TEXT: Luke 16: 14-17nRSV

JESUS’ TEACHING

Jesus has been teaching by means of a string of parables with Pharisees in the crowd. Many of these are about money—but only on the surface—Jesus has no interest in effective money management. What these parables all have in common is that they either offend or confuse the Pharisees in the audience. The parables say, one after the other: You just don’t get it!

The constant theme of Jesus’ teachings is that we must not become invested in this world but rather in the kingdom of God.

Just prior to our text, Jesus says one cannot serve two masters; you cannot serve God and money. Our text starts out with a clear revelation of the Pharisees’ character:

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.

Note that this works just as well rearranged, which is fair to do:

The Pharisees ridiculed him, because they were lovers of money.

This is a harsh accusation, because based on what Jesus had just said, they were not lovers of God, though they pretended to be.

SELF-JUSTIFICATION

Jesus says, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others,” by which he means “you don’t seem to have any interest in pleasing the Lord whatsoever.”

What does it mean today? Who are the people who justify themselves in the sight of others? Well, that’s everyone! We each go to a lot of psychological work to appear “okay,” even when we’re falling apart. It is our norm to grow up learning how to create a self that is likable, lovable, respectable, competent, and/or reliable. To grow up American is to learn how to build a reputation and protect it. 

I once knew a doctor who, when asked about how long he thinks he’ll keep working,  liked to say, “I just hope I die before I outlive my reputation.”  He was joking, but I think we can admit that for many people, their reputation is the summation of their sense of worth and value. Serving your reputation is one way of justifying yourself before others, and we all do it.

What was specific to the Pharisees was that their good reputations were entirely associated with righteousness and devotion. They were referred to as “the Righteous Ones” but we don’t if that was what others called them or if it was just a name they made for themselves. The point is, they liked being thought of as holy ones, or righteous ones. Jesus makes it clear again and again that they’re not actually righteous at all, but just playing games with themselves in order to feel morally superior to others. And here may be our real connect with today.

HOLIER THAN THOU

Whoever justifies oneself to what appears to be the moral high ground can play “holier than thou.” That is what the Pharisees did and it is just as simple as being competitive. It was religious one-upsmanship, nothing more. Little boys playing King of the Hill, Religious Version.

If I see you praying in the temple for three minutes; I pray for five minutes.

If I see you washing your hands before eating, the I wash my hands twice both before and after eating. If you bring a casserole to the synagogue potluck that feeds 12, I bring one that feeds 24.

Competition, one-upsmanship, besting your opponents—it’s all the same self-serving drive that makes us anxious to “keep up with the Joneses” and it can play out in our religious circles just as easily. Do you see it? As long as you are at least a little bit better than the people of your village or neighborhood, you can feel like you are in fact holy. This is self-justification, and Jesus rejects it.

I guess it’s a good thing we left it behind in the first century and it has never darkened our door since, right?  Good thing there’s never been anything like Christian one-upsmanship in the Church, right?

Do you remember the Church Lady character from Saturday Night live? Perfect humorous example. Outwardly pious but inwardly a fiercely-competitive Pharisee hell-bent on proving herself to be “just a little bit” better than everyone else.

So yes, we have the same drive in us and we are equally fallen. I know many ministers who went into professional ministry so that they could “justify themselves” before others—as a way to get respect, a way to feel morally superior, a way to counterbalance a misspent youth, or a way to atone for past indiscretions—all are rotten reasons to enter ministry and the Church rightfully tends to sift these people out.

The only legitimate reason to go into official ministry is the calling which comes from God through the people, not one’s inner sense of worthiness.

Even at the local level, did you know that the quickest way to disqualify yourself for office is to ask for it? “I’ve been going to this church for 15 years, it’s about time I get to be an elder and exert my influence on things!” Nope.

I learned recently that bishops in the Catholic Church take—as part of their vows—a promise “not to seek higher office.” I think that is wonderful. Anyone who campaigns for arch-bishop or pope is automatically disqualified! That’s a great rule, because it undercuts the very heart of Pharisaism, which is the drive to justify ourselves, to move ourselves up, morally speaking.

But the church isn’t alone in producing the morally superior types. All societies do it. In Communist China, you know there must be party circles where people try to outdo each other with demonstrations of their passionate love for the State. In North Korea, citizens vie to appear more lovingly loyal to the great leader. In the secular west, we are riddled with self-righteous Pharisees that have nothing whatsoever to do with religion. Do you know them?

They are: •More concerned about the environment than you and more dedicated to reducing their carbon footprint. Look—see my Prius, solar panels, and fully off-the-grid composting system? What are you doing to save the planet?•Holy Vegans. 100%. And locavores to boot. Take that, meateaters.•Fashionistas. Can you even believe what she was wearing? And that hair? Lord, thank God that I am not like her.

• And politically? Let’s not start. There’s more liberal than thou, more conservative than thou, more knowledgeable than thou.

All of these are evidence of deeply ingrained Pharisaism—all are examples of how we are driven to fight our way—king of the hill style—to stake our claim on the moral high ground. It is what makes politics so exhausting.

JESUS UNDERMINES HUMAN HOLINESS

Jesus undermines it all, saying:

What is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.

There can be no such thing as religious ambition. It can only get us into trouble.

There is no trusting in our own justifications. We are right to call them out as self-righteousness and to expose them when and where we can. Jesus never stopped using the word “hypocrites” toward those who were trying to make their own way, build themselves up, and pretend to occupy the moral high ground.

This is why Jesus teaches his disciples (and us) to seek to be servants, slaves, and the last of all who can only be exalted by God. All who wait upon the Lord and depend upon his exaltation will be justified. All who would take the Lord’s work of justification onto themselves do so at their peril.

We don’t have our hands on the wheel, when it comes to righteousness.

Jesus drives for us. The only way we get to our destination is letting go of the wheel and letting Jesus do all the justification.

“But I want to feel that I’m okay with God!” “Is it so wrong to do some good things in this world so I can feel that?”

Go ahead so long as you don’t think you’re winning brownie points for doing so. Go ahead as long as you simply feel free—liberated—to give.

God loves a cheerful giver, not one who gives in order to get.

BAPTISM

The sacrament of baptism is more than a washing away of sins; it is a resignation of both sin and righteousness from our own hands. We die to sin, but also to any and all attempts at self-justification.

In baptism, we proclaim that our trust—our absolute and total TRUST—is in Christ alone. We die to our need to keep our hands on the wheel. In baptism, we profess our trust in the promises of God, made manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

Baptism proclaims that we live now beyond the Law in a state of grace. We are saved and can do nothing to add to it or even to take from it—it is God’s work, God’s responsibility, and God’s glory alone.

God must do the work, not us.

“But Pastor, you’re saying that someone can do whatever they want and still get saved? Really? People would sin like crazy if that were true!”

Perhaps, but that isn’t asking the right question. The right question is not “What can someone get away with?” but rather, now that one lives in a state of grace and is forgiven their sins, what is it you really want to do? Anyone who knows God’s love and who loves God even a little in return is going to find their desires reformed as well. The more, the better. We come, by the Holy Spirit, to want what God wants for us. We come to loathe and despise the things that grieve the Lord’s heart. We find ourselves wanting all things that contribute to his glory and a growing distaste for sin. We want sin less and less.

Baptism is the profession of God’s work being done for us, within us, and carrying out the transformation of our souls now and for eternity. In baptism, we are dead to the old ways and resurrected to the new code of Christ.

As we remember our baptisms this morning may we all reinvest deeper and deeper shares of our trust in him, his work, and his kingdom above all else. †