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Good morning. I'm Sebastian Juan. I am part of the Alameda Group.
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke.
Luke chapter 18 verse 1.
Then God told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
He said, In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea,
Grant me justice against my adversary.
For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself,
Even though I do not fear God or care what people think,
Yet because this widow keeps bothering me,
I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.
And the Lord said,
Listen to what the injustice says.
And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?
Will he keep putting them off?
I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly, however.
When the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on the earth.
To some who were confident of their very own righteousness and looked down on everyone else,
Jesus told this parable.
Two men went up to the temple to pray.
One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed,
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 and give a tenth of all I get,
but the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven,
but beat his breast and said,
God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
I tell you that this man, rather than the other,
went home justified before God,
for all those who exalt himself will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
This is the gospel of Christ.
Fantastic reading.
Thank you, Sebastian.
Good stuff, man.
Well, good morning.
We have been trying to,
over the course of the last few weeks,
we've just been looking at
the parables in the gospel of Luke
and seeking to just introduce you to Jesus,
introduce you to the basic teachings of Jesus
through those parables,
and today you get two parables for the price of one.
It's a good Sunday here at Christ Church.
You notice right away that the people in these parables
are engaged in a spiritual practice
that most people, whether they believe in God or not,
have done, and that is to pray.
And we're going to talk about this Pharisee
and tax collector that are praying in the temple first
and look at the surprising twist
and kind of unexpected punch of Jesus' story there.
And then we're going to talk about
this amazing, tenacious, feisty widow
whom Jesus holds up for us
as this beautiful example of faithful
and persevering prayer that refuses to give up.
So, as we dive in, just a quick reminder
of who the Pharisees and the tax collectors were.
You see there in verse 9, it says,
to some who were confident of their own righteousness
and looked down on everyone else,
Jesus told this parable,
two men went up to the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Now, who were the religious Pharisees
and the irreligious tax collectors?
The Pharisees, they were these admired
and respected leaders in their community.
They had a high view of God,
a high view of the authority of the scriptures.
They were scrupulous in obeying God's law.
They very often went beyond what God's law required.
And these folks were generous with their money.
They were charitable toward the poor and the needy.
And then what about these tax collectors?
These were not like our friendly IRS agents
who were gonna receive our taxes on April 15th.
And aren't we thankful for these government workers,
these IRS agents?
You gotta remember that in Israel,
the people of God, they had been conquered.
They were occupied by the Roman Empire.
And the empire was taking these enormous spoils of war
that they called taxes.
And they transferred them back to Rome.
And I'm so, so tempted this morning
to just spend a moment outlining for you
the difference between taxes and tariffs.
But that would be a massive distraction.
And so what I'm doing right now
is exercising incredible self-control
in resisting that temptation.
But basically, the Roman Empire,
they would hire these Jewish men
and they were to collect the taxes.
And they said, hey, if you want,
you can just charge as much as you like.
And you can line your own pockets with the money.
And so these guys were, they were loathed.
They were hated because they were enormously greedy.
They were the dishonest extortioners
that became fabulously wealthy
by betraying their fellow citizens
and collaborating with their imperialist enemies.
And so when Jesus begins this parable,
comparing the most religious people in that society
with the most irreligious and corrupt
and despised traitors,
all the people listening would have assumed
that the Pharisee would be the hero of the story
and the tax collector would be the villain.
So with that, I want to explore this
under three headings.
Surprise, surprise.
First of all, I want to talk about how not to pray.
Secondly, how to pray humbly.
And third, how to pray faithfully.
Okay?
So how not to pray, how to pray humbly,
how to pray faithfully.
So how not to pray, look at verse 11.
The Pharisee and the other tax collector,
the Pharisee stood by himself and he prayed,
God, I thank you that I'm not like other people,
robbers, evildoers, and adulterers,
or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
Now what is right and good about that prayer
and what is wrong and bad about that prayer?
Well, what's right and good is that he starts with God.
God exists.
God is the source of all being and life.
God is worthy of prayer.
