February 10, 2016 Sermon

Ash Wednesday Sermon 2016

This Man Went Home Justified

“It’s not my fault!” Does that sound familiar? Who in all the world might’ve said those words? Could it be you – when you were 4,5,6 or 7 years old and you said that about your brother or sister who got you into trouble. If you’re a teacher, you’ve probably heard a student say that. If you’re a supervisor, you’ve probably heard it from an employee. You may have heard it from a neighbor or coworker.

What it is an attempt to justify your actions. They make an excuse for what they did. They try to shift the blame and get out of whatever consequences might be coming. It’s kind of ironic that we use the word justify for that, because justify is one of the most important words in the Bible. It means that God declares us not guilty in his courtroom. But when we use it in everyday speech, it almost always means that we make an excuse. That subtle difference illustrates the theme of our Lenten devotions. This year, we’re going to hear about irony. One dictionary defines irony as “a combination of circumstances or a result that is the opposite of what . . . might be expected.” Jesus’ passion is filled with irony. Tonight, we’re considering a parable Jesus told. What is the irony, the unexpected result? This man went home justified.

Who was Jesus talking about? There were two people here – a Pharisee; and a tax collector. One of the ironies of this parable is how we react to the word Pharisee. To us, that word means proud and self-righteous. We can’t imagine a Pharisee as anything other than a hypocrite. The gospels back up that assessment. But to the first-century Jew, Pharisee meant something else. St. Paul was raised a Pharisee, and he was proud of that label before he came to faith. The Pharisees were the people who defended a strict interpretation of the Old Testament law. They held that it really was the Word of God and that it really was true, unlike the Sadducees who were more like the theological liberals of many churches today. But the tax-collector? He would’ve been the sinner or the outcast of society.

We’re told right away in our very first verse – why Jesus told this parable – To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable…There were a lot of people who had misunderstandings of how to get into a right relationship with God. The Pharisees thought by doing and keeping God’s law was the way to get right with God. They even went to the point of making over 600 laws that they tried their best to keep.

There were two men who went to the temple to pray – one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ Remember, we want to remember the thought, “This man went home justified.” Would we be talking about the Pharisee or the tax collector? The Pharisee is a self-described good person. He lists all the ways he tries to get into a right relationship with God. He was going a step above and beyond what he had to do – what was required of him. Percentage giving was good, but he fasted much more than he had needed to. He thought he was good. Did this man go home justified?

God tells us throughout the Bible that it’s not about our outward actions, but it’s about the thoughts and attitude of the heart. The Pharisee doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions. He shifts the blame to others. ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. These were the people who were far from being right with God. These were the outcasts of society. In essence, he’s saying “I’m not…a robber…evildoer…adulterer…or tax collector.” And the public would’ve agreed with him. He would have been given the societal stamp of approval – that he was trying to do right and good things.

But how did that sit with God? When we hear about the Pharisee, it’s easy to see what the problem is – the pride that rested in his heart. We have pride resting in our own hearts. Maybe we say similar prayers – “Lord, I’m thankful I’m not like this neighbor…co-worker of mine. I’m not a robber, evildoer or adulterer. I’m a pretty good person compared to the person sitting in the cubicle next to me.” Does that type of attitude put us into a right relationship with God – when we carry around the attitude that we’re better than others?

We heard it in the very last verse – For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled… and isn’t that what the Pharisee had done – exalted himself? Our Lord told this parable to those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else… There are times when we are over confident and look down on others; and that we weren’t among the sinful of the world. But our Lord tells us about the sinful pride that rests in our heart – that he has come to defeat the sin and pride in our heart.

It wasn’t the Pharisee who went home justified, rather it was the tax collector. But notice the difference between the two. ¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance…He didn’t want to be front and center – not wanting to have everyone hear his prayer. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ How do we develop this God-pleasing attitude? When we think about Lent and Ash Wednesday, isn’t it the time for us to do some self-reflection and look at the obvious, difficult and painful reality that we find ourselves in? We are robbing God; we are evildoers committing sin; we are adulterers; we go and break the 8^th commandment. We fail to honor God in everything we say and think and do.

We are here in Lent and to do on Ash Wednesday. To remember this phrase and say it well – “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We can tell God anything and everything we’ve done – b/c he knows it all – even the dirty little secrets we don’t want to tell anyone else. We can confess our sins to God – b/c of Jesus, his passion, his life, death and resurrection, we have the forgiveness of all our sins.

We have been justified – in the courtroom God has declared us not guilty – of any sin we’ve committed in the past or any sin we will commit in the future. We are to look to Jesus as our Savior.

There are many ironies of the Passion that we’ll hear about over the next several weeks. We’ve heard one tonight about the Pharisee and the tax collector. I pray that we look to the model example of the tax collector – that we reflect on our many sins that we’ve committed – that caused our Lord Jesus to suffer and die on the cross. May we also rejoice in the passion of our Savior – that b/c he died to forgive all our sins – we are declared not guilty. We are the man, the woman, the child, that has gone home justified. Amen.