A, Good Shepherd Sunday, Easter 4 - John 10:7,9 "Identity Under The Good Shepherd"

John 10:7,9 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Good Shepherd Sunday is full of rich language of a shepherd faithfully leading his sheep and his sheep, having heard his voice, willingly following.

In Acts two we hear the consequences of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost, after Peter preaches a sermon of Law and Gospel that brings three thousand to baptism and faith.  After which, the newly baptised into Christ, persevere and endure under the Apostles’ teaching, holy fellowship, breaking of bread (as both, Holy Communion, and as sharing their earthly gifts), and to prayers.

These were special times and those who believed, full of the Holy Spirit, lived to praise God for what the ascended Jesus had done.

We also hear of the providence our Heavenly Father, likened to a shepherd, in Psalm twenty-three.  King David, the shepherd made king of Israel, knew that to lead he needed to be led by our Father in Heaven.

He identified within himself the need to be cut off from trusting in himself, which was without trust and fear in God, living to writhe in its own desire for pleasure.  Left with himself he was acutely aware of his weak human spirit.  He knew he needed the Holy Spirit to give him a new spirit.  His experience in life was that of the enemy of the self within, aligning itself with the external enemy without.

In a strange irony, the enemies he fought against, were his sinful nature’s greatest allies within, leading him into worry and doubt, then therefore, misusing his authority to pleasure himself as his own god.

Therefore, against this, David claims the Lord as his shepherd.  He has no want.  He lacks nothing in having the Lord as his shepherd.  He does not fear the evil within, nor the evil without, over which he has no control.

In fact, King David’s Lord, his Shepherd, makes him lie down in green pastures, beside peaceful waters!  He knows the Shepherd’s goodness and steadfast love and mercy is constantly hunting him down to bestow upon him common life together with God.  Joyfully returning him to the house of the Lord repeatedly, then eternally, despite the dangers David and others, present to himself.

This  is a picture of restored paradise.  The house of the Lord on earth, even this church, is an image of the eternal, despite all its shortcomings, and its eventual destruction, just as the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

But Jesus is our true temple in which we now have access into the Father’s presence.  The curtain  has been torn asunder and through his suffering and death we have common life together with God our Father. 

In the Gospel reading for Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus tells us, he is the door, through which one enters into God’s presence.  No one comes to God the Father except through this door.  Jesus Christ is the way, the exodus; the truth, the unhidden reality; the life, the revolving door of faith.  Having been brought to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, one’s sin is uncovered and nailed to the cross.  Those who retain this faith, walk in and out this door on the way of eternal life.

This is the same goodness and steadfast love to which King David refers in the Twenty-third psalm.  This is the same faithfulness with which God is pursuing you, so you might share in the common life of peace and holiness, having been led on the exodus from the self, into the community of God’s pleasure.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd as well as the door to salvation.  Many doubt this though and need encouragement as a result of suffering and the hopelessness that comes from being seduced by the spirit of this age. 

God the Father’s church gathered by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, the family, historical tradition from the democracy of those who’ve died, all these forms of authority, are looked on with suspicion by society today.  This feeds one’s doubt and disbelief! 

Unfortunately, with this suspicion of all authority, the spirit of the age is believed, and one is encouraged to seek happiness within the self.  But once there, seeing the ugly reality of the unhidden self, the mirage of happiness just seems to move further away.

Like King David, our inner sinful self, our human spirit, allies itself with the spirit of the society in which we live, even though we know it’s completely corrupt.

Those in Peter’s day struggled under persecution and hopelessness of that age as well.  He proclaims, “By his wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  (1 Peter 2:24b–25 ESV)

Our Good Shepherd watches over all who have been baptised, he has underwritten the assurance of our salvation with his own resurrected life.  The resurrection of Jesus is the hope that surpasses all other hopes because all other hopes lead to hopelessness!

The essence of this Good Shepherd comes from God the Father, and from the Father together with the Son, the shepherding of our souls continues today, as the Holy Spirit is sent to shepherd those who identify as the Good Shepherd’s sheep.

Jesus, as the Lamb of God, committed no sin, spoke without hiddenness or trickery, did not abuse or repay abuse, and bore pain without revenge. 

