Sean C. Capapruccia

26 October 2025

Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; II Timothy 4:6-8; 16-18; Luke 18:9-14

            I wonder, what stands out most to you in this Gospel passage?  Just think on it for a moment. There is no right or wrong answer, just think about what stood out to you.  

Jesus is telling a parable here; a short, hypothetical story that uses everyday things to communicate a spiritual truth or lesson.

And in parables, we often hear the parts with which we identify. Jesus talked about two men, one a self-righteous Pharisee, the other a tax-collector, a sinner. With whom did you identify? If you tell the truth, you’ll probably say both.  That’s what I would say, anyway. But as is the case with most parables, they aren’t designed to identify you in one way or another but are there to make you think about your condition and discern what needs to be corrected.   

In this parable, Jesus was speaking to Pharisees – “To some who trusted in their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else.”  Now “Pharisee” had multiple meanings. We generally think of the Pharisees as being legalistic, everything according to the rules or the Law, and no one obeys the Law like I do. You see, the Jewish mindset was based on the Law; salvation was the reward given to those who obeyed the Law; those who did the most “works,” we might say.

            There are some who classify the Old Testament as a “covenant of works” and the New Testament as a “covenant of grace.” Meaning, to obtain salvation under the Old Covenant, one had to obey the Law, and to obtain salvation in the New Covenant, the Law no longer mattered because now we are all saved by grace. In truth, though, in the Old Testament, people were saved by faith: we see that in especially in Hebrews 11: By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice… By faith Enoch was taken up… By faith Noah prepared the ark… By faith Abraham left his country.. and so on. They believed in God and that He would send the Messiah someday. They believed and obeyed God. This was their salvation.[1]

In the New Testament, we are still saved by faith, and we still have the commandment to be obedient. As Paul says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” These are works of obedience that result from faith. People often make this tension between “faith” and “works” as if they were exclusive of one another. This is not the case. At issue here is the distinction between justification and sanctification; Justification is when God declares you guiltless – this comes by faith, which is a gift from God to you. It is by God’s grace. Sanctification is the working out of your faith, or your salvation. So, works proceed from faith and they work together to sanctify you until the end of this earthly life. Theologically, the problem begins when one thinks that faith is a gift of God given in response to your works. This is wrong because then we would be earning salvation – which we cannot do.   

Self-Centeredness

The Pharisees typically held fast to this belief – that works produce faith; works bring about salvation.  Back to the parable, then.  To “some who trusted in their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else.”  We see here the description of three types of people: The self-sufficient, the self-righteous, and the Religionists. What they all have in common is that they are self-centered.

The self-sufficient are those who have no need of God or anyone else. By their own power of mind and body they will get through this life and when God brings them to account on judgment day they will say, “Oh! There really is a God! Well, look what I did. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps; I didn’t need help from anybody.” They are humanists. They will rely on the “good” works they have done and try to convince God that they earned a place in heaven.

The self-righteous are those who believe in God and who do everything that God requires, at least what they believe God requires. In a word, they are “good enough” for God. Sure, they do wrong sometimes, but on the whole, they are good people; they are “respectable” people. And on judgment day when God calls them to account they will say, “I was a respectable person. I obeyed the Law, both Your law and the laws of the land. If I did anything wrong, surely the good I’ve done outweighs it.” They are like the self-sufficient except that they have “baptized” their good works; the good they do is accompanied by a belief in God. They, too, will rely on their “good” works and try to convince God that the scales of good and bad tilt in their favor. In fact, they’ve even done things in God’s name, and they have earned a place in Heaven. I think that this is actually what is most commonly believed today. In fact, in a recent survey of Christians, nearly 65% believed that God will judge us on the good things we’ve done against the bad.  Friends, the Bible is clear that we are not saved by works. We are saved, we are justified, by grace and grace alone. Good works flow from faith, not the other way around.

Another thing that Jesus addressed with this group of Pharisees was their attitude of “looking down on everybody else.” The Greek word used here literally means “to count as nothing, as unimportant, or insignificant.” Those who have this attitude despise others. They have no need for others. Other people are an obstacle to their own advancement and greatness in their own eyes.

And at the root of all of these attitudes is pride. Not pride in the sense of being proud of an accomplishment, or proud of someone else for something. I mean, your child or grandkid can draw a formless blob with eyes and you’re proud of them. Not that kind of pride. But the pride that says, “I am my own man.” The kind of pride that caters to self. The kind of pride that gets jealous if anyone gives the slightest hint that they might be doing better than you. The kind of pride that believes man has evolved to perfection over millions of years and of mankind, and thinks, “I am one of the best, if not the best.” It is elitism. It is the kind of pride that says, in truth, “I am good enough without God.” This is the same pride that Satan had when he rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven along with a third of the angels who thought they had found a great leader. It was this same Satan who taught this pride to mankind through Adam.

