There is a story about a man who
went into an art gallery. He stopped in front of a huge, beautifully decorated
mirror. He looked at himself, adjusted his tie, smoothed his hair, and said to
his friend, “Look at that. Not bad!”
His friend gently pulled him back
and said, “My dear fellow, that isn’t a mirror. It’s a painting of a mirror.”
It’s a funny story, but there is
something deeply human about it.
We can spend a lot of our lives
looking at the wrong thing.
We compare ourselves with other
people. We look around and think, “At least I’m not as bad as him.” Or, “I
would never do what she did.” Or perhaps we look at our own lives and say, “I’m
a decent person. I work hard. I try to do what is right. I go to church. I help
people.”
And perhaps all of those things are
true.
But Jesus asks us to look somewhere
deeper.
Today, Jesus takes us into the
Temple and introduces us to two men.
Two men come to pray.
Two men stand before God.
Two men are sinners.
But only one of them goes home
justified.
And that is where the great
reversal begins.
The story moves us from comparison
to confession, from pride to mercy, and from trying to prove ourselves to
simply receiving God’s grace.
There are three things I want us to
see today: the Law, the Gospel, and the life that flows from the Gospel.
1. The Law: When Goodness
Becomes a Trap
It
is easy for us to hear the word “Pharisee” and immediately think, “Here comes
the bad guy.”
But
that isn’t how Jesus presents him.
This
man was probably respected in his community.
He
was religious.
He
prayed.
He
fasted.
He
gave his money to God.
He
tried to live a moral life.
In
fact, if we met him today, we might say, “There is a good man. A committed
Christian. Someone who takes his faith seriously.”
And
yet something has gone terribly wrong.
Listen
to his prayer:
“God,
I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or
even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all I
get.”
Notice
something.
He
begins by saying, “God, I thank you…”
But
before long, he is no longer really talking about God.
He
is talking about himself.
“I
am not like them.”
“I
fast.”
“I
give.”
“I
do.”
His
prayer has become a résumé.
He
is presenting his accomplishments to God.
And
then comes the most revealing moment of all.
He
looks at the tax collector and thinks, “At least I’m not like him.”
That
is the trap.
The
Pharisee isn’t measuring himself against God’s holiness.
He
is measuring himself against somebody else.
And
that is something we understand very well.
We
rarely say, “Lord, I am perfect.”
Instead,
we say, “Well, at least I’m not as bad as…”
And
suddenly someone else’s failure becomes the foundation of our righteousness.
We
don’t need to be perfect.
We
just need someone else to be worse than us.
But
Jesus will not let us escape that easily.
The
Law of God does not ask, “Are you better than your neighbour?”
The
Law asks, “How do you stand before the holy God?”
And
when we stand there honestly, we discover something uncomfortable.
We
all need mercy.
The
problem with sin is not simply that we sometimes do bad things.
The
deeper problem is that we want to believe that we can stand before God on our
own.
We
want to believe that our goodness will be enough.
That
our religious commitment will be enough.
That
our respectable life will be enough.
That
if we can just point to enough good things, we won’t have to admit how
desperately we need grace.
But
the Law takes away those excuses.
The
Law is not a ladder that helps us climb our way up to heaven.
The
Law is a mirror.
And
when we look honestly into that mirror, we discover that we are not as
righteous as we imagined.
Imagine
someone drowning in the ocean.
The
Law is not the lifeboat.
The
Law is the moment when the person finally realizes, “I cannot save myself.”
And
that realization is painful.
But
it is also necessary.
Because
until I know that I am drowning, I will not reach for the lifeboat.
The
Pharisee was drowning.
But
he was too busy looking at the tax collector to notice.
2. The Gospel: The Prayer of
Empty Hands
Now
look at the other man.
The
tax collector.
He
stands at a distance.
He
doesn’t even lift his eyes toward heaven.
He
beats his breast and says:
“God,
be merciful to me, a sinner.”
That’s
his entire prayer.
No
résumé.
No
excuses.
No
comparison.
