear the Good News of all that Jesus has done in living for us and dying to pay for our sins, the Holy Spirit works faith in Jesus in the hearts of penitent sinners.  For those of us who hear and believe this Good News, St. Paul brings another promise of the Holy Spirit: “In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  Indeed, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.  There is not Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one and the same in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)

As St. Paul listed a whole long list of grievous types of sin, he wrote to his fellow Christian believers in Corinth, “Some of you were those types of people.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)  The same is true for us.

Dear friends, as sinners who have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we come before God regularly confessing that we have nothing good to offer to wipe away our sins.  At the same time, we come before God trusting that Jesus has done everything needed to make us right with God and welcome in His heavenly home.

Today and every day, rejoice with me as we acknowledge the goodness and mercy of our God in Christ.  When we humbly confess our sins, we hear the absolution of our God that all our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake.  Then we go home at peace, praising God for His mercy with this prayer in our hearts, God, I thank You, that You cover me with Jesus.  Amen.

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God His Father—to Him be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.