There's an old "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip in which Calvin is talking to his stuffed tiger Hobbes (whom he imagines to be real and his best friend). He says: "People are so self-centered."
Then he adds philosophically, "The world would be a better place if people would stop thinking about themselves and focus on others for a change."
Hobbes sort of rolls his eyes and thinks aloud, "Gee, I wonder who that might apply to."
Calvin answers, "Me!. Everyone should focus on me!" (1)
Bill Watterson's cartoon character Calvin could have been the poster child for the Pharisee in today's passage from Luke. Let's look at that passage and you'll see what I mean.
Luke 18:9-14 (NRSV)
[9] He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:
[10] "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
[11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[12] I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'
[13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'
[14] I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
This is the Pharisee we love to despise. I'll bet he had an alarm clock and phone that didn't ring, they applauded. He's kind who'd a mirror on the ceiling of his bathroom so he could see himself when he gargled. This guy's greatest admirer was his wife's husband. He was so full of himself that when he showed you a personal photo it was a group photo.
We'd be billionaires if we could buy the Pharisee for what we think of him and sell him for what he thought of himself.
This guy was interested in getting into heaven and he was hoping that God would grade on a curve so he was pointing out the lowest scores.
But there's a danger here. We have to be very, very careful because, unfortunately, the reason we love to despise this guy is because he makes us feel better about ourselves and our foibles and failings. We have to be careful because in despising this guy for his superior attitude, we are committing the very same sin of pride.
Let's look at the passage and see how Jesus said "Thanks," to the one who gave "Thanks" and "Thanks, But NO Thanks" to the one who gave "NO Thanks" to anyone but himself.
I. No Thanks
A. Let's look at the Pharisee first. Let me make one thing clear. The Pharisees were the good guys. They weren't the bad guys. A lot of confrontation happened between Jesus and some of the Pharisees but we need to emphasize that it was only some of them. Some followed Jesus, notably Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.
The Pharisees would have been welcomed with open arms in early Methodism by the Wesleys and others. You see, the whole Pharisee movement was a holiness movement. They were trying to live a holy life, pleasing to God in all ways, just like John and Charles did in England.
Jewish law said every person was to fast once a week as a sign of repentance for their sin. Pharisees didn't think that was enough. They fasted at least twice week.
Not only that. But the Pharisees were on the leading edge of social reform. Fifteen years before Jesus was born Herod the Great decided to test his popularity. He issued a decree that said everyone in the country had to stand before him, in rotation, and take an oath of unconditional loyalty to him personally.
Josephus tells us what happened in his ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. He says most people in Palestine took the oath. They were afraid of what might happen if they didn't.
But one group that refused. The Pharisees. They announced that they couldn't take an oath to anyone but God. How many Pharisees were there? Josephus says there were over 6000! And Herod punished every last one of them for defying him!
Fifteen years later, the year Jesus was born, Herod's health was failing rapidly. It looked like he was going to die within hours. Two of the Pharisees, Judas and Matthias, decided to act. They knew there'd political turmoil after Herod died, so they gathered a group of younger men around them, and they climbed the wall at the main gate of the temple. And then they tore down the huge golden eagle that Herod had put up there as a symbol of Roman authority. It was like the Russians toppling the statues of Lenin in Moscow a few years ago or the people of Iraq toppling the statues of Saddam Hussein.
The only problem was Herod wasn't dead. In fact, he recovered enough to make another public appearance, in Jericho. At the trial of Judas and Matthias he ordered them burned alive. Along with their co-conspirators. They were all Pharisees! (2)
So, you see, they weren't the bad guys. They were the good guys.
B. But a lot of them had forgotten their relationship with god and had assumed a higher position than they really had.
They remind me of the couple who was moving from their neighborhood to another part of town. The snobbish woman who was moving explained the reason for their move. At farewell luncheon she said: "Our business has been very successful. It's time for us to live among a higher class of people."
Her neighbors answered her by saying that they were going to do the very same thing. That took the snobbish woman by surprise, and she asked, "Oh, are you moving too?"
And her neighbors enthusiastically answered, "No, we will continue to live right here." (3)
What was troublesome to Jesus were those who, in their zeal to serve God, had forgotten to give thanks to God. Or as verse 9 describes them, those: "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt."
This Pharisee should have known better. But his self righteous, self congratulatory attitude got in the way. He didn't offer up any prayer of thanks giving. Instead he stood before God and listed all of his qualities and all that HE had done.
He moved himself into the judgment seat when he gave thanks that he wasn't like other people.
