The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

the following message by aleister begg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthforlife.org well can i encourage you then to turn to luke 18 once again you'll be helped by being able to look at the passage that is before us two weeks ago when we turned to the 18th chapter i delayed not purposefully but i i ended up delaying in talking about what was happening when we prayed and as a result of that the study that i had planned was skewed a little and i determined that i needed

to come back to verses 9 to 14 because we've referred to verses 9 to 14 so many times in our study of luke's gospel as jesus has addressed this issue of what it means to know his mercy and his peace this of course is one of a number of stories told by jesus and it is a parable we've dealt with a number of these and the challenge that we've faced in on each occasion is that we may not face the direct impact the shock factor that was inherent in the things that jesus was saying in

the telling of these stories because many of us have become very very familiar with these stories and therefore we're not hearing them for the first time we're not hearing them in the striking way in which the initial listeners heard them and as a result of that we may get ourselves in a situation where we uh just simply neglect the impact to ourselves we come to a passage like this and we say oh yes i know i know this one i know who this is for forgetting the fact that uh god intends for it to be

first for us now i've been helped in relationship to that when every so often i've found somebody who has been able to contemporize the story for me in such a way that it kind of drives it home because after all none of us are familiar with pharisees that engage in life as is described here none of us have spent any time this week going up to the temple to pray none of us are acquainted with anybody who works for the roman authorities and collects taxes and cheats on the side so we're reading a story that

is uh from another time and another place doesn't make it any less relevant it's just more challenging in finding that we're confronted by its impact one of my friends rewrote the story in this way and i want to read it for you you can sit and relax now and listen as he addressed it in this way jack and joe went to church one evening jack knew his way around he'd been brought up in the place he'd gone to sunday school since the age of three and all that he knew too that his parents would be

there sitting in one of the other pews watching him proudly he wanted to make sure that they saw him so he walked right up to the front and sat in the front row he bowed his head he shut his eyes for a few moments he'd seen his dad do that and he knew that it looked holy jack you see took his religion very seriously he carried a big bible and he knew all the latest songs he liked the image of being a highly principled young man too unlike many of his peers he never consumed alcohol

never smoked did no drugs he was also extremely self-righteous about sex no messing around behind the school bike sheds for him he and his girlfriend had intellectual conversations about vegetarianism and the nuclear issue instead of going to discos they went to prayer meetings at the youth leader's house as jack reflected on his life in those few moments before the service began he glowed with inward satisfaction how reassuring it was to know that you were a good christian nothing to confess nothing to feel ashamed about nothing good grief it couldn't be out of the corner of

his eye he caught a familiar figure who had just entered the church behind him it's joe he thought incredulously what on earth is he doing here he's no right to come to church old hypocrites but if he'd been able to read joe's mind he would have realized that precisely the same thoughts were going through his head too what right joe thought did he have to be in church he hadn't been in church for years in fact he felt thoroughly uncomfortable in the place he kept looking around nervously as if he expected somebody in authority to

appear at any moment and tell him he had no business to be there he was unsure where to sit or if there was some special ritual he should observe before committing himself to stay didn't christians cross themselves before they sat down or was it muslims who did that he didn't know he couldn't remember in the end he slid cautiously into the very back row oh no he wailed inwardly as he looked forward there's there's jack in front of me he's seen me i'll never live this down in the neighborhood he crumpled up tucked his legs

under the pew his head sagging down between his knees trying his best to hide as you may have guessed joe was not the religious sort in fact he had a reputation as being a bit of a lad if there was trouble in his neighborhood with the police they usually came to his door his fingers bore testimony to his involvement with nicotine and drugs there was a distinct smell of beer on his breath in fact he'd been down the pub just 15 minutes before the service began why on earth did he come to church was it

because of the row that he'd had that morning at home thrown out by his mother because he'd been stealing from her purse again or was it the sense of humiliation he was feeling as a result of julie slapping him around the face last night and telling him an unambiguous four-letter words to get out of her life just because she discovered he was also sleeping with karen yes it was both of those things and neither of them somehow as he tried unsuccessfully to drown his sorrows in the pub he'd just been overcome with a sense of