He's worthy of the people that he's made in his image
and given them the very breath of life.
He's worthy to hear from them,
God, I thank you.
Right?
He's worthy of our thanks and our praise.
And in many ways, this man who's praying,
he's a good man.
He's an exemplary man.
And he begins by speaking first about all the vices
from which he's abstained
that are outlined in the Ten Commandments.
So when you look at the Ten Commandments
in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5,
you go down that list.
Number eight on that list is robbery.
Right?
And that's just taking stuff that's not yours,
stuff that belongs to other people.
It's talking about cheating in business
and skimming off the top.
He says, I've managed to not do that.
And then he gets to number seven on that list, adultery,
which is having sex with a single person
that is someone's potential future spouse
or with a married person
who's someone's current present spouse.
And he says, I haven't done that either.
I've stuck close to the Ten Commandments.
I've tried to preserve and protect the lives,
the property, the businesses, the bodies,
the families, the relationships
of the people around me, including myself.
And then he begins to speak about
the pious practices in which he engages.
And the Torah talks about these things
in all sorts of places.
But for example, if you went to Leviticus 23,
it talks about fasting one day a year
on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement,
that you would just not eat
and you would observe that day of the atonement.
Or in Deuteronomy 14, it says that you would tithe
and you would give 10% of all the income
that you get on your crops and on your produce.
And so this guy, he conceives rightly
that a relationship with God
is absolutely all-encompassing.
If it doesn't touch your stomach,
if it doesn't touch your wallet,
it's really not much of a relationship.
And he's living according to God's standards
of righteousness.
In fact, he goes beyond what God requires.
Instead of fasting one time a year,
he says, I fast two times a week.
He says, instead of tithing only on my income,
I give 10% of all that I get.
Any of the stuff that I buy,
any of the gifts I receive, I tithe on that.
And it's hard to argue that society
would not be better off
if there were more people like this
who were honest in their business dealings,
who were faithful in their sexuality,
who were generous with their money, right?
And maybe you know some people like this.
They live a good life.
But what's wrong with this guy,
according to Jesus,
is that the spirit of his prayer
and the heart out of which that prayer is uttered
is all wrong, right?
Because after the opening word to God,
he doesn't refer to God again.
But he himself is never out of the picture, right?
He glances at God,
but he's really kind of fixated on himself.
He's a self-centered, not a God-centered person.
And he doesn't ask anything from God.
In fact, he doesn't even seem to need God at all.
Now, if he had said,
God, I thank you for protecting me
in such a way that my life hasn't become corrupt,
that you protected me from abject hunger,
in which I would have been tempted
to become a thief in order to feed my family.
Or God, I thank you that you protected me from poverty,
where I wouldn't even have any money
and wouldn't be in a position to give.
Thank you.
But he doesn't say that.
He seems to see his not succumbing
to stealing and sexual immorality
and greed and miserliness
and all these things as his own doing, right?
He gives no thanks for what God has done,
but rather he gives a list
of his own personal achievements.
Now, this guy would be an impeccable example
to imitate if humility before God
and compassion for our neighbors didn't matter.
But they do matter.
They matter supremely.
This guy is praying without a sense of his need.
He's praying without a sense of dependence
on the mercy of God.
In many ways, he's like that older son
that we met in Luke 15 last week.
Remember the parable of the prodigal sons?
That guy who was confident in his own righteousness.
He was self-righteous.
You see, when we fail to know our own hearts,
when we fail to realize our condition
before a holy God,
how easy it is like this guy
to begin to compare ourselves
with the people around us
to start to feel superior,
to start to look down on other people,
to hold them in contempt
and despise them
and begin to even pray.
If we don't say it out loud,
we at least think it in our heart,
God, I thank you that I'm not like these other people.
God, I thank you that you've made me better
than these people.
You see, his heart is full of praise and thanksgiving,
but his praise and his thanksgiving,
it's not for God.
It's for himself.
He is exalting someone,
but it's not God he's exalting.
He's praying to congratulate himself before God.
He's adoring himself,
worshiping himself.
