Brief synopsis of the readings: In the apocryphal book of Sirach we see the author speaking of a God of justice who plays no favorites but hears the cry of the poor and oppressed. God “judges justly and affirms the right.” In Luke’s Gospel Jesus spoke a parable about two people who enter the temple to pray. The first one, a Pharisee, blesses God for making him better than the others and brags how he fasts and tithes (donates) as he is supposed to. The other, a tax collector, acknowledges his sinfulness and asks God for forgiveness. Jesus then tells his followers that only the tax collector will be justified: “[T]he one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Do you suppose Jesus had pet peeves? You know, those things that bother all of us a little, but bother Jesus a great deal more. We all have them and I can tell you that living with other priests provides an excellent array. I lived with one priest who would go nuts if someone didn’t clean out the lint trap in the dryer and don’t even get me started on the right way to load a dishwasher.
If Jesus did have a pet peeve I suspect it was hypocrisy. In today’s Gospel, as well as several other places, Jesus expressed frustration with the Pharisees and other wealthy leaders in his community. The rich and powerful during Jesus’ time, as well as our own, can be sorely tempted to believe that all of their success happened because of their hard work, intelligence and faithfulness. We even see it in the Pharisee’s prayer. He didn’t thank God for being good but instead thanked God for being better, as if his goodness depends on the sinfulness of others and he does well in comparison.
There’s a proverb in academia that while talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not. Pharisees were well educated and respected but not everyone could be a Pharisees. Women could not, nor could those whose families could not afford to send them to school. On the other hand tax collectors, then and now, had unpopular jobs; certainly some of them were just plain greedy but some recognized their living cost them in how others viewed them. It’s anyone’s guess how many tax collectors, laborers, etc. had the intellect to be a Pharisee but never had the chance. Say what you will about the tax collector in today’s Gospel, he recognized his position and he knew who he was.
No matter what we do, who we know, or what we have accomplished we need always recognize that God’s love for us is not measured on these scales. It is a central tenet of our faith that we are in constant need of forgiveness and we need to make a point of asking for it (and accepting it when it is granted).
This is a long way around celebrating the gift of humility. One of my professors in seminary spoke often about our need to recognize “who we are and whose we are.” It doesn’t mean we need to judge ourselves harshly but it does mean that God’s forgiveness ensures we are not defined by our worst actions and worst moments. It gives us the opportunity to seek reconciliation and move on. Hopefully we won’t repeat those actions and hopefully that leads us to a determination to do better so that over time we avoid those occasions where we need to ask for reconciliation.
It means that we are not stuck in the mire of our worst selves but it also recognizes that becoming who God wants us to be mandates that we keep an awareness that we journey a road that we will never finish. Problem is, we live in a world that puts emphasis on grades (particularly pass/fail) where we are sometimes publicly vilified for our worst moment. The 24 hour news cycle and social media provides opportunities for others to constantly bring up events from long ago and frankly also provides opportunities for us to advance ourselves at the expense of others.
That’s why I love the elegance and wisdom of the tax collector. Unlike the Pharisee he doesn’t draw attention to himself. He stood off at a distance and simply asked for mercy. False humility shows a particularly egregious form of hypocrisy. The Pharisee sat in a place of honor so that everyone would see him proclaim his gratitude to God and he expected their respect and admiration. Not from God but from those around us. Not exactly the humility shown by the tax collector.
There’s an old joke that several self help authors gathered to talk about their next project. One suggested he may write a book on battling self doubt but wasn’t certain he was the one to write it. But the crown was taken by the author who said he was writing a book on humility that he knew would become an instant bestseller.
As I said Jesus praised the tax collector because he knew who he was and whose he was. Our recognition of ourselves as sinners and in need of mercy doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us stronger. It allows us to ask God for strength and to accept it. It allows us to break bad habits and respond better to difficult situations. This may well earn us the respect of those around us and that’s good but it’s not the point. That respect is ancillary, not primary and we don’t need it to know we are doing the right thing.
And in the end that’s really the poverty of the Pharisee. In fairness the Gospel does say that he prayed this prayer to himself (though hopefully to God also) but I don’t think anyone around him would be surprised by his words. But his prayer depends on random circumstances. People who fast can only fast knowing that there is food and drink at either end and those who tithe can only do so if their needs are already being met. If you complain that your refrigerator is too small, you don’t recognize your good fortune.
So let’s look at our refrigerator and recognize how blessed we are to worship a God who justifies us not for what we’ve done but for what we ask.