[Propertalk] Sermon on Luke 18:9-14 from Goodpreacher.com

[Joe Parrish]

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Luke 18:9-14

At first sight, the theological meaning of this story seems clear: do not boast about your accomplishments, admit that nobody is perfect and everything will be fine. This may be the shortest theological reflection ever written. 

On second sight, however, a few questions emerge. What does it mean to confess one's sin? What does it mean to be justified? Although the confessions of sin that are used in many worship services are fairly generic, there is a common awareness that sin implies a breach both with God and with our neighbors. By not moving close to the holy place and by not looking up to heaven, the tax collector acknowledges his broken relation with God. What about his neighbors though?

Justification is usually interpreted as an act in which our broken relation with God is addressed. The only discussion left, then, is about whether justification is a formal pronouncement or whether it implies a real change. In other words, is the sinner merely regarded as just before God in justification (although nothing has changed), or is the sinner actually becoming more just?

Such reflections commonly overlook the fact that the theological notion of justification has to do with justice, (too often, the Greek term for justice that is used in this context is translated as "righteousness," understood as a narrow religious category). In the context of the Old Testament, however, justice had to do with the covenant which includes both relations to God and to other people. In the context of the Roman Empire, in which Luke wrote, the Christian notion of justice also had to do with the questions of everyday life as it proclaimed an alternative justice, different from the justice of the empire.1

If justification is thus seen in the context of justice, the term takes on a broader meaning. What happens as this tax collector is justified might very well be the same thing that happens to the tax collector named Zacchaeus in the passage below: here, justification is not only a formal transaction according to which someone is merely considered just before God, but a process according to which justice is embodied and lived out in relation to both God and neighbor.

Furthermore, if justification is seen in the context of justice, the confession of sin needs to be rethought as well. Is sin merely a general reminder that nobody is perfect? A more specific understanding of sin might help us move this discussion to the next level. What is the sin of a tax collector in the context of the Roman Empire, the region for which he collects taxes? What if sin had nothing to do with moral failure but with pursuing false notions of justice: the false justice of the Empire that works in favor of the powerful and the mighty? Again, the story of Zacchaeus gives us some clues that point in this direction as well. In this context, justification might mean that God's own justice begins to take the place of the Empire's misguided justice.

When seen in this light, both the attitude of the tax collector and the problem with the attitude of the Pharisee make more sense. Judging from a moral perspective, the Pharisee may well be living a better life than the tax collector, but the Pharisee's lack of a self-critical attitude blunts the radical difference that God's justice seeks to make. In the context of the Roman Empire, all need to rethink their take on the matter of justice. As I have argued elsewhere, empires go deep, as they are not just interested in political and economic control: they seek to shape the way we think, feel, and even our innermost beliefs.2 

In this context, the Pharisee would need to learn not only that nobody is perfect, but how even his own well-intended performance of the moral codes of his people might be co-opted by the powers that be. The tax collector is closer to this insight because he appears to have an inkling of the sinfulness of his state that may not be obvious to those who are used to following the precepts of the Roman Empire. Consequently, neither Pharisee nor tax collector is let off the hook easily. In the end, both Pharisee and tax collector need to develop a more robust understanding of their sinfulness in order join God's alternative justice. 

The good news is that justification and a new take on justice appear to be possible even for tax collectors, those who are even more closely connected to the Roman Empire's distorted notion of justice than the Pharisees. If even the tax collector gets it, why should there not also be hope that the pious Pharisee will eventually follow this example?


Joerg Rieger 

Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology

Perkins School of Theology

Southern Methodist University

Notes

1. See also Elsa Tamez, The Amnesty of Grace: Justification by Faith from a Latin American Perspective (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993).

2. See Rieger, Christ and Empire.



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