We his sheep know we need this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, because of our sin!    Isaiah proclaims the unhidden truth of Jesus, when he says, “We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Peter picks up Isaiah’s thought from Scripture, and from his witness adds, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.”  (1 Peter 2:24 ESV)

Like King David, Peter knew by experience that he needed the Good Shepherd to bring him to the door of salvation.  Peter knew his sinfulness conspired with the sinfulness of all others to put Jesus on the cross.  It was Jesus alone who walked the way of the cross, who bore the unhidden truth of every person’s inner self on the cross, and lived the life that pleased our heavenly Father, despite the cross.

We now have the door open to confession, where we can have the deathliness of our sin, daily nailed to the cross, without costing us eternal death.  This is the true door that is Jesus Christ.

We steal and plunder God of his goodness by seeking to enter God’s kingdom through any other works, either good or evil.  But those who enter by the door that is Jesus Christ, have done so by the Good Shepherd.  He leads with the word of his rod, this is the Law, and his saving staff, which is the Gospel.   

Therefore, having been unhidden by his word of Law, are cleansed in his blood, through the work of the Holy Spirit who gives us the holy identity as God’s own Son. 

This cleansing is good news for those who believe it and receive it.  This is the Gospel of salvation for those who identify under the Sonship and subordination of Jesus Christ!

Jesus says to you, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:7,9 ESV)

Let us pray: Triune God you are three Shepherds, but one loving God.  Because you lead us, because you became one of us, and because you gather us, surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life, because you dwell here within the temple of our body, your body, so we might live with you forever in the paradise of your pleasures, your eternal body.  Amen.

A, Mid Week Lent 1- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Prayer"

Matthew 26:36–45a (ESV) Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”  And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”  And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.  So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.  Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”  

Why did Jesus pray?  Why does the church pray; why do believers pray? Why do you pray?  Or looking at it from the other way.  When you don’t pray to God the Father, what are your lack of words to him saying, and doing?   And if you’re not praying to God, is it possible to be praying to someone or something else?  If so, then what is the function and purpose of prayer?

Prayer is a wishing, willing, or asking someone for something. 

Jesus prayed during his earthly ministry.  He prayed for himself, and he prayed for others.  Tonight, we have heard Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane and his disciple’s weakness of flesh, falling asleep as he prayed.

Do you find Jesus’ prayer a bit peculiar?  He was born with the purpose to die for humanity.  He knew his mission and yet we hear him pray,  “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”

It raises a few questions about Jesus and prayer. 

If he is the Son of God and knew God’s plan of salvation, why did he pray for the cup of suffering and death to be taken away?  And, being God the Son, why did he need to pray?  After all, he is God!

Jesus continued on in prayer to the Father, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  Jesus asked God the Father for death and suffering to be taken away from him.  But he recognises, it’s not what he wants or asks for, but what God wants, needs, askes, pleasures, or wills for humanity that’s important.

Yet prayer is, at its most basic, an asking, and we hear in the Gospels that Jesus often is found alone praying to God the Father.  In prayer, he pours out his heart to God for himself and for those to whom he is sent. Why?

A misconception in the church is that a person who prays is a powerful person.  For that reason, many people don’t pray because they do not believe they are powerful enough; that they don’t have enough faith.

This is a misconception because they who think this, have little understanding of what Jesus is all about.

Those in Jesus’ day struggled with this mistaken belief too, when Jesus, Peter, James, and John return from the Mountain of Transfiguration and found the other disciples arguing with the scribes.

Jesus enquired as to what was going on,  “And someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.  And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.  So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.’” (Mark 9:17-18 ESV) 

Jesus rebukes them for not having faith, speaks with the father of the boy, then heals him.  Later on in private the disciples asked Jesus, “‘Why could we not cast it out?’  And he said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.’” (Mark 9:28 ESV)   

For us now, the mistake is made by believing Jesus has more power than the disciples.  But it was not power as we perceive it, rather it is in the power of faith.  Like the father of the boy, we do better than the disciples by crying out to Jesus, ”I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24 ESV)   

The power of faith and prayer is misconstrued by those who have great physical strength, exceptional understanding, or earthly experience, yet a small child can exercise a faith far more powerful than the elite, the practised, or the strong.

