September 5, 2007 - God be merciful to me, a sinner - Hayward Fong

Luke 18:9-14

For several years, we have been studying the Gospels through the parables. Parables are said to be earthly stories with heavenly meanings. We have read this morning another story from real life, only the names have been omitted. The action takes place in the temple courts. The Jews are called to prayer four times a day, 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Two men come to pray.

One is a Pharisee. The literal meaning of Pharisee is “the separated one.” Beginning with the principles of the Ten Commandments, the Jewish scribes and rabbis had amplified the Law into tens of thousands of petty regulations covering every moment and every action in life. They considered these regulations a matter of life and death. Our governmental bureaucrats must have taken a lesson from them.

Take for example, the regulations governing the washing of ones hands. To eat food without washing hands was a grave sin leading to poverty and disaster. Washing hands is obviously a good health measure. But the Law prescribed how much water was to be used, how the hands were to be rubbed, in what direction the water was to be poured, how far to wash up the arm, etc. If anything was changed or omitted it was a deadly sin.

No ordinary mortal could conceivably observe all these details and carry out the business of daily life. So the Pharisees separated themselves from ordinary activities of life and in so doing separated themselves from their fellow men. They considered it a defilement to have any business or social intercourse with anyone who did not observe the law as meticulously as they. They were not bad men. I would consider them earnest masochists. I can’t believe that anyone would make themselves so uncomfortable as they did. They knew they were good and everyone else was bad.

So the Pharisee stood and prayed. Standing is a normal position for Jews to pray. Nothing out of the ordinary, except if we are to read between the lines, he made sure that he was seen and heard. Prayers are acts of thanksgiving to God, but this man was not really grateful to God. On the contrary, he couldn’t find enough words of self praise, of how he was well pleased with himself. He’s telling God how he has gone the second mile in observing all the minutia of the law. The only obligatory fast among the Jews was on the day of Atonement. But people could, if they felt so disposed, fast on Mondays and Thursdays. These were the days of the midweek service in the Synagogue because Moses was supposed to have ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Law on a Monday and to have come back down on a Thursday. The Pharisee gave tithes of all his income; here again he is claiming credit for going beyond what is necessary.

After his litany of self-righteousness, he directs God’s attention to the man in the far corner by comparing his righteous self with the tax collector. The Roman way of collecting taxes was to assess an area and let it out to bid. As long as Rome got the taxes that were assessed, they didn’t care how and what the tax collector got from the people in the area. The unscrupulous ones would come up with all manner of things and activities to tax. Does that sound familiar? Our water and electric bills in Los Angeles include assessments for trash collecting equipment, sewer charge as well as a utility tax. Our telephone bill includes mysterious charges that no one can explain, except to say that they’re just passing through excise charges levied on them by the federal government or recovering costs they had to pay other agencies.

Well these tax collectors in Jesus’ time had innovative ideas. They might levy toll fees for people coming through a gate, crossing a bridge, or entering a harbor, bringing in merchandise from another area. As an aside, Los Angeles and Long Beach are working on a shipping container levy, estimated to bring in tens of millions of dollars each year to be used in reducing the pollution brought about by these ships entering the harbor. Back to the tax collectors, the crowning blow was that they were generally Jews who had sold themselves into the hands of the Romans in order to make a profit out of their fellow countrymen. Tax collectors were classed by public opinion with robbers and murderers. Tax collectors were probably the most hated men in the area.

Having said that, there must have been some grace in this tax collector for why would he be in the temple praying at all? He undoubtedly knew of his unworthiness, for Jesus says he stood far off and he didn’t look up, but stood with downcast eyes. He prayed, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Bible commentators tell us that in the Greek, it is the sinner, the tax collector regarding himself as the supreme sinner, not judging others, only himself. Yes, this man was closer to God than the Pharisee who was only touting his own virtues.

One of the things that pops out from Luke’s record of the Pharisee is that his goodness is negative. He congratulated himself primarily on the things he did not do. The Golden Rule exists in many other religions in its negative form.

Brahmanism: “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5:15:17)
Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5:18)
Confucianism: “Surely it is the maxim of loving kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Analects 15:23)
Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” (T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien)
Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.” (Dasistan-I-dinik 95:5)
Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” (Sunnah)
Judaism: “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
Christianity: “Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, N.C.V.)

