Proper 25 (30)
Luke 18:9-14 By The Rev. Blake R. Hutson
O Lord to see you is the end and the beginning. You carry us and you go before us. You are the journey and the journey’s end. Amen.
There is a good chance that after
hearing today’s Gospel that you may be able to identify with one or both of the
figures in the story. In this morning’s Gospel,
on one hand you have a figure in the spiritual community and on the other hand
you have a figure in the business community.
As a leader in the spiritual
community, the Pharisee, was someone who took his faith very seriously. As a leader in the spiritual community, the
Pharisee had dedicated his life to keeping his faith commitments. Everybody knew the spiritual, financial, and
personal commitments of the Pharisees. They were dedicated to personal
holiness, preaching, goodness, giving of themselves and their monetary
possessions. Pharisees viewed and lived life
through a religious lens.
Now, on the other hand, you had the
tax collector, the business person—not everyone’s favorite person to visit. This
tax collector, this accountant, was probably well known in the community. However, when people would see him coming,
they would want to go the other way, knowing that this person knew every financial
detail in their lives—good or bad. In
this trade, he may have been a person of great detail, precision and
skill. And despite the dishonest
reputation of his colleagues perhaps this tax collector sought to be different.
Everyday these two men with very
different professions would get up, go to work and come home every evening. At
some point, maybe at the end of the day, maybe in their office or maybe in
their home, they were alone. In this
mornings Gospel, that’s where we find them: alone. In the
story, they are alone before God.
Now, of the two figures from the
community, a religious leader and a business person, which would you say Jesus
would most likely commend? Most likely you would think the religious
leader. But this is not the one Jesus
commended in the story. Jesus did not commend
the person that led the apparent righteous life and was a leader in the
spiritual community. Rather, Jesus commended the business person!
You would think that the religious person who “did good deeds” in the name of his religion all day would be the one to find favor with Jesus verses someone who sat in traffic Monday through Friday to go to an office and do work. So, what was it? What was it that Jesus saw in the two men that made him commend the unlikely candidate….the business man?
You wonder if it had been a typical
day for the religious leader. He most likely woke up, grabbed his coffee, and
looked for opportunities to live out his faith.
He may have looked for opportunities to do good deeds all day. As a Pharisee he no doubt worked hard to
serve God, but the picture we get is that his
heart was in the wrong place. In the
story, when he was alone before God, he was self righteous and bragged about
his accomplishments. He basically said, “God,
listen to all of the great things that I do.”
Now, you also wonder if this had
been a typical day for the tax collector. I am sure his alarm went off at
The Gospel does not say what had
happened, or not happened, to the tax collector that day. But this, this
attitude of humility, is what Jesus commended—not all of the great deeds the
religious leader had done that day.
At the end of a long day’s work,
this business person came home…tired, maybe feeling unappreciated, maybe stressed
out, or maybe grateful. We aren’t sure—that’s
not a part of the Parable. But when this
person was alone, and when it was just he and God, this person fell on his
knees before God and asked God to have mercy on him.
We may wonder, what brought this person to the point of falling on his knees before God? Every week, here in church, we routinely say, “Lord, have mercy.” But in our personal lives, when do we come to the point of looking up to heaven and saying… “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
The scripture does not say but the
picture we get is that something must have happened in his life—something so
big that he realized he could not handle it or take care of it on his own. He
knew Only God’s help and God’s mercy would enable him to get through it. Jesus doesn’t say what brought the business
man to this place of humility.
Perhaps, Jesus didn’t give the details for a reason. Perhaps, it was somewhat of a “fill in the blank” for his listeners. Any number of things can cause us to humble ourselves before God. Think about it in your own life. Maybe some of you have been in that place—that place where something happened and you realized that you needed God’s help; that you needed God’s mercy; a time when you realized that the only place to look was to heaven. Maybe it was something larger than yourself; something that overwhelmed you. Maybe it was a circumstance or a responsibility that had been placed on you in your personal or professional life. Maybe, you fell to your knees after a life changing event, and realized, “God, this is so much bigger than me, I need your mercy.” Whatever it was, this might be something you have done. Falling on your knees asking for God’s help might be a familiar memory for you.
