Drawn from the gospel reading Luke 18: 9-14

There is this wonderful parable that Jesus told in Luke’s gospel (Luke 18: 9-14 see text below), that contrast two men.  The first man was Pharisee, a righteous and religious man, the other, a tax collector that most people hated.

In the parable, the Pharisee was praying and thanking God he was not “like other people”, pointing to thieves, rogues, adulterers, and then pointing to the poor tax collector.  In terms of righteousness, he didn’t see the bar very high, but in his mind he is doing all the right things.  He even fasts twice a week and gives a good chunk of his income to the synagogue. 

Then we have the Tax Collector, and in case you haven’t noticed, tax collectors get a severe beating in the New Testament.  The real life tax collectors that Jesus warmed to were Zacchaeus (19: 1-10) and Levi 5: 27-32. We have to remember that tax collectors in those days are not just bad employees of the ancient equivalent of the Inland Revenue department.  They effectively have a franchise that involved paying the empire a set amount for the privilege of extracting whatever they can squeeze from their neighbours.  They were free to collect money in whatever way they want (which usually wasn’t pleasant), anything they collected above what they owed to the empire is a profit – because of their tactics, they were usually very wealthy and foreigners, and not particularly liked!

So there we have these two men, one thanking God for how ‘awesome’ he was, effectively REMINDING God how much he had accomplished (just in case God had forgotten!).  The other, the tax collector, beating his breast over his sinfulness.   But the passage in this parable text that impacts me the most is verse 13: “…..the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven…..” His head down, cowering in the back of the temple somewhere.

These passages often drawn to explain lots of Calvin’s doctrine of Original Sin of Adam, imputed to all humanity – that won’t (I suggest) cheer us up.  Also, on Karl Barth’s doctrine of “justification by faith”, solia gratia (justified by God’s grace alone), all good solid theology.  BUT, what is hard to miss at the most basic level, is how the man with his head down, “standing far off”, hiding away, wondering how he can even look at God. 

Most of us do, I hope, feel like we CAN look up to heaven, that we can approach God in one way or another, which is good.  Manly of us have grown up believing that God IS approachable.   BUT, what Jesus is pointing out here is how this can go terribly wrong.  That for one reason or another, not everyone feels that God is approachable.  In our Gospel reading, the Pharisee (the one who was ‘inside’ God’s ‘tent’, so to speak), comfortable and righteous, is contrasted by Jesus with the Tax Collector (the person outside the tent)

I’ve emphasized often how Jesus is always getting in trouble because of the people he pays attention to [either in real life or parables].  People who are often not considered as not within God’s reach.   Tax Collectors (back then) are a perfect example.   Zacchaeus I mentioned earlier was actually a Chief Tax Collector: he was sitting up a fig tree trying to see what everyone was paying attention to, and Jesus yells out to him: “Zacchaeus, come down IMMEDIATELY.  I must stay at your house”.  “Today salvation has come to this house (Jesus said) …..for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost”.  Levi, the other tax collector that got Jesus’ attention was sitting at his tax booth, making heaps of money, exploiting people: Jesus specifically called his out…. “Follow me”: he was so profoundly overwhelmed by this invitation that he got up and left everything and followed.

So what’s going on?????  To be clear, Jesus doesn’t have a soft spot for tax collectors.   For these men and everyone else, there were two worlds, the ‘religious world’ and their world.   These ‘worlds’, if we can call them that, were upheld as MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE:  The definition of mutually exclusive is “Related in such a way that they are not able to coexist together”. That’s the reality these men lived in.  So, when Jesus starts engaging all these tax collectors, he’s  tells Zacchaeus to come down and wants to stay in his house, and to Levi  to follow him, he is essentially merging realities!

What Jesus is doing, is he is turning something that is considered mutually exclusive, into MUTUALLYINCLUSIVE: that is, they become co-existable: two ways of being that cannot be independent of another. 

If we are brave enough to contemporize tax collectors, then the questions for us today is… who ARE the tax collectors of today?  Can we even see them?

Are we even one of them, sometimes feeling like we can’t look up to heaven and God?  Jesus’ FOCUS in the parable today, is not to correct the Pharisee (he will probably work things out), his focus is the man “standing far off” who would not even look up to heaven.  If there is ANYONE feeling like this, standing at a distance, and wondering where God might be, then the Son of God has an eye on them!!  If someone has their ‘head down’ for any reason, they have God’s attention. ]

Interestingly, the tax collector in our text wasn’t up a tree (like Zacchaeus), he wasn’t sitting at his booth (like Levi), this tax collector was actually in the temple this time…. Fancy that!  Jesus knew he was drawing near, and in doing so, got Jesus’ full attention.

And the story of seeking God is a continual one….Even if we ourselves are (metaphorically speaking) sitting in the church or up a tree, it doesn’t matter.  God blurs the lines of our ‘created’ reality of what might be ‘in or out’ for God.  The very desire OF GOD is to draw near, and draw near he does – the free grace of God to all people – solia gratia.  A grace that has no criteria, just loving outstretched arms for all people.

Luke 18:9-14New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”