Thomas J Parlette
“To the Overconfident”
Luke 18: 9-14
10/27/19
There was once a 5 year old girl who was asked to say grace at the family dinner table. Usually a short, memorized prayer was the custom, but this little girl was intent on offering an original prayer based on this particular meal. So with hands folded, head bowed, and one eye open, scanning the table, she prayed;
“Thank you God… that Mom mashed potatoes and made gravy.
Thank you, God… that there are enough rolls for me to have 2.
I don’t thank you God, for the green beans! They’re gross.
Amen.”(1)
Sounds a little like one of the prayers we overhear this morning.
Luke makes it clear right from the start why Jesus tells this story about a Pharisee and a tax collector - “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”
So Jesus is addressing those who were overconfident in their ability to be holy, who trusted in themselves to be good and godly people. He was telling this story to the ones whose ego led them to believe that they were better than everyone else.
Maxie Dunham, a seminary professor and a prolific writer, likes to tell the story of the University of Tennessee football coach who bought a bolt of cloth thinking he would have a suit made out of it. This particular coach took great pride in his appearance, as well as his football reputation, and he liked to look good when he spoke to alumni groups. So he took the material to his tailor in Knoxville where the University of Tennessee is located. The tailor measured him, examined the bolt of cloth, did some computations on a piece of paper, and said, “I’m sorry coach, there just isn’t enough material in this bolt to make a suit for you.” The coach was disappointed, but he threw the cloth in the trunk of his car, wondering what he was going to do with it.
A couple of weeks later, this same coach was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama – the home of the Crimson Tide, arch enemies of the Tennessee Volunteers. He was on his way to the coast for a vacation. Driving down the main street in Tuscaloosa, he noticed a tailor shop, which reminded him that he had that bolt of cloth in the trunk. So he stopped, thinking he would give it a shot.
He told the tailor he had bought this cloth and wondered if he could do anything with it. The tailor measured the coach, measured the cloth, and did some computations. Finally he said, “Coach, I can make you a suit out of this bolt. What’s more, I can make you an extra pair of pants. And if you really want it, I can give you a vest out of this too.”
The coach was dumbfounded. “I don’t understand,” he said. “My tailor in Tennessee told me he couldn’t even make one suit out of this bolt of cloth.”
And the tailor said, “Coach, here in Alabama, you are not nearly as big a man as you are in Tennessee.”(2)
A blow to the coach’s ego, I’m sure. And I’m sure this story about the Pharisee, standing by himself so as not to rub elbows with his fellow worshippers, and praying loudly so everyone could hear what a wonderful person he was, was also a blow to egos of the overconfident followers in the crowd.
In telling this story, Jesus wanted his followers to understand that when they compare themselves to others, religion turns into a competition. He wanted his hearers to understand they were wasting their lives and missing out on the truth of God by looking down on others because of their religious practices. God is not about religion – God is about relationships. And it’s a mistake to define ourselves by what we are not, instead of by who God is. We were made in the image of God. If we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are adopted into God’s family and are children of God. So our identity is not based on comparing ourselves to others. Our identity is not even based on our right actions. Our identity is based on who God is.
Self-righteousness is not the same thing as holiness. The Pharisee made the mistake of comparing himself to other people. “God, I thank you that I am not like other people…” It’s tempting to do that sometimes – especially when in comparison we look pretty good.
In all honesty, the Pharisee did look good compared to the tax collector. Pharisees were members of a strict religious order. They devoted their lives to observing the rules and statutes of Jewish religious law. They were the gold standard for righteousness in their society.
The tax collector, on the other hand, was a traitor to his own people because he worked for the Roman government in a capacity that allowed him to cheat and oppress his fellow Jews by adding on extra taxes to line his own pockets. The profession encouraged corruption. Tax collectors were considered traitors and extortionists. They were not allowed to be witness or judges in court because they were considered untrustworthy. They were excommunicated from the synagogue.
The Pharisee thought he was all right in comparison to the tax collector. But the tax collector wasn’t who he was in competition with. His competition was the man he himself was created to be. The Pharisee’s prayer showed there was a gaping hole in his life – he didn’t really know God. We can do everything right in life, keep all the rules of our religion, and still not know God.
Another important point Jesus wants to make is that we are dependent on God – God is not dependent on us. Consider what the other character in this story does. The tax collector doesn’t feel worthy to participate in worship, he stands apart, looks down at the ground and beats his chest in sorrow and prays “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” In fact, the word used here is “hilaskomai” – which actually means “an atoning sacrifice.” So what the tax collector literally prays is “God, be the atoning sacrifice for me, a sinner.” His prayer echoes King David’s words in Psalm 51: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
In C.S. Lewis’ fantasy story The Great Divorce, a busload of people from Hell are driven to the gates of Heaven and offered admission, but with one exception, they all refuse it. The people in Heaven are so radiant and so substantial that they make the visitors from Hell look like mere shadows.
One pale ghost from Hell wanders through the gates into Heaven. He is upset when he meets a citizen of Heaven he knew in his previous life. This heavenly citizen had worked for him, and had not been a great guy. In fact, he had committed a murder during his life on earth. How dare he live in Heaven now! He hadn’t earned that right.
The citizen from Hell complains, “Look at me, now. I gone straight all my life. I don’t say I was a religious man and I don’t say I had no faults, far from it. But I done my best all my life, see?... That’s the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn’t mine by rights. If I wanted a drink, I paid for it, and if I took my wages, I done my job, see?... I’m asking for nothing but my rights… I’m not asking for anybody’s bleeding charity.”
The heavenly citizen looks him in the eye and says, “Then do. At once. Ask for the bleeding charity.”(3)
The tax collector asked for the charity - “God, be merciful to me, be the atoning sacrifice for me, a sinner.” And God will grant the charity. God will offer grace.
Jesus finishes the parable by saying, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Justification, forgiveness, righteousness, grace – they do not come from anything we do or anything that we offer God. No, all those things can only come from God.
The Pharisee was right about the Kind of life he should live. That’s not the problem here. The problem is he is confused about the source of that life. He is not the source – God is the source. The tax collector knows something that the Pharisee does not – his life is God’s – his past, present, and future are entirely dependent on God’s grace and mercy.
Our true confidence is that God is pleased to offer forgiveness, mercy and grace to all God’s children.
And for that, may God be praised. Amen.
1. JoAnn A. Post, Christian Century, October 9th, 2019, p19.
2. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXV, No.4.
3. Ibid.