This is the faith by which Jesus operated.  He asked or prayed to his Father, trusting like a small child, without doubt or false expectation.  Jesus asked and prayed with a pure faith, not in himself, but by the generating of faith by the Holy Spirit within him.  In essence, he prayed with no faith in himself, but with complete faith in his Father. 

However, the disciples who could not drive out the mute spirit from the child, couldn’t do so because they had too much faith in their own ability, and little in God working through their weakness.

On the other hand, Jesus’ prayer, faith, and ability was Holy Spirited and not from his own divine or human power.  Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.”  (Philippians 2:6–8 ESV)

His death began at his baptism in the Jordan, where he put off his divinity and put on the Holy Spirit in his human weakness.  Despite his human spirit and flesh being weak, he faithfully worked in this weakness while on earth, and died in this weakness, though innocent and blameless.

Jesus’ passive trust in God the Father allowed him to exist, pray, heal, and live without sin in his human weakness, hence displaying the complete power of God, in his life and in his death. 

The disciples were to learn this first, and God calls us to learn that the true power of prayer is in the power of God working through those who truly believe they have no power in themselves. 

God exercises power through our weakness, as he did through Jesus having put off his divinity and lived in the weakness of human flesh. 

Once Jesus was glorified to the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, the disciples moved by the Holy Spirit, also displayed the power of God, spreading the Gospel, trusting in the power of God in the weakness of their flesh.

So, we as Christ’s church can look at the prayers of Jesus, why and how he prayed, so like him, we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to pray with one hundred percent trust in God, and with trust that we are one hundred percent weak humans.

If you want to see the heart of Jesus’ prayers, read Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John seventeen, the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew six or Luke eleven, and also the Psalms.  These are the prayers Jesus gave to King David, King Solomon, and those others tasked to write Psalms so David and Solomon could lead the temple congregation in asking God for his will in their weakness.  In the same way, in the heavenly temple, Jesus continues to also pray his petitions of prayers for us who trust in him and who know we are weak!

These treasures of Jesus’ prayer life can be your treasure too.  You can pray like Jesus and your prayers will be as powerful as Jesus’ prayers, because they are joined with his work of prayer before the throne of God.  This happens when in your weakness you allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, just as Jesus let the Spirit work in his weak flesh. 

Pray for the Holy Spirit to take control of your human spirit!

As Saint Paul encourages the Philippians in the joy of his weakness, let us also be encouraged…    

So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus… (Philippians 2:1–5 ESV)

If you choose not to pray to God, have you the mind and heart of Jesus?  In the absence of prayers to God, one usually “prays”, ponders, meditates, or speaks to oneself. Praying like this might seem powerful but it leads one back into themselves and ends in mental anguish, helplessness, and self-destruction.

If you choose not to take what is yours in Jesus Christ, are you not placing your trust in the power of your human spirit, over the work of the Holy Spirit?  Choosing to do this, ends in sinning against the Holy Spirit, rejecting the gifts of Holy Spirited true faith so you’re not brought to forgiveness through Jesus’ death.

Why did Jesus pray?  Because he gave up the divine power of his being and was baptised into our weakness.  This is why he received the Holy Spirit.  

Why does the church pray; why do believers pray?  Because we know we are weak and need the Holy Spirit, to call us, gather us, and enlighten us, us with the gifts of God.

Why do you pray?  Why wouldn’t you, knowing who you truly are, and what Jesus did in true humility for you!  Amen.

C, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-36 "Unhidden Truth"

John 8:31–36 (ESV)  Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practises sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus speaks to the Jews who believed him.  Beforehand when he spoke, he sought to convince those who did not believe him.

We hear in John chapter seven, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”.  (John 7:37–39 ESV)

For the moment, I want you to hear him refer to “living waters”, but also note Jesus’ reference to the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.  I will speak more about the Holy Spirit later, in relation to the Reformation and Martin Luther.