If you think about how the Temple is laid out, you’ll see this Pharisee standing as close as possible to the holy of holies. Of course he can’t go into it, but he will get as close to it as possible. This is what a prideful person does. He (or she) will stand as close to the object of importance as possible, whether that be a person (one who is unquestionably more important than they are) or the building being dedicated, or whatever… whatever the most important object is there they will be next to it.  He stands up so that all will see him and he prays out loud, maybe a little louder than he needs to.  And he prays – to himself, Jesus says, “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax-collector over there. I fast twice a week and pay tithes on all I get.”  Jesus makes it clear that this man is not praying to God, he’s praying to himself, and perhaps to the other people within earshot. He thanks God that he is righteous. Then he reminds God of the good things he does. He fasts twice a week: and yet the Law requires only one fast per year (Lev. 26:29; Num. 29:7). “Lord, not only do I meet the requirements of the Law, but I go over and above.”  He meticulously counted out a tenth of all he received and gave it to the Temple. It is interesting that though he went over and above with the fasting, he does not go over and above with the giving.

And he’s not like other people-  “the deplorables,” he may have said in another time and place. He’s not like the swindlers who cheat people nor is he like the adulterers who are morally corrupt; nor is he like this tax-collector over there who is obviously ethically corrupt.

Or maybe we could bring it into today’s culture.

“Thank you, God, that I don’t have tattoos all over my body (while you know very well you have a little Tweety-Bird tattoo on your left shoulder blade.) 

“Thank you, God, that I’m not fat like some people” (while you know very well how much you love to eat, you were just blessed with a higher metabolism, or you haven’t turned 50 yet when everything changes!)

“Thank you, God, that I’m not one of those people who drive 5-under the speed limit” (This one, I think is actually legitimate. This is a legitimate thanksgiving.)

But these don’t really hit the mark, do they?  Sin is sin, and we can’t overlook our own sin by comparing ourselves to other people because we’re all sinners. “There is none righteous, not one” (Rom. 2:8).

Though he seems to thank God for his righteousness, which would be a good thing, the truth is he is not thankful to God at all because, you see, his whole understanding of righteousness is what is seen on the outside; it’s all a comparison with those around him. This prayer wasn’t to God, the Righteous Judge of the hearts of men, it was to everyone listening. “Look at me! Mr. Awesome!” Elsewhere Jesus rebukes men like this when he says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees – hypocrites! -because you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean!” (Mat. 23:27).  And to the people who see him he must look the picture of righteousness but on the inside, he is full of every vice and wicked desire while “he boldly maintains his innocence”[2] of what others cannot see.

Are you bothered by this man yet? Have you seen this man?

But Jesus talks about another man praying at the Temple that day. He was a tax-collector; a sinner. He’s called a sinner because to most all Jews at the time, he was one of the worst types of men. As a tax-collector, he was working for the Roman government and making money by exacting taxes in excess of what was owed in order to pad his own bank account. He was a Jew, under the Law and the Covenant, but has sold himself out to those who hate the Jews and God. A prostitute was a sinner, too, but at least they’re selling something; tax-collectors only take. To be fair, tax-collecting is a legitimate job and someone has to do it, but whoever that is will probably not have a lot of friends.  When some tax-collectors came to be baptized by John they asked, “Teacher, what shall we do?” They wanted to know if this baptism of repentance would mean they would have to find another career. Listen to John’s answer. He replied, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to’ (Luke 3:12).  So, let’s be honest: would you rather have a Christian collecting your taxes or a heathen? (This, by the way, is good defense for Christians in public office. We need more Christians being elected and also teaching in public schools.)

So, this tax-collector, this sinner, here he was in the Temple praying, “standing some distance away” from the Pharisee; I’d imagine he was somewhere pretty close to the exit door. “He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast, and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (vs. 12). Eyes cast to the ground he prays in humility. Friends, he knew he was a sinner. He was more than likely wealthier than the Pharisee, but he knew where that wealth came from. He also knew that collecting taxes was a legitimate occupation but one that had the potential to hurt a lot of people, at least financially. Yet I don’t imagine that simply collecting revenues was the only sin this man was concerned about. Oh, he knew the depth of his sins, those deep in his heart – the sins of thought, word, and deed; the things done and the things left undone.

