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INJ
St Luke 18:9-14
'Can I Date Your Daughter?'
Divine Service
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity Sunday | August 3, 2008
Dear Saints,
If this parable of Jesus is going to have it's way with us this morning, then we must be put to death before we are raised by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus compares two men. One is the Pharisee, the other a tax collector. One is good; the other is bad. One is forgiven; the other is damned.
The parable is strong in her simplicity, but perhaps the edge is dulled because we know it so well. So if you'll prevent me, I'll change it just a little to see if we can't recover some of the bite.
Instead of having the two guys go to the temple to pray, let's have them come to your house to ask your daughter to go on a date. (I'm thinking about this because of all the weddings going on around here. Yesterday we watch J dance with her father, and I was thinking it won't be long before someone comes asking H out on a date. Maybe on 35 or 40 years from now.)
So lets have the Pharisee and the tax collector knowing on your door.
The Pharisee is well dressed, he has a good and stable job, plenty of money, and is well respected in the community. But even more, he's that guy you had been hoping would come. He goes to church every day, he reads his Bible, prays, fasts, lives by the rules, is straight laced.
His answer to the “tell me a little about yourself” question is all the things that you want to hear. “He's not like the other guys, thank God. I'm fair, moral, upright. You don't have to worry when your daughters with me.”
As your daughter walks out the door you say to her, “Now be nice to this guy,” and when your gone you start calling around to price caterers for the wedding.
Now the next night the tax collector comes knocking. You know this guy; he's a criminal, a thief. He runs around with the wrong crowd. He's the guy that you've been telling your daughter to avoid, “Stay away from guys like this, they can ruin your life.” If you know that hes coming you want to have the shotgun across your lap, and “No, of course you can't go on a date with my daughter, now get out of my house.”
The tax collector admits his faults, all the things he's done wrong, but does he think that one little apology can make up for a lifetime of organized crime.
These are the two guys Jesus is talking about. One looks holy, righteous, good. He is clean, well respected at home and in the community and church, he reads his Bible and teaches others, he prays, goes to church. He's got his life straightened out. He has lots of friends.
The other is a low-life criminal.
And if they were both to die on the way home from the temple, if they were both to die on their way home from your house, the Pharisee would enter in to the endless torture of hell, while the tax collector would be carried by the angels to the face of Jesus.
There is a way to get ahead with men, with people, and that's to be a Pharisee, to be good. But there is a way to get in good with God, and that is to be a sinner. That's who Jesus came for, who He died for, sinners. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost.” “Those who are well have no need for a doctor.” St Paul says it like this, “Christ died for sinners.”
He is not like us. He is not looking for lovely people, or good people, or beautiful people. Who could He find? Jesus is looking for lowly, poor, miserable, nasty sinners.
If you want to have Jesus, if you want Jesus to have you, then you must be a sinner. Really, that's the easy part, because you are a sinner already, but this is the first part of repentance: that you know that you're a sinner. And not some sort of wimpy sinner that can stand there and thank God that you're not as bad as those other really really bad sinners. That's being a sinner Pharisee style.
The Lord Jesus has given to you and to me this parable so that we would know that we are terrible and offensive sinners. We are the type of sinners that we wouldn't let our daughter go on a date with. We are the type of sinners that we wouldn't let in our house, we wouldn't open the door for, we wouldn't shake hands with.
Our sin, our guilt, our filth is offensive and repulsive to the holiness of God. It is not some small matter. But here's the good news: the Lord Jesus has taken care of our sin. He has all our sin and filth and unrighteousness and law-breaking nonsense piled on His shoulders. He made Himself the bull's eye for the wrath of God so that we might escape it. He provides Himself as the propitiation for God's anger, the satisfaction for our sin, the price of redemption from our guilt.
And all of this comes to us in the promise of the forgiveness of our sins. Forgiveness, that's what Jesus wants to treat us with, what He wants to give us.
If we stand be fore His altar clothed in our own goodness and uprightness and pride, if we stand before Him as if we need no forgiveness, then He has nothing, absolutely nothing for us. But if we stand before Him despising ourselves and our goodness and all our weak and embarrassing attempts to attain righteousness, then the Lord Jesus has His blood and the cover of all our sin and the gift of justification, His giving to us His righteousness and perfection and holiness. It's the sinners that go home justified.
So we, altogether, take of the cry of the tax collector, the cries of the Lord's sinners throughout the world, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” Hear His answer to your prayer, “Your sins are all forgiven.”
Now, come and taste His promises as well. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO