The Unasked Question

The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost C Wilmington and Trinity Lutheran Church Arnegard & Alexander, North Dakota October 24, 2010 Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22 Psalm 84:1-7 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 8:9-14

“The Unasked Question”

Greetings to you, greetings on this day that the Lord has made; a day for us to rejoice and be glad. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” (Luke 18:10) By this time in Jesus’ life his companions would have become accustomed to his use of the Pharisees as examples of a “wrong” righteousness. The real shock would have come in hearing that a “tax collector” went up to the Temple. The hypocrisy of such an event would have stirred the crowd so that it didn’t think to ask an important question

Jesus further stirs up the crowd by the parable’s reversal of fortunes. The Pharisee, a paragon of virtue and filled with righteousness, is not “justified.” Not necessarily self-righteousness, he is thanking God for the blessings he’s received—blessings that define “holiness”—the being “set apart for God.” This “holy” Pharisee is expressing gratitude for his “being different” from the un-holy. The tax collector, on the other hand, is “un-holy” in the sense that he has none of the virtues or righteous practices that set him apart from others and for God. As Jesus tells it, this tax collector is unique in his un-holiness as he cries for mercy and confesses his sin. In a great “reversal” of fortunes, Jesus tells the crowd that the “un-holy” tax collector will go to his home justified and not the “holy” Pharisee.

“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled; but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14b) With these words Jesus sets the old Adam and the old Eve busy out-doing one another in “humbling” themselves. And it’s a race. Who can be more humble than the next one? Eventually, the whole purpose is defeated: the old sinner takes pride in being so humble. How do I know? Ole explained to me one day, saying: There I was humble and glad of it, but then I was sad that I was glad that I was humble, then I was glad that I was sad that I was glad that I was humble, then I was sad that I was glad that I was sad that I was glad that I was humble. Yep… that Ole sure nailed what happens when you get “turned in on yourself” in a quest for humility. Jesus, by telling his hearers that “justification” is applied to the humble, could not have “turned them in on themselves” in a more calculated manner.

Jesus’ hearers were so busy looking at themselves and their own status vis-à-vis humility that none of them asked the most important question. The crowd missed it, exegetes have missed it, and you’ve missed it: all—then and now caught by the drama of contrast between the Pharisee and the tax collector. Two men went up to the Temple to pray, only one returned home justified; the other went home merely righteous.

Now, I have to say, I want the Pharisee for my neighbor. In this parable Jesus depicts him as a paragon of virtue. By his own admission he’s not a thief, a violent man, or an adulterer; therefore my property, my person, and my wife would be safe. He’s a religious man, too, with a well-practiced piety; generous with his tithe; and patriotic to boot—that is, he’s not cooperating with those pagan Romans. Yep, the Pharisee would be my choice for a neighbor. In fact, a whole neighborhood of such people would make quite a safe community, one anybody would want to live in.

That’s not necessarily the case for a neighborhood full of tax collectors. I mean, how could you trust one of them as a neighbor? They’re thieves, stealing legitimately maybe, but thieves none-the-less. They’re collaborators, helping impose a military occupation upon their own country. How could they be religious, cooperating with the pagan Romans? Their occupation branded them sinful. Why, if one moved in next door, the whole neighborhood would be devaluated. Yep, I’d rather have the Pharisee for a neighbor than the tax collector.

But Jesus tells the parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Two men went up to the Temple to pray, only one returned home justified; the other went home merely righteous. Nobody, nobody asks Jesus the most important question so Jesus has to answer it himself. Immediately upon telling this parable, Jesus must receive or not the little children. Jesus answers then, the unasked question by declaring: “I tell you the truth; whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:17)

Two men went up to the Temple to pray, only one returned home justified; the other went home merely righteous. The unasked question hanging over that ending is “How did they know?” How did the tax collector know that he went down to his home justified? How did the Pharisee know that he went down to his home merely righteous? The tax collector’s plea, “Lord have mercy!” hangs in the air unanswered; his confessed sinfulness unabsolved. The Pharisee’s prayer of thankfulness elicits no further reward than what he’s already received: virtue and righteousness. How do they know that one is justified and the other is not?

Just looking at them, which would make the better neighbor? Just looking at them, one possesses the righteousness of justification—the other, not. Just looking at them sets us up for the great “reversal” of fortunes: the “un-holy” tax collector goes to his home justified—the “holy” Pharisee, not. So the question hangs there: “How do they know?” The answer is “They don’t know.” They don’t know because they don’t have a preacher.

Two men go up to the Temple to pray… not to find a preacher. Because they don’t find a preacher, neither one of them ever knows justification or righteousness. Because they don’t find a preacher, the sinner never hears a life-restoring word of promise; and the virtuous and righteous one never hears a pretention-destroying word of law. Because they don’t find a preacher, they’re left to themselves and their own humility or lack thereof.

Because nobody asks the question “How do they know,” Jesus has to answer the unasked question: “I tell you the truth; whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:17) His answer plumbs the depths of the previous parable: it is much, much deeper than the difference between humility and self-righteousness. Plumbing the depths of that parable takes you right to the sheer election of God who declares: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy! I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15) God is the one who chooses. God is the one who decides who is justified and who is not. Nobody, nobody self-selects either by humility or by virtue. Nobody knows by looking who is justified or who is merely righteous. Nobody knows by looking… by looking at themselves… or by looking at others… nobody knows by looking who is one of God’s elect.

For that you have to be told. To be told is to hear a preacher. To hear a preacher is to be like a child always being given an authoritative word of command and promise, of law and gospel. To be like a child is to humbled beneath another’s authority and simply receive what your Lord delivers.

This is what the God who elects and who chooses has to say to you: “Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God Incarnate, was handed over to such as the likes of you and you killed him. But God raised him up from the dead so that the whole world will know that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. By your baptism into Christ you have been baptized into his death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too you may live a new life. For, if you have been humbled with him in a death like his, you shall certainly be exalted with him in a resurrection like his!”

You have found a preacher. You are not left to yourselves and your own humility or lack thereof: In the name of Jesus the Christ and your Lord your sins are forgiven. Now, you too, can go down to your home.