how dirty he was and what a mess he'd made of things and suddenly sitting in the back row guilt and shame brought tears to his eyes a blush to his cheek a lump to his throat oh god he sighed quietly into his clenched fists oh god i tell you it was joel who went home a believer that night not jack here they are two men two prayers two destinies for some says jesus who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else actually says luke jesus told them this parable in other words

we're in no doubt as to why he tells the parable he tells the parable because he is surrounded by many people who are absolutely convinced that they're fine absolutely convinced that their religious orthodoxy prevents them from any sense of need at all indeed the kind of people that are so frequently represented in the church services of contemporary american life and because these individuals face the distinct challenge of being religious hypocrites jesus in order to stir them out of their potential lethargy in order to confront them with the gravity of their situation he tells a story

about two individuals in order that they might find a place of identification first of all he introduces us to the pharisee two men went up to the temple to pray he says one was a pharisee now immediately that is a problem for most of us because when we think pharisee we think of it in negative terms if we only know a little bit about the bible we know this that the good samaritan was a good guy and you don't want to have anything to do with a pharisee because pharisee has a negative connotation but in

the minds of the listeners to jesus initial telling of the story there would have been no such reaction the listeners would have listened with these ears there is a pharisee who or what was the pharisee well the pharisee was a church man a regular church attender the pharisee was a bible student he read his bible he knew his bible he was the kind of guy who had a bible in one of those big leather bags with a zip and when you opened it up it had all these little tags on the side so that he

could get at it immediately and if you ever got close to him it was double underlined in yellow and in purple and in green and had triangles and circles and diagrams and it pointed into all points of the compass and made other people who had never opened a bible look at it and say why does he fool around with his bible like that oh he must be a holy guy to have such a big bible in such a lovely leather back with such an annotated description of it all he was scrupulous when it came to

the matters of the law he was a philanthropist he was the first guy out with his checkbook to help in the community he was the kind of person who would have been well known for his willingness to participate in all these different things and he was at the same time a model of holiness he had developed for himself a religious lifestyle that was apparent to all and praying where you could be seen was a hobby for him there was nothing he liked better when the people said aha there he is to the pharisees shoes fit

you at all sir matter are you telling me you don't like it if people think that you're holy religious committed bible reading fundamentalist stalwart the other character is referred to as a tax collector he was a crook he was a collaborator if you watch old second world war movies every so often you find yourself confronted by some mayor in a provincial french town who is lining his pockets as a result of collaboration with the nazis and instinctively you look at that character on the screen and you're disgusted by him how could anybody do that you

say to yourself that's the same way that this man's contemporaries felt about him he was a collaborator with the roman authorities he was fulfilling a responsibility in such a way that he was able to line his own nest he was in every sense the kind of individual that people love to spit upon they cursed the ground he walked on and they would have lynched him on any occasion that they had the opportunity in terms of status in society this individual was right down there with harlots and every other disreputable you might be able to think

of to have a tax collector in your family was a public disgrace your mother would be forced to say that you were out of town to lie about it you did not have to keep promises in this culture to murderers to thieves or to tax collectors and tax collectors could not give their arms in the synagogue and as a result of that the contempt with which such individuals were held by the community tended simply to harden their hearts they became embittered they became disinterested in the things of god they became removed from it all and

indeed when you get to chapter 19 and you find zacchaeus up a tree we tend to think that the reason he's up a tree is because he was a small man part of the reason may be that he was up a tree for his own protection for to be cut down amidst this group was not necessarily a good situation so what you have really in these two individuals or two men who constitute the extremes within judaism one man representing the pinnacle of religion and the other the epitome of wickedness if we'd actually asked anybody he

got out in the community and said you know we've got these two characters uh mr x over here he's a very uh true believer he's a very righteous man he's involved in all kinds of philanthropic deeds he's routinely at the services in fact he hardly misses a beat and then there's another character over here uh who has uh uh come out of a background of uh chicanery and he's a crook and a collaborator and so on which of the two do you think will go to heaven and people say well there's no way this that's

