Thomas J Parlette
“A New Reformation”
Luke 18: 9-14
10/26/25, Reformation Sunday
Luke makes no secret about where he’s going with his Gospel. He gives us a heads right from the start. Before Jesus is even born, his mother Mary sings the Magnificat, a song about the great reversal that is coming.
“God has brought down the powerful and lifted up the lowly…
“God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty…”
Luke returns to this theme of reversal throughout his Gospel. Just to remind you of a few stories:
In Chapter 7, we hear about the woman who was a sinner crashing a dinner so she could anoint Jesus with an expensive ointment from an alabaster jar. The host of the dinner party wanted to send her away, because she was a sinner and did not belong with the righteous people gathered at the table. But Jesus offers a quick story about a creditor that forgave one person a debt of 500 hundred denarii and another person a debt of 50 denarii.
“Which one will be more appreciative?”
“I suppose the one who has been forgiven the larger debt.”
“Good answer” says Jesus. “Since I arrived you have done nothing for me, showed me no hospitality. But this woman hasn’t stopped kissing me and anointing my feet. Therefore, her sins, which are many, are forgiven.”
The lowly sinners are lifted up, and the greatly respected are knocked down a peg or two – a great reversal.
Later in Luke’s Gospel, we read about Lazarus and the Rich Man. In life, Lazarus was the lowest of the low, and the rich man enjoyed all the comforts life had to offer. But in death, Lazarus finally received his reward, and the rich man sat suffering in Hades. He tries to convince Abraham to send Lazarus to give him a drink and then to go warn his five brothers of their impending doom – still seeing Lazarus as a servant and not a person.
I don’t think so, says Lazarus. If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, well that’s their problem. There is no getting around the great reversal that is coming, when the powerful will be cast down and the lowly lifted up.
Our story today is one of Luke’s great reversal stories. Jesus has a parable to tell to some of those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and regarded others with contempt
“Two men went up to the Temple to pray,” says Jesus. “One, a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”
Already the alarm bells start going off – “Uh-Oh, a Pharisee, we know where this is going.” Whenever a Pharisee enters the picture, we immediately cast him as the bad guy. After years of conditioning by biblical interpretation, we see them as self-righteous, rigid, hopelessly bound to their rule books, blind to human need and lacking in compassion.
In contrast, we see the tax collector more as a good guy, a regular, blue-collar guy, struggling to get by, doing what he has to do, repentant, meek and simple.
And yet, in Jesus’ world, this was simply not the case. In fact, the Pharisees were the good guys – religious, devout, trying to live out God’s will the best they could. Yes, for them that meant following the rules, but their intent was good. The Pharisees followed the rules because that’s what they thought God wanted.
On the other hand, we have the tax collector. We tend to look at him as the virtuous characters in parables like this – but in reality, in Jesus’ world, the tax collector was the bad guy. Tax collectors worked for the hated Roman Empire, extorting money from their own people. As agents of Rome, they owed a certain amount of money, no exceptions – anything on top of that amount was their profit. That’s how they made a living, so most tax collectors had a reputation for over-charging and ripping people off. Their fellow Jews looked at tax collectors as traitors, as collaborators with an occupying enemy force. And they were hated for it.
So, when Jesus pulls yet another great reversal and holds the tax collector up as the righteous one in this parable – it is yet another stunner that gets people talking.
And why is that exactly? What does the tax collector, this Roman collaborator do that earns him Jesus’ praise?
It all comes down to how he prays. Notice that both the Pharisee and the tax collector as depicted as devout. They are both at the Temple in Jerusalem. They both engage in prayer. But the Pharisee gives thanks that he is not like other people – especially, it seems, that tax collector over there. The Pharisee reviews before God his resume and considers himself righteous by virtue of everything he has done and the way he lives his life.
Whereas, the tax collector prays differently. He approaches God with obvious shame and humility, not even daring to look upwards to heaven. He does not present any sort of spiritual resume, nothing about the good he may have done with his life – he says only, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
The great reversal hinges on humility, righteousness hinges on reliance on God’s mercy and grace, not trusting in whatever spiritual and religious resume you’ve built up over the years.
In March of 2022, the Religion News Service reported that when asked in a poll how well Christians represent the values and teachings of Jesus, 29% of religiously unaffiliated respondents said “not at all”, while only 2% said Christians represent Jesus’ values and teachings “a lot.” The numbers were a bit less harsh among respondents of non-Christian religions, but still, 18% said “not at all,” and just 6% said “a lot.”
In response to this rather harsh critique, Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry said, “Closing the gap between people’s perceptions of Jesus and their perceptions of his followers will take a “new Reformation,” one that includes not only “re-presenting” a Christianity that looks more like Jesus to the rest of the world, but also a better “re-formation” of Christians around Jesus’ teachings and way of life.” (1)
Re-presenting and re-forming what people’s perspectives were on what God expects is exactly what Jesus is doing with this parable. It’s not the most obvious choice for a Reformation Sunday – but it is a good one. Jesus, the first and greatest reformer comes not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. Jesus came to re-form God’s people.
Instead of rigid adherence to the law, Jesus comes to temper the rules and regulations with love and compassion. To a people who depend on themselves and their own actions to bring about righteousness, Jesus comes to remind us that God is the only one who grants righteousness – and God does so with mercy and grace. This parable underscores one of the bedrock tenets of our reformed faith – nothing we can do will earn us salvation, instead, salvation is a gift from God, given with mercy and grace.
Some 1500 years later. Martin Luther experienced a great reversal of his own. He said of the experience: “Then I had a feeling that straight away I was born again, and had entered through the open doors into paradise itself. The whole scripture revealed a different countenance to me.” (2)
With this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus reminds us once again that:
“I have come to hear and respond to the prayers of sinners who cry for mercy.
I have come to make sinners righteous.
I have come to give you the gift of being justified in God’s eyes. (3)
I have come to re- form my followers into the people God intends them to be. A people who are guided by love, mercy, grace and compassion. A people with open hearts for those who have been neglected, downtrodden and ignored.
For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all those who humble themselves will be exalted.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 10/6/25.
2. Richard A. Jensen, Preaching Luke’s Gospel, CSS Publishing Company, 1997, p196.
3. Ibid…
