Download Tipping the Scales Lk18_9

Tipping the Scales
The judicial scale is a popular image. A balance on which you put two objects, one on each side, and
whichever way the scale tips, whichever object drops, is, naturally, the heavier object. Depending on
how great the injustice, how great the difference in the scale is, the punishment or praise is handed out
accordingly.
Well in our Gospel reading today a Pharisee puts himself on the scale with a tax collector, and surprise!
He outweighs him. He looks at all the great things he has done and all the terrible things the tax
collector has done and clearly the Pharisee wins, it’s a no brainer really. Naturally the Pharisee
concludes he is worthy of God’s mercy and praise while the tax collector is not.
The Pharisees were quite happy comparing themselves to the other people in the world. And they
looked pretty good when they did it. “That tax collector, that sinner, they are just bad news. Their hearts
are inclined toward sin they are evil scumbags.” We hear the prejudice coming out. The Pharisee, on the
other hand, “was not inclined to evil but to God and God’s purposes.” Ya right! The only thing the
Pharisee was inclined to, was himself. Listen to his prayer. It is not praising God or seeking him, it is
praising himself. “I thank you that I am not like other men… I fast... I give… I get…” Truly this prayer is
the prayer of someone who does not think he needs a savior, who does not need Christ. Christ himself,
in using this parable, condemns this Pharisee not only of his prejudice towards the tax collector, but his
refusal to rely on the mercy of God, as the tax collector did.
Whenever we place another person on the scale with us we are heading straight for disaster. Someone
will be better, if it’s you, then you pat yourself on the back like the Pharisee and boost your ego and
pride; “who needs a savior?” If the other person is better you become jealous, envious, like Cain, and we
all know how that ended up, in murder. Or you despair, feel inadequate, hopeless, and lost. Our human
scales and comparisons run contrary to God’s will and lead to sin ultimately.
Yet sadly, this is what the Pharisees had been doing, and we do it all the time. The Pharisee in our text
looked at the other people, moreover the outright sinful people. And concluded that he was doing
pretty good, God must be so pleased with him, he deserves to be saved. Again, we often fall into this
camp. We say, “I’m a good person, I haven’t killed anyone.” As if that was the only justification for evil. It
isn’t in God’s eyes. No, on God’s scales we find ourselves a little more lacking. On God’s scale we are up
against the entire law. When we look through the lens of the entire law we see the Pharisees and our
selfish pride; we see his twisted motives behind all his good works and behind all our good works. When
we put the whole law, all those things God wills us to do perfectly, when we put that on the scale with
us we don’t even come close to evening it out. Our inadequacy becomes painfully obvious.
And what is the punishment for our inadequacy? Jealousy? Despair? This and more, our punishment for
this inadequacy is death. Don’t be fooled either, we all will be judged. We will all be judged on God’s
scale. A terrifying proposition. We will be put on that scale and God will demand perfection, and we are
far from it, even the best of us. We are tolerant of sin, we make compromises. What are our prejudices?
Race, sex, religion, orientation? And not simply these social prejudices, what about the hatred we have
for our brother? The grudges we hold? All these sins, they will all come out on that day. We will be
found wanting all of us. The Pharisee and the tax collector alike, neither one has any reason to walk into
God’s presence and deserve anything other than death. “We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory
of God.” And as soon as we begin giving into our prejudices, we have put someone else on the scale with
us, and we are heading straight for destruction. Remember, the Pharisee, with his prejudices, was
blinded to think that he could do everything on his own and he did not leave justified, right with God.
Thinking we are different, thinking we are better than someone else only adds insult to injury. God does
not desire the puffed up, the haughty, he wants the lowly, the poor, the humble. He doesn’t want to
see us measuring ourselves against another. Jesus solidifies this point when he speaks of the children.
“Let the children come to me and do not hinder them! Even infants, the ones too young to think, too
young to help the family, the dumb ones, the awkward ones, bring them all to me.” Furthermore Jesus
says that we must receive the kingdom like a little child. We must come before God humble, knowing
that we are lame, dumb, and helpless before our righteous God. As a child is incapable of even living on
its own, we too are incapable of living apart from Christ. The infant has no way to tip God’s scale in his
favor, no intelligence, no strength, no works, and neither do we.
See, the disciples did not think the children were worth Jesus’ time, they weren’t worthy. The Pharisee
did not think the tax collector was worthy. They had all been weighed on the disciples and the pharisee’s
human scale and found unworthy of God’s love. Christ rebukes them all though. Christ loves and cares
for everyone they were prejudiced against.
Once again I ask, what are our prejudices? Who can you not stand in the least? Are these people not
worth Christ’s time? Does he not desire to touch them, to bless them, to forgive them? He does, he
desperately does. Yet we stand defiant like the disciples, like the Pharisee. We thank God for saving us,
for blessing us, yet we are unwilling to share this grace with others. “God can save me, but he need not
worry about the drug dealer, or my cousin, or you name it, he isn’t worth his time.” Is this our prayer?
When we think this, once again, we have taken the law off the scale and put somebody else on it, we are
the Pharisee in the lesson today. We are no longer judging by God’s scale and standards but our own. So
maybe we should rethink the notion that we are better than others. On God’s scale we are all in the
same boat. None of us deserve God’s mercy, that is the nature of mercy, that’s what it is, undeserved!
So how do we get God’s mercy? How do we tip the scales in our favor? The truth is we can’t, we can’t
earn it, or else its not mercy. The tax collector was unable to do anything, to bring up anything he had
done to tip the scales in his favor. He knew what he was up against, the entire law, and he knew he fell
short and deserved condemnation. Yet he also knew that our God is a merciful God, so he came to him
with a repentant, contrite heart, and confessed his sin. He needed a savior, and God saved him; Jesus
Christ stepped on the scale with that repentant tax collector so that he was pronounced innocent, the
scale tipped in his favor. Think about how God has also saved us through Christ. Jesus himself is the only
one man in the history of the world who deserved the kingdom, after all it was his kingdom to begin
with, he was the only one who outweighed the law, he was the only man who was worthy to walk into
God’s presence... But he did not. Instead, He willingly took on the form of a servant, cast himself out of
God’s presence, he became a curse, a sinner on the cross, worthless, for us the undeserving. He truly
became someone we could be prejudiced against. He took our spot on God’s scale and took our
punishment, our death, upon himself because he is merciful. Because he cares for the worthless, the
sinful, the outcast. And now when we are judged by God we do not stand on the scale alone against the
law, no we stand with Christ at our side. And he reassures us that he loves us, he died for us, and
because of his work alone we are made right with God.
So yes on that last day we all will be judged, and we all will be found wanting, and the courtroom will
see the scale tipped against us, pronouncing us guilty. We may feel like Paul did in the lesson today.
Abandoned, forsaken by all. But that is not the end of it. Paul continues, stating how the Lord stood by
him, strengthened him, and rescued him from the lion’s mouth. So it is with us. The Lord Jesus is our
defense always and steps on the scale with us, rescuing us. So the scale tips back in our favor, and we
are made righteous because of the work and weight of Christ our defender and savior.
Now lets think back, once again, to our pride, our tendency to weigh ourselves against our neighbor
instead of God’s will. Remember the Pharisee did not leave justified. His prayer was all about himself
and his good works. He did not need a savior. Certainly Christ loved and died for this Pharisee, yet when
Christ stepped onto the scale with him, the Pharisee pushed him off. Saying, “I don’t need you.” He
loved his pride more. This is a grievous error. Without Christ the scales tipped back towards the law,
leaving him guilty and condemned. Or think about it this way: this Pharisee was so puffed up by his own
pride that there was literally no room on the scale for Christ to step on to save him. If there is no room
on the scale, if it is cluttered with unrepentant sins and selfish pride, there is no room for Christ to step
in on your behalf.
So when our pride puffs us up. When we find ourselves thinking that we are better than someone else.
When we think our works are so good. When we think we do not need Christ. Think back to this
passage. Think on what Christ has done for us and this tax collector. Think of the sacrifice made on the
cross for forgive us of our sin to tip the scales in our favor, more than that, to take the punishment from
judgment away completely, and think on how we do not deserve it. As we reflect on this undeserved
mercy shown to us through Christ, how can we not share the good news of this mercy to others who are
as equally undeserving and unworthy as we are?
And when our inadequacies, our sin, and despair afflict us, think on that same Christ, the one who cares
for you as he did the tax collector, the one who steps on the scale alongside you. Think on the mercy he
bestows to us in baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, and through his death on the cross. Surely repentance is
not missed by Christ our redeemer.
So let us all together become like children. Relying on the assured mercy of God for forgiveness and life
eternal. Recognizing our need for God’s mercy, rejoicing that this mercy has been shown to us on the
cross, at the font, at the table, in the word. And furthermore, sharing this good news with the tax
collectors, the sinners, who are in need.