Oh God,
you are so very fortunate
to have someone like me on your team.
And I can live honorably before you
quite apart from your mercy.
You know, as good as this guy seems on the outside,
on the inside,
he's actually suffering
from a horrible spiritual blindness
and self-righteousness.
And I don't know about you,
but when I read this story,
I find myself saying,
God, I thank you that I'm not like this Pharisee.
But you know,
the moment you say that,
you realize what's happened.
Right?
If you look down on this man,
Jesus has you in his trap,
and he's like,
ah, see?
You have in your heart
what he has in his heart.
There's this great verse
in the Old Testament.
It's 1 Samuel 16, 7.
It says this.
It says,
the Lord does not look
at the things people look at.
People look at the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart.
And what does Jesus teach
about what's actually inside
of the human heart?
He says elsewhere
in the Gospel of Mark,
he says this in Mark 7.
He says it's what comes out of a person,
that's the thing that defiles them.
It's from within,
out of a person's heart,
that evil thoughts come.
Jesus says it's sexual immorality,
it's theft,
it's murder,
it's adultery,
but it's also greed
and malice,
it's deceit,
it's lewdness,
it's envy,
it's slander,
it's arrogance,
it's folly.
Jesus says all these evils
come from inside,
and that's what defiles a person.
You see, on the outside,
we can be spiritually serious,
and we can be morally upright,
but on the inside,
we can have these evil thoughts
that are just pouring out of us
like a river in flood.
And we can be trusting in ourselves
like this man,
that we're good
and that we're righteous
when in fact,
we do not understand
our actual condition
before God.
This Pharisee,
he feels no need
to humble himself,
no need to talk about his sins,
no need to ask for mercy.
And so,
Jesus surprisingly says
that it's this religious man,
this one who has it all together
on the outside,
that he's actually the one
who goes home unjustified
before God.
He goes home unapproved
and unaccepted by God.
This paragon of virtue,
this pillar of the community,
he goes home,
Jesus says,
not in a right relationship
and a right standing
with God.
And that means
that he's in an extremely
dangerous position
because Jesus says
those who exalt themselves
before God today,
they're going to eventually
be humbled by God
on the day of judgment.
Many people,
Jesus says,
are going to be shocked
like this man
on that last day.
And so,
Jesus says,
I would rather get the shock
out of the way right now
than for you to be shocked then.
So,
how should we not pray?
Well,
definitely not,
God,
I thank you that I.
Right?
What we need
is a justified heart
and a regenerated heart
that says,
not God,
I thank you that I,
but God,
I thank you that you.
We need a heart
that enumerates
and gives thanks,
not for our own goodness
and our own righteousness,
but a heart that says,
God,
I thank you
that you are merciful.
Amen?
So,
that's how not to pray.
Okay?
But then Jesus wants us
to know not just
how not to pray,
he wants us to know
how to pray
and how to pray humbly,
how to pray humbly.
And so,
look at verse 13.
It says,
this tax collector,
he stood at a distance
and he would not even
look up to heaven
but beat his breast
and said,
God,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.
This despised traitor,
this irreligious
and completely unethical man,
he has a sense
of his own personal
unworthiness before God.
He knows that he,
he's not fit to stand
in that temple
and even to get
close to the Holy of Holies,
that place
where a holy God
dwells in the midst
of his people.
But rather,
he stands at a distance,
he barely comes
inside of the door
and he won't,
he won't turn his eyes
up toward God's throne
in heaven
but he just looks down
with a sense
of his own shame
and his own guilt
and condemnation.
And you know,
Jesus,
when he said,
he began the Sermon
on the Mount,
he said,
blessed are the poor
in spirit,
blessed are those
who are aware
of how spiritually
and morally bankrupt
they are before God,
that's this guy.
He comes to God
empty handed,
he says,
God,
I have nothing
to offer you
but my need.
All you need
is need,
right?
And you know,
how we pray
with our body
actually reveals
the state of our heart.
Right?
