The Jesus Prayer

October 29, 1995

Luke 18:9-14

Two men went up to the temple to pray to the one true God. One man stood by himself in his shining goodness. The other man stood afar off in consciousness of his sinfulness.

This is a pointed story. Jesus told it to some people who were trusting in themselves for salvation, and were actively putting down other seekers after God.

In this story the first character, THE PHARISEE, was the sort of fellow you think of as the pillar of society. He was regular in paying his bills, he belonged to the Rotary Club, he drove a Cadillac, he tithed a pretty hefty income.

The second character, THE TAX COLLECTOR, was different. He was far down the social scale. He had a shady reputation. He had business dealings with unbelievers. He would not deny being a sinner.

The PHARISEE had a LOAD of righteousness— self-righteousness. It was a comparative righteousness. He compared himself to people he despised: "I thank You God that I am not as others are — thieves, rogues, adulterers, or, God forbid, even like this tax collector standing there!" And he measured his religion in adding up the good things he did. "Add these things up," he said to God. "I fast twice in the week, I give a tenth of all my income, I'm really quite a valuable addition to your temple, God!"

The TAX COLLECTOR, on the other hand, stood far off, away from the altar. His head was down. He smote his breast. He acknowledged his sin.

It is not acceptable in polite society today to talk about "sin" and "guilt." We deserve a break today! Remember rights, and entitlement! Guilt is always bad— always unhealthy.

I agree that guilt is something we do not have to live with. But I do not agree that all guilt is either inappropriate or bad. There is a kind of acknowledging of guilt which is actually healthy, because it accepts responsibility. Facing real guilt is the first step to real forgiveness and real peace with God. "IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS," is the promise, "GOD IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." (I John 1:9) [We like the "all unrighteousness" part— we don't always hear the "If we confess" part!]

The Bible says that whether we are up-and-outers like the Pharisee, or down- and-outers like the tax collector, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) We are all sinners by birth, and every one of us have sinned by choice. Sin is putting anything or anyone ahead of God.

Two men went up the hill to pray. The PHARISEE went up the hill to the temple knowing that he was better than most people. The TAX COLLECTOR went up the hill to the temple knowing that he had come short of God's glory. He didn't try to fool either God or himself for even a minute. He prayed this prayer: "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner."

Two men went down the hill from the temple that day. Jesus said the tax collector went back home justified. The Pharisee just went back home.

The simplicity of the prayer the tax collector prayed all too often escapes us. We know that following Jesus involves doing as well as being. Being Christian takes discipline and prayer. So we forget how simple and how basic it is to say from the heart, "Jesus is Lord!" We memorize Romans 10:9,10, but we forget the impact of that short prayer.

When we get away from the simplicity of the faith we start building our own righteousness. We begin to THINK like the Pharisee, even if we don't actually put his prayer into our own words.

THIS IS REFORMATION SUNDAY - On this particular Sunday of the year we recall one man in history who re-discovered the power of the Jesus prayer and changed the course of history

Let me just mention again a few facts from Luther's life that underscore this story Jesus told:

Martin Luther was born in 1483, and as a young man started out to study law. About the time he finished law studies, in 1505, a lightning bolt scared the wits out of him, and he promised God he would become a monk— went on to become a priest— was a brilliant but not-very-happy seeker after salvation.

The church of Luther's day was often guilty of praying the prayer of the Pharisee. Like every human institution, our own included, there was a strong incentive to preserve the machinery and to forget the spirit of Christ— to legalize and legislate, and forget the simple truth of grace. Luther was frustrated, unsatisfied in his own heart.

In 1513, the year after receiving his Doctorate and becoming teacher/preacher at Wittenberg, Martin began lecturing on the Psalms. When he arrived at Psalm 72, as he was lecturing to the students he got new insight concerning "the righteousness of God." (Have you read Psalm 72 lately? I had to re-read it again to see what was so revolutionary as to catch Martin Luther's imagination:

(Psalm 72:12) For (God) will deliver the needy when he cries for help, the humble also, and him who has no helper. (13) He will have compassion on the poor and needy, and the souls of the needy he will save....)

Martin Luther began to see the compassion of God. Up until this time Luther had only feared God, as a tyrant judge. He began to see God's righteousness as a quality which God was willing to give to believers, and which would make them acceptable in his Presence.

Then in his study of Romans Luther re-discovered "The Just shall live by faith!" Luther discovered that he had had it all backwards: WE DO NOT ACHIEVE FAITH BY BEING RIGHTEOUS, BUT WE RECEIVE CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH! Still Luther asked questions of himself, recorded in his works, such as:

"Are you alone wise? Can it be that everyone else is in error and has been in error for so long? What if you are wrong and lead into error so many people who might then be eternally damned?

But Luther could not remain quiet forever. Things came to a head when fund raisers came through Saxony selling coupons to get people out of purgatory. It was just three years after Psalm 72 had spoken to him, and after he had re-discovered the great truth in Romans "The just shall live by faith!" that the crisis came.

On October 31, 1517, exactly 478 years ago this very week, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses, 95 statements for debate on, among other things, why the sale of indulgences were evil- on the Cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany. He wrote these propositions for debate in Latin— but the 95 theses were also translated into the common German, and printed, and spread far and wide. The business of indulgences, salvation from purgatory by works, was ruined in that part of Saxony. The Reformation was under way.

Nearly four years later, in April of 1521, Luther was summoned to Worms to defend his position before a Diet of the clergy and secular rulers. On the first day of his appearance Luther saw that he would not be permitted to make a speech, and he begged for a day to think of his answer.

Luther was not admitted to the Diet the next day until nightfall, and he stood in the candle-lighted Episcopal hall next to the great cathedral. After realizing again that there was no room for debate, Luther made this statement:

"Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning— and my conscience is captive to the Word of God— then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience."

And then he added the famous words: "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me! Amen" And with those words Luther became an outlaw.

Thus endeth the "history lesson" this Reformation Sunday!

The "two ways of justification" are still with us today.

If we are honest— there are times when we have stood in the place where the Pharisee stood in the story. We have compared ourselves to other mortals instead of seeing a holy God. We have added up our good and hoped it outweighed the bad.

But there are NOT two ways to find peace with God. There ARE NO human beings who can justify themselves in God's holy eyes. There are NONE of us who dare to despise others, and compare our holiness with other sinners.

In our Wesleyan tradition we need to learn to live in the healthy tension between the call of God to holiness and the humility of knowing that our performance often comes short of God's glory. Our Savior can give us grace to live above willful sin in word thought and deed. Our Savior also taught us to pray every day, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors!" Can we live with the paradox of not sinning and confession our sins? Can we seek to be God's instruments and NOT seek to use God selfishly?

There is a prayer, an ancient prayer, actually, that came out of this passage, no doubt. It is called The Jesus Prayer. I'm sure that a number of Nazarenes would not want to pray this prayer because we have been forgiven and are no longer in active, willful, outbroken sin, no longer in rebellion against God. . . .

I can still hear the wisdom of my elders saying "If we start calling mistakes 'sin,' it won't be long until we are calling sin 'mistakes.'" In other words we cannot excuse any willful sin in our lives.

Still the fact remains that Jesus has given us the Lord's Prayer— and also he has given us this story to keep us from trusting in our own righteousness, and comparing it with others. That ancient prayer, the Jesus Prayer simply goes like this:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

It is a powerful prayer when it becomes a way of life! Shall WE pray?

#435 vv 1,2,3 -My Faith has Found a Resting Place