an easy question religious people go to heaven therefore if this is the religious man then presumably he's the one that's going to heaven this chapter got a hope in the world of going to heaven if you like the pharisee went up to the temple to feel good about himself people tell me all the time i like to go to church it makes me feel good about myself that scares me not that we desire that people would feel bad about themselves but that just it is so possible to use the mechanisms of religious formalism as a

mechanism for somehow or another simply assuring ourselves of the fact that we're absolutely fine and what reveals the real condition of the hearts of these men is of course the prayers that they offer so look at the prayers first of all the prayer of the pharisee the pharisee in verse 11 stood up and he prayed about himself may equally be translated he prayed to himself his prayer is so loaded with self-congratulation that it doesn't actually ever get off the ground the phraseology of the opening part of verse 11 the pharisees stood up may equally be

translated the pharisee took a stand probably right up front next to the stone balustrade that separated the court of the laity from the court of the clergy you have the women separated from the men and then the men separated from the priests and the men separated from the pharisees and this man presumably would take his place as close to the rank and file as he could in order that he might receive the adulation that would come from the people looking up at him and saying my my there is a wonderful example of humanity there is

a tremendous man and he prayed to himself and he played prayed in a way that is self-congratulatory he glances says plumber at god but he contemplates himself now in the way in which he prays you will notice or perhaps you will notice you will once i pointed out to you that he majors on three elements of obedience number one he majors on negative obedience i thank you that i am not okay i'm not this and i'm not that and i'm not the next thing in other words he seeks to comfort himself by reminding himself of

the sins he has not committed which of course provides for the human psyche a wonderful smoke screen to prevent us from being confronted by the sins which we have committed but if the object of our exercise is to affirm ourselves to feel good about ourselves to reinforce ourselves then we may follow the example of this pharisee and begin by congratulating ourselves on our commitment to a negative obedience also to a legalistic obedience notice how he is prepared to enumerate these things and presumably jesus is using this simply as an illustration he could have gone on

verse 12 i fast twice a week and i give a tenth of all that i get and i go up to the temple routinely to pray and so on here is another classic method of avoiding guilt within our lives some of us have developed a kind of obsessive behavior pattern which is actually a cover for our own guilt-ridden lives and we have developed patterns of existence that are ritualistic they are marked by extreme discipline perhaps by self-denial definitely by paying attention to petty rules that have often been developed by man and as a result of

the doing of all of these things it helps us then to feel better about ourselves and to avoid being confronted by the issues that god is speaking to us about in our lives a negative obedience a legalistic obedience and also a comparative obedience a comparative obedience i thank you that i am not like other men you see how subtle this is a strategy of self-justification the issue first of all for the pharisee and the tax collector was not whether they were like each other but it was what they were before the gaze of god the

issue this morning is not whether you are better than the person next to you or like the guy for in front of you the issue is before the all-seeing eye of god what does your life look like and one of the great trips that the devil loves to take us on is the idea of coming to worship routinely coming to worship and finding in good things finding in beneficial aspects of life a covering which prevents us from facing the abject central reality of my own condition before god he felt all right but his feelings did

not reflect the condition of his soul you see what i mean about coming to church to feel all right he comes sunday after sunday and you feel all right what if the way you feel does not represent how you are then everything that you and i are employing to make us feel all right legalistic obedience comparative obedience negative obedience all of these things are actually preventing us from the very confrontation we require if we are ever to deal with the guilt that is at the core of our lives this individual this pharisee is like somebody

who goes to the doctor for for his checkup the nurse comes takes him out of the waiting area says it'll go in cubicle number three and put this gown on he said oh he goes in he puts the gown on he tries to tie it up at the back but he might as well forget it because it just gets more and more embarrassing as the morning goes on the doctor comes in says good morning how are you he says well frankly doctor i'm absolutely fine i'm in superb health as i was driving here this morning

i was breathing in and out i said to myself you know my lungs are apparently functioning perfectly just last evening when i came out of the shower my wife said to me you know your muscle tone is ideal and doc i have to tell you that as far as as far as i understand it i'm eating like a horse my digestive system couldn't be better my circulation is absolutely a1 and while you're listening doctor let me tell you i have no ailments i have no infections and i've got no diseases unlike some of the other