No
attempt to explain why he isn’t really as bad as people think.
Just:
“God,
be merciful to me, a sinner.”
And
Jesus says something astonishing:
“I
tell you, this man went home justified rather than the other.”
Justified.
What
a beautiful word.
It
means that God declares the sinner righteous.
Not
because the sinner has suddenly become a perfect person.
Not
because he has earned God’s favour.
Not
because he has managed to repair his life before coming to God.
He
comes with empty hands.
And
God fills those empty hands with mercy.
That
is the Gospel.
The
Gospel is not God saying, “Try harder.”
It
is not, “Do more.”
It
is not, “Make yourself good enough and then come back.”
The
Gospel is God’s word to people who have nothing left to prove:
“I
forgive you.”
The
tax collector understands something the Pharisee does not.
He
understands that he cannot save himself.
And
that is precisely why he is ready to be saved.
He
doesn’t bring God his achievements.
He
brings God his need.
And
that is enough.
Of
course, we know something the tax collector himself could not yet fully see.
We
know where God’s mercy would ultimately lead.
We
know the Cross.
We
know Jesus.
We
know that the mercy of God is not a vague feeling of kindness.
It
has a name.
It
has a face.
It
has hands stretched out upon a Cross.
Jesus
takes the place of sinners.
Jesus
carries our sin.
Jesus
bears our guilt.
Jesus
gives us His righteousness.
This
is the great exchange at the heart of the Gospel.
Our
sin is placed upon Christ.
His
righteousness is given to us.
That
is why we can stand before God.
Not
because we have become good enough.
But
because Christ is good enough for us.
Righteousness
is a gift.
It
is not achieved.
It
is received.
3. The Christian Life:
Living with Empty Hands
So
the Law shows us our sin.
The
Gospel gives us Christ.
Now
comes the question:
How
then do we live?
Jesus
gives us the answer at the end of the story:
“For
all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted.”
This
is the great reversal.
The
Christian life begins when we stop trying to prove ourselves.
And
it continues as we learn to live by grace.
That
doesn’t mean we stop caring about how we live.
Quite
the opposite.
Grace
changes how we live.
But
we no longer do good things in order to make God love us.
We
do good things because God already loves us.
We
don’t serve our neighbour because we are trying to earn salvation.
We
serve because Christ has already served us.
We
don’t forgive because we are trying to buy God’s forgiveness.
We
forgive because we have already been forgiven.
And
we don’t come to church saying, “Look, God, at how good I am.”
We
come saying,
“Lord,
have mercy.”
And
then we hear God’s answer:
“Your
sins are forgiven.”
Think
about how this works in ordinary life.
Imagine
a husband and wife have an argument.
The
husband knows he was wrong. He said something cruel. He knows he hurt his wife.
But
instead of admitting it, he begins making comparisons.
“Well,
I didn’t hit you.”
“I
work hard.”
“I
provide for this family.”
“You
do things wrong too.”
And
perhaps all of those statements are true.
But
none of them changes the fact that he was wrong.
That
is the Pharisee in us.
We
defend ourselves by pointing somewhere else.
But
imagine instead that he stops.
He
puts down the excuses and simply says:
“I
was wrong. I hurt you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
There
is something powerful about those words.
“I
was wrong.”
No
excuses.
No
comparisons.
No
pretending.
Just
confession.
That
is not weakness.
That
is faith.
Because
confession says, “I don’t need to pretend anymore.”
And
that is one of the great gifts of the Gospel.
We
don’t have to pretend before God.
We
don’t have to pretend before one another.
We
can tell the truth.
We
are sinners.
And
Christ is our Saviour.
Perhaps
there is something in your own life that you have been hiding.
Perhaps
it is something you are ashamed of.
Perhaps
it is resentment.
Envy.
Bitterness.
Pride.
A
failure you keep trying to forget.
A
relationship you have damaged.
A
habit you know is wrong.
And
perhaps, when you think about it, you tell yourself:
“Well,
at least I’m not as bad as that person.”
But
Jesus gently brings us back to the Temple.
