Reflection on Luke 18:9-14

Here we see a righteous man praying to God in thanksgiving for the goodness of his life.  This righteous man causes my mind to wander, and makes me think of a distinguished pastor who preached to a congregation of around 500 attendees. 

The pastor had wisdom filled grey hair that was slicked perfectly back.  He preached with an authoritative fire in his voice.  Most importantly, he lived a distinguished life outside of the Sunday morning worship service that was consistent with the character that he displayed on Sunday morning. 

On the golf course he spoke of prayer and in the clubhouse he raised tantalizing biblical insights.  He gave generously as he passed by a poor woman on the street.  He loved his wife and was proud of his equally outstanding children and grandchildren. 

The guy was above reproach.  The guy could have run for public office with no problem.  Not only did he have no skeletons in his closet; the guy never bought a closet in the first place!  He did not need to hide anything.  The guy was righteous in every sense of the word that I could see. 

“Righteousness,” by the way, has to do with following God’s law.  Being righteous literally means that you follow God’s law.  So, as a righteous man, this pastor never committed adultery, never murdered, always spoke well of others, took care of his aging parents, you know…his life was as remarkable as his distinguished, slicked back hair.

I looked up to this righteous man.  He was the model of what I should become, not only as a pastor, but also as a Christian man.  But, the guy was so above reproach that he was actually a little hard for me to relate to. 

This was not his problem by the way, it was mine.  I was not remarkably distinguished.  I was not above reproach.  I had a tendency to be self-centered…probably still do.  I felt ashamed when I forgot others because I could become so easily become wrapped up in my own life.  I did not dress as impeccably as he.  And I, quite frankly, did at times slip up and speak ill of others.  I never had the foresight to have money in my pocket to give to any homeless people.  And, on top of it all…I gotta tell ya, the slicked back hair never worked for me!  It just always looked like I accidentally rubbed bacon grease through my hair before washing my hands after breakfast.

Normally, when we read the gospel story of the righteous Pharisee and the tax collector, we find the moral of the story to be: do not be a stuck up liar like the Pharisee, rather be humble like the tax collector.  But, if you read your bible carefully, you will see no indication that the Pharisee was lying about any of it.  Nor, does it say that he was stuck up.  But, what it does indicate is that he was righteous when compared to others.

Like the pastor I looked up to, I fully believe that this Pharisee was “righteous.”  I fully believe that he followed God’s law close.  I fully believe the guy when he prays, “I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” 

According to the heavenly laws of right and wrong…this guy is in the right.  This is the guy that you want your daughters to date.  This is the guy who you want to have in charge of keeping the golf score card.  This is the guy who you want leading a 500 person institution of faith.   This guy is indeed “righteous.”

“Congratulations sir, you are a man of impeccable self-control and you obviously read your bible regularly.”  But, the righteous man was not the one in the temple that day who walked away “justified” by God. 

Paul reminds us in Romans 5:1-2 that we are “justified by faith.”  It is because we are justified, and not because we are righteous, that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”

Justified: it means to be set straight, like the next board in a line of floorboards.  It means to create a straight edge.  It means to be set straight…set in the right direction by God and not by our own hands or our own efforts.  Justification is being made right because Jesus wanted desperately to make us right through the redemption of his cross in which our sins have been cast away and we are free to be the people of God.

We come to church to worship the Lord, not because in church we somehow find a way to be perfectly “righteous” people, but precisely because we cannot find the way.  We need to be “justified” or “set straight” by Jesus.  We absolutely need the love and salvation of Jesus Christ.

This is what some first time visitors to churches misunderstand when they walk in the doors, look around, and choose to never return.  When I have the chance to talk to visitors who chose not return to church, the number one reason that I get for their failure to return is not that the worship is terrible, but rather that they cannot stand the hypocrisy. 

In church, they see a bunch of people who claim to be good and who look good in church, but in the outside world swear, lie, cheat, and show hate.  In other words, they do not return to church because they fail to see “righteous” people.

As I said before, this is a complete misunderstanding of Christianity.  We do not gather together so that we can be good, righteous people; we gather together because we are not.  We are a gathering of the unrighteousness who seek the forgiveness and salvation of Jesus Christ.

Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against being a good, righteous people.  Did you read that clearly?  Pastor Jira finds nothing wrong with people being good.  Like everyone else, I too want all of my children to marry someone who is well dressed and righteous.

I do not want them to bring home a pasty, vampire boyfriend as a family friend once did.  This guy was a price of work.  The guy had that unwashed shimmer to his skin, and had long, bacon greased hair knotted into long disgusting strands.  He went out his van every evening to sleep because in his van he had his vampire’s casket, in which he slept.  Yeah, you heard me right, he slept in a casket!  You cannot make this stuff up!  No one minded that he left the house to sleep in the van. 

He once told us that sleeping in the casket limited his oxygen supply so that he could sleep better.  We fully believed that it limited his oxygen supply. 

There is no way in the world I would let my girls date a pasty, vampire guy.  Give me a stuck up, righteous guy any day.

There, I did it again!  The righteous pastor with the slicked back hair would have never told that story.  I just spoke ill of someone again!  I already told you...I am not righteous.

But, the truth of the matter is, that if that pasty, vampire guy went to church and beat his chest over his diet of bats and drinking innocent children’s blood…I do not know what the guy did!…if he sought mercy, then pasty vampire guy would be the one to walk away to his home justified.

The tax collector is the pasty, vampire guy.  He was the one who sucked poor people dry of money for the sake of the Romans.  He was the one who cheated other people of their well deserved, hard earned funds.  But, do not forget that he was also the one who cried to God for mercy, and thus found God’s mercy.

After-all, Christianity is not about making sure everyone is righteous.  Rather it is about proclaiming that Jesus Christ died in order that the sinner might be justified by faith, through God’s grace.  Christianity is about coming to God, asking for mercy, and trusting in God’s goodness.

The righteous, after-all, do not need God.  They have life all figured out.  They have themselves in which they can trust.  But, the faithful know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  The faithful know that we are saved by God’s grace.  The faithful need God.  The faithful need forgiveness.  The faithful need God’s mercy.

That does not mean that we forget about righteousness and go about trashing our world so that we might deserve some more of God grace.  Not at all!  Those who are saved from the floodwaters do not decide to just jump right back in.  Rather, the faithful realize that they will always need God, and have always needed God.  They pray for God’s mercy at all times.  And, it is the broken sinner, finding joy in God’s mercy, and continuing to trust in that mercy, that I hope people find in our churches today.