A Preacher dies and is standing in line, waiting outside the Pearly Gates. He is standing there patiently, wearing his best suit and tie, dressed like he is ready to preach his Sunday morning sermon. In line just ahead of him is a guy wearing sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and blue jeans. The preacher thinks to himself, “Thank God that isn’t me. I mean, I may be dead but at least I know how to dress for that ultimate meeting with my maker.”
When the two men finally make it to the front of the line St. Peter addresses the man in the loud shirt, “Who are you so that I may know whether or not to admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The man then replies, “Well St. Peter, I am Joe Cohen. I am a cab driver from New York City.”
St. Peter then consults his list. When he looks up he smiles at the taxi driver and then says, “Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The taxi driver puts on his robe and takes his staff and enters into heaven.
The preacher then gets really excited. If a lowly cab driver from such a God forsaken place like New York City gets a silken robe and golden staff, what could be in store for him?
It was finally the preacher’s turn. He stood up straight and erect and walked toward St. Peter. Then in his best preacher’s voice, he booms out “I am the Right Reverend Joseph Snow, pastor at St. Mary’s Church for the last 43 years.”
St. Peter then consults his list again. When he looks up this time he simply hands the preacher a cotton robe and wooden staff and says, “You may enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The preacher is incensed. He has been such a faithful disciple all these years and now that he stands for his eternal reward he gets what is seemingly a slap in the face. “Just a minute,” the preacher says to St. Peter. “That man was a taxi driver. I was a faithful minister of the Gospel. He gets a silken robe and golden staff and I get this? Where is the justice in this situation?”
St. Peter then replies, “Sir, here we work on results. During your 43 years at St. Mary’s Church, when you preached, people slept. When he drove his cab, people prayed.”
II It would seem that the preacher had more than a few lessons to learn about humility. It would seem that such was the case as well for the Pharisee in our lesson this morning. Today we resume our series “Principles from Parables” as we look at the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
Whenever I read this parable, the first thing that I think about is humility. Then my mind cannot help but wander just a bit. It usually isn’t long before I hear Mac Davis crooning in my head, “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 hell of a man, Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble,
but I’m doing the best that I can.”
Without question, people in the world that could sure use a lesson in humility surround us. The scary thing is, if we are honest, it just might be us.
III As I studied this text during the week this past week what kept coming to my mind over and over again is the way that we tend to read and accept this text, even though it isn’t really the way we live our lives. Whenever we read this story we do so with a judging eye on the Pharisee. Perhaps that was Jesus’ point. Still we look at the Pharisee as the bad guy in the story and the tax collector as the good guy and to my way of thinking that is at least a bit unfortunate.
A Pharisee was a member of the Jewish faith but not just any member of the Jewish faith. They were set apart from everyone else. They were not members of the priesthood but instead were laity. They were zealous about keeping the faith, particularly in matters of the law. They wanted to keep the Scriptures, the oral law, and the traditions of the Hebrew faith pure. They were the pious people of their time. They attended every Scripture study and sought to obey every law down to the minutest detail. They wanted above all to be faithful. Pharisees knew how to pray. In fact they applied themselves to the art of prayer.
Today we have grown accustomed to thinking negatively of them as soon as we hear their name. However, the Pharisees were highly respected and looked up to in the Israelite world. They were the leaders of the synagogue.
I think that it is important that we see them as honored members of the Jewish community if we are to fully understand this parable. The Pharisees were the good guys. They were the best of the best in Jewish society.
On the other hand was the tax collector. This is, without question, the other end of the spectrum. A tax collector would have been perceived by the community as the worst of the worst of Jewish citizenry, perhaps even lower. Tax collectors, in the Scriptures, were Jews who worked for the ruling Roman authorities. They were considered both extortionists and traitors. They were extortionists because they were notoriously noted for collecting more taxes than was owed and pocketing the difference. Then they were considered traitors because they served the occupying power of Rome.
All of that, and yet some how, some way, the Christian Church, over history has turned the tables and made the good guy the bad guy and the bad guy the good guy. Really, it is easy enough to see. When we read the story it is evident that Jesus is more touched with the idea of a penitent prayer, the tax collector, than he is with the proud, presumptuous prayer, the Pharisee.
We want to be that way too so we have reversed the characters in our minds. We think that this will make everything just fine. The only problem is, we haven’t reversed it in our actions. We still want to hang out with the Pharisee, probably because in very real ways we identify better with the Pharisee than with the tax collector.
Many of us may say to ourselves, “That preacher can say whatever he wants but I know better. I have read the Bible and I know that I am going to come down on Jesus’ side every time.”
My response is, “Oh, do you really think so?” Be careful how you answer now. You know the Sunday School answer but the reality could be much different.
I read a modernized version of this old parable this week. I thought I would share it with you this morning.
Two men walked into a church. The first was a pillar of the Church. He was well known and well respected. Everyone knows that he is a good husband, a loving father, an exemplary citizen in the community, and a pillar of the church. He teaches Sunday school, is on the Church Council, and serves on several of the congregation’s committees. He would never say it, although others would, but the church wouldn’t be able to function the way it does without him. Not only does he speak on many spiritual matters in the church, he is also a faithful giver to the church. There are many missionaries abroad who are able to stay there because of this man’s generosity, there are many bricks in the wall that he helped to put there, there are many fund raisers that have been started because he put up the seed money.
