Coming Condemned and Finding Mercy

Luke 18:9-14

Welcome to Renewal.

Today is an important marker in the story of our church. In April, 2006, the Emmanuel English Congregation of Emmanuel Church, organized as our own, independent church and become Renewal Presbyterian Church. We continued to grow and refine our vision and almost a year ago we decided to become a multi-site church. We have a campus in W. Philly, and now after months of preparation, this is our official launch service of our new KOP campus. We’re excited to start and so glad you could join us on this special celebration.

Our desire to see ignite a Gospel-spreading movement. We believe the Gospel is the engine, the fuel, not just for how we start the Christian life, but how we live the Christian life. We believe it transforms deep and wide.

For the next 3 weeks we’ll be looking at some stories in Luke 18 and 19 to see Jesus explain the Gospel, explain how we enter the Kingdom of God and live in the Kingdom of God.

I don’t know how much of the winter Olympics you watched but my wife is a big fan, particularly of figure skating. One interesting web article I found was the best/worst ice skating costumes of the Olympics. (Here are two of the worst.)

Little did these figure skaters know that there were other judges out there, not evaluating their figure skating but their costumes.

Can you imagine if some of the Olympic skaters got really focused on their costumes? They consult various designers and quibble over fabrics and colors. After months of deliberation, they finally display their costumes like a model down a runway. The problem is that in the Olympics, the judges will evaluate them for their triple axles and toe loops, not their costumes.

In our passage today, that’s the kind of question Jesus is answering. How does God evaluate us? What is He looking for? It would be tragic to be fine tuning our costumes if he’s going to evaluate our axles and toe loops.

In our passage we have 2 very different characters. One is considered a very spiritual, devoted religious man. Perhaps you could think of him as a pastor or missionary or nun or monk. He has centered his life on serving and following God.

The other is seen as a traitor to his own people, without any integrity, morality; scum. Tax collectors were fellow Jews who collected taxes for the Romans, the hated and merciless oppressors. What made things even worse is that these tax collectors were free to collect as much as they liked. They gave what the Romans demanded, but then they could keep whatever was left over. So they got very rich by extorting their fellow Jews by the power of the despised Romans.

They were like corrupt corporate exec’s who intentionally swindled people out of their life savings. Or they were like pimps who took little girls and forced them into prostitution, destroying their lives to get a little richer.

One was obviously the good guy, the Billy Graham or Rick Warren, respected and admired. The other was obviously the bad guy, a selfish and ruthless exploiter, and utterly despised.

In most of Jesus’ stories, there is a twist, a moment of shock. This is one of those stories, because at the end, Jesus says it was the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who went home justified, right with God. It’s like an unfaithful Tiger Woods goes home right with God while Billy Graham goes home condemned. That’s not how the story is supposed to go! Shock! This turned things upside down and inside out.

God has a different way of looking at people than we do. This story is meant to make us re-think what God is looking for and how we’re to relate with God.

The passage itself tells us what Jesus was trying to say. Notice the context:

9 “I’m a good person”

Jesus is addressing people who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous”

They thought they were good people, at least good enough.

“I’m better than others”

And “they treated others with contempt”

They thought they were better than some. They looked down on Tiger Woods or Bernie Madoff with contempt.

This attitude is personified in the story by the Pharisee

He thought he was a good person: fast twice a week and give a tithe of all I get.

Not only was he zealous in his spiritual practices, he went beyond the legal requirements. The law did not require weekly fasting, let alone twice a week.

People were supposed to tithe, give 10%, of their income to God, but the implication here is that he also gave 10% of everything he bought. He felt he had met and exceeded what God required.

He treated others with contempt: standing by himself he prayed, thank you God I’m not like extortioners, adulterers, or this tax collector. I’m better than them.

This is contrasted with the tax collector

He didn’t think he was a good person. “Am good enough” vs. “not good enough.”

Standing far off, in the back, beating his breast. Before we even hear his prayer, we feel his sense of unworthiness.

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” He saw himself as someone guilty and condemned. He doesn’t point out his goodness or plead his case. He knows he’s guilty. Instead, he asks for mercy.

These are two completely different people, different prayers, different postures and attitudes.

Jesus says it is the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who went home justified.

In case we missed it, Jesus gives the point in his conclusion: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Let’s compare these two men

Exalt Oneself	Humble Oneself
Trust in own righteousness	Recognize guilt and condemnation
Looked down on others	Humble oneself

1. Recognize the bankruptcy of our “good works.”

This Pharisees thought all his fasting and giving would count for something, that it made him “better” or more “acceptable” than others. He thought he was rich when in fact he was bankrupt.

We’re to abandon hopes that our “righteousness” is worth something. We have to throw it away. It’s costume. It’s just monopoly money—it doesn’t have any cash value with God.

Apostle Paul realized this. He had a lot of “monopoly money.” He was a Pharasee, a zealous Jew who flawlessly kept the law. He had fully devoted his life to serving and following God the best he knew how. He then says all this is rubbish, loss, worthless (Philip 3:4-8). In Galatians he says he might as well have been a pagan. He might as well have been a Tiger Woods or a Bernie Madoff. There was nothing gained by all his well-intended religious zeal.