So whether we stand
like this guy
with our head
bowed down
and our hands
just battering
our polluted hearts
with a sense of grief
and sorrow
and contrition
or whether we sit
and we open our hands
empty in a posture
of need
and desperate dependence
or whether we get down
and on our knees
and we put our face
on the ground
and clasp our hands
in the posture
of a beggar,
our body language
is a form of prayer
and this guy
is communicating
both with his body
and with his lips
and he's not saying,
God,
I thank you
that I am awesome.
He's saying,
God,
I thank you
that you are merciful
and so he says,
God,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.
And what's incredible here
is that in the Greek
there's actually
a definite article there.
So he doesn't say,
God,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.
He actually says,
God,
have mercy on me,
the sinner.
Friends,
are we willing
to call ourselves
the sinner?
Are we willing
to say
that we know
that we have nothing
with which we can boast
before God?
This guy,
he's utterly lacking
in the externalism
that we find
in this Pharisee.
The Pharisee,
when he looks
at his life,
he looks at sins
as if it's some sort
of discrete individual action
that I either do
or I don't do
in the eyes
of other people
so that I can compare
myself with others
and I can know
how I'm doing
relative to your performance.
But this guy
doesn't talk like that at all.
He says,
God,
have mercy on me,
the sinner.
Not for this sin
or for that sin,
but for,
I'm just the sinner.
And I know that my spiritual
and my moral record
is absolutely saturated
with myself
and my sin.
And I know that
even my most righteous acts
are like filthy rags.
That even the best things
I've ever done,
they've actually been
tainted
with my own self-interest.
And so he says,
God,
have mercy on me,
the sinner.
And when he says,
have mercy,
that word actually means,
God,
be propitiated.
God,
let your wrath
be removed.
That's what that word
mercy means.
And here he is,
he's in the temple
and where he's praying,
it's not very far
from the Holy of Holies
and inside of the Holy of Holies
there's the Ark of the Covenant.
Right?
And inside the Ark of the Covenant
there's the Ten Commandments.
And he knows
that he cannot come near God
without being scrutinized
by the law of God.
But who could pass
the scrutiny of God's law
and be acceptable to God?
Right?
No one can claim
a righteousness of their own.
And so
he knows
that over that Ark
of the Covenant
there's this slab of gold
and it's called
the mercy seat.
Right?
And that's the very same word
that this tax collector uses,
the mercy seat.
God,
have mercy on me.
And on that mercy seat,
one time a year
on Yom Kippur,
on the Day of Atonement,
the high priest,
he would come in
and he would put
the blood
of a substitutionary sacrifice
who died
to pay the penalty
for the sins
of the people.
He would put that blood
on the mercy seat.
And when he would do that,
the scrutiny of God's law
would be satisfied
for another year.
Right?
The law's penalty
would be fulfilled
until the next
Yom Kippur.
And so why does Jesus
put this word
about the mercy seat
into the mouth
of this tax collector?
Because Jesus is describing
what he stepped out of eternity
and into time to do.
He's describing
why he came all the way
from heaven to earth
for us.
He's describing
what the Father sent him
to accomplish
on his cross.
Right?
That Jesus came
not to exalt himself
but he came
to humble himself
and he came
so that he might be
the sinner
in our place.
The only other place
where this exact word,
this exact mercy seat word
is used
in the New Testament
is in Hebrews chapter 2
verse 17
and it says this.
For this reason
he, Jesus,
had to be made
like them
fully human
in every way
in order that
he might become
a merciful
and faithful
high priest
in service to God
and that he might
make atonement,
that he might make mercy
for the sins
of the people.
This tax collector
is seeking
the merciful atonement
from God
that God sent
Jesus Christ
to provide
on his cross.
He seeks
God's mercy
in order that
he might have
his sins covered,
in order that
the divine wrath
and condemnation
and judgment
of God
might be removed
from him
and when we hear
Jesus as we approach
Palm Sunday
and Good Friday,
when we hear Jesus
crying out
from his cross,
my God,
why have you forsaken me?
It's because
he became
the sinner.
When we hear Jesus
crying out
on his cross,
Father,
forgive them
for they don't know
what they're doing.
