Publican and Pharisee God’s Love
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee Feb.13, 2022; Luke: 18:(9)10-14; Fr. Andrew
Last week we met Zacchaeus the tax collector who is reported to have gone on to become the first bishop of Caesarea, and was even re-named Mathias, and chosen as the 12th Apostle, replacing Judas Iscariot. This week we have the repentant tax collector who is in agony upon realizing his true sinful condition before God, and gives us the most powerful and salvific prayer we have in the Church – the Jesus prayer. “God have mercy on me the sinner.” In the Greek it is “the” sinner not “a” sinner. Tax collectors represent the bottom of the barrel sinners. Focused only on themselves, they finally arrive at a place of complete despair, isolated from everyone. In their desperation, they hopefully cry out to God who is always waiting for us. All through the scripture’s, we sinners fare very well in God’s economy – as long as we realize our sinful state and in humility turn to Him in repentance. (Proverbs 3:34) “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble
This passage opens properly in verse 9 “And He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” This is the result of judging; we slip into despising others. If we are honest, we will see we often resemble the Pharisee more than we wish to acknowledge in our pride filled self centeredness.
Lucifer himself is the embodiment of pride. Pride is his main characteristic. In (Isaiah 14:12-14) we hear, “How are you fallen from heaven O’ Lucifer, who rose up in the morning! He who sends for all the nations, is crushed to the earth! For you said in your mind, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will place my throne above the stars of heaven; I will sit on a lofty mountain, on the lofty mountains towards the north. I will ascend above the clouds; I will be like the Most High.” But this didn’t work so well for him. After being cast down and kept from achieving any of these boasts, he is pridefully furious with God. Pride leads to jealousy and Lucifer does everything he can to corrupt these pathetic simple little human creatures, whom God loves so much that He has made them in His own image. Adopted them into His very family! Outrageous! In (Genesis 3:5) Satan deceives Eve, calling her to pride. Don’t trust God as God knows, “…on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”
That’s the very essence of pride: “I can be my own god. I can make my own decisions, my own judgments, my own laws and rules. I know what is best” Today we hear the Pharisee. Like Lucifer he says “I” five times in his brief “prayer:” “The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’” He wasn’t even praying to God, the scripture says, “The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself.” He is completely trapped in I-Ville.
Apostle Paul gave us in writing to his spiritual son Timothy (1Tim 2:15) “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.” We can never know anyone else’s circumstances and we are pathetically ill equipped to judge their lives or even our own. Only God knows our hearts (1Cor.4:5) “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the councils of the hearts.”
Matthew (7:1,2) “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
The big difference between the tax collector and the Pharisee was that the tax collector knew who he was, “the sinner,” and judged only himself alone, whereas the Pharisee judged everyone and everything around him, but had no awareness of his own sin.
God does not love us more when we manage to do things right or less when we are messing everything up. Christ knows us better than we can ever know ourselves, and loves us more than we can even know how to love. We need to let this knowledge of His all-encompassing love for us sink down into our hearts. We are loved just because we are. What we have or have nor done has no bearing upon the love, peace and acceptance God gives eternally to us. He slowly heals our hearts, as we begin to trust Him. Life in Christ is a life of humility, knowing we fall far short, yet we are always loved completely and unconditionally by Him.
Today’s gospel shows us the beginning of this understanding. The Pharisee did everything proper externally, he kept all the rules, but he had not yet had a real encounter with the living God. When we have a real encounter with the living God we know that we are sinners. The light of Christ illumines all. The tax collector had a real encounter with the living God. He knew his only hope and his very life were with God. Now he would need to completely change his life, doing the type of things the Pharisee had been doing for years, but with a far different motivation and attitude than the Pharisee. Not to strive and try to impress anyone, but simply out of love and gratefulness for the great love and mercy God had given him.
May God grant that we understand this at the deepest levels of our hearts, and encounter the living God, as we enter into the great fast. Great Lent is the season of truth and repentance and confession. Let us not look at our external circumstances in dismay, but rather seek to enter ever more fully into life, in the truth, love, and joy of Christ!
Glory to Jesus Christ!