poor specimens that you're about to see later on this morning because i was sitting with them out there in the waiting area oh there are some bad ones coming in but as for me i need nothing there's nothing wrong with me at all he feels no need he asks for nothing and in his own mind he's a one-man beauty show but if he would ever shut up long enough to lie down on the table and let the physician do what needs to be done then the picture may change for all of his affirmations about how

well he is on account of his own self-assessment will very quickly be eroded when the hands of the physician begin to probe when after the band has been removed and the stethoscope clicks back on the back of the physician's neck and he says you know your blood pressure is significantly higher than it should be when in the examination of his body he hits one spot comes back to it makes one of those medical groaning noises and then comes back to it for a third time and in that moment the man should be feeling some uncertainty

because he says you know what's that and the doctor says and he always says oh probably nothing but we'll just have it checked in case and by the way did you know you're diabetic the pharisee says say god i'm fine i'm here i'm always here you know me i'm at the 11 o'clock service every sunday you can see my checkbook you know the things i'm doing i'm a good guy in this group now look at the prayer of the tax collector but the tax collector stood at a distance wouldn't even look up to the heavens

and he beat his breast and he said god have mercy on me a sinner actually that what he says literally in the greek is god will you propitiate me now you say what does that mean what well the word propitiation is a theological word which the bible uses routinely to point to the fact that in the death of a sacrifice there is not only the bearing away of sin but it is the there is the diverting of the wrath of god towards sin mr happy the pharisee religious conference attending church magnificent song singing chap he's

over here in la la land apparently fine this poor soul says i'm busted i mean unless there is a way for something outside of me to deal with my problem then god i have no chance ever of knowing you of being loved by you and then living with you forever in eternity so would you and you see it's in the context remember of the temple worship he would be able to look up to the altar he would see at least the bloodstains of the sacrifice he would be reminded of the fact that that as blood

speaks of death so sin demands death and the man is essentially looking away and he's saying i see the blood and i understand the cost and i'm asking you to have mercy on me he's not appealing to god's better nature he's laying claim to god's own remedy for the sinner's predicament is all the difference in the world you see well i go to church regularly and i just i just you know i i feel better about everything after i've been there and i'm just i'm just banking on god's good side you know i know i'm

a bit of this and a bit of that but i i'm sure when he sees the the notes that i have in my bible i'm i'm sure that you know when he he remembers that i've been doing that junior sunday school class for some time i have been no doubt that when he recognizes all the contributions that i've made everything that i have here in the hold all of my life that i'm just putting together so that when finally i stand before the bar of his judgment i may be able to bring it and take

it all out and present it to him and say see here there's every reason in the world why you should welcome me into your heaven unlike old fred here who doesn't even have a hole doll and if he had a hold on he would have nothing in it what is he going to do just go up to the gate of heaven and say god be merciful to me i mean is that what he's going to try and do you mean like a thief on the cross lord remember me when you come into your heaven i

think you get the point let me finish by asking you a question because there's two men there's two prayers and there's two destinations have you ever asked god to pardon you the way the text man did now forget about the person on your right and your left for a moment i'm asking you a question it's a question that is demanded of us by the text of scripture and with this we draw things to a close this is a crucial question have you ever asked god to pardon you the way the taxman did through the merciful

provision of the atoning sacrifice of jesus or are you seeking a righteousness like the pharisees built on your religious reputation and your moral achievements essentially upon what are you hanging your hat as you think of the reality of eternity have you ever asked god to pardon you the way the tax man did i don't think there is any doubt loved ones this morning that there are many who attend churches regularly and perhaps even at parkside this is true many who attend regularly who have never made this discovery deep down inside they know that they're guilty

but instead of resolving it in god's way they bury it the only attempt that they make to deal with a sense of guilt is by trying to overlay it with these religious observances so that even church itself becomes a mechanism whereby not that i discover the reality of my need of a savior but where i find a nice group of people who make me feel good about myself who made me feel that everything's okay listen listen carefully you go to the doctor telling him everything's okay he puts his hand on one area of your body

and what you feel is different from the reality you understand that the same is true concerning our souls the issue is not first today or any sunday that you go from here feeling okay the real issue is that you realize by the work of the spirit of god that he puts your his hand upon your life and he says listen the reason you feel guilty is because you should because you're a mess because you've done this because you've done that because you've broken god's law and when you take all of that the worst of all

