Being good and doing good. We usually make it a debate. And then marching orders. Above them, though, is mercy.
And the challenge of being a good person
Proper 25C | Luke 18:9-14
Everyone comes to church to be a good person. That’s our thing. We come here, learn about Jesus, and try to do that good, Jesusy stuff out in the world. And what drives us crazy is when we come to church and hear that being a good person isn’t enough.
It isn’t even the purpose.
And we all feel like the artist who has to go back to the drawing board.
So what’s the point?
Being good is more important than being a good person.
We know this. And so what do we do? We define being a good person as someone who knows that being good is more important than being a good person. Which we also know is not the point, right?
But it shows how much trouble we have with wrapping our heads around Jesus sometimes.
So let’s dig into this.
Who is in the parable?
The parable has two characters.
One is a Pharisee—which means he counts among the devoted faithful. These are the ultimate insiders. They go to church all of the time. And they know scripture and theology better than the next person.
And we hear in his prayer that he is very devoted. He checks all of the boxes. But let’s not forget that first, he’s praying. He’s clearly a good person. Does all of the things. Sounds kind of full of himself, but…also he’s not wrong. He actually is a better person than the people around him!
The other is a tax collector—which is a quintessential outsider through behavior. He wasn’t born outside the tribe; like a Samaritan. He chose money and influence over tribe. And through his work, undermines the tribe. He’s collecting taxes for the empire that’s oppressing them.
It’s like joining another country’s army when they’re attacking you. We have a word for that, right? This is a traitor.
So Jesus is setting this up as the ultimate contrast: a paragon of virtue versus a rat. Mother Theresa vs. Benedict Arnold.
That we skip ahead to throw Mother Theresa under the bus actually proves how badly we’re missing the point. Because we assume there’s a problem with the Pharisee.
Good Behavior
It isn’t so much that there’s something wrong with the Pharisee’s prayer. At least not in the way we’re thinking of it. Because we dismiss it as conceited or disrespectful.
But Jesus isn’t condemning the rules. He isn’t condemning the Pharisee’s attempt to be a good person. It’s more like he’s saying what he’s doing isn’t the point.
Jesus is placing something above it that is more important. And the clue is found in the neighbor’s humility.
Jesus isn’t setting up the Pharisee to tear him down. He’s setting down the tax collector to lift him up. Because the Pharisee is doing good. He is exhibiting good behavior. And that is always important.
The tax collector, on the other hand, is reaching out for redemption.
And in that we see why the reversal we expect from Jesus hits us as so surprising.
The Pharisee remains more righteous.
But the tax collector is something entirely different. He is more justified. Which is not a measurement of good behavior, but of God’s grace.
So the tax collector walks away with more grace because he is in far greater need of it than Mother Theresa over here.
So what does this mean? Really?
Jesus frames this parable as being about the difference between talking ourselves up and being humble. And he uses an unlikely pairing to paint the picture for us. Because the person talking himself up is the better person by all external criteria. While the humble one is a bad dude by the same criteria.
And as long as we don’t think about the characters in the parable, we feel comfortable with the frame. But the second we realize that the supposed bad guy in the story is the one who comes to church a lot, serves the community, and tithes; and the one good guy is the deadbeat traitor begging for mercy…
Who here likes being the bad guy in this story? Because this is us.
And so, to avoid being the bad guy, we might think we’re supposed to do the good and just not brag about it? That doesn’t fit the parable either.
Let’s consider one more piece.
The writer tells us that Jesus tells this parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt”.
Most of us blew right past that. And because it fit our own frame for the parable, we probably didn’t think about it. But consider its two parts. These are people who are:
- Trusting their certainty (that they are righteous)
- And regarded others with contempt.
So there are a few issues here:
- Is the problem that they trust themselves rather than God?
- Or could it be that they are labeling themselves righteous?
- Maybe it is that they regard certainty of conviction above trust that God takes care of the certainty?
But perhaps most compelling to me:
- Is it that their contempt for others stems from their self-certainty?
Remember the parable of the widow and unjust judge.
We keep hearing from Jesus new renditions of It’s not about me! Following Jesus isn’t about our own righteousness and getting into the good place. It’s about doing Kin-dom work so that the good place is felt by all around us.
So as much as Jesus isn’t condemning the Pharisee, he is naming a flaw in his philosophy. Which is that his vision of righteousness is entirely self-serving. It’s just for him. And then, when he shows up at the top of the pyramid, he can go “See! God’s gonna love me!”
And what we struggle with is the simple idea that this view of his doesn’t stay with him. Because he doesn’t live in a vacuum. He doesn’t get to have his own personal righteousness for his own personal existence in his own personal creation. This is one world we all share and live in.
His selfishness breeds contempt in him for everyone else. So yes, we do end up where we all wanted to skip to from the beginning. But without the why, we’re likely to condemn the Pharisee…like the Pharisee would…Aaaarggh!
Bottom Line
So we’re the Pharisee. Looking to be righteous. Do the right thing.
And Jesus reminds us that there are other roads to redemption. So we shall not consider ourselves above them.
Actually above all of this is something I think each of us knows in our heart of hearts is true. That mercy is king. It’s the prime virtue here. It’s above the rule-following and right-behavior-doing.
It’s also the one thing the Pharisee isn’t good at. Because he’s worried about himself. About getting it right. And about how other people get it right.
So instead of worrying about ourselves, we see mercy as a chief building-block of the Kin-dom. Because it is how we show love and grace and trust. In God, each other, and even ourselves.