And you know, when Jesus said: "Judge not, lest you be judged," He wasn't just giving us some pithy little saying to embroider on samplers and hung on the wall to be forgotten. This was a command to be lived in our everyday lives. This was a command to live as a mark of faithfulness.
God heard that self congratulatory, thank less prayer and said: "Thanks, But NO Thanks."
II. Thanks
A. Then there was the Tax Collector. There was probably no one who was held in more contempt in Jewish society than the Tax Collectors. Lepers got more respect. You see a Tax Collector was a traitor. The Romans managed to keep their troops supplied while stationed in Israel through taxes. They taxed the local citizens to pay for their own bondage.
They didn't send out tax forms. Instead, they sold tax franchises to the highest bidder. The one who promised to bring in the most money got the job of tax collector. He could collect as much as he wanted, as long as he brought the Roman officials the amount they had bargained for.
Tax collectors were traitors and thieves. They worked for the enemy. They filled their pockets and their bank accounts with what they could skim off everyone else's taxes. And yet, once again, Jesus compares the faith of one of these traitors with one of the righteous Pharisees.
B. And no wonder, this Tax Collector knew the old adage: "Don't brag, it's not the whistle that pulls the train." It's obvious this Tax Collector didn't need anyone to remind him that he was despised or that he was a sinner. People reminded him of that every single day. Every time he collected taxes.
But his prayer was heartfelt, simple and humble. "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
He didn't make a big long list of his wrongs. He didn't try to justify himself by giving excuses. He didn't try to gloss over any with the, "Well, everyone else is doing it" excuse. He didn't try to bargain.
He simply sought mercy and forgiveness. And God's response to his "Thanks" was "Thanks!"
He didn't try to exalt himself, yet he was exalted. And "he went down to his home justified rather than the other."
III. Living Thanks
For us the message is simple. The attitude we're called to emulate is that of the Tax Collector.
In the 1991 film City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays "Mitch," a successful, but unhappy, urban professional. He and his friends spend a few weeks on a dude ranch in an effort to break out of their routine and reorder their confused life. Conversing with "Curly," a rugged cowboy played by Jack Palance, Mitch learns "the secret of life."
Curly says: "You city folk, you worry about a lot of stuff, don't you? You all come up here about the same age, with the same problems. You spend about fifty weeks a year getting knots in your rope and then you think two weeks up here will untie them for you. None of you get it. You know what the secret of life is?"
Mitch says: "No, what?"
Curly holds up one finger and says: "This."
Mitch says: "Your finger?"
Curly replies: "No. One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean [nothing]...."
Mitch asks: "That's great, but what's the one thing?"
Curly says: "That's what you've got to figure out."
As Christians we already know what that one thing is, our relationship with God through Christ.
A relationship with God with an attitude that deals realistically with our relationship with God and our own sin. An attitude that doesn't sit in judgment of others or compare the so called lesser sins of our lives with the horrendous sins of theirs. An attitude that realizes that God doesn't grade on a curve. An attitude that seeks humble forgiveness and mercy. An attitude that is a "Living Thanks" to God.
Conclusion
There was a young boy wanted to measure himself, to find out how tall he was. But he didn't have a ruler. So he made one. And then he measured himself. "Nine feet! Mommy!" he shouted, "I'm nine feet tall!" We laugh, but that's how it is when you measure yourself by your own ruler.
That's the mistake the Pharisee in the parable made. And that's the mistake some of the Pharisees who Jesus confronted were making. They were the good guys but they were blinded by their own self-righteousness. They couldn't take their eyes off of their own selves long enough to see God's grace working in other peoples lives. All they could do was look down their nose.
God is the only true yardstick we have. And the only true yardstick we need. We can't look in the mirror and see our true reflection, we have to stand before God and see our true reflection reflected as it's reflected in the light of Christ's eyes. That's the reflection God looks for.
Not the one we hold up but the one for which Christ willingly let Himself be held up on the cross for. The one the shines in the darkness of the empty tomb It's in that reflection that God sees and we see who we really are. For it's in that reflection that God sees our "Living Thanks"
Comedian Garry Shandling, of all people, might have said it best. He said, "Nice guys finish first. And if you don't know that, then you don't know where the finish line is." (4)
Two men went up to the temple to pray, one gave "Thanks." And one gave "Thanks," that was really "NO Thanks" at all. And as a consequence, God said, "Thanks, But NO Thanks."
Be like the Tax Collector.
1. The Pastor's Story File (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), FEB, 1993
2. Gleaned from online research but I forgot to copy or bookmark the links down. My apologies.
3. The Pastor's Story File (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), SEP 2000
4. "The Up Side," Guideposts, May 2003, p. 19.