In the Name of Jesus
21. Sunday after Trinity, Proper 25C
Raphael, Archangel24. October 2010
O Lord Jesus Christ, we know that true Christian faith and hearty confidence in Your Name is the pure and noble gift of God unto those who are obedient to Your word. We thank You that You have also kindled this light in our souls, and granted that even we, though yet in great weakness, with such weak faith, may place all our trust in You alone. O Savior, maintain and increase our faith within us. We do believe: O help our unbelief at all times. Let not the bruised reed be broken nor the smoking wick be quenched as long as we live; so that we may always embrace You in a believing heart, trust You with our whole hearts’ confidence, delighting always in the heavenly treasure of Your grace, unto our own peace and comfort, and daily find our joy in You, even unto the end (Löhe 242-43). Amen.
Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke where the holy evangelist writes: And Jesus told this parable to some who had convinced themselves that they are righteous and look down upon everyone else: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee having stood by himself was praying for himself, ,,O God, I thank You that I am not like the everyone else, greedy, not righteous, an adulterer, or even like this tax collector! I fast twice a week, I give ten percent as an offering of everything that I buy! But the tax collector having stood far in the distance was unwilling to even lift up his eyes to heaven, but rather he was beating his chest, saying, ,,O God, be propitiated toward me, the sinner.“ I tell you, the tax collector went down to his home having been declared righteous rather than the Pharisee; for everyone exalting himself will be humbled, but everyone humbling himself will be exalted. This is our text.
In first century Judaism, the temple in Jerusalem existed solely for the sake of giving out forgiveness. One arrived at the temple a filthy sinner, a sacrifice was offered by the high priest, and then one left the temple forgiven and declared righteous in the sight of Yahweh. The temple also was a focal site for prayer. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem serves this purpose today. The Wailing Wall is the remains of a defensive fortification that was not part of the temple structure but a wall built to defend the temple structure. Everyday Jews go to the Wailing Wall and offer up prayers. In Jesus’ day, one could go up to the temple and publicly pray twice a day. At both 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. the priests offered up an atoning sacrifice by shedding the blood of an innocent animal (Just 682). Public prayer was permitted in the temple when this sacrifice was offered up in the morning and the evening. A person could go to the temple and offer a private prayer at any time, but crowds of people were only allowed to pray in public twice a day.
In Jesus’ parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector seem to be at the temple either in the morning or in the evening when the atoning sacrifice was offered up. Jesus’ parable presents the Pharisee with the worst of the trait’s a Pharisee might have (Just 682). He stands apart from other Jews gathered to pray, but he makes sure he is in a central location for everyone around him to hear his pious prayer (Just 682). Traditionally, when a devout Jew prays, he or she prays aloud, even in private. ,,The picture here, then, is of a man who is arrogant and elitist. He sets himself apart from the rest of the worshipers but within earshot so that they can observe his piety and hear his prayer. He wants to impress those around him“ (Just 682). This Pharisee is a narcissist. His short prayer is two sentences long, and is composed of five declarations instead of petitions. Each declaration has ,,I“ as the subject. His entire prayer is about himself and how pious and perfect he is. He petitions God for nothing since he needs nothing (Just 682).
This Pharisee is an exemplary Jew. He fasts twice a week instead of one day a week. He offers ten percent not only on his income, but he also offers ten percent on every thing he buys with that income (Just 683). Such piety is above and beyond what was expected in Jesus’ day.
This Pharisee is giving, good, chaste, and charitable. He already considers himself righteous, but he does not understand what righteousness truly is. This Pharisee views his righteousness in terms of the law. He does all that the law requires, and then more that the law requires. His salvation and righteousness is based or the works of the law. Thus Jesus says this Pharisee left the temple and returned to his home unrighteous.
Contrasted with this Pharisee is a tax collector. He holds the most vile and corrupt job in the first century: He collects taxes for the pagan Roman overlords of Judah. Tax collectors earned their salary by overcharging people on their taxes. Rome demanded ,,x“ amount of tax money from each person, and a shrewd tax collector could extort three or four times more than that which went directly into his pocket. This tax collector is a thief who has grown extremely wealthy off of his thievery. Everything the Pharisee boasted he was not, this tax collector is, for he is a walking embodiment and example of breaking all of the Ten Commandments. He is despised by everyone as a dirty, rotten scoundrel.
