Let me ask you a tough question this morning: how many of you have been accused of being a poor listener? Or should I call it “selective listener”? We hear what we want to hear. Most of us have been guilty of this at one time or another. Maybe we’re easily distracted.
Publisher Thom Rainer has collected stories over the years from his pastor friends of some of the strangest distractions they’ve dealt with while preaching. For example, one pastor had a bat fly into the sanctuary during his sermon. In another church, a small child accidentally kicked off his tennis shoe, which landed right beside the pastor while he was preaching. Probably the strangest distraction Rainer remembers was when a church custodian polished up the wooden pews in the sanctuary, making them too slippery for members to sit on. Throughout the service, the pastor kept preaching as his members slid this way and that. A few actually fell off the well-oiled pews right onto the floor. (1) Such distractions can affect the most devout speaker or listener.
There are all kinds of reasons communications break down. Maybe we have trouble listening to others because we’re tired or stressed out. And maybe we just don’t care enough about others to pay close attention to them.
We’ve all been guilty of being a bad listener at one time or another. This may have been why Jesus spoke in parables so often. He knew that we are easily distracted. He knew that we have our own agendas. And he knew that sometimes our ego gets in the way of hearing God’s voice.
Maxie Dunnam, Professor Emeritus of Asbury Theological Seminary and an excellent writer, likes to tell the story of the University of Tennessee football coach who bought a bolt of cloth thinking he would have a suit made out of it. He took the material to his tailor in Knoxville where the University of Tennessee is located. The tailor measured him, examined the bolt of cloth, did some computations on a piece of paper, and said, “I’m sorry, coach, there just isn’t enough material in this bolt to make a suit for you.” The coach was disappointed, but he threw the bolt of cloth in the trunk of his car, wondering what he was going to do with it.
A couple of weeks later, this same coach was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama—the home of the Crimson Tide—arch enemies of the Tennessee Vols. He was on his way to the coast for a vacation. Driving down the main street in Tuscaloosa, he noticed a tailor shop, which reminded him that he had that bolt of cloth in the trunk. He stopped, thinking he would give it a try. He told the tailor he had bought this bolt of cloth and wondered if he could do anything with it. The tailor measured him, measured the bolt of cloth, did some computations. Finally he said, “Coach, I can make you a suit out of this bolt. What’s more, I can even make you an extra pair of pants. And if you really want it, I can give you a vest out of this, too.” The coach was dumbfounded. “I don’t understand,” he said. “My tailor in Knoxville told me he couldn’t even make one suit out of this bolt of cloth.” The tailor said, “Coach, here in Tuscaloosa, you are not nearly as big a man as you are in Knoxville.” (2)
We all like to think we’re a big man or a big woman in some arena, don’t we? It’s no fun when our ego trip gets derailed. Imagine how Jesus’ listeners felt in our Bible passage today. This parable would have been shocking to them, mind-blowing. Let’s hope their big egos don’t get in the way of them hearing and understanding it. And let’s hope that our big egos don’t prevent us from hearing it and understanding it today.
This Bible passage starts with the words, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable . . .” Every parable Jesus told was an opportunity. An opportunity to understand God better. An opportunity to conform our lives to the image of God. An opportunity to turn away from sin and get a fresh start. So what did Jesus want to teach his hearers with this story?
First of all, Jesus wanted them to know that, when we compare ourselves to others, we turn religion into a competition. Jesus wanted his hearers to understand that they were wasting their lives and missing out on the truth of God by looking down on others because of their religion. God is not about religion, but about relationships. And it’s a mistake to define ourselves by what we are not, instead of by who God is. We were made in the image of God. If we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are adopted into God’s family and are children of God. So our identity is not based on comparing ourselves to others. Our identity is not even based on our right actions. Our identity is based on who God is. And the Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy.
Self-righteousness is not the same thing as holiness. The Pharisee made the mistake of comparing himself to other people. “God, I thank you that I am not like other people . . .” We can all do that. And in comparison, we don’t look too bad.
