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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here we are again. For many of us, there is a cycle of starting not only Sunday but each week in church and then going home. Our cycle is not all that dissimilar from that in the Third Reading this morning. In that Third Reading we heard St. Luke’s unique report of the so‑called “Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector”, with its central truth about those who humble themselves’ being exalted, and we heard Jesus’s again speaking about the need for all people humbly to receive and so enter the Kingdom of God like a child, even an infant. This morning we consider that Third Reading as a whole under the theme, “Going up to pray for mercy and Going home justified”.
This week’s Third Reading picks up exactly where last week’s Gospel Reading left off. Last week we heard the so‑called “Parable of the Persistent Widow” and so were moved to be “Faithfully praying for the Son of Man to bring speedy justice”. Prayer is common to both that last week’s Reading and this week’s Reading, but neither Reading is really about prayer. They are about the Kingdom of God. Jesus’s parable of two men going up to pray but only one going down to his house justified certainly has in its background today’s First Reading about two men who brought offerings but the Lord’s having regard for only one man and his offering (Genesis 4:1-15). And, the parable’s point about humbling oneself before the Lord and being exalted is exemplified by what Jesus says about children, even infants, entering the Kingdom of God.
Jesus could hardly have chosen two more opposite men for the parable. The Pharisees, whose very name meant “separate ones”, rigorously interpreted God’s law and strictly observed their interpretation. Those who collected taxes, for the Romans and other local rulers, typically abused their right to levy a surcharge so much that all respectable persons shunned them as traitorous and dishonest. These two opposites in a sense had already been contrasted several times earlier in St. Luke’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account; here what Jesus contrasts about them is the way that each prays or worships. The Pharisee stands up front, as it were, praying to himself, thanking God for the Pharisee’s being better than others (presumably on account of all the things that he does), and not even asking God for anything. The tax collector stands far off, as it were, hiding behind a pillar, identifying himself as “the” sinner above all sinners, and pleading with God for mercy, perhaps even using part or all of Psalm 51. The Pharisee thought that he was righteous (or just) and that the tax collector unjust (or unrighteous), but he was wrong. The Pharisee made an idol of his own righteousness and mocked a true worshipper. Two men went up to pray but only one went down to his house justified, namely the tax collector. How the two men prayed (that is, how they worshipped) reflected what they believed, and what they believed determined whether or not they were justified (that is, whether or not they were saved).
For a number of months now, our Sunday morning Adult Bible Class has been studying why Lutherans worship the way they do. We talk repeatedly about how the way we worship is both drawn from the Bible and reflects the Bible’s teaching that salvation is only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. At times I suppose the study might come across as our being a bit prideful about the way we worship, though the big picture we are drawing is that the way we worship focuses on our humbling ourselves by repenting of our sins and God’s therefore exalting us by forgiving us our sins. Still, you and I are not immune from thinking, speaking, or acting like the Pharisee in today’s Third Reading.
Even if we do not trust in ourselves for our righteousness and treat others with contempt, at times we may think, speak, or act as if in some way we are better than others. At times we may think, speak, or act as if we keep at least some of God’s Commandments and so we may not seriously consider how we fail to keep other Commandments. At times we may think, speak, or act as if others are to blame for our failures, much as Cain rose up against his brother Abel. If we do not sin in these ways, then we sin in other ways, for we are all sinful by nature. Jesus certainly seems to tell the parable at least in part in order to lead to repentance those who trusted in themselves for righteousness and treated others with contempt, and so we do well to hear the parable and then to repent—to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than keep on sinning. When we so repent of our sin, then God forgives our sin. He forgives our thinking, speaking, and acting as if in some way we are better than others. He forgives our not seriously considering how we break some of God’s Commandments, and He forgives our thinking, speaking, and acting as as if others are to blame for our failures. He forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be, for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. When we pray for mercy, then we go home justified.
As we heard the parable of today’s Third Reading from the English Standard Version, the tax collector prayed “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” A more‑literal translation might have the tax collector pray, “Be propitiated toward me”, or “Make an atonement for me”. The word he uses in His petition to God relates to the word that refers to the “mercy seat”, the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. Any mercy or grace that God would show the tax collector or us is in view of a sacrifice for sin, and that sacrifice is ultimately the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The tax collector wants the benefits of Jesus’s atonement, and so do we. Jesus, true God in human flesh, lived the perfect life we fail to live and died the death we deserve. Any true righteousness we have comes from Him, as we humbly believe and so receive the Kingdom of God like a child, even an infant.
Especially here in East Texas it seems we are surrounded by those who wrongly think that children, especially infants, cannot believe and so be saved (or maybe they wrongly think that children, especially infants, do not need to be saved, maybe because they wrongly think that children, especially infants, are not sinful). Such people may wrongly think that children need to become Christians the way adults do. In fact, in the Third Reading Jesus says precisely the opposite: adults need to become Christians the way children do: doing nothing but humbly believing and so receiving the Kingdom of God as a gift. Jesus indirectly attributes faith to them by saying the Kingdom of God, which comes by faith, belongs to them. And, Jesus rules out their not needing to be saved and their not being sinful by His calling them to come to Him and telling His disciples not to hinder them. Later uses of the word “hinder” in connection with Baptism, both in the New Testament and in the Church Fathers, seem to recall Jesus’s strong defense of infant Baptism, which we hear in the Third Reading and other Gospel passages like it.
For many of us, we know that we first received the Kingdom of God when we were baptized. There, at the Baptismal Font, we receive forgiveness of sins, are delivered from death and the devil, and are given eternal salvation. By daily contrition and faith we put our sinful nature to death so that our redeemed nature comes forth to live before God in righteousness forever. When we are particularly troubled by our sin, we confess it to our pastor privately, and he individually absolves us, as our Lord in today’s Third Reading spoke words freeing the children and infants to come to Him. (The Greek word Jesus used there in verse 16 often means “forgive”.) And, when we are instructed, examined, and absolved, we come to this rail to receive from this altar bread that is Jesus’s body given for us and wine that is Jesus’s blood shed for us, and so we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Unlike the Pharisees but like tax collectors before us, we repent and are baptized and enjoy table fellowship with our Lord (see Luke 5:27‑39; 7:29-30; 15:1-2).
In a published sermon, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther once remarked of the Pharisee in today’s Third Reading, “God would be well pleased with his conduct, if the vice of imagining he could get to heaven by such works were not attached to it” (Plass, #3891). Indeed! We can get so caught up in the Pharisee’s self-righteousness that we can miss the fact that his fasting and tithing are good things, if they flow from faith and from Christ’s righteousness that God gives us by faith. We sinners come to church to pray for mercy, we go home justified, and we do the things that justified people do. We are righteous, and our good works are righteous, but we are not righteous because of our good works. We are righteous on account of Jesus Christ and our receiving His righteousness through His Word and Sacraments. The Gospel’s highest way of our worshipping Christ is our desiring, seeking, and receiving the forgiveness of sins. In that way we worship Him here and invite others to join us.
How we worship reflects what we believe, and so how we worship determines whether or not we are saved (the Latin maxim is Lex orandi, lex credendi—essentially, “the law of praying is the law of believing”.) On the basis of today’s Third Reading this morning we have considered our “Going up to pray for mercy and Going home justified”. By God’s grace for Christ’s sake, we will throughout our lives continue in that cycle of the forgiveness of sins. Today’s Second Reading includes what we usually regard as some of St. Paul’s final written words, and we hear in them the confidence he had by way of the same humble faith that receives the Kingdom of God like a child, or even an infant (2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18). With St. Paul, we boldly say, “The Lord will rescue [us] from every evil deed and bring [us] safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +