Luke 18:9-14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: [10] “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

Our risen and ascended Lord in the midst of his church declares, in the Revelation of St. John, “I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve. ” (Rev. 2:23) This is the picture of himself which Jesus paints in today’s parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector.

Both of these men entered the temple before the holy presence of God almighty.Jesus’ teaching about these two men at prayer is a fearful commentary about Himself and His relationship with His church; that He is the One “who searches the minds and hearts,” He is the Shepherd of the flock “who divides his sheep from the goats” (Mt. 25:32).Jesus’ teaching this morning can also be a comfort to us as He reveals how you and I can stand truly righteous, that is “fully justified,” before God.

This morning as we have been bold to enter into the presence of God almighty in public worship, let us pray the prayer of David who, when confronted with his sin cried out to the Lord, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:2,3)This is virtually the same prayer spoken by the Tax Collector, v. 13, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” This is the prayer of the of the one of whom Jesus says, “this man went down to his house justified” (v. 14). Jesus searches hearts for faith.

This parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector most surely gives the Christian pause. Both men, like us, earnestly came to “church” and were praying to the same God, the God of their fathers,Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; or so the Pharisee thought. Jesus says of His relation to His church, “I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and they know me” (Jn. 10:14). This is the essence of our Christian faith, that we know Jesus and in Jesus, God.The Pharisee may have thought he had come to God in prayer, but his words were blasphemy. Not knowing God rightly, the Pharisee saw God as hard and demanding,a God who demanded that everyone who called upon Him must do his duty in order to be heard.

The Pharisee understood his duty.He took it quite seriously.And he wasn’t willing to do just the bare minimum.He didn’t fast just a few times a year as was expected.He fasted twice a week.He didn’t just give a tenth on some of his income.He tithed on all of his income.He didn’t just do what the law required.He went above and beyond the law’s demands.He took his religion seriously.He gave thanks to God.He did his duty.

If more people practiced their religion with the seriousness of that Pharisee the world would be a better place.When he contrasted himself from other men he was not lying. He didn’t extort money from others the way tax collectors did.He didn’t cheat his neighbor.He didn’t commit adultery.He was a decent man and a good citizen.And he thanked God for it.He saw what a righteous man he was and did not neglect to give credit where credit was due. He thanked God.He remembered that he owed thanksgiving to God for God’s great generosity toward him.So he went to the temple to offer praise to God.His work, his leisure,his social life,and his travels did not keep him away from his religious duty.But he did not go home justified.

Like Cain in the Old Testament, God did not accept his praise.God did not receive his thanksgiving.His worship was in vain and his duty was left undone Unlike King David, this Pharisee came before God without recognizing the least sin in his life.Rather, he brazenly gives thanks for being made perfect and wonderful;placing himself as one whom his “god” dare not condemn.

But the Tax Collector knew a much different God than the Pharisee. The Tax Collector knew the true God. The God who is holy and merciful, ”But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ “ (v. 13)

In his holiness and mercy God through Jesus has dealt with the curse which is sin. And sin, the reality of which Pharisees, old or modern, refuse to recognize, stands as a un-breachable wall, a separation between God and man that duty and right living cannot correctBut God in Christ does not ignore reality or the cause of our separation from him. In Christ He has confronted sin and has defeated it.

As St. Paul confesses in our Epistle:
“You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector prayed. But the Pharisee receives judgment and the Tax Collector is justified. What was lacking? Faith was lacking. But surely the Pharisee believed in God!

He took God’s law seriously. He went to God’s temple to pray. He thanked God for making him the man he was. How can anyone say that the man lacked faith? He certainly gave greater evidence of believing in God than do those who don’t bother to go to church at all or only when they feel particularly religious. And they claim to believe in God! Surely the Pharisee believed in God!

Well, yes, he did, after a fashion. He believed that God was good. He believed that God blessed him with good things. He believed that God required obedience. He believed that God calls on us all to do our duty. If this is what faith is then the man had faith. But this is not what faith is. Faith is the gift of God. God creates and strengthens faith in your heart only afterhe humbles you. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. It will happen now or it will happen on Judgment Day, but it will happen.

You cannot exalt yourself. God is not impressed by our claims. When we presume to think we are more righteous than others we need to remember that God knows how righteous we reallyare. He doesn’t look merely at the outward act. He sees every motive. He knows where our hearts are. He understands sin better than sinners do. The wisdom of the world says that if you just make better choices, if you but do your duty, if you just would live by the Golden Rule.

My dear lambs of Jesus’ flock, while living by these maxims may truly enhance your relationships in this world, they will not enhance your relationship with God. We must be abased. We must be humbled. And God Himself must do it. When He does He is preparing us to receive the gospel.

Jesus, Chief of sinners.

St. Paul, is a bold teacher, seeming at times to contend even with God. St. Paul wishes himself “accursed” for the salvation of the Jews (Rom. 9:3). Which of us would dare utter such a prayer for fear it might come to pass? And yet most of us, who recognize the horror of sin which clings to our flesh and in which we continually take pleasure, might argue with St. Paul when he claims to be “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). In Christ we not only know our Lord to be holy and pure; but by his light we acknowledge our sin which is ever beforeus. St. Paul stakes his claim to being “chief of sinners” on two counts; that he was a Pharisee par excellence (Phil. 3:5), and also that he persecuted Christ himself by arresting the saints and attempting overthrowing apostles, pastors and teachers.

If we examine our consciences by the Light which is ours in the grace of Christ, we must acknowledge with David and the Tax Collector, our lusts, advantageous oppressions, and our injustices toward one another. And when we are not doing these evils; then too often (perhaps even in church) we promote ourselves to God on account of our good works–great and small. Because our sin is continually with us, Jesus commends to us the mind and the heart of the Tax Collector, who, “beat (continually) his breast, saying, `God,be merciful to me a sinner!.”It is the Tax Collector who displays a heart and mind for which Jesus searches,which knows and worships the only true God in truth and in faith.

As horrible as St. Paul’s, or the Tax Collector’s, or our sins are to contemplate, as awful as it is to admit that all sin, any sin is unjust adulterous rebellion against the holy God; we must see by grace that which grace has revealed–that Jesus, for love of us became Chief of sinners, or in St. Paul’s words, “For He made Him who knew no sinto be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21) As both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector made bold to appear in the Temple of God and offered their prayers to God,so also many people today claim a personal relationship with Jesus.

By today’s parable we are to observe that it is Jesus who searches the mind and the heart and that his sheep know him first and last because Jesus is God’s plan of salvation, God’s solution to our sin; and by this grace we know Godas a God of mercyand of love beyond our abilities to comprehend.

Jesus creates repentance.

Because we know our God as merciful we know that Jesus, “who searches the minds and the hearts,” does so with theintent of creating and maintaining in each of us our saving faith. It is that of which Paul speaks when he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus . . .” (Eph. 2:8-10a)Did you hear it?

God has created you in Christ Jesus. In Jesus you are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and in relation with God almighty, holy and pure, just has he has made you brand new. If we have a personal relationship with Jesus it is founded and lived out in this reality that he became “sin for us” and by the power of this amazing good news we have new life in the presence of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. By his actions, his atoning blood, by faith, courses through our veins, daily cleansing and purifying our hearts and minds, our very souls; for in love he is always searching us to our core.

When a Christian boasts that he or she has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus we must recognize that this is not some abstract and distant thought about Christ’s crucifixion. When Jesus walked the earthhe preached the kingdom of God in our midst (Lk. 17:21). This same preaching is the ministry of his church, It is the mission of this churchto preach the forgiveness of sin in Jesus, by whose personal presence the Kingdom comes to us.When we are in the saving “real” presence of our Lord by his word and sacrament, we participate in his most holy and precious blood.

Participating in Jesus’ blood means being involved with Him on the most intimate of terms;letting Jesus clean us up, not just once but always. We might think of a baby who does nothing but be fed by his mother; and when satisfied, soils himself and his clothing. It is a marvel to watch a loving mother joyfully clean up the child and the mess he has made. It is the same with Jesus and us. By his shed blood,the blood into which he was baptized for our sins, he is faithful to make us clean before God, the holy Father. This is our faith. Apart from our sin, which is always soiling us and those with whom we come into contact, we have no relation with Jesus.

Yes, as we mature in the faith, the joy or our salvation takes on various and pleasing dimensions, but always first in Christ. Jesus is our older brother when we are lost and in need of direction; he is the lover of our souls when we are spiritually distressed; he is the source of all our good and gracious blessings in this and the life to come; he gives us his own Holy Spirit enabling us to lead lives pleasing to the Father. Jesus is the Promise of God which fulfills every blessing ever given by God to man, and more. As we spend more and more time in His company through His word, we come to acknowledge these various and wonderful aspects of our personal relationship with Jesus.

Still none of these aspects of our communion with God exist for us unless by faith we acknowledge that Jesus comes to us on account of our sin. And by faith we come to him for more faith, that is, in an attitude of mind and heart which sorely repents of our sins, firmly resolved with the help of God to sin no more. By grace we have been given true knowledge of God, the faith that, yes! he is “merciful to me a sinner.”
and by that mercy, we are justified.

Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Luke 18: 31And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

35As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41“What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42And Jesus said to him,“Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

I. Introduction

Before I came to Missouri, I was a pastor in a large congregation in suburban Detroit. As is typical in a large congregation, I had several opportunities each year to perform weddings. One of unfortunate personal side-effects of all those weddings is that 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is probably one of my least favorite chapters in the Bible.

Brides, never the Grooms, but Brides would want to use 1 Corinthians 13 to support a wholly unbiblical understanding of love. “See, how beautiful love is” and they where always talking about the emotion, the pitter-patter of hearts, the Hallmark celebration that combines attraction and feelings and hope and perception. But Hallmark has a hard time talking about the reality of marriage: growing together through hard times, bad times, disappointments; commitment to one another–the something that every successful marriage must have when the emotion is a little cold, attraction has to face the reality of mornings, and the idealize perceptions are tempered with laundry, and jobs, and raising of children.

II.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Look back on the pattern of these three Sundays before Lent: the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, the Parable of the Sower, and now the healing of the blind beggar on the road to Jerusalem. This is the pattern of our entrance into the Christian Church, this is the pattern of our Christian life: “despite your resume” you are called into the Lord’s vineyard; that while “three out of four times” nothing seems to endure, new life has grown up in you by the sowing of the seed of God’s Word; and in faith you are enlightened, our eyes are opened so we can follow Jesus to the cross, as the blind man arises from his blindness and follows Christ.

This way of following Jesus, this bearing of the cross, is the way of love – not the sentimental love we have for those who love us back, or the romantic love of attraction and emotion, but the hard love we are called to have for our enemies, those who make our lives difficult, those we find burdensome. This is why we must be told by St. Paul today that love is long-suffering, i.e., patient. It is not rude or quarrelsome, it seeks the benefit of others, bears with them even when they are difficult.

How can such a love exist in what so often appears to be an increasingly loveless world? Where can we go to find this kind of love and to learn to love in this way? We know where we must go. We must go to where the blind beggar went. We must go to Jesus and we must cry out to Him just as that beggar cried out. And when we cry out to Jesus for that love that suffers long, is kind, doesn’t envy or parade itself, is not proud but gentle, humble, self-effacing, and pure, what does Jesus show us? Where does he tell us to look? Whence is the source of this wonderful love for which we yearn and yet that we cannot find within our own hearts? Jesus tells us. He points us to His suffering. Jesus said, concerning Himself, “For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” Oh, what an irony! If we want to see love, we must first witness hatred. If we want to be filled with love for God and for one another –and surely we cannot want anything greater than that! – we must first be willing to confront the most horrifying hatred imaginable.

Look at what true love cost our Lord! St. John says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” [1 Jn. 3.16]. And again, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins” [1 Jn. 4.10]. Mark well the order here: God loves us first, and receiving His love we then learn to truly love, not just our friends and family but those who hate us and persecute us.

For only in the suffering of the Son of Man can we see love conquer hatred. We look upon Christ’s suffering. We see God’s promises fulfilled. We see true love displayed. We see our prayers answered.

III.

“taking the twelve, [Jesus] said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

This was a prophecy of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. It was no secret that the Christ would suffer. The prophets foretold the suffering of Christ, even speaking His words for Him several hundreds of years before He spoke them. David speaks for Christ saying, “For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet.” (Psalm 22:16) Isaiah speaks for Him saying, “I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6)

But it is precisely here in the whipping and in the crucifixion that we see love. Not only the love of Christ who patiently endures it, but the love of the Father by whose will it happened. Here is a love so wonderful it cannot find adequate expression in words. It is our heavenly Father’s love for us. The Father sees the purity of His innocent Son. He sees inside Jesus’ soul and witnesses a spotless and beautiful innocence. It is the purity they have shared from eternity with the Holy Spirit and now the Son become flesh has manifested it for thirty-three years on this earth. The Father, who knows with intimate personal knowledge the purity and holiness of His dear Son, watches as His innocent Son suffers shame. There is love! The Father watches as His holy Son is whipped and killed. He watches as His Son rescues us all from death.

The Father Himself requires this suffering. The Son willingly bears it. All because God loves us so much. This is no accidental death. It is not by the Romans or by the Jews but by the eternal will and purpose of God that Jesus suffers for us. And in this suffering God’s love for us is revealed. It was not His own sin that took Jesus to the cross, but it was the Son of God taking the place of sinful humanity in order to become a curse for us. Love required it. By bearing God’s curse, Christ removed the curse from us. He set us free from sin. We are forgiven by God.

IV.
No one can understand that unless he first understands his need for that. But, as St. Paul reminds us, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) Who are those being saved? It is those who are crying out for mercy.

It is the blind beggar at the roadside. The man with nothing. The man who cannot see. The man in despair and agony, who even the followers of Jesus tell to shut up.

That is who you are.

And the most foolish thing you could do would be to miss it, to puff yourself up and to say that you can take care of yourself, by working hard, managing your assets, staying out of trouble and keeping healthy, you will never find me begging on the side of the road. Do not be deceived. You are that beggar. We all are. We have become blinded by our foolish and persistent infatuation with the things of this life that are perishing with the world. We have served our own appetites instead of God. We have not loved our neighbor. We have been impatient and unkind. We have envied. We have paraded ourselves and become puffed up. We have been rude. We have sought our own benefit over others and we’ve been provoked when we haven’t gotten our way. We have though evil against our neighbor with no more basis in fact than the malice within our own hearts. We’ve rejoiced in the sins of others because it gave us opportunity to judge them. NO ONE OF US has anything that we can bring before God that He needs or wants. In fact, the only thing we have, the dirty beggarly rags of our sin, has been rejected and cursed by God.

Only Jesus, the Son of David, can hear your cry and answer your need. Of course, if you see no need for mercy you are in the wrong place. You don’t belong here in church. The church gathers together to cry out for mercy. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” “Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.” What are we saying when we sing the Kyrie? We are saying that we are the blind beggar standing at the side of the road, crying out to Jesus in our need.

V. Conclusion
And He never ever fails to hear our cry. Every time we gather in His name, and by His authority, He chooses to be present. Here we come, week after week, to bemoan our loss, to confess our sins, and to cry out for God’s mercy. Yes, we celebrate God’s goodness every day and we love to sing His praises. But our deepest and more pressing need is always for the mercy that only Jesus, the Son of David, can provide. He, who was delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, insulted, spit upon, whipped, and crucified did not remain dead in the grave, but rose from the dead and is here with us whenever we gather in His name. He gives to us the forgiveness He won by His bitter suffering and death. He answers our Kyrie with pure divine mercy, flowing from His wounds into our lives, blotting out every sin and healing our souls from the guilt that distresses us. By forgiving us, He opens our eyes to see the pure love of God. By giving to us the mercy for which He bled and died, He pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts who enables us to love one another even as we have been loved. And for every imperfection of our love, the mercy of Christ is the all-sufficient covering. The faith by which we are saved is the faith that receives the mercy for which we cry.

“Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.”

Thanks be to God that in His mercy we have been gathered together as blind beggars, and every time we gather Jesus deigns to give us our sight and confirm our faith.