He's pleading
for the mercy
of God
on our behalf.
And when at the end
Jesus cries out,
it is finished
what he's talking about,
the thing that he's
accomplished
for us
is the justification
of the ungodly.
What he's accomplished
for us
is the removal
of our guilt,
the removal
of our shame,
the removal
of our condemnation
and him having
robed us
in the very
righteousness
of Christ.
Jesus closes
this parable
in verse 14.
He says,
I tell you
that this man
rather than the other
went home justified
before God
for those who
exalt themselves
will be humbled
and those who
humble themselves
will be exalted.
What a surprise
and shocking ending.
Here is this
loathed
and hated
and despised
tax collector
whom God approves
and accepts.
Here is the bad man,
the irreligious man,
the unethical man,
the negative example,
the younger son
in Luke chapter 15
and he's not just
forgiven
but he has a new
and a right
and a justified
standing before God,
a righteousness
that's been given
to him
by God's sheer grace
and on the basis
of faith.
And friends,
Jesus says
to those of us
who know ourselves
to be poor sinners
in need of mercy,
he says,
hey,
I have really good news
for you
that like this man,
however heavy
your debts are
that you owe God,
however poor
you are
in his sight
spiritually
and morally,
every debt
can be canceled,
all the ledgers
can be cleared,
you no longer
owe anything,
in fact,
I've come to make you
rich,
I've come to make you
spiritually rich
and morally rich
and relationally rich,
I've come to put
on you
my perfect righteousness
so that God,
when he relates to you,
he relates to you
as if you had never
sinned
or had never even
been the sinner.
It's as if you
had been as perfectly
obedient
as Christ was obedient
in your place
and all you need
to do
is accept
this gift
with a believing
heart.
So friends,
I ask you today,
are you confident?
Do you have
that confidence?
Not in your own
righteousness
that comes from
the inside,
but on that
declared righteousness,
that positional righteousness
that has come to you
from the outside
and has been given
to you on the basis
of God's mercy
and the righteousness
of Christ.
You see,
those like this tax collector
who humble themselves
under God's mercy today,
they will be justified,
they will be exalted
on the day of judgment
and Jesus even says,
you can go home today
just like that tax collector
went home that day,
justified before God.
All you need to say
is God,
have mercy on me.
God,
make atonement for me,
the sinner,
on the basis
of what Christ
has done for me.
So how not to pray,
God,
I thank you that I.
How to pray humbly,
God,
I thank you that you
are merciful.
And last but not least,
I want to talk about
just for a moment
how to pray faithfully.
I love this woman
that Jesus presents
before us
and many people
assume
that the Bible
is this
patriarchal,
misogynistic book
and then they
open it.
Right?
And then they
begin to read
about Jesus
and then
they find Jesus
holding up women
in these stories
and in his band
of disciples
and in the early church,
women who are
these exemplars
of faith
for us to imitate.
He says,
if you want to know
the posture
and the attitude
of prayer,
look at this
despised tax collector
but if you want to know
how to keep praying,
if you want to know
how to never give up
praying,
look at this
oppressed widow
and he says,
it says in verse 1,
then Jesus told his
disciples a parable
to show them
that they should
always pray
and not give up.
And at the end
in verse 80
he says,
however,
when the Son of Man
comes,
will he find faith?
Will he find faith
like this woman
has faith
on the earth?
Most of us,
I think,
we know
what it's like
to pray,
Father,
may your kingdom come.
You know,
it's that simple prayer,
Jesus gave it to us
in Luke 11,
we've been talking
about it
through the whole
of the season of Lent.
Father,
may your kingdom come.
But,
a lot of us
when we don't get answers
to that prayer
that we're looking for,
when we
aren't really seeing
the kingdom of God
breaking through
into our lives
and the lives
of other people,
the life of this world
in the way that we want,
how easy it is
to lose heart,
how easy it is
to get discouraged,
how easy it is
to give up.
Is that just me?
So,
Jesus gives this,
the story of this woman
who has a feisty faith
and a tenacious hope
and this is so important
as we go to Palm Sunday,
Good Friday,
Easter season.