Going to church, reading your bibles, saying our prayers, being honest at work, being faithful to your spouse, promoting a greener world, giving to Haiti or Chile, helping orphans, etc. None of these, in themselves, have any “cash value” with God. This Pharisee was the kind of guy who did these and many other good things, probably far more than any of us. If this was what mattered, it would be the Pharisee that went home right with God. Jesus says, this is the wrong criterion. This is not what God is looking for.

2. Recognize our condemnation.

This leads us to this second point (a deduction from the first point).

Jesus is preaching against those who feel they are good people. They mistakenly overestimate themselves. The truth of the matter is that both the Pharisee and the tax collector were guilty and condemned before God. The first didn’t recognize that, the second did. The tax collector knew he wasn’t righteous. It was obvious. His sin was undeniable and glaring. The Pharisee was holding on to his monopoly money and didn’t realize how bankrupt he was. That’s the danger of being “good”—you don’t see you’re bad.

I live in this danger. Quite honestly, I don’t feel like I’m a bad person. I feel like I’m pretty good, at least better than average. I try to help others, I try to be responsible, I try to make decisions based on biblical values, and I’ve devoted my career to serving God’s people and building His church. But the Gospel tells me that all of that is monopoly money and I’m just as condemned as that tax collector or Tiger Woods or Bernie Madoff. That’s hard to hear. That can be offensive. The Gospel confronts us.

There’s a different posture of someone who knows they’re guilty and condemned. He is standing in the back, his head is bowed, he’s beating his breast, and he’s crying out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

There’s no looking down on others, there are no excuses or defensiveness, there’s no blameshifting or feeling like the victim. But let me suggest, we do this a lot! If you really think you’re guilty and condemned, there’s a brokenness and humility, a sense of unworthiness. It is the posture of a beggar. People who know they’re guilty and condemned, what can they do but beg, beg for mercy.

Learning to pray, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It is good for our soul to be reminded and to meditate on the fact that we are condemned sinners in need of mercy.

Jesus warns us against exalting ourselves with our monopoly money. He urges us to see our bankruptcy and condemnation, to humble ourselves and beg. That’s how we come to God.

3. Hold on to the mercy of God—there is mercy to be found.

The key difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector was what they were holding onto: the Pharisee was holding on to his own righteousness, his monopoly money. The tax collector knew his own “righteousness” was not going to save him so he was clinging to the mercy of God.

That’s what God is looking for: what are you clinging on to. Are you holding onto some “goodness” in yourself, or are you clinging to the mercy of God.

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. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We’re not saved by our “works,” we have nothing to boast of.

We’re saved by grace through faith. That is, we’re saved by trusting in the mercy of God.

But the big message of this story and the other stories we’ll look at is, there is mercy to be found. This tax collector found mercy! There is a God who does not treat us as we deserve, bankrupt and condemned. He is willing to forgive and embrace sinners.

We have a God who says, I’ll take your sin and condemnation, your bankruptcy, and he dies on the cross for our sin. He then offers us His own righteousness, his riches. There is mercy for sinners.

There was a wife of a good, loving husband. Things were good for a while. He loved her, but after a few years, she became bored. At her office she met a younger, racier, adventurous guy. It started rather innocently, but it didn’t take too long for one thing to lead to another. She would tell her husband that she had to stay late at work so they could spend time together. Eventually she was piling on lie after lie and crossing all kinds of boundaries. Finally, one day she felt she didn’t want to play these games anymore, and while her husband was at work, she packed her things and left a note on the kitchen table: “Found another man. Good-bye.”

She had a great time with her new lover. He was charming, exciting; each day was a romance thrill. They found an apartment for the two of them. She felt so alive and become more convinced that this is the man she wanted to spend her life with. Then one day, the bomb dropped. She was completely unprepared to wake up and find all his things were gone. On the kitchen table was a simple note: “It was fun. Found a younger woman. Good-bye.”

She was utterly devastated, hurt beyond words; her life was hopelessly destroyed. For days she was paralyzed by her heartache, despair, regret, shame. She didn’t know what to do.

In hopeless and shameless desperation she goes back to her husband, fully expecting to be despised but not knowing where else to go.

She goes to her old house, knocks on the door. He opens it. She can’t get the words out of her mouth, she can’t even raise her head. He then embraces her and says, “I’ve never stopped loving you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. Welcome home.”

That’s the kind of picture the Bible (Hosea) gives us of the mercy available for sinners. There is mercy to be found.

If you’re not a Christian, I want you to know, we don’t get right with God because we were “good spouses” who did all the right things. We don’t walk up to the door and argue our case. We were unfaithful, guilty, condemned. Some of us realize our condemnation, some of us don’t. So the only way we come to God is as sinners, as “unfaithful spouses,” as bankrupt, bowing our heads, beating our breasts, begging for mercy. And then we find His arms are open, His love is undeserved, and He takes us in.

If you’re a Christian, we live in the realization that we’re only beggars, we’re the “unfaithful spouse” undeservingly embraced by an amazing Lover.

One of the by-products of the Gospel, then, is that we don’t look down on others. We don’t think we’re any better than any other sinner. We know that we’re saved by His kindness, not by our monopoly money. So we live in the humble joy of finding amazing mercy.