Sin and Grace
St. Luke 18:9-14
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 18:14 [Jesus said] “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Human pride is a terribly destructive thing. A person who has much pride in himself can come quite easily to the conclusion that he needs no one else in his life except himself. He can be led easily to believe that he is totally self-sufficient, dependent upon no one, and that he can take care of himself without anyone else’s help.
The danger of this kind of intense pride, of course, is that it so quickly can remove from us any and all reliance and dependence upon God’s mercy in Christ Jesus. If I am self-reliant and self-sufficient, if indeed I can do for myself, then why in the world would I have any need for God or anything that He may have to offer? The answer to that question is a painfully man-centered response: “I don’t.”
That, in a nutshell, is the attitude displayed by those to whom Jesus was speaking in today’s Gospel. These people were probably those with whom hopefully most of us would have a problem being in the same room. And the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable was no different. He and they were, shall we say, “full of themselves.” St. Luke says that those to whom Jesus was speaking “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” How else may we say this? This Pharisee was his own god; he had no god but himself. And since that was the case, his soul was in danger of hell and eternal damnation.
An interesting comparison in this text is the difference between external righteousness and internal righteousness. We see this difference made obvious to us when we compare the Pharisee and the tax collector on the basis of their own words and actions. Our Lord Jesus says it best: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’”
The Pharisee, as we said, was self-sufficient. He even had the audacity in his “prayer” to tell God – and anyone else within earshot – to look at his own achievements, and to compare himself, quite favorably, to others. This is external righteousness. This man was convinced that he did not need God. We may even go so far as to say that he believed that God needed him! Why else would he think he needed to remind God – in his prayer with himself – that he was not like others that he fasted twice a week, that he gave tithes of all he possessed, and that he was not an extortioner or an adulterer?
Surely God knew otherwise; He knew that the Pharisee wasn’t fooling anyone but himself. But in his unbelief the Pharisee didn’t even know THAT! And that is the sad reality of a person who, rather than trusting in God for all things, trusts in himself. He believed that he was worthy of God’s attention simply because he had love and good works, and he asked for grace as though he had earned it and deserved it.
Sadly, this man could not have been farther from the truth, for a person who relies on his own righteousness and not on the mercy of God not only insults Christ but also rejects Christ. This man was a sinner, but he didn’t know it and he didn’t believe it. He was being condemned by the Law, but he didn’t know it and he didn’t believe it. He was dead in his trespasses and sins, and he had no idea that he would die eternally for his self-righteous and self-centered worship of self and rejection of God.
On the other hand, there is the tax collector. And you notice the difference right away. He stood “afar off,” meaning that he did not even think himself worthy to be in the temple, let alone blathering away about himself like the Pharisee. Jesus said this man “would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” By pointing to this man Jesus shows how we are to enter the temple; He shows how we are to enter into the presence of God: with humility, with lowliness, with a profound awareness and acknowledgment of our sins, and with a profound awareness that we deserve nothing from God.
In his sermon on this text, blessed Dr. Martin Luther says that this man “praises God, puts himself to shame, and exalts the truth above himself. Therefore, we must praise and commend his work, because he gives God the highest honor and true worship. For he says: “God, be thou merciful to me a sinner,” as though he would say: I am a rogue, this I confess, as You Yourself know. Here you see that he confesses the truth and is willing that God should reprove and revile him; yea, he does this himself, and casts himself down to the very lowest, and with God he again rises upward, and gives glory to God that He is gracious, kind and merciful. But in himself he finds nothing but sin…these are the true fruits of faith” (Sermons of Martin Luther: Baker; Vol. IV: p. 340).
So, Luther reminds us of the things God Himself would remind us of – that self-absorption and self-righteousness are unbelief, but awareness of sin and knowledge of our own unworthiness to come before God are the very fruits of faith. The Pharisee was an unbeliever, but the tax collector was a believer, for only a believer truly knows he is nothing before God.
That, dear friends, is both how and why we began the service today with the confession of sins. In those words we say with our own lips that we are “a poor, miserable sinner,” for that is what we are! And without that confession, without that acknowledgment and repentance and owning up to our sins and sinfulness, we would have no need for God. The Law of God – those words of Scripture that declare that we are blind, dead, enemies of God and that we cannot save ourselves from our sins – is a wonderful thing, for it cuts us to the quick and brings us to our knees, which is where we should be before God.
It is a good thing, dear fellow redeemed, to say with the tax collector, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” For when we do that, we are already speaking out of faith and trust in God and His Son Jesus Christ. When we do that, we are confessing that God is right, that we are wrong, and that God is the only one who is able to do anything about it.
Like the tax collector we acknowledge that we have nowhere to turn but to the Lord God through Jesus Christ to plead for His mercy and grace, for that is the only place where we will find it. The Law drives us to despair; it forces us to admit the truth that we cannot save ourselves by anything we may do. It forces us to look outside ourselves for help and forgiveness.
And then you hear the sweet, saving Gospel of Jesus Christ – that Christ alone bore all your sins on the cross willingly; that He intentionally suffered in His body what YOU should have received for your sins which is God’s eternal wrath and displeasure, as well as the full fury of the power of hell. And He did so deliberately, He did so FOR YOU.
And that sweet Gospel of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection frees you from ever having to worry about working your way to heaven. It frees you from ever having to worry about how much you need to do in order to please God. For God accepts the suffering and death of Jesus in your place. He accepts it as payment in full for all your sins, even those which you have not yet committed! That is what it meant when Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” Everything which had to be accomplished for the forgiveness of your sins was done and completed in Him. The full forgiveness of sins was acquired by Christ, and through God-given faith in Christ’s work for you, you have that forgiveness and eternal salvation.
And now you are about the business of receiving the blessings and benefits of Christ’s work on the cross. There on that accursed tree Jesus paid for all your sins; it is a work that never needs to be repeated. But the benefits of that work continue to flow to you from Christ. For He gives us this very day His own body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar – the continual deliverance of His forgiveness and life that we so desperately need. Here in this Sacrament and on the basis of Christ’s own words is His real, physical body and blood “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” It is not only a spiritual blessing but a physical one as well, for the real Christ is physically present here with the same body and blood He gave up in suffering and death for you on the cross.
How this can be we do not ask, but that it is given and received by faith and trust in the one who gives Himself for you. We trust in Him and not ourselves. And we who humble ourselves will be exalted, and thereby we, like the tax collector go down to our house justified – declared “not guilty” by God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
