After Thoughts: Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem and shares a parable that reveals him as our High Priest who has mediated a new covenant to secure our righteousness. In the story, two men go to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, stands boldly before God, explaining all that he has done to deserve God’s mercy. The other one, a tax collector, stands far away, eyes downcast, admitting that he is not worthy of such grace. There is so much to explore in this short story!

The temple played a central part in the life of the people. Its physical structure was such that there was no mistaking who you were because your access to God’s house depended on your identity. There was a court for the Gentiles on the outer rim. They could go no further. And a court for the Jewish women, a separate and more interior court for the Jewish men, then deep inside was the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could go. Proximity to God depended on nationality and gender, personal attributes and characteristics, not what God was doing for the people, but where an individual rated on a human-created worthiness scale.

This tax collector, standing on the periphery, knew his place. It was painfully obvious he was not worthy to approach God on his own merits. Sadly, neither was the Pharisee, but he had been given worldly privileges and status that blinded him to his true self. It’s as if he believed he truly was climbing up a ladder, moving ever closer to God, when in reality, he never had the power to get off the ground. On the other hand, the tax collector knew he didn’t stand a chance. Feet firmly planted on terra firma, he hoped that God would come to him.

And so God did. The High Priest, Jesus, entered time and space to open the way for all humankind to boldly approach God. Paul writes that “just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” (Romans 5) The only way to justification is through righteousness and the only righteousness is that of Christ. The tax collector understood this. The Pharisee was still trying to be “righteous enough” and, in comparing himself to others, thought he was doing pretty good. Comparison is a dangerous sport.

So how was this tax collector justified? By what righteousness? Luther identified two kinds of righteousness. First, there is alien righteousness – that is, a righteousness that comes from outside us, a righteousness that we in no way can achieve, manifest, or perfect. This righteousness is through Christ and is a gift to all. Luther writes “Through faith in Christ, therefore, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that he has becomes ours; rather, he himself becomes ours.”

Following from this alien righteousness is the second type, proper righteousness, which is living and acting in gratitude for the gift we have received. We are obedient because we are forgiven, not forgiven because we are obedient. Or as Luther puts it, “The second kind of righteousness is our proper righteousness, not because we alone work it, but because we work with that first and alien righteousness. This is the manner of life spent profitably in good works…in slaying the flesh and crucifying the desires with respect to the self. This righteousness is the product of the righteousness of the first type, actually its fruit and consequence.”

The Pharisee was relying on the second type of righteousness, proper righteousness, without the first type imparted from God. Luther writes that these kinds of people “…wish to be like god, sufficient in themselves, pleasing themselves, glorifying in themselves, under obligation to no one…” The tax collector came to the temple, without works of which to boast, without status in which to rely, with nothing to bring. He came to the house of God hoping to find mercy, trusting in the goodness of God, believing that the High Priest would provide the sacrifice and atonement. And he went away justified.

We have a High Priest who is sitting in the place of honor. He is waiting to impart his righteousness. May we fall into this love, mercy, and grace daily. May we quit struggling with our own shortcomings, refrain from judging others for their faults, and accept this gift of alien righteousness, allowing it to empower us to live boldly in loving and caring for all of God’s creatures and creation.


To read more about the two kinds of righteousness, or many of Luther’s writings, check out Luther Reading Challenge at https://www.lutherreadingchallenge.org/

After Thoughts: Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 18:1-8

As Jesus continues the journey to Jerusalem, he tells the story of a widow and an unjust judge. Luke tips us off that Jesus is using this story to teach us about the “need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

What is Jesus revealing about the nature of God in this parable? The judge is close enough that the widow can go to him, knock on his door, bow before him, and speak to him. The judge is far enough above her that he has the power to command justice when he deems the time is right. The judge is both near and far.

Just as God is both near and far, or in theological terms, God is both immanent and transcendent. “God is present and active within his creation, but superior to and independent of anything that he has created.” * Lose the balance between the two and we lose what God has revealed to us about Himself through Jesus.

If we lose the understanding of the immanence of God, we can feel lonely and abandoned. We become reliant on social solutions and human efforts. We seek justice, we thirst for righteousness, and yet nothing changes. We get up every day and work in the world to bring about justice. Poverty, violence, oppression, and injustice just laugh at us. We wonder where God is. So let us not forget to pray, to ask, to plead, to spend time with Jesus, to take our burdens and worries to the cross. Remember in these times that God is near. Like the widow, keep going to the judge. Pray always.