In essence, all the religions other than Christianity and perhaps Islam express the rule in its negative form-“Don’t do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” In its negative form, living the rule is comparatively easy. It means that there are certain things which you must refrain from doing. But in its positive form it means we have to be pro-active; we must go out of our way to be kind to others as we would like them to be to us. It may not be too difficult to refrain from doing things, but it is godlike to do things in the spirit of love. The result is that the person whose religion consists of not doing things may be well pleased with himself; but the man whose religion involves doing things will always realize that he has not done all he ought to have done.

At the end of the day, God will not ask, “What did you not do?” He will ask, “What did you do?” We may say, “I never injured anyone;” but the question is “What did we do to make others happier and their life easier.” A negative religión is only half a religión and leads to a negative life.

The great lesson to be learned from this parable is the need for humility. Humility is of the essence of greatness.

There is the story told of a group of American tourists in Germany visiting the home of the famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. They were shown the room and the piano on which Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata. A young American girl sat down and played the first movement. When she had finished, the guide said, “You will be interested to know that we had Jan Paderewski himself as a visitor here last week.” And the girl said, “And I’ll bet he did just what I did; I’ll bet he sat down and played the sonata.” “No, madame,” said the guide, “he did not. Everyone besought him to but he said, ‘Ah no! I am not worthy.’” The self-confident girl would touch the notes Beethoven touched; the humble maestro was too humble to do so.

Near the end of his life, the noted English poet Thomas Hardy sent a poem for publication by the London Times, enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope for its return should it be rejected. The rejection of a poem from this writer would have been incredible but this great man was so humble that it seemed possible to him.

If we are to acquire knowledge we need humility. One who knows it all already will never learn. Long ago the Greek philosopher Plato said, “He is the wisest man who knows himself to be ill-qualified for attainment of wisdom.” The famous Roman teacher Marcus Quintilian once said of certain contemporary scholars, “They would doubtless have become excellent scholars if they had not been so fully persuaded of their own scholarship.” It was the great British scientist, Sir. Isaac Newton, who said, “We are all like children playing with pebbles on the shore, perhaps finding a pebble a little prettier than the other, while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before us.” The person who will learn must take as his motto, “Teach me,” for only when he is humble enough to know his ignorance will he begin to learn, and the more he knows, the more he will realize the extent of what he does not know.

So, if we are to know God, we need to have humility.

First, we need a sense of our inadequacy. In my opinión, one of our nation’s greatest presidents was Abraham Lincoln. When people complained to Lincoln that he wasted time in prayer, he answered, “I would be the greatest fool on earth if I thought I could carry the burdens that are laid upon me for one day without the help of one greater and wiser than I.” We need the realization that we cannot cope with life by ourselves.

Second, we need a sense of sin. Paul knew this; in his writing to Timothy, Paul refers to himself as the foremost of sinners. (I Timothy 1:15) Francis of Assisi said of himself, “Nowhere is there a more wretched, a more miserable, a poorer creature than I.”

An analysis of Paul’s writings shows a growing awareness of need for humility. In what was probably the first of his letters, Galatians 1:1, he writes of himself “Paul an apostle.” During the zenith of his work, he refers to himself in I Corinthians 15:9, “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to speak as an apostle.” Then in Ephesians 3:8 nearing the end of his ministry, he speaks of himself as being “the very least of all saints.” The term saint was the early Christian word for members of the Church. Finally at the end, he speaks of himself as “the foremost of sinners.” Paul’s self-assessment evolves from apostle to a feeling he is not worthy of that office to that of thinking himself as the least of all Church members and finally as “chief of sinners.”

As he grew older and came closer to Jesus Christ, Paul could see more clearly the difference between himself and his Lord. The cure for self-satisfaction is to set our life besides the life of Christ. Then there is no room for self-congratulation any more. It has been said that the gate to heaven is so low that no one can enter it except upon his knees. God gives grace to the humble but He resists the proud.

References: Barclay 99105; 021104; Johnston Fellowship 071705; 072005; International Church of Ageless Wisdom: Golden Rule; Thomas Hardy (1840-1928); Plato (c.427-347 B.C.); Marcus Fabius Quintilinus (AD c.35-95); Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727); Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865); St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226); Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1826); Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941).