Jesus says this,
he says,
in a certain town
there was a judge
who neither feared God
nor cared what people thought
and there was a widow
in that town
who kept coming to him
with the plea,
grant me justice
against my adversary.
She represents
the vulnerable
and the oppressed people
that are all the way down
at the bottom
of that scale
of power and privilege
and she has an adversary
who's done her wrong,
likely cheated her financially
and what she needs
is a just judge
who can put the wrong right
and give her justice
but what she gets
is a judge
that's the complete opposite
of God, right?
He doesn't care about God,
he doesn't seem
to want to do right
by people.
You know,
I'm tempted to provide
more contemporary examples
of this judge
but I refrain.
But you know
this kind of person.
In verse four it says,
for some time he refused
but finally he said to himself,
even though I don't fear God
or care what people think,
yet because this widow
keeps bothering me,
I will see that she gets justice
so that she won't eventually
come and attack me.
This woman's amazing.
She refuses to lie down
as a helpless
and hopeless victim
but she keeps coming
to this corrupt judge
with her plea.
He leaves his house
in the morning,
she's there
when he gets there at work.
He takes a break for coffee
after his first case,
there's a note that says,
hey this woman
wants to see you.
He goes to lunch,
he gets back,
there's a voicemail
from this lady.
He retires to his chambers
at the end of a long day,
she's there banging
on the door
and Jesus says,
friends,
do you want to know
how to pray?
This powerless woman
is exercising immense power.
She keeps coming.
She's just relentlessly
bothering this judge.
She's persistently
wearing him out.
In fact,
in the Greek,
the judge says,
the only reason
I gave her what she wanted
is because I thought
she was going to give me
a black eye.
It's the language
of a boxing match
where this judge
is cornered
and he's being slugged
by the least powerful person
in that society
and Jesus says,
that is how
I want my disciples
to pray.
Not to establish
a righteousness
of our own,
but to express
the righteousness
that has been conferred
to us
by a most merciful God.
Jesus says,
you may not have
much power,
but any of us
can pray,
Father,
may your kingdom come.
And Jesus says,
if a rotten judge
like this
can be persuaded
by someone
who pesters him
day and night
until it happens,
and if a wicked man
can sometimes
do a good
and a right thing
even from bad motives,
then how much more
will God?
how much more
will God
do right
by those who pray
that his kingdom
of justice,
his kingdom
of righteousness
would come
in the midst
of all the injustices
in the kingdoms
of this world?
You know,
as Easter approaches,
we have many,
many opportunities
to pray.
We have a prayer meeting
this Wednesday.
We have a good
Friday prayer vigil.
We have all kind
of opportunities
to pray.
and I just leave you
with the question,
what if we prayed
more like this woman?
Like this tax collector,
certainly.
God have mercy
I'll be a sinner.
But also,
like this woman
where we don't stop.
Hebrews chapter 4
says this,
or Hebrews chapter 2,
17,
or sorry,
4, 16.
It says,
let us approach
God's throne of grace
with confidence
so that we may receive
mercy and find grace
to help us
in our time of need.
Friends,
we don't have a God
who's difficult.
We don't have a God
who's resistant.
We don't have a God
who needs us
to give him a black eye.
We have a good
and a loving father.
We have a just
and a righteous judge.
We have a wealthy
and a generous king.
And he is there
ready to respond eagerly
when his chosen people,
when his beloved people
cry out to him
day and night
for his kingdom
to come breaking through
into our lives,
for his rule
and his reign
to come breaking
into the lives of others,
for his justice
and his righteousness
to come down
on earth
as it is in heaven.
He's eager for us
to pray
with the kind of desperation
for God to do
what only he can do.
And he loves it
when we come to him
with an unwearied
perseverance
and a dogged expectation
that when we pray
for his kingdom
to come,
it will come.
And so friends,
will we cry out
to our father
day and night
until we see
his kingdom
breaking through
in this Easter season?
I hope that we will.
In the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit,
amen.