If we lose the understanding of the transcendence of God, we can become despondent and hopeless. We may pray and talk to God often, but we have forgotten that God is outside the creation, He is above all. God’s ways are not our ways. God is not a genie’s lamp – pray all day for everything to go our way, and when it doesn’t, feel let down. Remember in these times that God is working within His creation. God is active, and His action takes place in an eternal framework. God is faithful. Like the widow, trust that the judge will set things right. Do not lose heart.

The Old Testament reading shows us this so beautifully. God’s immanence is evident in Jacob wrestling with him; Jacob physically encounters God, rolls around on the ground, fighting with God. God’s transcendence is evident in Jacob’s request for His blessing and God’s ability to transform Jacob by giving him a new name, one that affirms his identity as a child of God.

If the widow had this much faith in a corrupt, earthly judge, how much more faith should we have in God? Do we have confidence as we confess that “we believe in Jesus, God’s only son...who will come again to judge the living and the dead?” Then let us pray always. Let us not lose heart. God is working in and through creation until Christ returns. Will we be found faithful?

*Thanks to my old text book, Christian Theology, Second Edition, by Millard J. Erickson.

After Thoughts: Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 17:11-19

This past week’s readings were full of lepers. From 2 Kings, there was Naaman. In the Luke reading, there are 10 lepers, all of whom are healed, yet only one turns back to give thanks. What this common biblical skin ailment would be called in today’s medical terminology is uncertain; but what is certain is that leprosy was a horrible condition that required those afflicted with it to be ostracized from the community.

The 13th chapter of Leviticus, all 59 verses, is a guidebook for diagnosing and treating leprosy. The priest was the one responsible to examine the spots and sores and then to pronounce a person clean or unclean. If found to be unclean, the person was required to live alone, outside of the camp, away from friends and family. When others approached, lepers had to shout out “Unclean, unclean.”

Chapter 14 of Leviticus goes into the purification ritual once the leper is deemed clean by the priest. It’s a complicated process. The priest goes out of the camp to examine the leper. If it looks good, the patient is allowed back into the camp, but must live outside his or her tent for the next seven days. There is a ritual involving birds, one of which is sacrificed, and one set free. Then everyone waits until day eight at which time the healed leper is to bring two male lambs, one ewe lamb, a grain offering, and a log of oil to complete the ritual. But, if the person is poor, there are other options – only one male lamb or even two turtledoves or pigeons. Suffice it to say, a sacrifice of blood was required for atonement to be made and the leper deemed clean.

Now we fast forward to the Luke reading. Jesus is between Samaria and Galilee –kind of in a no-man’s land, neither here nor there. Out here in the hinterlands, he is hailed by a group of lepers, calling out for his mercy. As I reflected on this, three things stood out. 1) There was no pre-qualification. Jesus didn’t ask nationality, ideology, religious affiliation, or anything related to their identity or status – he just healed them all. 2) When the one turned back, Jesus didn’t send him out to evangelize, write a book, do a talk show…Jesus just told him to get up and go on his way. 3) Even though the other nine did not give thanks, Jesus did not undo his mercy and blessing of healing.

God, in Jesus, came to earth in human form to reveal His true nature to us. From the three points in the previous paragraph, what I see revealed is that 1) Jesus came for all people. 2) Living as a follower of Jesus is about doing the work we’ve been given, loving God and our neighbor, not proselytizing and judging. 3) God’s providence is for all people, God’s care extends throughout the universe. Not because of who we are. Because of who He is.

Here in today’s reading is Jesus, moving toward Jerusalem and his great act of salvation. His earthly time is coming to an end. In this final journey, we are given amazing insight into the nature of God, particularly in this encounter with the leper. In Matthew, Jesus tells us that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And here it is – that fulfillment right here in this beautiful story. By law, what happens when a leper wants to be pronounced clean? He is brought to the priest, and the priest must go out of the camp to meet him. He is examined. A sacrifice is made. He is restored to his place in the community.

Jesus goes out of the camp – he’s in between Samaria and Galilee, outside a village. He meets the lepers. He tells them to go to the priest. Off they go – and yet one of them got it – he discerned the true identity of Jesus. The High Priest and the Lamb of God. So he returned and fell at his feet in gratitude. Then Jesus sent him on his way to be restored to his family and community.

The Law was a shadow of the good things to come. Here in Jesus is the Gospel. In our crying out for mercy, here is our High Priest. In our extreme poverty, here is our Lamb. The Law fulfilled. Atonement made. The unclean now clean.  Relationship restored.  Life redeemed. 

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Have mercy on us.