“Bible prayers: Two prayers in the temple”
Luke 18:10
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
The year was 1962, and Pastor D. James Kennedy was absolutely miserable. He had done everything he could to help grow his congregation, but absolutely nothing was working at all. Every Sunday, it seemed, there were fewer and fewer people. In fact, he said, he figured he had about two-and-a-half months left before his wife would be the only one left, and she was threatening to go to another church down the street.
It was the absolute lowest point of his ministry.
But that’s when a friend, a pastor named Kennedy Smartt, asked if he would help with some evangelistic outreach in Georgia. And to that he said, “I who had decimated one church was being asked to ship my technique across state lines. Have plague, will travel!”
But after meeting with one family after another for ten days, fifty-four people confessed their faith in Christ. And that was the beginning of what he would later call Evangelism Explosion.
Maybe you’ve heard his questions before. The first one’s this--”Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you can say you know for certain that if you were to die today, you would go to heaven?” And the second one is this--”Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’ what would you say?”
And do you know what he found? He found that ninety percent of them didn’t know the true meaning of grace. Of the hundreds of people he asked, “If God were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven,’” a full ninety percent said, “I tried to live a good life. I went to church every Sunday. I did this good work and I performed that good work.”
And that’s when he shared the good news of God’s grace.
And that’s just how it was in our text for today, from the book of Luke chapter 18. I’ll start at verse 9: “He also told this parable to some who trusted themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted’” (Luke 18:9-14).
If you’re anything like me, when you were young, you’d rush home from school and turn on the TV to watch your favorite afternoon shows, like Batman, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, or those old Westerns, like Gunsmoke and The Lone Ranger.
And one of the reasons we liked those shows so much was because we knew who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. After all, the signs were perfectly clear. The good guy always wore a white hat and rode a white horse, and the bad guy always wore a black hat and rode a black horse. And the good guy was always good and the bad guy was always bad. And at the end of the show, the bad guy always lost and the good guy always won.
And on the surface, Jesus stories also often seemed to be that way. The servant who buried his master’s money so he wouldn’t lose it seemed like the good guy, and the prodigal son who wasted his father’s inheritance seemed like the bad guy…
Until you look a little closer. Then you find that the “good” servant who buried his master’s money was later called “wicked,” and the prodigal son who spent all his inheritance came home to a robe and a ring and a party given in his honor.
So it is with these two men in the temple--the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
Now before I say anything more, let me ask you, for just a moment, to erase from your mind everything you know about Pharisees and Tax Collectors. You see, after years and years of preaching, you’ve been conditioned to think that the Pharisees are the bad guys and the Tax Collectors (like Jesus’ disciple Matthew and Zacchaeus sitting up in the tree), are the good guys.
But in Jesus’ day, it wasn’t that way at all! Actually, to be a Pharisee was to be in the highest rank and of the highest order of the religious, completely sincere in their devotion to God. Even the name “Pharisee,” meant “separated one,” separated from all the ordinary people of the earth.
Remember what Paul once wrote to the Philippians? He said he was, “Of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Law, a Pharisee…” (Philippians 3:5).
To put it another way, think for a moment of the very best person you know--a true saint, the salt of the earth, no one could be better or stronger, the kind of Christian that you would like to be--and then cast that person in the role of the Pharisee.
Now, think of the absolute worst person you know--someone who’s hurt you, who’s done you wrong, the very last one you would ever want to be stuck in an elevator with--then cast that person in the role of the tax collector.
Now hold those two in your mind, and you’ll better appreciate everything that you’re about to hear next.
Jesus said: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get’” (Luke 18:10-12).
Now I have to tell you, we have to give this guy a lot of credit. For example, he said, “I thank You that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11).
And he was right! He wasn’t like other men! His standard of morality was so high, it was far beyond anyone else of his day. While the written law told Jews to fast twice a year, he fasted twice a week! And while the written law told Jews to give one tenth of their income to the temple, he gave a tenth of everything he owned, even the spices he used in his kitchen. If he found a dime on the sidewalk, he’d be sure to give a tenth of that too!
He didn’t just obey the law of Moses. He went way beyond the law of Moses. He was a model citizen, a good and faithful, God-fearing, law-abiding man.
And how about the other man--the tax collector, as in that dirty, rotten, no-good tax collector.
That is, after all, what that Pharisee said: “God, I thank You that I am not like that tax collector” (Luke 18:11).
And he was right! He was no good! He was the epitome of evil, a cheat, a traitor to his own people. He’d rob you blind! For after he took your money, he’d give a little bit of it to the Romans, and then keep the rest for himself. And due to his ill-gotten gains, his house was bigger, his food was better, and his clothes were finer than yours would ever be.
