Striking Parallels
THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Sirach 35:12-17 • 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 • Luke 18:9-14
“God, I thank you that I’m not like other people: the uptight, the killjoys, the holier-than-thou’s, or even like this Pharisee in today’s gospel reading. He fasts twice a week, but I nourish myself and savor the delicious morsels that come my way as gifts from a generous God. He gives a tenth of all his income, but I don’t calculate my gifts. I respond generously to needs as they arise. Sometimes, I even lose the receipts for my tax-deductible donations. I don’t rely on any system of works-righteousness like those other types of religious people. (You know the ones I’m talking about, Lord!) I know that all I need to do is acknowledge my sins and trust in your mercy. So really, what I want to thank you for most today, Lord, is that I am so humble.”
The parable told in today’s gospel has an ironic history. Somehow, a parable that Jesus used to challenge those who despise other people, has given later generations of Christians an excuse to…despise other people. What exactly qualifies someone as despicable changes, but the disdain for others who dare to draw near to God in a different way somehow endures. The idea that God could regard as justified both an above-and-beyond model of effortful righteousness and a sinner dependent on God’s mercy somehow defies belief.
The first audience for this parable, according to Luke, is people who consider themselves righteous and who despise “the rest” (as the Greek puts it). The Pharisee in the parable is similar to them, as he distances himself from the tax collector both physically and morally. In the temple, the Pharisee stands apart from the tax collector. Perhaps still glimpsing the tax collector out the corner of his eye, the Pharisee lumps him in with thieves, the unjust, and adulterers, who the Pharisee himself is not like.
The tax collector, for his part, stands far away from the Pharisee. Unlike the Pharisee, he’s acutely aware of his sins and he knows his need for God’s mercy.
At the end of the parable, Jesus says, “I tell you, this man [the tax collector] went down to his home justified rather than the other.” But is this really what Jesus says?
Translations of this parable are a test case for how wide we think the righteousness of God really is. The word translated here as “rather than” is παρά, which normally means “beside.” We know “παρά” from words like “parallel.” Parallel lines are lines that track beside one another, like train tracks. We also know “παρά” from the word “parable”—the type of stories that Jesus tells. A “parable” often makes some kind of comparison or analogy. You can place images or characters from Jesus’s parables alongside yourself or your own life, and discover something illuminating about the kingdom of God.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says that the tax collector went down to his home justified, or made righteous, “παρά” the Pharisee—or, alongside him. But modern English translators almost always quote Jesus as saying that the tax collector went down justified rather than the Pharisee. Some translations go further and spell out more insistently that the tax collector was made righteous and the Pharisee was not (NLT, NCV, NIrV).
But the Greek παρά means “beside, near, side by side with, alongside of, parallel with.” With particular verbs or in particular contexts, it can mean “equivalent to, in addition to, precisely at the moment of.” Although the Pharisee and tax collector stand far apart from one another in the temple and go their separate ways afterward, in the eyes of God they go down side by side—the one justified alongside of the other.
Occasionally, the word παρά can imply superiority—like “over and above” or “more than.” If this is the sense of the word in the parable, though, what Jesus conveys is the excess of God’s power to make people righteous. The Pharisee is made righteous by following God’s life-giving law and going beyond its minimum stipulations. But God also goes above and beyond, offering righteousness to those who acknowledge their sins and seek God’s mercy.
Instead of using this parable as reason to despise and distance ourselves from others, we can respond by affirming that we are fellow-travelers who walk and stand alongside each other, even when the gaps between us feel large. There are many ways to be made right and justified. This fact could draw us closer, not farther apart.
But I think the parable has still more to teach us about how to draw nearer to God. Drawing near to God often involves standing alongside people who are very different from us. But in reality, it’s not all that easy to file anyone under the category of “Pharisee” or “tax collector.” The parallels to modern day life aren’t simple to draw. It’s also not easy to identify most people categorically either as an above-and-beyond ethical and generous person, or as a sinner dependent on the mercy of God. Most of us are a blend of both.
The invitation of today’s gospel then is to bring our whole selves to God, with both repentance and thanks. We can come with genuine gratitude for the things we’ve done well, even when we’ve had to struggle, or when it has cost us. We can come to share the gifts that we’ve earned at least in part by our own hard work and sacrifice, like the Pharisee. But we can also bring the part of us that begs for mercy for the things we’ve done wrong. In some cases, we can ask for mercy, like the tax collector, for the benefits that have come our way through the world’s injustices.
The kingdom of God can feel narrow at times. We may have to draw uncomfortably close to others in order to enter. We may have to reconcile different parts of ourselves to belong fully to God. But the kingdom of God can surprise us nonetheless with its breadth. The men in today’s parable are on parallel rather than intersecting journeys, so they may never recognize their closeness, but they can help us see just how wide the righteousness of God might be. These fellow-travelers show us something about the wideness of the God that accompanies us home.
*The definitions of παρά apply when it is followed by the accusative case, as in today’s gospel. It has other meanings when followed by other cases, but not “rather than” or “instead of.”
**This sermon is indebted to a chapter on this parable in Amy-Jill Levine’s Short Stories by Jesus.
© 2022 The Rev. Dr. Lora Walsh
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Fayetteville, Arkansas