This tax collector knows all this. He is in the temple and offers up a heartfelt plea for mercy: O God, be propitiated toward me, the sinner. He confesses that he is indeed a complete and utter sinner through and through. He admits that he has not kept God’s holy law, not even close. So he keeps his head bowed in shame and he beats his chest in sorrow and unworthiness. The Ten Commandments have stricken his conscience and he declares that he is a poor, miserable sinner, and he petitions God for mercy.
In humility and repentance he lays his life on the line and hopes in God’s mercy. The verb used by Luke is ,,be propitiated“ (i`la,sqhti,) and this verb only occurs in Luke 18 and in Hebrews 2,17. The word is generically translated as ,,mercy“ but as a verb is properly translated as ,,to expiate“ or ,,to propitiate“, both of which are verbs used in the atoning sacrifice offered at the temple for the forgiveness of sin. It is derived from the Hebrew word ,,kaffar“ (rpk) which means ,,to ransom“, ,,to redeem“, ,,to cover“, ,,to atone“, ,,to expiate“ or ,,make propitiation“. It is the word used for the cover or seat of the ark of the covenant, where it is called the ,,mercy seat“ upon which the high priest poured the blood of the sin offering on the Day of Atonement (~yrIPuKi ~Ay).
To ,,make propitiation“ means that ,,someone appeases God by being a sacrifice that atones for our sins“. A propitiation also has the meaning of cleansing one from sin and reconciling one back to Yahweh (Just 684). Our Heavenly Father is reconciled with us on account of the propitiation of His covenant. In the Old Testament, that covenant involved the shedding of the blood of animals in order to cleanse people of Israel from their sins. This happened every day at the temple in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, that covenant involves the shedding of the blood of Jesus in order to cleanse all people from every nation from their sins. The old covenant looked toward the new, and the new covenant is the fulfillment of the old.
The tax collector went home forgiven of all his sins and was made righteous on account of the atoning sacrifice performed at the temple. By faith, he received this absolution as his very own. His sins, which were many, were forgiven; his faith in Yahweh’s covenant saved him, and he went home in peace (Luke 7,47.50).
The Gospels all indicate that Jesus associated with tax collectors. The Pharisees complained that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5,30). Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7,34). Tax collectors and sinners drew near to hear Jesus preach and teach (Luke 15,1).
This tax collector confessed to be the chief and greatest of sinners. Jesus, the friend of tax collectors, also took up that designation for Himself, for on the cross Jesus became the Chief and Greatest Sinner. He became the Propitiator, the one who appeases God by atoning for our sins by sacrificing Himself upon the cross. Jesus is also our Mediator between God the Father and us, for Jesus reconciles and mediates the differences between our Heavenly Father and us, differences that we alone are guilty for on account of our sinfulness.
Jesus’ parable illustrates the Great Reversal of the reign of God. The tax collector, and not the Pharisee, returns home justified. This parable is a foretaste of what Jesus will soon do at Calvary where Jesus is punished and crucified as a sinner and we are released. Christ takes upon Himself our sins and bears God’s wrath in our place, and we in return receive Christ’s righteousness and enjoy His heavenly peace.
On either side of Jesus, two evildoers were being crucified. One of those evildoers repented and turned to Jesus for mercy. That evildoer was told, ,,Today you will be with Me in Paradise.“ His sins were forgiven and he died having been made righteous by the declaration of Jesus. So also we, like the tax collector and the evildoer on the cross, are made righteous by Jesus. His gospel ushers in the last day whereupon the methodologies of this present corrupt and evil age are overturned and reversed. Sinners are forgiven and released of their sins. Righteousness and justification are given to the unrighteous and the lawless. You and I are invited to the heavenly Paradise of God. Christ gives these gifts freely and we humbly receive them with faith alone in Christ who has merited them for us. Amen.
Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, who welcomes children into the reign of God, You have given us this heavenly reign by faith, therefore keep us soundly on this foundation of faith in You so that when our time arrives we will enter into Your glorious Paradise. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Just, Arthur A., Jr. Concordia Commentary: Luke 9:51– 24:53. Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
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