Suffice it to say that, in all of Israel, no one was hated more than that dirty, rotten tax collector.
But as I said before, Jesus is about to turn our understanding of His kingdom completely upside down.
Let’s look again at the text. Verse 11: “The Pharisee, standing by himself…”
Why was he standing by himself? Because he didn’t want to risk getting anywhere near anyone else and becoming unclean, especially that despised tax collector. After all, he had an image, a reputation, a standard of holiness to uphold.
Besides, he knew that if he were to stand by himself, people could see him a whole lot better. That way he could draw the limelight off of God and onto himself.
Then notice what he prayed, (that is, if the word, “prayer,” is what you want to call it). He said, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men…I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12).
Did you catch it? He’s really not praying to God at all. Even though he’s in the temple, he’s standing by himself and he’s talking about himself.
And notice his words: “I fast twice a week”...”I give a tenth of all I get.” Count them, and you’ll see he said it five times: “I…I…I…I…I.”
Do we ever do that? Do we ever pray like that?
I’m afraid that sometimes we do. We say, “I may not come to church every Sunday, but I do come a whole lot more than some other people I know!” Or watching the news as someone’s taken off to jail, we say, “I may not be perfect, but at least I’ve never done that!” And lifting ourselves up by putting others down, we’re no better than that Pharisee.
But he’s not the only one in this story. There’s one more.
While one was the best of his people, the other was the worst. While one gave freely twice what the law commanded, one extorted twice what the law allowed. While one fasted, the other feasted. While one lived in abstinence, the other lived in opulence. While one raised his people up to God, the other crushed his people under foot. And while one thanked God that he was such a good man, the other begged for God’s forgiveness.
Verse 13: “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).
“Standing far off,” Jesus said. Knowing full well that God was holy and that he was not, he wouldn’t take the chance of coming inside.
And neither would he even lift his eyes up toward heaven. Instead, he beat his beast. Why his breast? Because he knew, as Jesus said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, and slanders. These are the things that defile a man” (Matthew 15:19-20).
And what did he say? He didn’t say, “God, be merciful to me, I’m not a Pharisee,” and neither did he say, “God, be merciful to me, I’m only human,” or “God, be merciful to me, I’ll try to do better.” He didn’t promise anything. He didn’t offer anything. He didn’t make a deal, because he didn’t have a deal to make. Instead, he said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).
And not just “a sinner.” In the original language, he said, “the sinner.” The worst of sinners. The chief of sinners. “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”
And who went home forgiven, justified? Jesus said: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).
On the western side of Germany, just south of Dusseldorf and Cologne, there’s a town called Bonn. It’s the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven.
And in the center of town, right alongside the Rhine River, there’s a museum that marks the home in which he was born.
And in that museum, you can find quite a lot of artifacts, all related, of course, to Beethoven, like letters and manuscripts, even furniture and other ordinary, everyday items used by the man himself.
And there’s a piano, what’s called the Conrad Graf piano, on which he composed some of his most famous songs. It’s valued at as much as $50 million and is roped off and out of reach of the hundreds of visitors who pass by it every day.
And one day, a group of students from Vassar was visiting that museum. And one of the students couldn’t help but ask a museum guard if she could play it for a moment. He let her slip beyond the ropes. Then sitting at that famed piano, she plays several bars of one of Beethoven’s most famous works, the Moonlight Sonata. When she finished, her classmates applauded.
As she stepped back through the ropes, she said to the guard, “I suppose over the years, all the great pianists that have come have played that piano.”
“Not really,” answered the guard. “In fact, just a couple years ago, the renowned pianist Paderewski came here, accompanied by the director of the museum and the international press, all hoping that he would play the piano.
“But when he entered the room, he looked at that piano in silent contemplation for almost fifteen minutes. Then with tears in his eyes, he said he wasn’t even worthy to touch it.”
So what does all this mean for us? I’ll let Luther speak. He said, “My precious Gospel teaches me that before God, the highest wisdom is to know that God is gracious to help poor, condemned sinners. For though I am indeed a sinner, still God is gracious to me. Though I am God’s enemy, He is now my friend. And though I should justly be condemned, His desire is to save me as an heir of heaven. This is His will, which He has preached to me, and commanded me to believe for the sake of His dear Son.”
Or as Paul once wrote to the Ephesians, “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ--it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
Though we are great sinners, dear Father, You are a great Savior. Forgive us and renew us, that we may live a life worthy of Christ. In His name we pray. Amen