Praying Like Sinners

Luke 18:9-14:

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone 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 by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—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 all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Well, believe it or not, I went the entire week without messing anything up too bad on farm so my sermon illustrations were a little more difficult to come up with.  The gospel of Luke often uses characters in roles that seem opposite of how people of Jesus’ time would view them.  For example, it would be like seeing John Wayne playing a businessman from Wall Street instead of a gunslinger from the West or seeing Sylvester Stallone playing Santa Claus for a Christmas special.  While I am sure these actors could play such roles, it may be difficult for us to picture or take seriously and this is exactly how the Gospel of Luke portrays a lot of the characters involved.  We must remember that most of those hearing Christ’s message would have at least some knowledge of the Jewish faith and when Jesus started in on a story about a pharisee and a tax collector they would expect the story to work out in the favor of the pharisee.  They would expect the pharisee to be the “good guy” in the parable this morning instead of the tax collector.  When we read this scripture it is so easy to say to ourselves that we are supposed to be humbled like the tax collector instead of the pharisee but I think most of us have more in common with the pharisee than we would like to admit.

According to Jewish tradition and law, the pharisee was blameless.  During the course of an average week, Jewish law only mandated one obligatory day of fasting but this pharisee fasted twice a week and tithed everything, even those things he was not mandated to tithe.  So according to the law and tradition, the pharisee was doing more than he was called to do.  His mistake was not going above and beyond what he thought was right, rather it was his pride that hindered his faith.  It is easy to sit back and say that this man needs to get rid of his pride and be humbled before God and his fellow man.  I cannot speak for the rest of you but I have found myself in the pharisee’s shoes before.  I have seen others and thought, “God, I have lived a life better than this person so I must be doing something right,” or “God, l have lived a pretty good life thus far, I mean I have lived better than a lot of people.”  It is easy for us to sit at a distance and compare our faith to the faith of others and think that God should bless us more than others or that God’s grace and love is more ours than it is for others.  When the pharisee went to the Temple, it was not to offer God prayers of thanks it was to say, “God, look at me! Look at all of the good things I have done in your name.  I am much better than this tax collector who is also here.”  We may not voice these feelings as boisterously and pridefully as the pharisee but I would say that it is safe to say that we have had similar thoughts in the course of our lives.  Our mistake is the same mistake that the pharisee, while the obvious mistake would appear to be pride, it is not just pride that is the issue.  The pharisee saw the world split into two types of people, the righteous and the immoral.  For us the division may be worded differently.  It may sound more like those who believe in God’s message and deserve His blessings and those who do not believe and do not deserve the blessings they receive.  The deserving and the undeserving.  When it came to going to the Temple, different classes of people had their designated place where they could worship.  There were insiders and there were outsiders at the Temple.  And when it comes to society, there are also insiders and outsiders, those who have and those who do not.  But the message for us today rests in knowing that when Christ died, these separations were thrown out in the eyes of God.  When curtain into the Holy of Holies was torn in Luke 23:44 and 45, “ It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.”  This meant that Christ’s death was meant so that each of us, despite our social standing could see into the Holy of Holies, that the mercy, love and grace of our Heavenly Father was intended for each of us.  So it is not just the pride of our own accomplishments that can cloud our faith, it is the assumption that some deserve the love of God more than others.  The truth is that this can be easy for us to forget.  We always want to compare our faith to faith of others and there is no way to apply or compare our faith or our same beliefs to those of others.  God created each of us uniquely for a reason: so we could praise God in ways that are as unique as each of us.  God’s greatest gift to humanity was sending His son to die for our sins on the cross but His second greatest gift was this gift of uniqueness.  Instead of being united through Christ, we use our differences to judge or be jealous of others rather than celebrating the fact that no matter how life has worked for us, that God’s mercy, grace and love is found in and designated for each of us.  

Now, lets look at the prayer of the tax collector.  He was so ashamed of his shortcomings and sin that he could not even look up to God.  The tax collector did not compare his life to others by telling God he has sinned but not as bad as this other person.  His cry and yearning for God’s forgiveness was based solely on his own sins.  In the NIV translation the tax collector asks God to have mercy on him, a sinner.  This leads us to believe that the tax collector is a part of a group of sinners in which he is just one of those sinners.  While other translations more accurately say, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”  He is not merely a sinner but he is the sinner.  He was not just one of many sinners that Christ died for; rather, he was the sinner that Christ gave his life for.  The salvation of the tax collector was not based on his actions; instead, it was based on the actions of Christ.  We are here this morning worshiping among a group of sinners that Christ all died for but we must not be concerned with the sins and shortcomings of other.  When we realize that Christ died for us, the sinners, we can then be unified through that act.  We must approach our faith just as the tax collector did, the uniqueness of my sin is much different than yours but Christ died for me, the sinner, just as He did for you, the sinner.  

The message of the parable that we read this morning is that both of these men prayed like sinners.  One prayed out of pride only to boast to God and the other prayed out of a need for God’s mercy.  The question that rests with you is now, which sinner are you going to pray like?  There is no doubt that both of these men were sinners yet one of them compared himself to the other and the other only needed God’s mercy.  This parable teaches us three things about prayer: First, no person who is proud can pray.  If we are going to pray, we must throw aside our pride.  When I think of the gates of heaven, I picture two gates that are chained in the middle.  I picture them sitting on the ground and opening up when God has given us the ok to enter but this scripture made me think of the gates differently.  I know picture the bottom of the gates off of the ground about four feet so that whoever enters heaven must enter on their knees, kneeling to the everlasting, forever loving God.  The second thing this scripture shows us about prayer is that no person who despises another can pray.  In prayer we do not lift ourselves above anyone else.  In prayer, we called to life others above ourselves.  In prayer, we should be reminded that we are the sinner that Christ died for.  In prayer, we should ask for the courage to spread the message of love and grace to others in the hopes that they too realize that Christ died for them, the sinner.  Lastly, true prayer comes from comparing our lives to the life of Christ not to the lives others.  What the pharisee was true.  He did fast, he did give his tithes, he was not like others, and he was even less like the tax collector.  But the question the pharisee and us must ask is not, “Am I living out my faith good as my fellow man?”  Instead, we should ask God, “Am I living my life according to Your will?”  It all depends what we compare ourselves with. And when we set our lives beside the life of Jesus and beside the holiness of God, all that is left to say is, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”  Amen.  

God Bless,

Clinton

Fairview Christian Church

A little more progress on the church: