Sermon for Sunday October 26, 2025

October 26, 2025, Sermon

Gospel Reading” Luke 18:9-14

 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“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.”

Sermon:

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder - so extending that metaphor a little bit we could say, “the gospel is in the ear of the hearer.” The question for today is: where in this passage do you hear the gospel? What is the good news?

There’s the Pharisee who's all puffed up with pride, “look what I've done, God! Aren't I a great person? I'm doing what you want me to do, following your law. I’ve done even more than you asked. Thank you for making me such a great person.” Maybe he’s really trusting in himself more than God.

Then there’s the tax collector, who so humbly kneels down and just says “have mercy on me!” He can't say anything else - he knows that he's not done right, he has nothing of his own to stand on before God. So, trusting only God, he throws himself on God mercy.

Which one goes away justified and which one doesn’t? The tax collector

OK. That IS good news if you're feeling like you're pretty worthless, you know you're not doing the right thing. Even the worst sinner who humbly repents receives God’s forgiveness.

Another way this parable is preached: The Pharisee is doing ok with his prayer - at first. He was thanking God for all this good stuff God has given him, giving God the credit that he is able to go above and beyond in living out the law.

Until…

He starts judging. Thank you that I'm not like that tax collector over there. In this interpretation of the parable, it's the judging that gets the Pharisee into trouble. The tax collector focuses on himself and doesn’t even look around let alone judge anyone, goes away righteously.

The good news? Hmmm. Maybe – Jesus is saying that the ones judging me… are going to…have to repent of it?

I don't know. Telling it this way makes is more of a “go and don’t do likewise parable. Don’t judge, mind your own business, be humble and concentrate on your relationship with God and let God worry about everyone else.

That preaches. Of course, I would then encourage you to consider who it is that you judge every day and ask for you to pray for them and to ask God for forgiveness and to give you a compassionate heart! As a Lutheran, I was taught to end with the good news, to end with grace. Not with a “should do.”

Besides this interpretation of the parable is a trap. “Don’t do as the Pharisee did” is also judging (there but for the grace of God go I). More dangerously, casting the Pharisee as the bad guy fuels antisemitism. Perhaps this is not the best way to interpret this parable.

What to do with this seemingly simple story from Jesus?

I ran across an idea in my sermon prep that really caught my imagination: Perhaps BOTH went away justified. Bear with me here.

To unpack this interpretation, I’m going to refer to Amy Jo Levine’s commentary on this parable in her excellent book “Short Stories of Jesus.” I love reading her take on the New Testament because she come at it from a Jewish perspective.

Here then is our picture: the righteous Pharisee and the unrighteous tax collector both praying in the temple. Is this an Able and Cain moment, where one offering is accepted and one rejected? It would seem so from the verses Luke surrounds the parable with “to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt,” then putting these words in Jeus’ mouth: for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Seems like it.

But there’s that little preposition “para” translated “rather than.” This translation choice is congruent with Luke’s setting of this parable. But sometimes it’s the little things that open up make a difference. And a little preposition that can change a translation.

“Para” is most often translated “beside, with, from, walk beside, near.” It’s used to describe the Holy Spirit: paraclete, “one called to walk along side.” I geeked out and did a word study: para is used 193 times in the New Testament, Christian Scriptures - only 9 times did it mean “rather than” or “contrary” – and 8 of those were in Paul’s writings. Everywhere else in Luke para means “alongside, from, near”

Verse 14 could have just as easily been translated “one went away justified through the other.”  The Pharisee’s prayers and the prayers of the others in the temple are “para” alongside, with, so they support the desperate prayer of the tax collector. Everyone goes away justified.

Of course, Luke’s context would seem to invalidate that translation. Yet…

What if…

You know, we’re so individualistic. We see a win-lose situation. But what if it really is a win-win. God hears both prayers and knows the hearts of the ones praying. What if God’s grace is communal? What if the Pharisee’s faithfulness supports the tax collector as he cries out for mercy?

As AJL says, “it’s a middle school group project.” There’s the overachiever. She plans, coordinates, and does most of the work. The others in the group are assigned parts and most turn their contributions in. Except the slacker, who just doesn’t pull his weight at all. Maybe he’s doing the best he can and it’s not enough, maybe he just doesn’t care enough to even try. Either way, he doesn’t deserve the A the group received, but he gets one anyway.

It’s not fair.

But it IS grace.

This life we live, it’s a group project. Sometimes I’m the Pharisee and sometimes I’m the tax collector. It’s the same for you. That’s why we “Para”- walk alongside one another. There is grace and mercy in community. We carry each other, picking up the slack for one another.

And that bring us to the crux of this parable. This parable really isn’t about the Pharisee or the tax collector. It’s about God. And God’s unlimited mercy, given to both the Pharisee (even though he’s a bit judgy) and the tax collector who just may go and sin no more but probably will go right back to what he’s been doing.

God is merciful, doling out unmerited grace -even to those we think don’t deserve it. Even when we don’t deserve it.

And that is very good news indeed.

Amen!

As promised here is a bonus thought on this passage:

Bonus thought:

The Pharisees prayer reminds me of a traditional prayer Jewish men are to pray three time each day: ‘Blessed be You, Lord, who did not make me a gentile. ‘Blessed be You, Lord, who did not make me uneducated. ‘Blessed be You, Lord, who did not make me a woman.’” I’ve always heard this prayer negatively: Thank you God that I am better than…”

I’m rethinking my stance. Amy Jo Levine explains:

Gentiles were not under Torah and so were not expected to follow it. The uneducated do not know all the rabbinic commentary and so are unable, in Rabbi Judah’s eyes, fully to understand the practices and the rationales. Women were exempt, in the rabbinic system, from many time-bound commandments, since the rabbis realized that their time was not their own; domestic duties, childcare, and so on would have precluded their saying certain prayers at certain times.

And tells this story:

When my son Alexander attended the Orthodox Jewish Day School in Nashville, which at the time had a Chabad rabbi as its director, he was taught this prayer, known as the she’lo asani (Heb. “Who did not make me”). I asked him why he would give thanks for not being made a gentile, uneducated, or a woman. In his best five-year-old way, he explained that sometimes it is important to thank God for things that we may not feel thankful for, because God knows what’s good for us. Gentiles are not responsible for following all the commandments that Jews have, the uneducated do not follow them because they do not know them, and women are more naturally good than men are. Therefore, he was to thank ha-Shem for making him a Jew, educated, and a man, because all three combined put on him a greater responsibility to behave appropriately.

I like that. We thank God for who God created us to be, knowing that by gifting us, God calls us to use that gift. We are given responsibility – we are blessed to be a blessing.