And the 'Rent is too Dad-gum High' Guy Walked Away Justified

A sermon on Luke 18.9-14 preached @Emmanuel Baker St.

Last week, Jesus told us a parable about the need to pray always and to not lose heart. This week Jesus tells us a parable that demonstrates the pitfalls of pride should we happen to actually, you know, pray always.

Two men go up to the temple to pray; a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee stands by himself, with his eyes cast down at the ground. He prays, listing some of the ways in which he has sought to carry out God’s law. He fasts twice a week and he tithes. The Pharisee goes on to thank God that he is not like other people. Like thieves, rogues, adulterers, and all other forms of miscreants, including tax collectors, one of which happens to be standing off in the corner, away from the Pharisee. The tax collector also has his eyes cast down. But he prays a slightly different prayer. He prays passionately for mercy from God; beating his breast and claiming his sin.

As the days fall away on the calendar towards the end of October and into November, the shouting voices have begun to grow louder and louder on our television screens, in the papers, and on the radio. Yes, election season is reaching its most fevered pitch. And as Jesus tells us the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, I cannot help but to be reminded of the fevered political debates that surround us.

I am reminded this week of a debate between two candidates. Where each takes the stage standing behind their respective podiums angled at each other and a moderator. Each candidate tries to demonstrate how they are different (and clearly more qualified and a better choice) than their opponent; how clearly they are right and their opponent wrong. After an hour or so of intense debate, TV reporters and journalist sample the audience to determine who won. They ask to see who each person will be choosing on their ballots, to determine which candidate so clearly represents right versus the other who so clearly represents wrong. 

In this political season we might be tempted today to decide quickly which of the characters in Jesus’ parable is right and which one is wrong, whether we will vote for the Pharisee or the tax collector. Jesus’ doesn’t do a whole lot to discourage this way of understanding the text. At the end of the parable he tells his audience and us that it is the tax collector, who walks away justified. So clearly, it seems that the side of the tax collector has won this debate and should see a bump in the polls as judgment day approaches in November.

But just as when we dig a little deeper than 30 second commercials in politics, when we dig a little deeper into the characters in this parable we find that things are not so starkly black and white, nor right or wrong. Not to mention that we probably shouldn’t begin our consideration of this text by thanking God we are not like the Pharisee, who thanks God that he is not like the tax collector.

For one thing, the Pharisee is a complex character himself. Often we are conditioned in our reading of the Bible to see a Pharisee and quickly label him as a bad guy. And indeed, Jesus has a lot to teach the Pharisees. But Luke’s picture of the Pharisees is a little more complicated. Just a few chapters ago, it is the Pharisees who come to Jesus and encouraged him to flee because Herod wanted to kill him. And it must be noted that fasting once a week was required as part of keeping the law or the Torah. Surely, his doubling of this spiritual practice can’t be an inherently bad thing? And, I imagine that I speak on behalf of the stewardship committee here at Emmanuel when I say that his tithing is certainly a commendable discipline, which God might be calling us to emulate today.

And, tax-collectors, at least in the Gospels, leave a much more positive impression for us than they would have for Luke’s earliest audience. In fact, as long as they stay in the bible and not on our streets, the people Jesus socialized with--prostitutes, tax-collectors, and all other kinds of miscreants--are the ones we typically want to identify ourselves with. But the truth is that tax-collectors were hated by nearly everyone in Palestine. [Imagine an angrier and more upset tea party.] And this distaste was not without cause, tax collectors were the instrument of economic oppression by the Roman Empire. The taxes he collected didn’t merely pay for social security, teachers, or even for Medicare. Rather they paid for the Roman armies and elites that occupied the land. And that’s in addition to the fact that tax collectors continually came into contact with ritually unclean people and goods in their tax collecting, making themselves ritually unclean. And yet somehow, this tax collector, an active agent of oppression, beating his breast in his extreme anguish, is the one whom Jesus says walks away from the temple justified.

In the midst of this political season and with this dualistic mindset, we miss the point by too quickly jumping ahead and determining for whom we will cast our votes. Rather in this parable the good news is that both the tax collector and the Pharisee are wrong. And the good news is that both the Pharisee and the tax collector are right. Saint and sinner each, the wideness of God’s mercy stretches over them both; from the most upright, righteous, and proud Pharisee, to the lowest and most repentant tax collector. The tax collector is justified because his prayer acknowledges the God whose mercy comes to both the Pharisees and tax collectors.

The text tells us that the tax collector was staring down at the floor, but we can assume that the Pharisee was as well, if for nothing else then to avoid making any contact with the tax collector and causing himself to become unclean. I think that the failure in this parable is not only in the Pharisee’s lack of repentance or in the tax collectors unrighteousness. Rather the failure in this parable is the failure of both the Pharisee and the tax collector to bridge the gap that stood between them while they prayed; a failure to acknowledge that each of them prayed together. They fail to even look at each other. The tax collector is justified not because of his lack of fasting or tithing, but because in his repentance he acknowledges and claims a God whose grace and mercy are able to span the differences that divide us; a God whose grace is wide enough to cover both a prideful Pharisee and a repentant tax collector.

Perhaps as we pray today, we should pray looking at the faces of all those around us with whom we pray together, acknowledging our God whose grace stretches over and falls on us all. Perhaps we should open up the windows (if we had any) and be aware that as we pray even inside of these walls we pray, joined together by God’s ever widening mercy, with our neighbors and all those whose eyes are cast down at the ground among us.

The tax collector walks away justified, because it is the tax collector whose faith and trust is in a God whose mercy alone is enough to bridge the gaps that stand between us. And we are encouraged that if we are to choose, if we must cast a vote, let us choose hope in a God whose love alone is enough to unite us.

Perhaps we should leave this text with a better image than that of two politicians aiming their pointed debate at each other.  I’m guessing that many of you saw some of the highlights of the recent debate of candidates campaigning to become governor of the state of New York. Their debate featured seven candidates all sitting side by side on one stage; no podiums. There were candidates from the republican and democratic parties. But it also featured candidates from a diverse group of other political parties; including a candidate from the anti-prohibition party, a former professional Madame. But if you saw any snippets of this debate you probably most remember the remarks from Jimmy McMillian, the candidate from the “Rent is too, um, dadgum high party.” He consistently and quite comically stated his party belief that rent in New York is…well, too dadgum high. This extremely diverse group of candidates made for some pretty entertaining television and also helped the mainstream candidates to look pretty mainstream. 

It is this great diversity of people, all saints and sinners with both halos and warts, over which God’s widening mercy grows and covers. God mercy comes to the mainstream candidates like the Pharisees, but also to those of us on the fringe; tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, candidates of the “rent is too dadgum high” party, and all of us in-between. So as we head to the polls in our everyday lives, let us cast our hope in the God whose abundant grace stretches across both Pharisee & tax collector and covers us all. AMEN.