With Jesus’ promise of “living water” flowing out of those who believe in him, he also says, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12 ESV)

Whoever believes in Jesus Christ, “living water” will flow out of them, and whoever follows Jesus Christ will have the “light of life.”  Living light and living waters!  Life-giving waters, life-giving light!

The Pharisees did not want to believe and said to Jesus, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true”.  (John 8:13 ESV)

Jesus then addresses the hearers concerning his and God’s truth.  To those Jews who believed, he concludes his monologue, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.  (John 8:31–32 ESV)

I invite you to revisit John 8:12-36 and notice the word “truth or true”, how many times it occurs and how Jesus refocuses truth on his knowledge.  In fact, a thematic thread concerning truth, flows throughout John’s Gospel. 

Fifty-five references focus the hearer of John’s Gospel on truth or what is true.  Some will be quite familiar to you.  “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6), “Sanctify them in the truth your word is truth” (John 17:17), and Jesus’ and Pilate’s exchange, “[Jesus answered…] I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth…”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37b–38a ESV)

So as Pilate asks, we can ask, “What is truth?” How does “truth” connect with the freedom Jesus proclaims to us?  Plus, how has this truth and freedom come to us through the Reformation and writings of Martin Luther as well as others of the Reformation?  

Let’s return to the passage before us today.  “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (John 8:31 ESV)

Three times “true or truth” is mentioned in this verse.  In the New Testament there are two words used for truth.  One of these words is borrowed from the Hebrew, and is often doubled for emphasis, in the same way as we use adverbs.  This is the word “Amen”.  We hear it said, “Truly, truly, or verily, verily, or amen, amen, depending on your bible’s translation.  It means, “Yes!  It is so!”

The other, which occurs fifty-five times in John is the Greek word, alethes (al-ay-thace), which is two words, the first being the negative, “not”, and lanthano meaning “to lie or hide”.

This makes Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?”, shine with all the double-speak and sarcasm of politicians throughout the ages.  “What is not a lie or what is not hidden?  Everything is hidden and a lie of sorts!”

But it also sheds light on the purity of Jesus’ word too.  If you abide in Jesus’ word, you are his unhidden disciples, and you will know what is unhidden, you will know what is not a lie, and these words that unhide, that are not a lie, will set you free!  Jesus’ word unhides, it exposes and reveals, and in doing so it gives freedom. 

This is the opposite of what one would expect.  A full disclosure or confession is what Adam and Eve feared most leading them to hide from God.  But now Jesus’ word unhides so we can be covered with his robes of justification and righteousness.

The question also must be asked, “What needs to be unhidden?  What has kept us from the freedom to which Jesus points us?”

Jesus makes it quite clear that we lose our freedom through sin.  He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin”.  (John 8:34 ESV)

Amen, Amen, yes, yes, sin keeps us from freedom, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, adult or child, pastor, or parishioner!  All, but Jesus, are enslaved to sin!  All, but Jesus, hide and lie!  What is truth?  What is not hidden?  What is not a lie?  Jesus Christ Son of God and Son of Man is truth personified, unhidden, without a lie.

He is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!  Our help from God! 

“Yes, your honour, I do the crimes, but my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has done the time!”

Now that Jesus has been glorified at the right hand of our Father in heaven, and we have access to him by faith alone, we have been given the Holy Spirit to bring us to him.  With Jesus, he justifies and makes you righteous with his blood.

The Holy Spirit brings us to the living waters.  He continually proceeds from God the Father and God the Son to bring us, out of our darkness of sin, into the light of life.  He does this by faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, and Scripture alone!

The Reformation was a realignment back under Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Martin Luther was born into a Christian Church that had lost Jesus Christ.  He was still there, knocking on the door of people’s hearts.  But he had been covered up by humanity’s love of goodness borne in the righteousness of the self.

The Christian church was being enslaved by sin, while individuals within Christendom had lost their freedom through faith being replaced with the desire of one’s own feelings.

In practice, they had replaced the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, makes holy and forgives, with the human spirit who desires through self-love to climb up to God.  The starting point and the goal of this desire was egocentric.  Human desire and the satisfaction of this want was the goal. 

Humanity had become enslaved to itself in the church.  Humanity needed to be set free from itself so the one true Holy Spirit could once again lead us to the unhidden, one true body, one true hope, one true faith, one true Lord Jesus Christ, who puts us right, and justifies us in one baptism, before the one true Father and God of heaven. 

Because the devil and the world wills your old Adam to rise up against the baptism in which he was drowned, you and I need to daily welcome his death through the truth of confessing sin, having the lie and liar within exposed, and having the truth within ourselves unhidden.  Jesus’ unhidden truth kills sin and our old selfish selves with his light and life.

We cannot climb up to God through our own desire, the truth of our sinful nature is that we are too weighed down by sin to climb anywhere, let alone up to him.  Believing we can, and working accordingly, is believing a lie, wastes time, and distracts us from receiving God from where he is given.

As children of the Reformation, we are called to wash our robes in Jesus’ righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is the only spirit that will lead us to do this.  Left to our own spirit we will end up seeking to wash our robes in our own righteousness, where we find ourselves being enslaved by a lie once again.  Our own spirit will see us hidden again from living free to be in Jesus Christ.

So, practise your freedom!   Be true Christians!  Reveal, repent, reform each day under Jesus Christ.  Remain in God’s word, in Jesus Christ.  Be disciples, disciplined to receive God’s love.  Walk in your true unhidden weakness with Jesus Christ, with God’s Word made flesh.  If you want to put on the truth of Jesus in your life; read, study, and listen to God’s written Word!

Jesus’ life and death is for you, and it will set you free.  Amen.

Lord God Holy Spirit, free us from ourselves to receive the true life-giving waters, the true life-giving light that comes into the darkness of our days and lifts us into an eternity of light and life where you reign, together with the Father and the Son, one God, now and forever, truly, truly, Amen, and Amen!

C, Post-Pentecost 20 Proper 25 - Luke 18:8b, 9–14 "Postures of Faith"

Luke 18:9–14 (ESV)  He also told this parable to some who trusted in 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.”

Jesus sets the scene for this parable.  The scene is set with the final words of his last parable, the parable of the faithful persistent widow, who never gives up crying out for justice.  His final words are, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8b ESV)

Jesus then sets the scene with the arrival of two men at the temple.  He, the Son of Man, allows us to take his place to see if we find faith on earth through the parable!  In it we get to examine the faith posture of the two persons who have come to the temple in Jerusalem.

Temple worship is set around the daily atonement sacrifice for the people of Israel.  Jesus gives us his privileged position of hearing the faith of the pharisee and the tax collector.  Who are these two characters? 

One is a socially acceptable individual in the person of the pharisee.  This is a good person in the eye of the public, a law-abiding citizen, or a good bloke one might say!

The other man is a socially objectionable figure in the form of the tax collector.  He is a bad person, a rogue, a scoundrel, a lawbreaker, an extortioner, an enemy of the state, or one who works against the common good!

Against the background of public thanksgiving for the daily atonement of sins, through the priestly sacrifice of animals on the altar, to take away the sins of the nation, Jesus gives us the privilege position of hearing the private prayers of both men.

The pharisee’s posture is opposite to that of the tax collector.  I, I, I!  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. I, I, I!

The tax collector beats the heart of his sinful being, from within where his extortion, unjustness, adultery, and unacceptability breeds loneliness, contempt of self, separation from God and from others.  He cries out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  Or literally, “make atonement for me, one who misses the ability to atone for myself!”

In this parable Jesus gives you a front row seat in finding the faith of these two. 

It’s obvious to us that the faith of the tax collector was firmly grounded in the fact that he was a sinner and could not atone for himself through acting good or bad.  No!  This was no act of false humility,  appearing bad to be good, or good to be bad!  He knew if his sin was to be atoned for, he needed an act of mercy on God’s part.

Whereas the pharisee, had great faith too!  However, his faith was in himself and what he did, separating and placing himself apart from those whom he thought were below him.

Now that Jesus has given you access into the hearts of the two, which one are you in this parable?

Scene two!  As we ponder who we are in the parable, the Holy Spirit paints a picture of you in this congregation.

