Today’s passage comes during Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Remember, this journey began back at Chapter 9, verse 51, when Jesus “set his face to Jerusalem.” We are now at Chapter 18. It’s a long journey and we might experience some . . . drift . . . during the trip. We may not intend to make wrong choices, or wrong decisions, but if we don’t make course corrections here and there we could find ourselves in trouble.
In last week’s gospel Jesus told the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. In that story the widow pestered the judge day after day until she was granted justice. That gospel passage closed with Jesus saying, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith?”
The point of that parable isn’t that God is worn down by our consistent badgering, like a parent being continually pestered by a child for a particular toy. The point of that parable is that prayer and faith require dedication and commitment. In our prayers we will most likely be faced with long delays and what we experience as silence. But within those long periods of silence are times of seeking, knocking, waiting, trusting, and/or anger. It may be that our commitment to prayer shapes us so that we are ready to accept the answers given when they come. Prayer is not the quarter you put into the great vending machine in the sky and waiting for your request to drop. Prayer is a long journey with God that shapes us over time. And sometimes we get tired of that journey. This is why Jesus asks at the end of last week’s parable, “And when the Son of Man does come, will he find faith?”
Today’s gospel continues Jesus’ discussion about prayer.
In this parable Jesus gives us a reversal of expectations It’s a common thought that those who do more than what is expected will be rewarded in some way. The Pharisee obeyed the law, maybe even went beyond what was required. It seems that he was doing more than the minimum. In some respects he is like any faithful parishioner who gives generously of their time, talent, and treasure for the benefit of the church.
In contrast, the tax collector is a national traitor, an agent and enabling partner of a cruel and corrupt system, and a religious outcast. There is nothing loveable about him. And while his prayer follows the spirit of Psalm 51, what good is that if he refuses to change his life? So Jesus, in claiming the tax collector left the synagogue justified while the Pharisee did not, is presenting us with a shocking reversal.
Here's where that drift comes in. We are all the Pharisee in this story. We all pledge of our time, talent, and/or treasure. We all have some kind of prayer practice. We all, I hope, do our best to love God and love our neighbor. And because of this, I think, we and the Pharisee have drifted.
We are so used to doing everything right and good that we fail to see where we misstep. We fail to see where we err. We fail to see where we sin. We can always justify that by saying things like, “I’m not that bad,” or, “Others are worse,” or, “They deserve what they get,” or, “Look at all the good I do,” or etc. etc. etc. As an aside, every Holy Week I offer personal confessions. In 21 years of ordained ministry, I can count on one hand the number of people who have come to me for a formal confession. That’s not to shame you, but to point out that we generally think we’re doing everything right – like the Pharisee.
What we miss, though, is an honest examination of ourselves and our actions.
I have a book titled, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. It’s a collection of sayings from the desert monks of the 4th and 5th Centuries. In these ancient sayings one can find wisdom for the ages. I suppose when you are a desert monk living in a small space you have lots of time to meditate on God and life.
One of the monks quoted in this book is Abba Moses, and he has two sayings attributed to him that I think are pertinent to today’s parables.
The first is this: There was a brother of the community who had committed some fault for which the rest of the monks were to judge him. Upon hearing of the trial, Abba Moses filled a leaking jug with water and walked to the gathering. When he arrived, the monks asked him about it. He replied, “My sins run out behind me, like this water, and I don’t see them, and now I’m coming to judge the errors of another.” With that, the council was disbanded and the brother forgiven.
The second saying is this: “When someone is occupied with their own faults, they do not see those of their neighbor.”
The inverse of this is also true, “When someone is occupied with the faults of a neighbor, they do not see their own.”
The Pharisee did not notice his own sins trailing behind him. Nor was he concerned with self-examination; for if he was, he wouldn’t have condemned the tax collector. Scripture reminds us in several places that judgment belongs to God. We know that, but sometimes it seems like we just can’t help ourselves. We judge people based on their looks, hairstyles, skin color, jobs, cars, behaviors, etc. And like the Pharisee pointing at the tax collector, none of us really know what’s in the heart of another person.
These two parables point to two things. The first is our need to make prayer a regular part of our life. It is through regular, faithful prayer that we will be changed and be found faithful when the Son of Man comes.
The second is that we must be willing to examine our own lives in such a way that we can see our sins trailing behind us and, therefore, become more concerned with correcting our own faults than in pointing out the faults of others.
As Abba Agathon said, “Prayer is hard work and a great struggle to one’s last breath.”
This is our course correction. May we be so committed to prayer that we not only change the world, but that God changes us.
Amen.
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