We Trust in Whom?
Luke 18:9-14[1]
There is a slogan that’s been going around for a while. The slogan
is “In Cops We Trust.” Now, I get the point of it: in a time when police
officers are under fire, people are trying to express their support for members
of the law enforcement community. I think what troubles me about this is that
the “original” version of this slogan is “In God We Trust”! This motto has been a part of our national
conscience since Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem. It has appeared
on coins since the 1860’s, and it has been our official “national motto” since
1956. While I support those who serve to keep our communities safe, I find it
disturbing that there are those who see nothing wrong with revising “In God We
Trust” so casually.
But then the question of the true basis for our faith is one that
predates our national motto. We human beings seem to want to be able to trust
in something more “real” than a God whom we cannot physically see or hear or
touch. And for many of us, what we really trust in is our own ability to see
things through. As the old saying goes, “If you want to do something right, you
have to do it yourself.” That betrays some fairly obvious presumptions: that we
know the “right” way to do something, and that we have the ability to do it.
When push comes to shove, I’m afraid that many of us really trust in ourselves,
not in God.
Our Gospel lesson for today addresses the question of where we
place our trust. The parable tells the story of two very different men who went
up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, who would have been widely
respected for devoting his life to studying and obeying God’s word. The other
was a Tax Collector, a man who would have been widely despised as a traitor to
his people as well as a thief. At the outset, it would have been easy to assume
that the “hero” of the story was the one who had devoted his life to God. But
as is often the case, Luke gives us a clue to what’s going on in this the
parable with his introduction: Jesus “told this parable to some who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt” (Luke
18:9).
The problem with the Pharisee in this parable was not his apparent
devotion to keeping God’s word in every aspect of his life. Rather it was the
fact that he “trusted” in himself that he was “righteous” before God. I like
the way Gene Peterson puts it in The
Message: people like him were “pleased with themselves over their moral
performance” (Lk. 18:9). Judging from his prayer, this fellow was very pleased
with himself. It’s hard not to think that he was bragging about himself to God!
But perhaps more importantly, “Those who trust in their own righteousness will
regard others with contempt, and those who regard others with contempt cannot
bring themselves to rely on God’s grace.”[2] This
kind of self-righteousness leaves little room for trusting in God.
The tax collector is the opposite: he would have been despised by
more than just the Pharisee. In the ancient world, a conquering power like Rome
gave the right to collect taxes to whomever was the highest bidder. As long as
he collected what he promised to pay, he could keep anything else he could
extract from people. And so he would hire a whole team of people who would work
under him, each collecting a portion of the taxes. And as long as they paid
their quota, each one could keep whatever they collected. So it’s not hard to
see why this man would have been despised by most people as a thief and a
traitor.
Two very different men came to the temple to pray. But they were
not so different in that each was a “self-made” man. The Pharisee had become a
respected leader of his community by following the letter of the law. The Tax
Collector had taken a fast-track to getting rich, regardless of the fact that
it meant compounding the poverty and the oppression his people endured. And
yet, there was a difference between them. One of them was thoroughly satisfied
with himself. He was quite convinced that his life was right and even pleasing
to God. The other one came to the temple not satisfied, or pleased, but broken.
He was so broken that all he could do was to cry out, “God, be merciful to me,
a sinner!” (Lk. 18:13).
While the people to whom Jesus told this story would have expected
him to say what a good man the Pharisee was and what a rotten scoundrel the tax
collector was, he shocked them. He said that the tax collector “went down to
his home justified” (Lk 18:14) rather than the Pharisee. But Jesus wasn’t just
trying to shock them; he was making a fundamental point about faith. If we
place our trust in anything or anyone other than God, that trust will be
disappointed. Even and especially if we place our trust in our own efforts to
be right before God. On the other hand, when we place our trust in the
unfailing mercy of God, that faith will be sustained by the one who has
promised never to fail us or forsake us.
When we encounter a parable like this, it’s easy to assume that it
doesn’t apply to us. We automatically see the Pharisee as the one in the wrong,
and so we may overlook the lesson of the parable. But the truth of the matter
is that we are always vulnerable to the kind of self-righteous arrogance this
Pharisee represents. We all are prone to place our trust in ourselves and our
own abilities, regardless of the pious words we may recite. So I would say this
parable has a message for all of us. That message is the call for us to
continually place our faith in God’s mercy rather than our own efforts.
[1]
©2019 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 10/27/2019 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New
Interpreters Bible IX: 343.
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