This man is everything that the first is not. In fact, most of the congregation on this particular Sunday morning can hardly believe that he is even present. Some nerve he has, coming to worship on Sunday and living the way that he does the rest of the week. He is well known in the community as a no-account scoundrel. He sells used cars – now there is nothing wrong with that, but he has been known to take advantage of people. Giving credit to people who couldn’t afford it so that he can repossess the car and keep the down payment. Rolling back the miles on the odometer. Putting saw dust in the transmission housing. Selling flooded cars and painting over wrecked cars to hide their defects. Not only is he a dishonest businessman, he is also not much of a man. He’s nice enough, but when he drinks too much, which is often, he is mean to his wife and kids. Many times his family has gone without necessities because he has squandered his pay on gambling and drinking. He’s not in church very often. He never comes to any of the workdays, he never puts anything in the offering plate, he would never even be considered to serve on a committee or as a Sunday school teacher or even be an usher.
Now here the two of them come, walking into church together. Naturally, the pillar of the church doesn’t even offer the scoundrel his hand. The pillar of the church goes to a place where he can easily be seen by everyone and takes his seat. The scoundrel tries his best to mix into the crowd. During the singing, the pillar sings boldly and loudly, perhaps a little bit off key. The scoundrel barely mumbles out the songs, keeping his head down wile singing. When the offering plate goes around everyone sees the pillar put in a wad of bills with a large bill on top. Then the children giggle when the plate gets to the scoundrel and the sound of coins rattles into the bottom of the plate. During the sermon the pillar pulls out his thick, leather bound Bible and nods intelligently while the preacher makes his points. The scoundrel, who perhaps doesn’t even own a Bible, fumbles around with the pew Bible trying to find the passage of the day.
Finally the end of the service approaches and the preacher winds down. He extends an invitation to the altar for all who need it. A few people make their way down, and as is his custom, the pillar goes down to pray with those at the altar (I know, we don’t usually do that here).
And then, what is that noise? Is he crying? Are his shoulders shaking with emotion? Wow, he must have really done something wrong. If you were standing where the preacher is standing, right down at the front of the church, at the altar, you might be able to hear these words, muttered under their breath. The pillar, looking at this wretch of a man, shakes his head and clucks his tongue, saying, “What a waste of a life. There but for the grace of God go I. Thank God that’s not me. I am not like this wretch. God, if only everyone could be like I am. I’m not like most men. I’ve cleaned up my act. I don’t steal, I don’t lie, I don’t cheat on my wife, I don’t cuss. I pray four times a day and over every meal. I fast every Friday. I tithe to the church and then go a second mile for other things here at the church and things that I think are important to the faith. I am so glad I am not like this poor slob.”
The scoundrel, on the other had, doesn’t have such an eloquent prayer. All he is saying, over and over again through his tears, with his face buried in his hands as he is shaking is, “God, I’ve sinned against you and against my family. I’m not worthy even of life. I don’t deserve your love. Have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The invitation comes to an end, both men pick themselves up and head off for Sunday dinner. As they leave the church, who do you think is closer to God?
IV Now, be careful before you answer. As I said earlier, you know the Sunday school answer, but I don’t think that is the answer in your heart. Yes, the Gospel says it needs to be, that is what we all learned in Sunday School. But, if we are honest, if you were to pick the one who was most closely living the Christian life, ten out of ten times you would pick the pillar of the Church. He has clearly given his life to God and made the changes that he needs to make to be a true, obedient child of God. He follows the commandments, he is faithful to God, he does all the right things.
By the same token, the scoundrel has been living in sin for a long time. He may have repented there at the altar, but he is going to have a long way to go before he really gets straightened out. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at these two men and see which one is living the life of righteousness.
That being said, the truth of our lesson, according to Jesus is, it was the scoundrel who went away justified by God. The scoundrel is the one who is closest to God. All too often, as people of faith we fail to realize just what that means. It should make us more than just a little bit uncomfortable.
V The truth is, if we are to live by the principle of this parable, and so much of what Jesus taught, we have to move beyond where we are comfortable to touch the lives of the least, the last, and the lost. We have to find ways reach out to the scoundrel, to the drunk, to the drug addict, to the homeless in the name of Jesus Christ. We have to reach beyond our comfort zones to share the love of Christ with people who may look different than us, talk different than us, dress different than us, and yes maybe even smell different than us.
I guess what I am trying to say is, we can’t go around saying, “Thank God that’s not me” because in truth it is us. Just like us, the people who are out there, people who perhaps make us uncomfortable are sinners who need to know the grace of God through Jesus Christ in their lives. The only real difference is, as people of faith, we know that Grace. We have experienced and continue to experience that grace. It is what changed our lives. Should we not want that for everyone in the world? Should we not be willing to share that with those in the world around us? What better way to make ourselves comfortable with those who don’t have God than to share the love of God with them?
Our prayer this day and every day should not be, “Thank God that’s not me.” Instead it should be, “Thank you God that you have shown me the way to the grace that his changed my life. How can I be a part of showing someone else the way to your life changing love.”
