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Justified Tax Collectors? - Really?
Well, of course. Most of us would get the question right if we were to take the Bible knowledge test. We know the right answer Don't we. And yet . . .
It is interesting that most people, if given a different kind of test, tend to rate themselves as "above average" in most cases. That of course is not statistically possible, but never the less it is the reality many of us live in.
Which brings us back to the interesting story that Jesus told. A story about those who feel superior to others in most ways, and those who have a more humble assessment of themselves. What we sometimes forget when we read these stories, and this story, from a distance in time and culture, is that the "good guy" in the story would have been seen as "the good guy' and the tax collector as the "bad guy." We have learned to turn the story around for them in those days . . . have learned to let Jesus turn the story around for us today? Who are the "heroes" we root for today? Who are the people we relegate to the status of modern day "tax collectors"? Does the story begin to change for you? In the time of Jesus, Jesus blew the doors off the assumptions - how many of us have found ways to securely lock and barricade those doors today?
This is what Pastor Jon explores with us this morning as we reflect on this ancient story that still speaks as powerfully as ever in our world today. If you would like to listen to the sermon once again, or perhaps for he first time, you can access our sermon library here, or listen to the livestream version here.
Luke 18
NIV
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “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.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Other Passages Referenced Today:
Romans 5:5-11, 15-19
Romans 3:20-28
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