The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“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.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Luke 18:9-14)

Tax Collectors were not allowed to tithe or give testimony in a court of law.  They dishonored their families and people were not allowed to make promises with them

These were Jewish men who bought a contract from Rome that gave the tax-collectors the right to take money from their own people in order to pay for Rome's prosperity.  The Gospels suggest that while they took money from their own people, they took more than was needed in order to further their own self interests.  They were, therefore, probably the most despised people among the Jews.

On the other hand the Pharisee was the ideal religious man.  He kept himself pure, following the Law of Moses (both written and passed down by word of mouth) which fed a world of taboos protecting one's relationship with a holy God who demanded purity.  The Pharisee followed the behavior and the attitude of the Psalmists who warned against keeping company with sinners. 

The Pharisee lived the life he was suppose to live, the tax collector was a corrupt man.

The Pharisee thanked God because he was not a bad person and because he did right things for God and for the poor.  The tax collector had nothing to be proud about and confessed that he was a sinner.

CONCLUSION

This parable prepares us for what is coming.  Jesus had been talking about the poor receiving the kingdom of God and telling his audience that the rich could enter in if they generously gave to those who were entering the kingdom - if they bought friends with the mammon of unrighteousness.

In the coming stories, Jesus will ask a rich man to give everything for the kingdom of God, but he will not be able to.  And in the coming stories, another - a short tax collector will give generously without being compelled.

These two stories coming up will be examples to illustrate everything that Jesus had said about money in the book of Luke.

Who Are the Most Imortant People?

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.  So watch yourselves.

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

(Luke 17:1-4)

In chapter 17, Luke seemingly broke away from the subject of povery and wealth, when he told his disciples that it was imperative to keep from offending the least important people.  But when Jesus said this, he qualified the least important to "these least important," which refers back to Lazarus.  The context here is important, because in the least important people would be people like Lazarus who were no more than simple beggars. They were the ones for whom the kingdom of God was prepared.  They were the ones (like Lazarus) who would be sitting in the highest places in eternity.

So how do we hurt the least imortant?  The rich man ignored Lazarus.  Could this be offensive?  Or could the rich man's arrogance in life's standing be offensive? 

Again, looking at the context, a big part of the solution in keeping from offending the least was to forgive over and over.  Why would anyone need to forgive the least important?  In particular, why would the rich man need to forgive Lazarus during his lifetime?  Was it because Lazarus was poor?  Was it because Lazarus legally sat in front of the rich man's house and that bothered Lazarus because his property value was going down?

Our societies have heaped blame on the poor for their poverty, laziness, crime, violence, and taking advantage of the system (something that every level of society does).  Forgiving the poor for their poverty and for their offenses is an interesting concept.

Forgiveness is letting go, and those feelings that we have about people lower than us need to be let go.  When we forgive, we do not excuse bad behavior by the poor or by the rich, we simply do not let their bad behavior lead us into offending the lower levels of society, by arrogance or neglect.

Finally, Jesus never differenciated between deserving and undeserving poor.  In other words, there were poor who were taking advantage of the system who deserved to be poor (I believe the lame man in John 5 was one), and there were those who were poor because of life situations that went wrong.  Jesus ministered to and gave to both types of poor people.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

A SUMMARY OF JESUS TEACHING IN PARABLE

The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) seems to summarize Jesus' entire message in the book of Luke, beginning with the Sermon on the Plain when Jesus said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when men hate you,

when they exclude you and insult you

and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

“But woe to you who are rich,

for you have already received your comfort.

Woe to you who are well fed now,

for you will go hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,

for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all men speak well of you,

for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

(Luke 6:20-26)

MODERN SUMMARY OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS

There was this rich man who lived in a nice house with a nice yard, but at the same time, there was this beggar, named Lazarus, who sat in front of his house on the road, begging for money as cars went by.  The rich man never gave to Lazarus and tried to ignore him.  One day there as a tsunami that killed them both.  The rich man ended up in hell, but Lazarus went to heaven, even to the very highest place in heaven, next to Jesus.

The rich man who lived in eternal torment, saw how the beggar got the best of eternity while he got the worst.  All of his llife he expected things to be much different, and was sure that he would fare well in the afterllife.  He believed that his wealth was a gift from God, because he was smart and was a good person.

He asked Jesus to send the beggar back to earth to relieve his pain, even a little bit.  In life the man was very good with management and knew how to ask people for things and how to get what he needed to get.  But Jesus told him that he could not help him.

So the rich man asked Jesus to send the beggar back to earth to warn his family - to the people he loved - so that they might better prepare for eternity.  But Jesus told him, "They have the Bible to warn them and to tell them to help the poor." 

But the rich man answered, "They won't listen to that part of the Bible, if you send the beggar back, they will listen."  But Jesus refused to send Lazarus, saying, "If they don't hear what the Bible says over and over, they won't listen to someone who rises from the dead."