The Pharisee did look good compared to the tax collector. Pharisees were members of a strict religious sect. They devoted their lives to observing the rules and statutes of Jewish religious law. They were the gold standard for righteousness in their society.
The tax collector, on the other hand, was a traitor to his own people because he worked for the Roman government in a capacity that allowed him to cheat and oppress his fellow Jews by adding on extra taxes to line his own pockets. The profession encouraged corruption. “Tax collectors were considered traitors and extortioners. They were not allowed to be witnesses or judges in court because they were considered untrustworthy. They were excommunicated from the synagogue.” (3)
The Pharisee thought he was all right in comparison to the tax collector. But the tax collector wasn’t who he was in competition with. His competition was the man he himself was created to be. The Pharisee’s prayer showed there was a gaping hole in his life—he didn’t really know God. That’s a sad and scary truth. We can do everything right in life, keep all the rules of our religion, and still not know God.
The second thing Jesus is trying to teach his hearers is when we compare ourselves to God rather than with others, we realize we don’t have anything to offer Him. What does the tax collector in this parable do? He doesn’t even look up to heaven when he prays. Instead, he looks down at the ground and beats his breast in sorrow, and he prays simply, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This tax collector compared himself to a holy, holy, holy God and he knew he had nothing to offer. I think the tax collector identified with King David who wrote these words in Psalm 51: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Ps. 51:17)
A few years ago, a famous physicist was giving a lecture at Princeton. There were a number of preachers in the audience, and during the question-and-answer session, one of them asked, “What is it that ministers could learn from scientists?”
Without hesitation, the physicist said, “Humility.”
“Oh, that’s a surprising answer,” the questioner said. “I thought all scientists were rather arrogant in all that they know.”
The physicist said, “No, oh no. You may have met one here and there, but the great scientists are all very humble people because they stand every morning before the mystery of all they do not know. And if anyone should be that humble, it would be the minister who every morning stands before the mystery of the Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of the world.” (4)
If anyone should be humble, it would be those of us who every morning stand before the “mystery of the Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of the world.” You cannot know who God is and still hold on to your pride and self-righteousness.
Author Philip Yancey writes about being invited to speak at a conference on ministry to women in prostitution. At the end of his talk, Yancey asked the women, “Did you know that Jesus referred to your profession? Let me read you what he said: ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.’ He was speaking to the religious authorities of his day. What do you think Jesus meant? Why did he single out prostitutes?”
After several minutes of silence, a young woman from Eastern Europe spoke up in her broken English. “Everyone, she has someone to look down on. Not us. We are at the low. Our families, they feel shame for us. No mother nowhere looks at her little girl and says, ‘Honey, when you grow up I want you be good prostitute’. . . Believe me, we know how people feel about us. People call us names . . . And sometimes when you are at the low, you cry for help. So when Jesus comes, we respond. Maybe Jesus meant that.” (5)
Do you hear what she was saying? “. . . sometimes when you are at the low, you cry for help. So when Jesus comes, we respond. Maybe Jesus meant that.” The tax collector was “at the low” and he cried to God for help. In fact, the Greek word translated “be merciful” in the tax collector’s prayer is hilaskomai. It is actually the word for an atoning sacrifice. (6) So the tax collector’s prayer is, “God, be the atoning sacrifice for me, a sinner.”
In C.S. Lewis’ fantasy story The Great Divorce, a busload of people from Hell are driven to the gates of Heaven and offered admission, but with one exception, they all refuse it. The people in Heaven are so radiant and so substantial that they make the visitors from Hell look like mere shadows.
One pale ghost from Hell wanders through the gates into Heaven. He is upset when he meets a citizen in Heaven he knew in his previous life. This heavenly citizen had worked for him, and had not been a great guy. In fact, he had committed a murder during his life on earth. How dare he live in Heaven now? He hadn’t earned that right.
