Equal Mercy

Luke 18:9-14

“Equal Mercy”

28 August 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Anyone remember group projects during school? The ones where you get paired up with people you don’t like or, more frustrating, people that won’t or can’t carry their share of the load. Those in the group who just don’t try, don’t offer any real insight to the planning and execution of the assignment. It’d be fine if they’d at least participate in the construction of the model, share some of the typing, or just go buy snacks to fuel the mad rush towards completion the night before.

            Yet, despite offering absolutely no tangible help or support in the overall success or failure, they get the same grade as the ones that pull the all-nighters and do all of the heavy lifting over the duration of the project.

            Even if you try to address it with the teacher, the most likely response to your pleading cries of mercy from the all-powerful teacher is “play the hand you are dealt” or something very similar.

            Then you ponder the situation in which you are doing more than required and all of the work while someone else does nothing and gets the same reward or punishment and realize it happens in more places than school. We find this scenario playing out in thousands of places and situations all around us. It makes us mad.

            Then we hear today’s Scripture and realize when we feel that way in our daily lives we are just like the Pharisee in this parable. We’ve done all the work and should be the one getting all of the glory. If life was fair, each person on the project would be rated separately by their individual contribution to the goal. If God was fair and just, then the tax collector wouldn’t receive the same justification as the righteous.

            When we think that mercy and forgiveness in the kingdom work in some karma like fashion, we miss the point of the kingdom. The Kingdom’s economy doesn’t make much sense to us, but I’m not sure it was designed to make human sense. That’s a hard pill to swallow, because we don’t like that kind of economic system.

            It’s hard not to sympathize with the tax collector. He’s at the temple praying for mercy, what we all should pray every time we encounter the divine. He’s also a pretty brave, and brazen, man. In that day, he wasn’t high on the list of people other Jews would want to hang out with.

That’s probably why he was sitting in the back pew, as far away from everyone else as he could possibly get. He may even have been doing everything in his power to find a quiet corner and wedge himself into the building to keep from being seen. A tax collector was seen as a combination of collaborator with Rome and extortionist of his fellow countrymen.

            Yet, for reasons we aren’t told, he enters the temple and asks for mercy and forgiveness. What’s so disturbing is that those hearing Jesus tell the story, as well as us here today, know that he deserves that mercy and justification before God. And we know he will walk away with the mercy he requests and desires.

The Pharisee in this story isn’t a typical Pharisee, in fact he’s probably a humorous caricature going above and beyond what most people do. Jesus describes him in this way to make a point. But, it isn’t a negative point about purity codes, scorn directed at Pharisees or the temple, nor about personal righteousness.

Our nameless Pharisee has done everything right, goes above and beyond what is required of him. He probably isn’t doing this to prove his merit and worthiness of salvation, he knew he was justified before God. He is thanking God for his calling and ability to live into a deep relationship with God. I doubt God was upset at the fact he was listing his righteousness in his prayer. God was probably disappointed that the Pharisee was comparing his deeds with another’s. A fact of the story that most likely shocked those listening to Christ because Pharisees weren’t known back then to dismiss members of the community, even tax collectors.

The real provocation in this parable is the relationship between these two extreme examples. The saintly Pharisee and the repentant tax collector are both embellished examples designed to provoke and prove a point.

The translation of one single word can make a significant difference in how an entire event is interpreted. In verse 14, there is a small Greek word, para. The NIV, NKJV, and NRSV all translate it as rather than. “This man went down to his home justified rather than the other.” Making para a comparative term is a perfectly valid way to translate it into English.

However, para is also the root for the word parallel. Those that remember geometry know that parallel lines travel infinitely together, alongside. In this translation, the two men would leave equally justified and in receipt of the same mercy.

Because parables are not designed to reinforce stereotypes but are told to shatter myths and provoke us, I think the second translation is the better choice. Having the tax collector leave full of mercy and the Pharisee empty handed is what we expect, it’s what we want. We want to see the boastful knocked down a peg or two. We want a rags to riches story, we love second chances provided it fits our narrative.

Both of these men have done things that displeased God. The tax collector stole from family members through his business practice to make some money, but he was just working within the system. The Pharisee has done everything right, even more than expected. He just made one mistake, praying a competitive prayer, and we jump all over him as getting his just desserts. They both need mercy, and they both walk away with the mercy they need.

Isn’t both of them walking away full of mercy the crazier ending, the more provocative way to end the story? It’s harder for us to hear and accept that God’s mercy is boundless and there for everyone. No matter how many times we come to the table, get what we need and still see the leftovers at the table, we’re naturally going to assume that mercy is scarce or only available for those who aren’t sinners. For then we don’t have any control over whom we get to spend eternity with.

Over the last few weeks as we’ve been journeying through these parables, I’ve been reading a book called Short Stories by Jesus. The author, Amy-Jill Levine, reads para as parallel so verse 14 reads, “this man went down to his home justified alongside the other.”

She then states that from this reading, “We see that divine grace cannot be limited, for to limit this grace would be to limit the divine. This unlimited generosity is something many of us find problematic. We are quite happy when we are saved; we are less happy when this salvation is extended to people we do not like, especially when our dislike is bolstered by seemingly very good reasons such as, “He’s a sinner.”

She also explored this parable at play in our group project setting. “The [member], whom we dismissed as lazy, as stupid, or as unable to contribute, may well have done what he could. He may have felt himself unworthy; indeed, the others may have signaled to him that we were disappointed he was assigned to our group. He trusted in us; he trusted in the system. Had we been more generous with him rather than resentful, we would have learned more as well. And what if he didn’t care at all? What if he depended on us, even thought we were fools for doing his work for him? What we do is still worthwhile. We can afford to be generous. There are other systems of justice in which his contributions or sins will be assessed.”

What we do is worthwhile and we can afford to be generous. Where are we like the Pharisee and need to be more generous and merciful to those who we feel are dragging us down or using the system? Where are we like the tax collector and need the system to help us out, need the system to give us a break? Perhaps this parable is Jesus telling us he cares more about how we love our neighbor and spread mercy and justice generously without question rather than how we get into heaven.