Notice that after asking for God’s
mercy, while he was still on his knees, the man acknowledged that he was “a
sinner.” So it could be that maybe the
person felt remorse for something he had done.
Maybe you’ve been there, when your heart breaks because of something
that you have done that you cannot take back.
Like we all have done on occasions, maybe he had hurt someone close to
him, someone that he loved. Maybe he had
promised God—or someone else that he would never do something again and he had
broken that promise. Maybe he was on his
knees because of something he failed to do.
Maybe he committed what we might call a “big sin” or maybe something we
would characterize as a “small sin.” Whatever
it may have been, he came to God as “a sinner.”
Jesus doesn’t say. But something in his life brought the tax
collector to his knees, asking for God’s mercy.
Something happened that humbled this man.
I don’t think it was a coincidence
that the figure in the story that Jesus commended was a tax collector.
Initially, of course, you would think that Jesus would commend the righteous,
religious leader. But no. Rather it was the person, just like every
person in this room who has ever felt they needed God’s help and God’s mercy in
their lives.
Maybe it was during a sickness that
you realized things were out of your hands. Maybe behind closed doors you bowed
your head and said “Lord, have mercy on me.” Or maybe you remember the first
time you found out you were going to be a parent. You may have felt joyful and
happy. But also a bit of fear at the
thought of the massive responsibility that comes with bringing new life into
the world. Maybe behind closed doors you looked to heaven and said “Lord, have
mercy.”
Maybe it was a promotion that you
had worked so hard for and all of the sudden you realized you were at the top
of your career. But with this came
sleepless nights, thinking about the responsibility you had accepted--maybe you
felt anxiety, stress, or maybe you were overwhelmed. Perhaps behind closed
doors you’ve bowed your head and said “Lord, have mercy on me.”
Maybe it is an addiction or
something you have struggled with for years—something that seems to have power
over you. Maybe you’ve come to the place of falling on your knees before God,
realizing that it is bigger than you and saying “Lord, have mercy.”
For you, what was the situation
that seemed so big, that you fell on your knees before God and said “Lord, have
mercy on me?”
I wonder what happened the next
day when the man went back to work. It makes you wonder if this was a one
time occurrence or something that he did every evening when he was alone before
God. I wonder if the next day when the
man went back to work, if he was any different. After coming to a point of
complete humility the evening before, how did he walk away from this experience?
What were the first words out of
his mouth the next morning? If Jesus were to finish the story what would the
ending be? Would the man have gone
through his normal routine? 6 am,
traffic, coffee, stack of papers, meetings, decisions, deadlines, politics,
checklists, time ticking away, time to go home, traffic, dinner…alone.
We don’t know for sure, but let me
offer, that yes he went through his routine, but this day, the day after he was on his knees before God was different. He had a certain peace and clarity about the
way he would get through this day. Let me offer, that he had a peace that he
was not alone—that God would help him through that day. He knew that no matter
how big “it” was, God was bigger, God was in control, God would get him through
one way or another.
In the same way, whatever “it” was
that brought us to that point…may we never forget God’s mercy in our
lives. May we never forget that God is
our rock and our stability when we faced those times or those situations in our
lives. The message in the story is that we all need God’s help and God’s mercy
in our lives. May we never let “how good
we are,” cloud our memory of those times where we knew that God and God’s mercy
were what got us through.
So, this morning, as we as we come
to Rite 13 Ceremony, I would remind the candidates that anytime we are humble and on our knees before God , we get God’s
attention. We have been reminded
that the simple prayer, “Lord, have mercy” turns
God’s ears in our direction. May you and
may all of us, live in and accept the mercy and the compassion, that God has on
us. And may you and may all of us show
that mercy to others.
“Lord, have mercy on me, a
sinner.” Amen