The citizen from Hell complains, “Look at me, now. I gone straight all my life. I don’t say I was a religious man and I don’t say I had no faults, far from it. But I done my best all my life, see? . . . That’s the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn’t mine by rights. If I wanted a drink I paid for it and if I took my wages I done my job, see? . . . I’m asking for nothing but my rights . . . I’m not asking for anybody’s bleeding charity.”
The heavenly citizen looks him in the eye and says, “Then do. At once. Ask for the Bleeding Charity.” (7)
The tax collector asked for the bleeding charity. And God gave it to him. Jesus finishes his parable with the words, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” What does that mean, “he went home justified”? It means his sins were forgiven. He got exactly what he asked for—mercy from a holy, holy, holy God who knows that we can never be holy enough to deserve His mercy. So God sent His perfect, sinless Son, Jesus, to take away the penalty of our sins and make us holy in His eyes.
And that brings us to the final point of this parable: if you don’t know grace, you don’t know God—because grace, the unearned gift of God’s love and salvation through Jesus Christ, was God’s plan for us from the very beginning.
Pastor David J. Lose writes about the Pharisee, “. . . while he is right about the kind of life he should live, he is confused about the source of that life . . . The tax collector knows the one thing the Pharisee does not: his life is God’s—his past, present, and future are entirely dependent on God’s grace and mercy.” (8)
In his book Proof Timothy Paul Jones writes about his middle daughter who is adopted. She had been adopted before, but her adoptive family gave her up and put her back in the foster system. For some reason, this previous family had not treated the little girl like she was truly their child. Whenever they went to Disney World, they took all their biological children with them but left their adopted daughter behind. She got the message that she wasn’t wanted, wasn’t good enough to earn a gift like Disney World. She wasn’t a full member of the family.
So when Timothy Jones’ and his family adopted this little girl, she had a lot of behavioral outbursts. The Jones family decided that the best way to welcome this little girl to their family was to plan a trip to Disney World. But when they told their new daughter, her behavior problems multiplied. She lied, she stole food, she treated her new siblings cruelly. No matter what system of punishment or reward the Jones’ used, their adopted daughter’s behavior was out of control. This little girl was so afraid of not getting to Disney World that she was trying to guarantee her new parents would have a reason to leave her behind.
The day finally came for their trip, and the family went all out: rides and refreshments and long lines and exhaustion. As they collapsed in their hotel room that night, Timothy asked his new daughter what she thought of the experience. She smiled and said, “Daddy, I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.”
And then he writes, “That’s the message of outrageous grace. Outrageous grace isn’t a favor you can achieve by being good; it’s the gift you receive by being God’s [child].” (9)
The Pharisee missed out on the gift of God’s outrageous grace because he thought he could do something to earn it. He didn’t want any bleeding charity. He wanted to be good enough. He was comparing himself to those around him. But the tax collector compared himself to God, and he cried out for mercy. If you don’t know the gift of outrageous grace, then you don’t know God. Because our salvation is not about our goodness, but about God’s grace.
1. “Top 10 Actual Stories of Preaching Distractions” by Thom Rainer, April 22, 2013, https://thomrainer.com/2013/04/top-ten-actual-stories-of-preaching-distractions/.
2. Maxie Dunnam, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com.
3. Rodney L. Cooper, Holman New Testament Commentary - Mark: 2 (Kindle Edition).
4. Fred B. Craddock, The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock (Westminster: John Knox Press, 2011).
5. From What Good Is God?, by Philip Yancey, (New York: FaithWords), 2010, p. 75. Cited in Davis, Barry L. 52 Sermons From the Gospel of John (Pulpit Outlines) (p. 184). GodSpeed Publishing. Kindle Edition.
6. David Guzik https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/luke-18/.
7. Stan Mooneyham, Dancing on the Strait & Narrow (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishing, 1989), p. 83.
8. David J. Lose https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2813.
9. Tim Smith, https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/in-the-beginning-tim-smith-sermon-on-sin-210924?ref=SermonSerps.