When you got out of bed this morning, what were your thoughts about coming to church today?  “Do I really have to go?”, you may have asked yourself!  “I hope such and such is not there today!” Or, “I hope others are there, I don’t feel like it’s church unless such and such is there.  I, I, I, yet again, you hear!  I want more modern songs, I want more older hymns, I want, I want, want!  Jesus looks on, “will he find faith at church today?”

Perhaps your soul longs for the courts of the Lord, you love to dwell in the hearing of his Word, receiving the forgiveness of sin as you confess and receive absolution, and the reception of Jesus’ body and blood for your life and salvation.  But as you do, you receive resistance from others who seek to hinder you from coming to dwell in God’s atonement through word and sacraments.

And maybe you have come to observe.  You think, “Good sermon, good service pastor, THEY really needed to hear that! 

Or weighed down by the weight of your sin, you think, “If only I could stop doing that thing or stop acting this way, I would be a better person.”  Maybe you imagine,” If I was more like that person over there, I would be more acceptable before others — before God!” So, I’ll act humble or a certain way to appear as someone different.

There are those who live as if their goodness is too good for God, and there are those who believe their badness is too evil for God.  But then there are the faithful who focus not on their good or evil but on Jesus Christ, knowing they’re sinners — being forgiven, and they’re seated amongst likewise sinners — being forgiven. 

Together they collectively beat their chests and cry out for mercy.  They look for knowledge outside themselves for the atonement of their sin.  In the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they cherish and find the means of freedom from themselves.

They live with a steadfast struggle, feverishly fighting the pharisee within.  The old man within, seeking resurrection again, after sins have been forgiven.  He seeks to turn the repentant tax collector within, into a pharisee.  Going out once again to maintain separation from those from whom they are glad they are not like. 

Jesus watches on, as we picture ourselves in the parable, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The reality in our knowledge of Jesus Christ is that we all have within us another tendency to be both a pharisee and a tax collector.  That is, we practise a good or bad faith in oneself, rather than practising faith in God for our atonement.  

We come as sinners each week and there is a real temptation to leave as pharisees and return as pharisees next week.  Such is our human nature we are tempted into a posture of prayer and practise saying, “God, I thankyou that I am not like that pharisee, as well as the tax collector.”

With a Holy Spirited knowledge of Jesus Christ, in submission to God’s Word, revelation of our sinfulness and the covering of sin in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can pray,” I thankyou heavenly Father that being like all others you have saved and redeemed me a lost and condemned person.”

You and I can serve both the pharisee and the tax collector, knowing that without Jesus Christ we suffer from self-righteousness and unrighteousness.  Or put it another way, without Jesus Christ we die from the sin of believing we are not sinners and from the sins we know we cannot put right. 

We can lovingly serve the pharisee and the tax collector knowing that without Jesus’ love, we are the pharisee and the tax collector, the law faker and the law breaker, the socially acceptable hypocrites, and the socially separated undesirables.

Scene three!  As we leave this place and travel towards the cross in our lives.  Do you stubbornly set your face towards knowledge of your good and evil?  Or do you purposefully set your face towards knowledge of Jesus Christ, as he did towards you and the atonement of your sin when he resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem? 

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Jesus quite clearly says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14b ESV)

Scene three plays out on the stage of eternity.  In fact, the old covenant temple worship, the new covenant worship of Jesus Christ, have been prerequisites for our re-creation and our eternal recreation with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Son of Man will come once and for all, but he also comes to us now.  The faith he seeks in us is the humble willingness to be served by this Son of Man, to have faith and trust in his faithfulness, despite the pharisee and tax collector within. 

He calls us to humbly run the race in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in our haughty human spirit which fails to follow in the strength of Jesus’ seemingly weak walk to the cross. 

Running in the Holy Spirit has its victory in the Son of Man’s exaltation from servant to the King of Creation!

This Son of Man is also the risen Son of God who serves us with the Holy Spirit, who fights the good fight within and with the world without our work or worry. 

Jesus Christ, both Son of Man and Son of God, in true humility, is now exalted at the right hand of the Father.  Likewise, our true humility will see us, in the eternal third act, exalted with Jesus Christ in eternity.  Amen.