Is today’s gospel reading teaching us about humility before God? That we must be humble like the tax collector, pounding our chest and standing far from the temple, and not looking up at the sky? That we shouldn't' be proud of our good deeds for others? C.S. Lewis once defined humility as thinking about ourselves less, not thinking less about ourselves. So based on C.S. Lewis’s definition of humility the Pharisee thinks too much of himself, and the tax collector thinks too less of himself. Both of them fail to represent humility. So, the gospel lesson isn't about humility. It’s not about how to be humble before God.
I would say today’s gospel reading is all about God’s mercy that is too radical, thus too provocative. There are two things to pay attention. Which would make us feel quite uncomfortable. 1. First, the Pharisee is stereotypically described as someone who is too proud and conceited of himself by Jesus. Yet, it is hard not to admit that he’s actually a good person. Comparing him to the tax collector, he is a much better one. He’s observant, well-respected by his fellow Jewish people for his faith and behavior. He acts out what he believes in. His words and actions go together. He gives 10% of his income, which will be used for those in need. He’s religious and spiritual in that he fasts twice a week. He gives thanks to God for who he is and what he does in comparison to those whose lives are not so godly like thieves, rogues, adulterers, or the tax collector. He gives thanks to God that he’s not a sinner, that he’s at least trying his best to keep up with God! 2. Second, a tax collector in Jesus’ time is considered as a traitor by Jewish people. He makes a profit by overcharging people, and works for the Roman Empire. He abandons his Jewish identity. Instead, he serves the Roman oppressors. He has a lavish lifestyle. A tax collector has all the reasons to be disliked and hated by his fellow Jewish people. He’s far from being righteous, especially in comparison to the Pharisee. So, from our logical and moral perspectives, Jesus’ accusation of the Pharisee being not humble isn’t fair. It even looks unjust when we think about Jesus’ saying that the tax collector is somehow justified, that he becomes righteous, that he is in a right relationship with God. Something is definitely wrong with Jesus. How can he claim that the tax collector is justified, not the Pharisee? Is the tax collector that humble? Let’s not forget that even though the tax collector is justified, there’s no mention of him changing his career and becoming a completely different person! How can we then perceive today’s gospel reading? How can we rightly understand Jesus’ teaching about God’s mercy in the parable? Again, it’s not humility. It’s not so much about what we do to become humble. It’s strictly about God’s mercy and our response to that mercy. This mercy of God is catholic, which means that it is always and everywhere available to everyone both alive and dead. This mercy of God is unconditional, which means it doesn’t matter what we do. We don’t earn it. It’s freely given. Only from this perspective of God’s mercy, we can truly see what Jesus is talking about. So let’s reconsider the two things I mentioned before. 1. The Pharisee from the perspective of God’s mercy is getting wrong the entire business of God’s mercy. The Pharisee knows that he’s righteous. He does his best to be righteous. He never stops earning God’s mercy. In a way he believes that he can manipulate God’s mercy by doing religious activities. But we know that we don’t and can’t earn God’s mercy by our own merits. God’s mercy is freely given to us and everyone else. It doesn’t require us to do anything to get it. Let’s admit that this is incredibly difficult to accept. It’s too good to be true. How can God’s mercy be given to us freely without any condition? How can that be possible? Whether we believe it or not, Jesus proclaims that it is freely given to us. No exception. No hidden fees. Nothing. Totally nothing is demanded from us. The only thing we are called to do is that we accept that mercy as it is. Doesn’t this sound like good news to you? 2. Second, the tax collector is considered righteous though he does nothing to earn it. The only great thing that he does is to confess he has no ability to make himself righteous, that there’s no way for him to earn God’s mercy! He is indeed dead to himself, and dead to the whole business of justifying himself for doing something moral and religious. He confesses his death before God! And Jesus proclaims that the tax collector is justified, that he is in a right relationship with God. That’s not just scoring a point of getting it right. It’s the resurrection that the tax collector experiences. Death and resurrection is there! Let’s remind ourselves that the tax collector hasn’t changed his career when he was declared “justified” by Jesus. He may still be a pretty immoral and unexemplary person even after being justified by Jesus. What Jesus did is actually a risky thing because how can he be so sure that the tax collector would become a different person? How can he be so certain that the tax collector would change his job and lifestyle? But here comes another problem. If we have any expectation that the tax collector must change his lifestyle, we’re actually turning him to the Pharisee who is good at keeping all the laws. The point is not so much about changing ourselves, but really about confessing that we can never earn God’s mercy, that we cannot make ourselves righteous before God, that we can never justify ourselves. God’s mercy justifies us. God’s mercy saves us. God’s mercy raises us from the dead! In this parable of Jesus, we see how God’s mercy works. We are not justified, we are not saved by what we do and who we are. We are justified and saved by God’s mercy alone. This mercy again is universal, catholic, unconditional, and unending. Whether you’re a morally good person or not, God’s mercy is available to you as much as it is available to others. In the prayers of the Pharisee, we know he is getting it all wrong about God’s mercy. In his eyes, God’s mercy is conditional, and is limited to those moral, religious, and social winners. It’s not universal and catholic. It’s not unconditional. He thanks to God for not being like thieves, rogues, adulterers, or the tax collector. This shows that in his eyes there’s no God’s mercy available in the lives of thieves, rogues, adulterers, or the tax collector. In his theology, there’s no God’s mercy actively working in the lives of losers. And this is not the gospel that Jesus proclaims. What Jesus is teaching us is that there’s no place where God’s mercy has not reached. It’s everywhere, even in the midst of terrifying and unimaginable places that seems like God is dead or God has abandoned, even in the lives of morally wrong people. However you think of yourself, there had never been a time when God’s mercy had not been available. Never ever, and it will never be. No matter what you do, believe me, whatever horrible things you commit, God’s mercy is always and everywhere there in your very presence. Only this kind of God’s unconditional mercy changes us without making us a legalistic law-abiding, score-keeping religious person. If this mercy of God is unconditionally available for you, if it is truly catholic, then it means this is also available to others, and even to those who you do not love. This may be the most difficult part. We don’t want God’s unconditional mercy to be unconditional when it comes to those who hurt us, oppress us, and kill us. We want it to be conditional. And of course, we want to see justice being accomplished. I’m not saying God’s unconditional mercy simply smooshes and ignores injustice. I’m saying God’s unconditional mercy is always the starting point of judging others for justice. Accepting this mercy of God, our prayer would be very different from that of the Pharisee. We start with the Jesus Prayers, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” And we might want to add more onto that, changing the prayer of the Pharisee, “God, I thank you that your unconditional mercy is also available to thieves, rogues, adulterers, and even like this tax collector.” Confessing that we are dead to the whole business of justifying ourselves by morally and religiously doing right, we are resurrected by Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ. And the table of the Eucharist, we are given that mercy in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and are being sent as living sacraments of that mercy to the world, to those whose lives don’t seem to deserve God’s mercy. May the Holy Spirit continue to remind and reassure us of God’s unconditional mercy. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see that mercy actively working in the lives of others. May God’s mercy flow freely and gracefully through us, the church, the Body of Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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