1 Corinthians 15.1–10 + Luke 18.9–14
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Two men go to the temple to pray. One of them is a pharisee, meaning he has great zeal for the law of Moses. He strives to live according to the law. What God commands, he does. What God forbids, he avoids. In some respects, he goes above and beyond the works commanded by God. This one enters the temple and prays like this: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” Now before we go any further, we should point out that it is a good thing that he is not an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer. These are sins from which everyone should flee because God condemns them and threatens to punish those who practice such things. Nor it is sinful that he fasts twice a week or tithe of all his possessions. Fasting and tithing can be good disciplines.
The second man who goes to the temple to pray is a tax collector. By virtue of his trade—collecting taxes for the Roman overlords—he was viewed as a traitor and turncoat. Tax collectors also had a reputation for being unrighteous thieves, charging more than required to enrich themselves. Whether this certain tax collector had defrauded his fellow countrymen or not is irrelevant. He chose to be a tax collector and remains a tax collector, making him automatically suspect in the eyes of the Jews. This one enters the temple to pray. He would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” He doesn’t claim to be righteous in God’s sight because he’s avoiding what God has forbidden and done all that God has commanded. He doesn’t boast about going above and beyond in his own spiritual discipline. He does the opposite of the Pharisee. Before God, he is unrighteous. Before God, he is a sinner. Standing at God’s tribunal of justice, he only pleads for mercy.
It is the tax collector, Jesus says, who went down to his house justified rather than the other. We mighty expect the Pharisee to be the one who walks home with the verdict of “righteous in God’s sight.” That’s what the word “justify” means, “to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment” (FC SD III.17). But it’s the tax collector who goes down to his house justified—declared righteous by God and absolved from eternal punishment. Why? Because the tax collector comes before God’s tribunal and confesses the truth—he is a sinner—and humbly asks God for mercy. He asks that God forgive all his sins, not because he deserves it—he doesn’t—but because God has promised to be merciful and forgive the sins of the humble and penitent. The tax collectors has the promise of Psalm 86:5, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” He has the promise from Psalm 130:7, “O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption.” He has the promise of Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” He has the promise of the forgiveness of sins and he trusts that promise.
The Pharisee has the same promises the tax collector has. The difference is that he does not believe them because he doesn’t think he needs them. In his mind, he has no need to trust God to have mercy on him and declare him righteous. He trusted in himself that he was righteous. That’s why he prays the way he does and looks down on others. He doesn’t need God to justify him. He’s taken care of that himself, or so he thinks. And while—good for him—he is not an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer, he is still a sinner. He still has sin in his flesh, what we would call original sin with its lusts and impulses. And although he has not acted upon many of those internal desires, he has allowed himself to become absorbed with self-righteousness and looking down on others, both of which are sin. Self-righteousness sins against God by denying one’s need for His mercy. Despising others sins against love by thinking of the self as better than others who are undeserving of love.
The Pharisee—for as outwardly righteous as he may be—still needs God’s mercy. In fact, external righteousness, being a good person, and living virtuously, is unrighteousness in God’s sight if that righteousness, goodness, and virtue isn’t done in faith. A person can be righteous in the world’s sight and still be unrighteous in God’s. A person can be good and upstanding in the world’s estimation while God views them as guilty, not justified, and damned because they do not trust in His promised mercy for the sake of Christ’s righteousness. Apart from faith in Christ there is no justification of the sinner. For to justify means “to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, which is imputed by God to faith” (FC SD III.17). The Pharisee blasphemes God by imagining he is righteous by his own works. The Lutheran synods also blaspheme by teaching that God has justified the entire world apart from faith, and that that justification of the world is the gospel which we are to believe and be saved. The pharisee places his trust in his own righteousness. The synods teach men to place their trust in the fact that all men are forgiven already, they just down know it. But only the humble, penitent tax collector goes down to his house justified, sins forgiven, absolved from eternal punishment he deserved.
In this parable our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us penitent humility. As St. Paul writes, “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). As Dr. Luther teaches in the Small Catechism, “We daily sin much and surely deserve only punishment” (SC III.V) Christ teaches us this, not so that we constantly berate ourselves over the fact, but so that we recognize our great need for His righteousness, which is perfect, whole, and complete. He teaches us to see our unrighteousness so that we believe death paid for all of our sins and He gives His righteousness to all who believe this. He teaches us to see our sin and unrighteousness so that we may remain humble and live each day by His mercy, being justified in God’s sight by faith, not our own works and righteousness. When we believe the gospel God justifies us again, putting away our sin, absolving us from eternal punishment, and clothing us with Christ and His righteousness. If living by self-righteousness leads us despise others, then living by faith in Christ’s righteousness leads us to love others in deed and truth and live righteously in all our dealings with our neighbors.
And there are times when, living righteously towards our neighbor, they return righteousness with unrighteousness, love with hatred, and good with evil. That’s the situation in the Old Testament lesson we heard earlier. It sounds discordant to hear David say, “The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His eyes” (2 Sam 22:21-25). But David is not speaking of his righteousness before God. He’ speaking of his righteousness in dealing with Saul. He had treated Saul righteously, and Saul returned David’s faithfulness with evil, slandering him and trying to kill him on several occasions. David could pray to be judged according to his righteousness and integrity in that situation between him and Saul, for he had done Saul no wrong and even worked to reconcile while him, but Saul wouldn’t have it.
When our neighbors repay us evil for good, we can ask God to judge us according to our righteousness in our dealings with them, and trust that He will right the wrongs we have to endure. We can bear these—and all things—because of God’s mercy toward us in Christ Jesus, that by faith we can go down to our homes justified—forgiven of all our sins and absolved the eternal punishment we deserve, for the sake of Christ Jesus’ righteousness which we now wear. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
