Sunday October 24, 2010 Luke 18:9-14

Welcome, we have a short school week this week and I am looking forward to it as much as my daughter is. It’s just nice to break the routine once in a while. I know that Crown of Glory is using a different sermon series now so maybe you would like to use this as a weekly bible study until they resume using the lectionary. Last week we discovered that we are to pray persistently and God who loves us will hear our prayers. This week we continue with prayer but we are to examine our attitude in prayer-the way we pray.

First some background information. Two times a day the sacrifice of a lamb was made in the Temple for the sins of the people, at about 9AM and 3PM. Immediately after the lamb was sacrificed on the outside alter a priest would enter the Holy place and place incense on the burning coals of the inside alter in the Holy place. Smoke would rise up from the inside alter and the people worshiping outside would see it ascend to the heavens. At that time they would offer up individual prayers for themselves, realizing that the way to God had been opened by the sacrifice, knowing the smoke would guide their prayers to God.

Pharisees were the keepers of the Torah (first five books of the Bible) or instruction on how to live including the 613 law codes. Ritual purity was all important to them. One of the ways they maintained this purity was strict observance of the dietary food laws and restrictions on who to eat with. This is way Jesus eating with sinners drove them crazy. The Essenses (the Dead Sea scrolls) who also believed in strict purity had removed themselves altogether and lived in Qumran by the Dead Sea. The Pharisees always tried to maintain distance (separation) between themselves and others (the people of the land or the common Jewish people) so as not to become defiled. They actually looked at the lower class Jews as those lost and not able to go to heaven because they didn’t spend their lives in study.

Tax collectors were hated!! They were most often Jewish men who had purchased their right from Rome to collect taxes for Rome. They had to collect the amount Rome wanted and then tacked on more “taxes” for their own salaries. They lived somewhat lavish lives by bleeding the poor Jewish people of their money. They were seen as collaborators with Rome and people don’t think very highly of collaborators. Zacchaeus was a tax collector as was Matthew one of the disciples. Imagine that, Jesus called a hated tax collector to be one of his disciples.

V9 Jesus now tells a parable about people who think they are righteous and don’t think highly of others.

V10 Two men, a Pharisee and a tax collector (note the order of who is mentioned first), went to the Temple to pray. We are not told the time but it was either 9AM or 3PM.

V11 The Pharisee stood somewhat off by himself as not to risk accidental contact with someone who would defile him, even a lower class Jewish person. He starts his prayer thanking God but it is for not making him the things he despises. In reality he is not thanking God at all for anything but using the opportunity to list the things he looks down upon. He is speaking out loud so the tax collector can hear him offering unsolicited advice. Note he lists thieves and rogues (what they thought of tax collectors) then adulterers (to insinuate more then he actually knew about the man) and finally tax collectors.

V12 The Pharisee then lists all of his own attributes, he fasts twice a week (they were only to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement) and he gives a tenth of everything he has (they were told only to tithe grain, wine and oil) he is so righteous in his own eyes that he goes beyond what God has asked and lists them off for God to make note of. He doesn’t feel he needs the atonement that the lamb is making for him.

V13 The tax collector is standing far off. “Far off” has a significant meaning. The lost were “far off” and the gentiles were thought of as “far off”. If you were “far off” you were thought to be lost to God. God would take no note of you. He only noticed his “children” whom he kept close. The tax collector doesn’t feel worthy enough to get close to the Holy of Holies in the Temple where they thought God resided so he is standing at a distance but still close enough to the Pharisee to hear him. He felt so unworthy that he wouldn’t even look up and kept beating his chest saying (literally in Greek) “God make atonement for me!” for he knew he was a sinner. He had watched the sacrifice of the lamb which was to make atonement for all the people and open the way to God by covering their sins but he asks God to make atonement for him personally. His sins are so bad in his own eyes that he realizes he needs atonement for himself. He beat his chest, where his heart is, to express extreme anguish.

V14 Jesus then says that this man (the tax collector) went home justified (accepted by God) rather than the other (note the order now who is mentioned first and that the Pharisee isn’t even named but called “the other”) The tax collector realized his own sinfulness and asked for forgiveness, he wasn’t focused on anyone else’s sin who was present, like the Pharisee was. For all who raise themselves up on their own merits (exalt themselves) will be humbled (brought low) for they have received what they wanted – recognition in this world. All who humble themselves (work for God quietly without boasting about it) will be elevated by God when they enter His Kingdom.

When we pray we are not to remind God how bad other people are but admit to God how filthy we ourselves are. We are to confess what we have left undone and the wrongs we have committed. Something interesting happened to me as I was studying for this parable. I was doing it last night while kind of listening to the nightly news. Then, as I was studying, some statements made on the news by a Catholic priest about the homosexual DVD caught my ear. He was stating that the Catholic Church wasn’t attacking homosexuals with the DVD but just pointing out what the Bible says about it. Really? It sounded to me like the Pharisee pointing out to the tax collector the error of his ways, how bad he was, and exulting himself. Do we really need to point out to others how bad they are? How receptive are we when people do this to us? Do we say a cheerful “Thank you! We’ll correct that right away so we can conform to your ideals!” If you are self righteous, declaring yourself righteous (right all the time while humiliating and despising others) then God will humble you. Only God can make you righteous (granting you acceptance in his presence, something he gives to you and can’t be earned) by our humble admittance that we are unworthy. Our prayer needs to consist of; confession of our own sin, thanks for the bounty received as a gift and petitions for one’s self and others. So, whose faults do you point out to God by your prayer, your own or other peoples?