Proper 25C

October 24, 2004

But Jesus also says of the man who "beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified." The man repented his sins, trusted in God’s mercy, and received God’s mercy. He went home reconciled with God, and with himself.

Justification is God’s mercy and grace which we receive by faith. Almost 500 years ago a German Augustinian monk, a theology professor, recognized this spiritual truth and posted on the university chapel door an offer to defend the truth of justification by grace through faith in scholarly debate. The monk professor’s name was Martin Luther, and those who claim him as their spiritual father celebrate the Sunday before All Saints’ Day as Reformation Sunday.

Luther was saying again almost 500 years ago a spiritual truth taught be Jesus and by St. Paul, our patron saint. The same truth was taught some 300 years after St. Paul by a great North African bishop, St. Augustine of Hippo in modern Algeria, and by the religious communities that followed his rule of life, the Augustinians. Luther belonged to an Augustinian religious community.

The spiritual truth is that we are set free from the power of sin and set right with God by God’s mercy and grace received by faith. That spiritual truth must continually be told, and I remind you of it again today. The man who "beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' went down to his home justified."

The other man, the one who "standing by himself, prayed ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income,’ that man was not justified. He was not reconciled with God; he was not really reconciled with himself.

Why not? He did more than the Law required. Good people in Jesus time were to fast once a week; he fasted two. They were to give a tenth of their income; he gave the full tenth of everything, even of what he grew in his kitchen garden. He was a good man; it is good to eat less food and to be able to give to those who need help.

There are three reasons why the good man was not reconciled with God or with himself.

First, the man’s good behavior was intended to show off his goodness to God and everyone who watched him. He was not serving God; he was drawing attention to himself.

Second, the man despised other people. He said "I thank you, God, that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." God does not want us to compare ourselves to others. That leads to envy and hatred. God made each one of us unique, different from every other person who has ever lived. We are to compare ourselves to God, to God’s son Jesus Christ. When we do compare ourselves to God, to God’s son Jesus Christ, we see when we are honest, how far we fall short of God’s goodness and God’s will for our lives.

And third, the man refused to admit his own sin. We all know in the secret places of our hearts when we have sinned, when we have done bad things, things we know God does not want us to do, and when we have not done the good things God wants us to do. God lets us refuse to admit what we know is true, but there is a price. When we deny the truth, we eventually lose the ability to know truth. When we deny we tell lies to other people, and to ourselves. Eventually we can no longer tell the difference between the truth and a lie. We are lost in deceit.