John Calvin writes, “Humility [doesn’t] lie in refusing to acknowledge our sins, but condemning ourselves, and thus anticipating the judgment of God; and, with the view of being reconciled to God, in making an honest confession of guilt.”[3]

This man is the man who knows that something is not right in his soul; something’s got to change. He’s got a lot going for him but something is stirring within him. Something’s got to stop; and something’s got to start and he just doesn’t know what it is. But he knows God has something to do with it and he needs to go to a place of prayer. He’s not a religionist; he’s not here with a false pretense to go through the motions of worship to get that check in the box and then go right back to his ungodliness. No, something needs to change. He was miserable and lost and he ran to God.

I ask you, have you seen this man?

So, on the one hand: “Thank you God that I’m not like other people,” and on the other hand, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

“I tell you,” Jesus says, “that this man, rather than the other, went home justified.”

Humility is the key. I believe the first sermon I preached before you was on the poverty of spirit, being poor in spirit.  John Wesley asks, “Who then are ‘the poor in spirit’?” And then he answers, “Without question [they are] the humble; they who know themselves; [those] who are convinced of [their] sin[fulness]; those to whom God has given that first repentance, which precedes faith in Christ.”[4] 

            Wesley also wrote, “Humility, a right judgment of ourselves, cleanses our minds from those high conceits of our own perfections, from that undue opinion of our own abilities and attainments, which are the genuine fruit of a corrupted nature. This entirely cuts off that vain  thought, ‘I am rich, and wise, and have need of nothing’’ and convinces us that we are by nature ‘wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked.’… without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing but add sin to sin; that is, He alone who worketh in us by His almighty power, either to will or do that which is good…”[5]

 Reformation

 Today is Reformation Sunday.  And it is this issue that was at the heart of the Reformation. We generally credit Martin Luther with starting the Reformation but it had been growing for centuries before Luther. It wasn’t just about indulgences or immorality in certain circles of the Church.  Those were only symptoms of the bigger problem. The problem went back to Cain and Abel: works versus faith; a religion of man or the religion of God. In whom or in what do I put my trust?  I think a lot of people misunderstand the issue of faith and works, just like they misunderstand the concept of “free will.”  They’ll pit Romans against Hebrews (the Bible books, not the people) as if the Scripture contradicted itself. There is no contradiction.

Martin Luther said this: “Now you have heard that a man, before he can do anything good, must by all means first be good. For the truth must always stand, ‘A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit;’ and again, ‘An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.’ Thus, a man must first be good, before he can do good,”[6] and “Faith alone must make us good and save us. But to know whether faith is right and true, you must show it by your works.”[7]

Justification is a legal term: it means to be declared not “guilty,” it is an acquittal. It is the grace of God alone that justifies us. Imagine standing before the judge for a murder you most definitely committed. Now you had your reasons for it, I don’t know, maybe they were driving 5-under the speed limit. There is no question of your guilt, you are just awaiting the sentence. And the Judge comes back and says, “not guilty.” Not guilty? What do you mean I’m not guilty? Your Honor, you know I committed the crime! “Yes, I know you committed the crime, son, and someone will pay for it, just not you.”

Brothers and sisters, that is Justification. “Not guilty!” Justification is the beginning of salvation. You didn’t work for it; you didn’t pay for it; you didn’t trade for; you didn’t make promises for it; you didn’t even think it possible. But by God’s amazing grace, you have it.

The tax-collector came in with his head low, eyes to the ground, he couldn’t even look up to heaven. He knew he was a sinner and that there was nothing he could bring to the table. “Lord, I’m a sinner. There it is. All I can do is ask that You have mercy on me.” 

You see, before he could even pray this prayer, it was the Lord who was at work in him.  “..no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him. [So] come to me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mat 11:28-29).

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luk 18:13b)

. “Not guilty!” That’s the verdict. Has God pronounced you “not guilty?”The question is what will you do with your freedom? Will you give it all to Jesus for what he’s done for you? Do you identify with Christ?

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[1] John Wesley, “The covenant with Abraham was a gospel covenant; the condition the same, namely, faith… The Mediator is the same; for it was in his Seed, that is, in Christ , that all nations were to be blessed.” A Treatise on Baptism.

[2] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries vol. XVI (Tr. Rev. Willliam {Pringle: Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2003), 204.

[3] Ibid., 205.

[4] John Wesley,  quoted in Sean Capparuccia, “Poverty As Blessing?” Sermon preached 16 February 2025.

[5] John Wesley, John Wesley’s Fifty-Three Sermons, Sermon XIII “The Circumcision of the Heart I.3-4 (ed. Edward H. Sugden: Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), 189.

[6] Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 4 (Ed. John Nicholas Lenker: Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 1995), 338.

[7] Ibid.