In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus painted a picture of the future blessedness for the poor and the final destination for those who have it all.  Note several things:

1.  The name Lazarus means "God is my helper."

2.  No other charactor in any other parable of Jesus' had a name.

3.  Lazarus was given the highest honor in the afterlife.

4.  Lazarus' eternal reward was based soley on his poverty in this life, which reflects the message of Luke 6.  He had no works or righteousness to speak of.  He had nothing in life, so his life was meaningless and empty of any gift toward God or humanity.

Here's the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. (Luke 16:9).

Lazarus did not say a word throughout the entire parable.  Because the rich man did not give Lazarus the time of day during this life, Lazarus did not and could not help the rich man in the next.  He did not help the rich man and he did not plead with Abraham (Jesus in my version) on the rich man's behalf. 

THE LAW AND MONEY

This parable is surrounded by verses that direct the reader to the Law of Moses.  Before the parable Jesus told his audience:

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery (Luke 16:16-18).

Note that marriage and the Law were frequently mentioned together in the Bible, because in the minds of Jesus and Paul (later on) the Jews were bound to both by a covenant until death.  In other words, marriage was used symbolically to illustrate the binding nature of the Law upon its followers.

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

(Luke 16:27-31)

Luke definately wanted us to know that Jesus' message about money was very clear in the scripture.  But people in Jesus' day didn't see it.  Why not?  To a degree, as it was then, even so now, people saw what they wanted to see in the scripture.  Actually, a more accurate statement is that people didn't see what they didn't want to see in the Bible.  Giving money as generously as Jesus called us to give was something that most people did not want to see, nor do they now.

Our world views and our theological world views are created in a large part from the community that we live in.  So if my community says that God wants us to be prosperous and that the poor deserve their lot because they are lazy or ungodly, then that's what I will see in the Bible.  Anything else in the Bible is foreign and mysteriously invisible, because it does not fit into the way I perceive the world - a world view that my group has created through the years and continues to recreate. 

Neglecting the poor as the rich man did, was a personal sin; but his personal sin was given birth by and nurtured on a system and a culture that justified wealth and made his lack of action a virtue.

Justifying a Way of Life

He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight (Luke 16:15).

One of the most powerful of all blinders is justification.  Not God's justification of the sinner, but our justifications we use to excuse behavior, giving, not giving, receiving, not receiving, doing and not doing, and so forth.

Some justifications are easy to pull apart.  The one who steps into an adulterous affair may use the justification that, "I married the wrong person," or "My husband/wife deserves it,"  or "God wants me happy." Or my favorite, "I can't help it."  Whatever excuse is used, adultery is wrong - plain and simple.  But there a crud load of excuses used by adulterers.

Other justifications are not as easy to pull apart.  When Jesus asked people to leave everything and follow him, tax-collectors gave, but rich young rulers would not.  Why not?  Inheriting money or earning it legitimately and honestly is harder to give up than money gained from socially unacceptable means.  We can justify one more than the other.

There were two dynamics that promoted the justifications that the Pharisees used in this passage.  The first had to do with entitlement which is justifying one's ownership of property and money because it is deserved, and it is honest, and it is acceptable in soeciety's eyes.  The Pharisees believed that they deserved what they got.  Not only did they get their money honestly, but they also believed God financially rewarded His own.

The second dynamic promoting justification of their possessions and money had to do with their group.  If one is all alone in being rich and profitting from the tithes of the people and living better than those who give, one would have a harder time excusing how they got the money and keeping on to it.  But excuses love company, and there was a lot of that.  Other religious leaders lived very well because of the peoples' tithes, and those religious leaders were good people who loved God.  Justifications love company. 

God's Values vs. Human Values

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at (ridiculed) Jesus.  He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight (Luke 16:14-15).

SNEERING

When the Pharisees heard Jesus tell them that they should make friends by giving their money away, they responded by making fun of Jesus.  Mockery is a typical reaction of people who take short cuts in debate.  Rather than debate Jesus about what is right or wrong about saving money; rather than talk to him about what the Law says about saving money, they made fun of him, mocking him. 

Sarcasm, put downs, mocking, and making light of an opponent are commonly used short cuts that political and religious debators use against their opponents.  Often mockery is best used when there aren't enough solid reasons and/or arguements to combat the opponent.  I think in this case, the Pharisees were so caught off guard with Jesus' attack on them (Jesus accused them of loving money), and with Jesus' teaching that the rich have to make friends with poor people (who are generally considered sinners), the only response that they could come up with was making light of Jesus and what he said.

By laughing at what Jesus said, the Pharisees and their audience could feel better about rejecting what he said.  There was no valid argument refuting what he said; there was only a general consensus among many that what Jesus said was stupid.  It works like this:  "I don't agree with you, deep inside I feel that you are wrong, so what you say is messed up and not worth thinking about too much."

In mocking Jesus, the Pharisees lost the ability to hear something very important about money and how the use of our money can determine eternity. 

What is it about our possessions and money that we don't want to hear?