Let's Do Lent - Properly! 2nd Sunday before Lent - The Tax Collector & The Pharisee

Colossians 1.15-20; Luke 18.9-14

We are continuing our pre-Lent readings as a preparation for the great season of Lent; Lent being a time to refocus on our walk with God and our relationship with Him. This week we come to Jesus's parable about the tax-collector and the Pharisee. Tax collectors are appearing quite frequently aren't they? Last week we considered Zacchaeus who was, himself, a chief tax collector. As we said last week, tax collectors in Jesus' time were considered to be outcasts, probably for lots of different reasons. For example, on a larger scale they would be representatives of the oppressive Roman empire. And then nearer to 'home' they were probably often considered to be thieves and rogues.

Last week we heard of an incident in Jesus's life, His encounter with Zacchaeus. This week we are hearing a story told by Jesus; a parable. And again, we are using this reading to give us some idea of how we might approach the season of Lent, how we might best prepare for it.

I think it's true that over the last 20 or 30 years, society has become more self-centred. And that's because each of us has been encouraged if not trained and nurtured in a way that has meant that we have become more self-centred. There's been a focus on achievement and success. All of this being a direct result of the emphasis on free market economics. That says that as individuals achieve and succeed in what they do then there is a trickle down effect which raises the standard of living for everyone in society. That's the theory anyway. I'm sure it's true to a certain extent. I'd say that the majority of the population in this country enjoys a higher standard of living than we did 40 or 50 years ago. And that is good.

But the downside to that is, as I said, that people have become more individualistic, more self-focussed and and more self-centred. And it's a short step from there to the perils and sin of pride and greed and self aggrandisement. Reading between the lines of the New Testament, there was much of it about in Jesus's time, although society was organised rather differently. And thus we read the sort of parable that Jesus told and that we have read this morning.

Into the temple come two men to pray. A Pharisee and a tax collector. The one a religious man, a faithful and upright Jew - the best of the best by the sound of it; a super-achiever in the religion game. And the other, an outcast, a sinner, a lacky of the state, a thief probably and a rogue, maybe. Both of them in their own way are probably the best in their own sphere, in their own world. And yet they are worlds apart in different ways.

The Pharisee is the one who, on the outside, is and does everything that is right and good and commendable in the eyes of Jewish society. And his heart tells him he's the best of the best. It would be hard to find anyone more virtuous, more Godly, more in tune, more successful in religious terms. He's outstanding in all he does. He stands out. And, he literally, stands apart from others at his prayers in the temple. How expressive is that of his attitude of mind and his heart? I am better than you! I am better than the rest! He's quick to let others, and God, know how good he is too. And more than that he's thankful that he's not like the rest. I think it's what's known as self-righteousness.

Contrast him with the tax collector. The tax collector might be the best of the best of tax collectors. Like Zacchaeus was, he might be rich from the proceeds of his tax collecting. But what does he do? He stands far off, from the altar presumably, away from where God's presence was most evident in the temple. He doesn't dare to look up. He doesn't want to catch God's eye as it were. And he beats his breast with his fist. And all this because he knows, he really knows who and what he is. He doesn't have to compare himself with others as the Pharisee does. And so his demeanour, his body language and finally, his prayer say quite well his state of mind and heart, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

And Jesus tells us who is the more right with God. And here is the lesson, the lesson for all of us, the lesson for this week and for every day of our Christian life. It's not that we have to think of ourselves as the lowest of the low. It's not that we have to grovel before God for forgiveness. It's not that we have to do ourselves down because we've overstepped the mark. The lesson is simply to have a true knowledge of ourselves before God and before others. The lesson here is one of humility.

One of the great traps that lots of people fall into these days is that of comparison. We compare ourselves and our lot with that of others. It's what the Pharisee did and it leads us right into the jaws of sin. In comparing ourselves with others we fall into jealousy and envy and pride and greed and self-righteousness. God doesn't ask us to compare ourselves with anyone or anything. He calls us to follow in Jesus' footsteps. And we can only do that properly if we know and acknowledge who and what we truly are. Because then we are acknowledging the person who God made. And then God can speak into our heart.

The tax collector actually shows us the starting point. In that prayer that he made, he shows us where humility starts, where being ourself starts. And it's from there that God makes us all we can be with Him. As Jesus said, the tax collector after praying that prayer went down to his home justified, made right with God. He was the one of the two that could then hold his head up high, because he was being truly himself and not some deluded fabrication.

So this week we see what humility is about and we begin to see why it's important to have that sense of humility as we go into Lent, as we start on that journey again to God and with God, as we start on that journey of repentance. As we saw last week we first need the desire to see God and then we have to come to him in that spirit of humility, the spirit that lets us stand before God openly and honestly and in a way that means that God can really speak into our hearts and minds, and more importantly, that we can hear and listen.