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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion February 3, 2007 Tax Man |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, February 3, 2007 by Matt Pensinger
Luke 18:9-14 (The Message) - He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: "Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.' "Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.'" Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."
I like the description “tax man” because it reminds me of George Harrison’s “Taxman,” the opener to Revolver, the best of all Beatles albums (no arguing!). That sarcastic gem makes music out of the stereotypical portrayal of tax collectors since time began: greedy, grasping, cheating, uncaring, always taking more than a fair share, never having even a single moment of compassion or pity. The gospels describe “tax men” in this way too. And so does our popular cultural imagination; pity the poor Internal Revenue Service and those who work in it.
It makes me think of the crushing load that people have to bear when they are prejudged, or stereotyped, or put into categories. The Pharisee in Jesus’ story thought he knew what category he belonged in: he was one of the “good” people. It just makes sense then, doesn’t it, that if you’re one of the “good” people you should be thankful that God has blessed you? And so he is… and he’s also thankful that he didn’t fall into one of the “bad” categories. Like, say, that tax man over there. We all know what HE is like.
But what if, as the story suggests, it isn’t about who’s “good” and who’s “bad”… what if God hasn’t blessed some categories and not blessed others? What if we made up the categories on our own? And what if the most important things we could ever do would be about recognizing and confessing our own everyday sinfulness in stereotyping and hating and feeling superior and then instead loving, and showing mercy, because God shows such unbelievable mercy to us? It has always from the beginning of time been a stereotype of “tax men”: greedy, dishonest, uncaring. We’ve always since the beginning of time reveled in putting other people into categories like that. It makes us feel bigger, more special, more exalted. Jesus’ message cuts across all of that to say, you’re going to end up flat on your face if you keep doing that. Be yourself, recognize who you are, recognize who other people are too… and you can and will become more than yourself. Wow… I sure hope so.
Prayer: Lord God, lift us up when we are low… lift up all those who are low. And Lord, though it’s hard to ask, please bring us back down to where we should be when we get too full of ourselves. Thank you, God; we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
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