The Tax Collector & The Other Guy
Today I had the joy of serving as the pulpit supply (aka substitute preacher) for the Presbyterian Church of Fox Chase in Philadelphia, PA. The text was the tax collector and the Pharisee from Luke 18. Later on in the day, during a mission project Thompson Memorial was doing, I found out at the last minute I had been slated to preach there as well. So, with a bit of creative cutting on the drive to the retirement center where we were leading worship, I turned the full sermon into a 6 minute meditation. At the end of the day, one of the younger kids along for the trip said his favorite part of the day was hearing "the story about the tax collector and the other guy." May it bring you at least as much inspiration as it did him!
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Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
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Pharisees and tax collectors. For anyone who has been around the teachings of Jesus for long, you probably already know what to expect. There is the overly-pious Pharisee who is sure he has this whole faith thing down and the humble, penitent tax collector who is really just misunderstood. We hardly need to read the scripture to know how it will end: don’t be a show-off in your faith, be humble, and you will be justified. Simple and direct moral teaching, no more, no less. However, like most of the gospel, when we take the time to read beyond the surface we find a parable that takes us to the very heart of what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Luke introduces this parable by letting the reader know why Jesus was telling it: “there were some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” We don’t know if these individuals at the pointed end of the parable are followers of Christ or not, insiders or outsiders, but it really doesn’t matter. We know all the detail that is important - that they trusted in themselves.
We are then introduced to the main characters of the parable: a Pharisee and a tax collector. We know much more about these men, or at least we think we do, but are our stock “good guy” and “bad guy” labels sufficient for this parable? Is the Pharisee really just a symbol of close-mindedness and hypocrisy, and is the tax collector simply a misunderstood underdog? Certainly, if all we want is simple, moralistic teaching, then yes, these labels will suffice. We can all say “thank God I’m not like that hypocritical Pharisee,” pat ourselves on the back for being really humble, and end the sermon here.
However, doing that would not only miss the point of the parable, but would condemn us of the very sin being spotlighted by Christ. The reality is that the Pharisee was almost certainly what we would consider a very good person. He was not just checking off the minimum requirements for salvation, but going far above and beyond. The law only required fasting one day per year; he was fasting twice a week. The law only required tithing from certain parts of your income, he was giving from all his wealth. As a devout follower of the law he would have almost certainly been free from egregious sin. He is the kind of person we would elect as an Elder and dream of having as a neighbor. He volunteers and gives to charity, he is a hard worker who is always in church on Sunday morning, he is respectable and has all the outward signs of being a good Christian.
The tax collector, on the other hand, is the opposite. Under Roman occupation only one person was responsible for the taxes for an entire region: the tax collector. They would pay all of the regions taxes for the upcoming year in advance, and then spend the next 12 months trying to recoup their investment. Any money they brought in above and beyond what they paid to the empire was theirs to keep. Many chief tax collectors, like the familiar Zacchaeus, would hire what could politely be called sub-contractors to do the work for them. This led to pyramid-like schemes full of greed, deceit, extortion, and theft. Because of their involvement with the occupying Roman forces, tax collectors were seen as traitors and sinners. The devout refused to use Roman coinage because of its depiction of the emperor, and for much of the occupation there was coinage minted specifically for use by Jews as a way of keeping the peace, so tax collectors were seen as ritually unclean by many devout Jews because of their use of Roman currency. There is no indication in the text that this tax collector is any different from the rest; unlike other tax collectors we encounter in scripture there is no public remorse or statement that he will change his ways. He is simply very direct in claiming who he is: a sinner.
It is this claim, the acknowledgment before God that he is a sinner, that stands at the center of this text. To Christ, it didn’t matter that the Pharisee was righteous under the law or that the tax collector wasn’t. That state of righteousness under the law didn’t change for either one of them in their visit to the temple: the Pharisee was still attempting to live his life by the law, and to the best we can tell the tax collector was still doing the many unsavory things that came along with his lifestyle. Yet, Christ claims that the tax collector is returning to his home justified. How can it be that a man who continues to be a self-professed sinner is justified when the man seemingly doing all the right things is not?
It is at this point in the story that my internal sense of fairness gets seriously knocked out of balance. Because, you see, there are a lot of times when I feel like the Pharisee. I feel like the one who has tried to do everything right. I grew up in the church, went to church camp, and now I’m in seminary training to be a pastor. I have a resume detailing all the wonderful things I have done and awards proving that I am a good person. Yet, somehow, I can’t shake the feeling that Jesus is talking to me, that those people Luke was talking about, the ones who “trusted in themselves,” that really, he is talking about me.
So, what is it about the tax collector that makes Jesus pronounce him justified in the eyes of God? Certainly it is not in his outward acts. Maybe then, there is something in the way he prays. There is a striking difference between the prayers of the two men. While the Pharisee focuses solely on his own actions, specifically being thankful that he is so much better than these other people and telling God to look at all the wonderful things he has done, the tax collector prays a simple prayer: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! This prayer makes no claims of righteousness and no excuses for past behavior. It is a simple, yet powerful petition asking for mercy. The Pharisee is certain that God will be pleased with his report, and it never crosses his mind that he would need to ask something of God. The tax collector, on the other hand, seems to know full well that it is only through the grace of God that he can be redeemed.
This is far from the only time in scripture when Jesus talks about how to pray. Numerous times he teaches that prayer should be in private so as not to draw the attention and adoration of others, and when we look at the prayer Christ teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer, it is focused entirely on the action of God, not on us.
The Lord’s Prayer recognizes that it is only through the mercy of God that we are kept from temptation and evil, it is only through the provision of God that we are provided our daily bread, and it is only through the grace of God that we are forgiven.
The reality of it is that God’s grace isn’t fair; not at least in the way that we normally conceive fairness. It isn’t based on our good deeds, by how many times we miss church, or what percent of our income we pledge to the church. God’s grace isn’t contingent upon having the perfect understanding of scripture or theology. God’s grace isn’t even based upon agreeing with everything in the Presbyterian Book of Confessions. God’s grace isn’t for those who deserve it.
Friends, God’s grace is a radical grace, because none of us deserve it, yet we all are free to receive it. If there is one thread that is interwoven throughout all of scripture it is the faithfulness of God to an unfaithful people. A God so faithful that he would send his only son to live with sinners, to teach and heal the unfaithful, and to conquer death for you and me.
So, the question is not will you be like the tax collector or the Pharisee, because in the end we are both. We are as unrighteous and undeserving of God’s grace as the tax collector while at the same time being as blind to our need for God as the Pharisee. The question is can we admit our total reliance on God’s grace. Can we pray with honesty: God! Be merciful to me, a sinner!