Ash Wednesday Sermon 2016This Man Went Home Justified“It’snot my fault!” Does that sound familiar? Who in all the world might’ve saidthose words? Could it be you – when you were 4,5,6 or 7 years old and you saidthat about your brother or sister who got you into trouble. If you’re ateacher, you’ve probably heard a student say that. If you’re a supervisor,you’ve probably heard it from an employee. You may have heard it from aneighbor or coworker.

Whatit is an attempt to justify your actions. They make an excuse for what theydid. They try to shift the blame and get out of whatever consequences might becoming. It’s kind of ironic that we use the word justify for that,because justify is one of the most important words in the Bible. Itmeans that God declares us not guilty in his courtroom. But when we use it ineveryday speech, it almost always means that we make an excuse. That subtledifference illustrates the theme of our Lenten devotions. This year, we’re goingto hear about irony. One dictionary defines irony as “a combination ofcircumstances or a result that is the opposite of what . . . might beexpected.” Jesus’ passion is filled with irony. Tonight, we’re considering aparable Jesus told. What is the irony, the unexpected result? This man wenthome justified.

Who was Jesus talking about? There weretwo people here – a Pharisee; and a tax collector. One of the ironies of thisparable is how we react to the word Pharisee. To us, that word meansproud and self-righteous. We can’t imagine a Pharisee as anything other than ahypocrite. The gospels back up that assessment. But to the first-century Jew, Phariseemeant something else. St. Paul was raised a Pharisee, and he was proud of thatlabel before he came to faith. The Pharisees were the people who defended astrict interpretation of the Old Testament law. They held that it really wasthe Word of God and that it really was true, unlike the Sadducees who were morelike the theological liberals of many churches today. But the tax-collector? Hewould’ve been the sinner or the outcast of society.

We’re told right away in our very firstverse – why Jesus told this parable – Tosome who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybodyelse, Jesus told this parable…There were a lot of people who hadmisunderstandings of how to get into a right relationship with God. ThePharisees thought by doing and keeping God’s law was the way to get right withGod. They even went to the point of making over 600 laws that they tried theirbest to keep.

Therewere two men who went to the temple to pray – one a Pharisee, the other a taxcollector. 11 The Phariseestood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like othermen—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 Ifast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ Remember, we want toremember the thought, “This man wenthome justified.” Would we be talking about the Pharisee or the taxcollector? The Pharisee is a self-described good person. He lists all the wayshe tries to get into a right relationship with God. He was going a step aboveand beyond what he had to do – what was required of him. Percentage giving wasgood, but he fasted much more than he had needed to. He thought he was good.Did this man go home justified?

Godtells us throughout the Bible that it’s not about our outward actions, but it’sabout the thoughts and attitude of the heart. The Pharisee doesn’t takeresponsibility for his own actions. He shifts the blame to others. ‘God, I thank you that I am not like othermen—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. Thesewere the people who were far from being right with God. These were the outcastsof society. In essence, he’s saying “I’m not…a robber…evildoer…adulterer…or taxcollector.” And the public would’ve agreed with him. He would have been giventhe societal stamp of approval – that he was trying to do right and goodthings.

Buthow did that sit with God? When we hear about the Pharisee, it’s easy to seewhat the problem is – the pride that rested in his heart. We have pride restingin our own hearts. Maybe we say similar prayers – “Lord, I’m thankful I’m notlike this neighbor…co-worker of mine. I’m not a robber, evildoer or adulterer.I’m a pretty good person compared to the person sitting in the cubicle next tome.” Does that type of attitude put us into a right relationship with God –when we carry around the attitude that we’re better than others?

Weheard it in the very last verse – Foreveryone who exalts himself will be humbled… and isn’t that what thePharisee had done – exalted himself? Our Lord told this parable to those who were confident of their ownrighteousness and looked down on everybody else… There are times when weare over confident and look down on others; and that we weren’t among thesinful of the world. But our Lord tells us about the sinful pride that rests inour heart – that he has come to defeat the sin and pride in our heart.

Itwasn’t the Pharisee who went home justified, rather it was the tax collector. Butnotice the difference between the two. 13“But the tax collector stood at a distance…He didn’t want to be frontand center – not wanting to have everyone hear his prayer. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God,have mercy on me, a sinner.’ How do we develop this God-pleasing attitude?When we think about Lent and Ash Wednesday, isn’t it the time for us to do someself-reflection and look at the obvious, difficult and painful reality that wefind ourselves in? We are robbing God; we are evildoers committing sin; we areadulterers; we go and break the 8th commandment. We fail to honorGod in everything we say and think and do.

Weare here in Lent and to do on Ash Wednesday. To remember this phrase and say itwell – “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”We can tell God anything and everything we’ve done – b/c he knows it all – eventhe dirty little secrets we don’t want to tell anyone else. We can confess oursins to God – b/c of Jesus, his passion, his life, death and resurrection, wehave the forgiveness of all our sins.

Wehave been justified – in the courtroom God has declared us not guilty – of anysin we’ve committed in the past or any sin we will commit in the future. We areto look to Jesus as our Savior.

Thereare many ironies of the Passion that we’ll hear about over the next severalweeks. We’ve heard one tonight about the Pharisee and the tax collector. I praythat we look to the model example of the tax collector – that we reflect on ourmany sins that we’ve committed – that caused our Lord Jesus to suffer and dieon the cross. May we also rejoice in the passion of our Savior – that b/c hedied to forgive all our sins – we are declared not guilty. We are the man, the woman, the child, that has gone home justified.Amen.