is that you do not believe in god now the way to deal with that is not to say oh well i love the singing you know and it was terrific and let's get off to lunch as quickly as we can you can do that many do and i'll tell you what they're like the individual who's doing that he may call himself a christian she may call herself a christian there are symptoms throughout the totality of their lives these are not all the symptoms but these are some such an individual constantly feels that they are no

good at all at being a christian i'm no good at being a christian who cares if you're any good at being a christian that is not the first question the the tax collector is not put in the right with god because of how good he feels about what he's been doing he feels that everything that he's been doing stinks but when an individual doesn't understand the reality of guilt and the experience of genuine liberation from it then they've got nowhere to go so they don't feel good they don't feel excited about being a christian it's

false to them they have no assurance of salvation they seldom have any joy in worship they have no enthusiasm in and witnessing wonder why it is and when they're confronted by it they may say to themselves and how do i get out of my predicament the answer is here in the text stand where the tax man stood bow if you like where the tax man bowed go he doesn't even lift up his eyes to heaven he beats his chest as an expression of his contrition and he says god be merciful to me and look what

jesus says i tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified declared righteous in god's sight acquitted set free why because of the amazing mercy of god i'm going to pray the prayer of the pharisee prayed i need to bow where the pharisee browed i need to look where the f where i need to look where the tax collector looked where was he looking he was looking away from himself he was looking to the altar of sacrifice all of his illusions of moral respectability had been shattered all of his pretense of self-righteousness

had been abandoned he knew that he had nothing to say have you ever asked god to pardon you the way the tax collector did have you ever bowed where he bowed have you ever looked where he looked have you ever heard what he heard this man is justified so that when we sing it is well with my soul and you come to the you come to the verse my sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to his cross and i bear it no more what

are we saying there we're not saying anything about ourselves and our feelings we're saying everything about who jesus is and what jesus has done and about the fact that we are resting in him alone well how are you planning on dealing with your guilt for guilty you are and guilty i am are you going to keep going for a little bit of religious therapy sunday by sunday week by week just enabling me to feel better about myself or do you want to go for a radical cleansing of the real guilt that lies at the core

of your being carol bart the great theologian he said we dislike hearing that we are saved by grace alone we don't really appreciate that god doesn't owe us anything that we are bound to live from his goodness alone that we're left with nothing but the great humility of a child presented with many gifts to put it bluntly we do not like to believe we would much rather do the doing comes after the believing the doing cannot take the place of believing and jack had every reason to be there he knew the songs his bible was

marked his parents were involved in the church joe of course stinky joe he knew he shouldn't be there and joe went home a believer and jack went home stuck in the self-congratulate congratulatory nature of his own religious dividing let us pray together perhaps a prayer like this would be helpful to some who find themselves in a kind of feel-good christian trip they've been trying desperately to make it work and it isn't working the reason is that they've never prayed the tax collector's prayer they never got down to breast tax why not where you're seated this

morning just admit give up your rebellion throw up your sword say jesus i need you i have got nothing to say in my defense i have nothing to plead on my behalf none of the things that get me into my clubs that make me significant in my community that give me accolades in my work none of it works be merciful to me forgive me save me live in me take me i'm yours and the bible says that the man or the woman who calls out to god in that way will in no wise be cast

away god will save you he will keep you it'll be apparent you may not feel anything you go for lunch and it'll be apparent in time the buds will be on the trees the songs will be in your heart you'll find you're telling others about this wonderful story and then you'll say my my what happened to me and then you'll realize this isn't something i did this is something god did he showed me i needed him and then he came in my need and he saved me father hear our prayers and if you'd like to

talk with anyone or receive a booklet that may help in these directions through the doors to my right and your left you'll find kindly folks in the prayer room they'll be glad simply to respond to you now or at the time of your convenience but that's really not the issue the issue is your heart before an all-seeing god and mind two and may the lord bless us and keep us may the lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us may the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us

and give us his peace today and forevermore amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with aleister begg visit us online at truthforlife.org