Back
to the two men.
Back
to the prayer:
“God,
be merciful to me, a sinner.”
That
is where freedom begins.
Repentance
is not simply feeling bad about ourselves.
Repentance
is turning around.
It
is turning away from ourselves and turning toward God.
It
is dying to the old habit of self-justification and learning, day by day, to
trust Christ.
And
here is the beautiful thing:
We
don’t repent because we are trying to convince God to love us.
We
repent because we already know that He does.
We
don’t confess our sins in order to earn forgiveness.
We
confess because Christ has already won forgiveness for us.
The Great Reversal
And so
Jesus puts two ways of living before us.
The way of
the Pharisee says:
“I am good
enough.”
“I have
done enough.”
“I am
better than them.”
“Look at
what I have accomplished.”
The way of
the tax collector says:
“Lord,
have mercy.”
One man
leaves carrying his résumé.
The other
leaves carrying God’s mercy.
And Jesus
tells us which one went home justified.
The great
reversal is this:
The
person who thinks he has everything discovers that he has nothing.
The
person who admits that he has nothing discovers that, in Christ, he has
everything.
That is
the heart of the Gospel.
So when
you come before God, don’t bring your résumé.
Bring your
need.
Don’t
bring your comparisons.
Bring your
confession.
Don’t
bring your pride.
Bring your
empty hands.
And then
hear what God gives you.
Forgiveness.
Mercy.
Grace.
Peace.
A new
beginning.
The world
tells us that we need to prove ourselves.
Jesus
tells us that we are loved.
The world
tells us to climb higher.
Jesus
comes down to us.
The world
tells us to make ourselves righteous.
Jesus
gives us His righteousness.
That is
the theology of the Cross.
God works
through what looks weak.
He saves
sinners.
He raises
the humble.
He brings
the proud down.
He fills
empty hands.
And He
does it all through Christ.
So perhaps
the question for us today is very simple:
Which
man are you?
The answer
may change from day to day.
Sometimes
we are the Pharisee.
Sometimes
we are the tax collector.
Sometimes
we stand proudly before God, convinced that we have everything under control.
And
sometimes we finally reach the end of ourselves and whisper,
“Lord,
have mercy.”
And the
good news is that Jesus is there in both moments.
He meets
the proud with the Law.
He meets
the broken with the Gospel.
And He
leads us again and again to the Cross.
So let us
stop looking sideways.
Stop
measuring ourselves against one another.
Stop
trying to prove that we are good enough.
Instead,
let us look to Christ.
Look at
His Cross.
Look at
His mercy.
Look at
His open hands.
And hear
His promise:
“Your
sins are forgiven.”
He died
for Pharisees.
He died
for tax collectors.
He died
for respectable sinners.
He died
for obvious sinners.
And He
died for you.
So go home
today not trusting in yourself, but trusting in Christ.
Go home
not carrying the burden of having to prove yourself.
Go home
forgiven.
Go home
justified.
Go home
free.
And when
you have nothing else to say, you can always pray the prayer of the tax
collector:
“God,
be merciful to me, a sinner.”
And
because of Jesus, you already know the answer.
He is
merciful.
Amen.
Let us
pray.
Lord Jesus
Christ,
we confess that too often we look at other people instead of looking honestly
at ourselves. We compare. We judge. We make excuses. We try to prove that we
are good enough.
Forgive
us.
Take away
our pride and give us humble hearts.
Teach us
to come before You with empty hands, trusting not in what we have done, but in
what You have done for us.
Thank You
for Your Cross.
Thank You
for Your forgiveness.
Thank You
that our righteousness does not depend upon our performance, but upon Your
grace.
When we
are proud, bring us back to Your mercy.
When we
are ashamed, remind us of Your forgiveness.
When we
are discouraged, remind us that our salvation rests not on us, but on Christ.
Help us to
live as forgiven people: ready to forgive, ready to serve, ready to love, and
ready to confess our need for You.
For You
alone are our righteousness, our hope, and our peace.
In Your
holy and precious name we pray.
Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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