Be Like God: Respect for Sinners and Education in the Justification of Sinners
Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
What are you doing about sin and sinners? In a foreign land, in the obfuscation of Greek culture, Israel did its best to maintain the wisdom of its ancestors, the teaching of God. The fact that the Israelites living outside Palestine no longer spoke their ancestral language, the Hebrew language, was not a deterrent, Ben Sirach translated the wisdom of Israel for its diaspora or oversea members, so that the wisdom of God will still guide them in a foreign nation. The belief was that foreign cultures could lead Israelites away from the ways of God, and only education could forestall that. That effort culminated in the book called Ben Sirach.
Not only for the Jews, but also Christians and humanity as a whole, God wishes us to learn his wisdom; and, today, the respect for sinners as a sign of holiness is a lesson to be learned from our first and gospel readings. God’s view of a sinner is different from ours, especially when we seek their condemnation. The God of justice of which our first reading speaks, who doesn’t unduly favor the weak, is a God of compassion: “The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites. Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed” (Sirach 35:12). This citation shows that God has no favorites, all are his children – the good, the bad, and the ugly, they all have rights to worship him in his Temple. As a matter of fact, “sin” is an oppressive force on a child of God, and God delivers sinners from sin, when they call out to him. In fact, the wisdom of God is how to avoid sin and to attain righteousness.
A Christian may not be living in a Greek milieu like the addressees of Ben Sirach, but to be on the planet earth is already to be in diaspora, to be in a foreign land like the Jews of our first reading, needing God’s wisdom as a compass/GPS to navigate our path to God. Our second reading says that much: “I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-7). Paul makes the earth a foreign land, a place of competition to keep the Christian faith alive, and heaven as a place of reward for those who have competed favorably – “and [God] will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).
Today’s gospel seems to challenge the statement of the first reading that “God has no favorites,” since one person is justified and the other condemned! Make no mistake about it, God cares for the righteous as well as the sinner – “The Lord is a God who has no favorites” (Sirach 35:12), says our first reading. However, the poor, the orphan, the widow, the weak of our first reading as well as the sinner/tax collector of our gospel fall within the same category – they are the helpless, who need God’s grace and intervention. It is not as if the rich, the strong and the righteous do not need God, but they often prove that they don’t which makes them subjects of God’s criticism in such instances – the rich man versus Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the man with the bumper harvest (Luke 12:16-21), the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-30), etc.
The context of the Temple, the setting of the parable, helps us to understand what is happening between the Pharisee and the tax collector. At the dedication of the Temple built by Solomon (1 Kings 8:22-61), the Temple was declared a house of prayer, and Jesus reiterates the same principle in his teaching – stop turning my Father’s house into a market place (John 2:16). The house of God is never a place of condemnation! Perhaps the wrong conception of God’s house and what prayer should be is at the origin of today’s parable. The Temple is a place of worship, when we understand “worship” as the human response to Divine benevolence. We go to God’s house not to obtain the condemnation of our neighbors, but to thank God for the blessings we have received from him. The animal sacrifices of old, the tithes and many more were signs of gratitude to God for the blessings received.
When you compare yourself with the Pharisee and the tax collector of today’s gospel, which of them models your life, who do you resemble? Today is not judgment Sunday to say who is bad or who is good, but it helps to prepare us to answer another question – what kind of God do you worship? In the persons of the Pharisee and the tax collector two possible images of God are painted for us, 1) the God who doesn’t care about the righteous, and 2) a God who listens to sinners. Our approaches to God also shows who we think he is – a just God, who loves the keepers of his commandments, like the Pharisee wants us to believe, and the God who frowns at sinners so much so that the tax collector could not raise his eyes to look at him. The conclusion of today’s gospel is what is shocking, because it reverses the order – it is the sinner (tax collector) who is justified and the righteous (Pharisee) condemned!
No one is ever condemned for keeping God’s commandments – the claims of the Pharisee, and no one is condemned for seeking repentance, the tax collector’s justification by God. The problem is that Luke suggests that the Pharisee didn’t pray when he writes: “The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself . . .” but the tax collector did pray. From the perspective of the Pharisee, there is a double abuse, of God and his Temple/house. The abuse of God’s house and prayer is to forget to acknowledge and thank God for the blessings received, instead of playing God by deciding who needs God’s condemnation and not mercy. Beyond keeping the Law, there is also the grace of God that moves everyone that comes into the house of God, the righteous and the sinner. The ability to pray is itself God’s grace. The honesty and sincerity of prayer contributes to its power before God – “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds” (Sirach 35:18). Your sin is not the problem, but what you make of your sin – an affront on God or a sin offering, the presentation of guilt and compunction in order to receive mercy, just like the tax collector did.
The challenge today is to be like God, who respects a sinner; and, after listening to his confession of sins, forgives and justifies him. What makes us acceptable to God is not our arrogance, but our humility; our prayers to God is thanksgiving and not a petition for the destruction of sinners; our mode of life is to be intercessors for sinners and their conversion – for the Son of Man comes to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)!
St. Paul, in our second reading, shows us that it is possible to be like God by praying for the forgiveness of sins for sinners: “At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them (2 Timothy 4:16). It is the responsibility of Christians to pray for sinners, even if they do not consider themselves sinners. Every human being deserves God’s forgiveness, no one deserves God’s damnation. The very desire for the damnation of anybody is a sign of bad Christianity and an urgent need for repentance! In fact, we somethings envy sinners because we think that they are having a nice time in sin. This too is a sign of a truncated spirituality. Anyone envious of a sinner is as good a sinner as that person – a Christian must serve God joyfully not mournfully!
There is a great deal of schooling for every Christian from this statement of Sirach, because it will help us to curtail our complaints and condemnation of others: “The one who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heaven”. Can we really say we worship God willingly? Do we not complain about our jobs and Christian obligations, as if we are forced to observe them: oh, it is hard to be a Roman Catholic priest/nun – no spouse, no children and no money to spend! Gosh, marriage is complicated: my spouse is unreasonable, my children are too demanding and my boss and colleagues at work are hellish! Oops, this world is immoral: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, our government wastes our resources and tax payers’ money. Too bad: our streets are littered with beggars, who harass money out of us, reckle drivers and pickpockets worsen the matter. When we complain like this, are we different from the scenario in today’s gospel – the Pharisee?
Clearly, Ben Sirach does a better job of educating children than most of our parents today, who fail to teach religion and the wisdom of God to their children, but worry only about the knowledge that provides jobs and put money into the pockets of their children and dependents. What a shame and degradation of humanity! Indeed, there is an implicit condemnation that awaits you and me for failing to do our best to help sinners towards conversion. Ben Sirach translated the wisdom of God to make it accessible to the people; St. Paul poured out his life like a libation for the forgiveness of sins; you and I, what are we doing for the conversion of sinners, even our own sins?
Assignment for the Week:
Share the good news of salvation with someone this week, especially God’s forgiveness of sins.