TITLE: “The Place of Confession in the Christian Life”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on these words, And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

I once heard it said that for the Lutheran, the moral of the story of the Pharisee and the publican is that the good Lutheran always sits in the back. Now, as true as that may sound, that is not the point. Jesus uses the Pharisee and the Publican to give us a picture, if you will, of how prayer is to work in the life of the Christian. But more importantly, Jesus is teaching us here about the posture of the Christian, and the life of repentance lived under the Gospel.

We hear a lot of talk about prayer nowadays. Everyone thinks you should do it, and there are countless models of how it works, what prayer is, and what role it should play in your life. When I was ordained about 4 ½ years ago, one of the phrases that really stuck in my mind was this little saying from the ordination rite: “Todd has prepared himself for this office by prayer and careful study…” That really amazed me. As a pastor, my life of preparation to be a pastor was understood as prayer and careful study. Prayer, then, is an integral part of what a pastor is and does.

Really, though, this is not just true for pastors, but for all Christians. Everyone knows Christians pray, but no one seems to know how or even why. I think that we often look at prayer really as careful study. It is very easy to look at the Christian faith as an accumulation of facts and knowledge. Prayer, then, is a chance for us to show God how much we know, or what we do to impress Him. That’s even how we look at worship sometimes, isn’t it? We go and do worship. It is here that we give to God. This is our offering, our worship to him.

That is sort of what we see in the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee went to the temple to pray, as did the publican, the tax collector. Now as the Pharisee went to pray, He went right up to the front, the place of honor, and our text says that he prayed with himself or to himself, saying, “O God, I thank you that I am not as other men…” Think about that for a minute. He goes and prays to himself, saying, “O God.” That kind of tells you where his priority is, doesn’t it? While the Pharisee went to worship, what was really on his mind was himself, how much he did for God, and what a wonderful person he was.

That is just how you and I look at worship. We look at worship as a chance to impress God. We try to show him what wonderful Christians we are, dress up the children and ourselves, and we go to make a show for God. Sure, sure, we all look at the mean, self-righteous Pharisee with disgust, but that really is what you and I are like by nature. You are a Pharisee by nature. You want to impress God enough so that He will have to accept you. I remember when I was on vicarage in Texas that my pastor and I went to a funeral held at a non-Lutheran church. The message of the sermon was basically that heaven was a better place now that the departed was there. The point was that the departed was so good, that heaven could hardly do without him.

Now that appeals to us, doesn’t it? We would like to think that each of us is basically a good person, and that despite little mess-ups every so often, that God really will just overlook these little trifles. It’s very tempting to think that way, because that is exactly what Satan would want you to believe. If Satan can convince you that sin really isn’t that big of a deal, then he has won, and Christ’s work on the cross is to no avail. You can see that in our Old Testament lesson, too. Cain and Able both brought offerings to the Lord. Abel brought his in faith, and Cain brought his to appease God. But God wouldn’t accept Cain’s offering, and so in a fit of jealousy Cain killed his brother, Abel. One approached God as the one who Gives, the other approached God in order to give and impress.

If we look at worship as our chance to impress God, then really what we’re doing is becoming Pharisees, just like in our text. Sure, maybe we don’t try and say we’re better than the extortioners or adulterers, but the sin is the same.

Compare this to the tax collector. God be merciful to me, a sinner. In this one phrase this lowly tax collector grasps the whole understanding of the Christian faith. What he is really talking about is repentance; the life lived under the Gospel. I had a pastor tell me once that repentance means looking at yourself as God looks at you.

There are, then, two parts to this repentance. The first part is usually called contrition. Contrition is feeling sorry for your sins, but it is much more than that. It is looking at your life according to the 10 Commandments, and seeing that you have not kept that. Contrition is terror over the fact that you nailed Christ to the cross, and that it is your sin that murdered him. It is seeing the picture of the poor miserable sinner, and seeing yourself in that picture. It is saying, “I am that thief on the cross, I am the poor blind man who can only beg, I am the prodigal son, I am this poor tax collector.”

The second half of repentance is faith, or belief that you are forgiven of all of your sins for Christ’s sake. As we pray in the Psalm: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” In many ways these words are harder to believe than the words of the Law. Sometimes it’s easy to believe that we are dirt and deserve death; but to believe that Christ died for me. That is hard. That’s what our Pharisees couldn’t believe. He believed that he had to impress God in order to be accepted.

Is repentance something you can do, then? No, it can only come from God Himself. Left to ourselves, we would wither and die. But we are not left alone. He continues to come to you with words of love and forgiveness and mercy.

It is no wonder that all the angels in heaven rejoice when a sinner repents! You can almost picture the whole heavenly host crying and singing for joy at the sinner who repents. Rejoice and be glad, God says. This is the victory! This is the life that was lost and is found. Not just any life, but your life. For most of you, the first time of repentance and faith was at your Baptism, when God washed you clean and made you spotless and pure. Today we have witnessed the repentance and faith of little Noah. You and I in God’s mercy have seen Satan crushed underfoot and a new life created in Noah by Water and the Word. Does it get any better than that? I think not.

Repentance is not a one-time act, however. We each repent every day. The Lutheran Confessions put it this way:

Repentance, therefore, is nothing else than a return and approach to Baptism, to resume and practice what had earlier been begun but abandoned.

Repentance is not a one-time event, but it is a way of life. It is a new way of thinking about yourself, as this tax collector did. It is a continual return to baptism and the new life God has given you in Christ Jesus. St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, and you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. That life is the life of repentance lived in the Gospel. This turning around or turning away of repentance is not easy. By ourselves we could not do it. We would stumble and fail every time. Thank God that it is a gift freely given.

You may have noted we sang a hymn about confession and absolution today. Confession and absolution are about Baptism, dear friends. And this hymn is speaking about both public as well as individual confession and absolution. It’s speaking about going to your pastor and confessing your sins, and having God forgive those sins. Now that’s hard. It is one of the most difficult things to do.

Yet this is what worship, what the Divine Service is all about. Everything that we are and receive here in this place is about the life of repentance given to you at your baptism. Hear the words of Dr. Luther in the Large Catechism:

Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. (Large Catechism, The Creed, Art. III, Triglotta p. 693)

The Pharisee and the tax collector both go up to the Temple to pray. One goes to the Temple to impress God, and try and bargain with God to win his favor. The other goes as a poor, miserable sinner, seeking only forgiveness and mercy.

Come, then, to this holy place, and receive again and again the words of life and forgiveness given to you by Christ himself. God is merciful to you, a sinner. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 11 (September 3, 2000)

Luke 18:9-14 The Pharisee and the Publican

On the Occasion of the Baptism of Noah Jiter

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Last Revised: September 6, 2000