It's a Trap!

Luke 18:9-14
October 24, 2010 (30th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

1.  In 1980, singer Mac Davis came out with a hit song.  Here’s the chorus from that song:

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way

I can't wait to look in the mirror 'cause I get better lookin' each day

To know me is to love me, I must be a h(eck) of a man

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can

One of the reasons I like this song is because I know there are a lot of humble people in church!  Let’s have a show of hands here.  Who out there is humble?  Ok.  Well, who out there is the most humble?  Raise your hand!  Don’t be shy! 

Of course, there’s the rub.  We knew we were in trouble when the gospel reading starts with the clear statement that the following parable is for people “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”  The last time I checked, most of us think our opinions and beliefs are right, if not righteous.  And people who don’t see things our way, if not contemptible, are at least sadly mistaken. 

It’s an especially tricky problem for those of you who may have enjoyed some power or authority in your life.  A good one that Susie Delano shared with me this week comes from the inimitable Mohammed Ali:  Prior to take-off on a plane, Mohammed Ali, was told to fasten his seat belt. He boastfully replied, "Superman don't need no seatbelt,"  to which the flight attendant responded, "Superman don't need no airplane either."

Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble!

2.  The parable from Luke seems simple.  Two men go up to pray in the temple.  The Pharisee gets up in a good public place and crows on and on about how great he is.  He is religiously perfect—fasting and tithing on a regular basis.  He thanks God for his ability to be faithful like this, and he is especially thankful that he is not some villainous piece of garbage like the traitorous and thieving tax collector he sees across the way.  The trouble with the Pharisee, unfortunately, is that biblical scholars tell us that Pharisees were hardly the self-righteous blowhards we often imagine them to have been.  The Pharisees were a movement in Judaism to make the keeping of the law more of a daily practice accessible to all the Jewish people rather than just to the priests in the temple.  They believed that Jews would be better off in religious terms if all would keep God’s law more carefully and in everyday ways.  Most scholars admit that Jesus himself shared many of these Pharisaical tendencies.  And, except for the part where this Pharisee specifically thanks God for not being some lesser person, it’s not that terrible of thing to thank God for helping you be good! 

What about the tax collector?  It’s not easy to imagine a modern-day equivalent to the tax collector—he was not much like an IRS agent.  Tax collectors were entrepreneurs who collected taxes for the Roman Empire—as such they were considered traitors, and it was common knowledge that they used extortion, graft, and all kinds of thievery to shake down the populace.  Any money they collected above what was owed to the Romans went right in their pockets.  The closest analogue in our society might be a loan shark or a Mafioso who also oozed the opposite of patriotism.  This particular tax collector, the one in the parable, has apparently come to some sort of crisis point in his life.  From the description given, he seems to be honestly convicted of his sinfulness as he prays, “God, be merciful on me, a sinner!”

It’s easy, even given what I’ve told you about how the Pharisees weren’t all that bad and how the tax collectors were that bad and worse, to be attracted to the humble and contrite tax collector and be repulsed by the bragging and pious Pharisee.  Even Jesus seems to point us this way, saying that the tax collector went home justified, meaning that he went home set right by God.  Obviously, our sympathies should go with the tax collector even as our condemnation should be against the proud Pharisee.

3.  But watch out!  This parable is a trap!  You see, as soon as we feel superior to the Pharisee, we become the Pharisee.  Preaching professor David Lose says, “For as soon as we fall prey to the temptation to divide humanity into any kind of groups, we have aligned ourselves squarely with the Pharisee. Whether our division is between righteous and sinners, as with the Pharisee, or even between the self-righteous and the humble, as with Luke, we are doomed. Anytime you draw a line between who's "in" and who's "out," this parable asserts, you will find God on the other side.”  Lutheran pastor John Petty agrees.  He writes, “The twist is that even when we're at our best, such as the pharisee, we're actually worse off than we were before we shaped up.  Now, we're under the illusion that we're "special" and "better."  [This is a special kind of irony.]  It means that even when we think we're close to God--especially then--our self-righteousness in thinking so means we're actually farther from God than we were to begin with.”

This is why trying to be humble is a losing proposition.  In fact, it might not even be possible to try to be holy!  When we try, we inevitably fail, or we succeed, but in succeeding, we alienate others with our pride at managing to be so holy.  No wonder so many people outside of the church (and even inside it) think that we Christians are hypocrites.  If you’re like me, you have at least one family member and probably several friends who are to willing to tell you that they don’t go to church because it’s full of a bunch of over-pious hypocrites.  They don’t want to be part of that!

4.  As much as we would like for these people to come to church and see that church is so much more than their negative perceptions, we have to admit that Pharisees and good church people can be hard to take.

Regarding this passage, theologian Albert Nolan has said that, “One of the basic causes of oppression, discrimination and suffering in that society was its religion….And nothing is more impervious to change than religious zeal.  The piety and good works of the dutiful religious man made him feel that God was on his side.  He did not need God’s mercy and forgiveness; that was what others needed.  The sinner, on the other hand, was well aware of his desperate need for mercy and forgiveness and of his need to change his life….Jesus soon discovered that it was the dutiful religious man, rather than the sinner or pagan Roman, who was an obstacle to the coming of the kingdom of total liberation.” 

The same goes for us in these days.  How many times have you seen a poor person on the side of the road or some other suffering person in this world and uttered something to yourself like, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  Or, when you are totally honest with yourself, how many times have you thought, “I am so grateful that I’m not like someone else.”?  I’m not proud of it, but my parents taught me when I was young that it was better to be an American than to be anything else.  So, by being an American, am I better?  Am I luckier?  Am I more justified by God?  Please remember that the tax collector went home justified. 

5.  So what’s it going to take?  How can we reset this whole situation so that it is not a trap?  How can we live in such a way that we can live as God would have us live (like the Pharisee) and avoid the prideful comparisons (also like the Pharisee)?  How can we be justified, saved, redeemed, set right, and set free by God alone?

Well, it’s useless to try to be humble.  So why don’t we try to love like Jesus?  Why don’t we try to love the sin-soaked tax collector amongst us?  Why don’t we love the criminals, the sex offenders, the terrorists, the illegals, the repulsive?  And while we’re at, why don’t we love the Pharisee, the boor, the braggart, the self-righteous, the overly confident?  Author Jayne Hoose points out that, “To act towards others out of love often requires us to look beyond the obvious.  What is it that compels the Pharisee to compare himself favorably to the tax collector before God?  [Why did he need to do that?] A more loving response to this parable might be to try to understand the underlying needs and hurt of both the Pharisee and the tax collector.  It is only when we regard others out of love that true humility follows.  Love and humility are essential partners.” 

6.  Jesus has a way of doing this to us.  He tells a story that seems obvious:  the Pharisee is a schmuck and the tax collector is justified.  But as the story pulls us in, and we go farther and farther into it, we end up where we so often end up:  standing with all the rest in need of love.  We need to be loved and we need to give love.  Love your neighbor as yourself, even if he is a Pharisee, even if she is a tax collector.  And, neighbor, we will love you. 

Let us pray:

Holy God, our righteous judge, daily your mercy surprises us with everlasting forgiveness.  Strengthen our hope in you, and grant that all peoples of the earth may find their glory in you, through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.  Amen. 

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