The Fullness of Emptiness!

 “I tell you this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humbled themselves will be exalted.”  Luke 18:14

There is no question who is the most religious in Jesus’ parable.  It’s a no-brainer – the Pharisee is infinitely more “religious.”

 The Pharisees were the strictest sect of the Jews.  Their life and faith was based upon a strict and legalistic observance of the law.  They would pray often, and with long prayers, and on the street corners and in public places so that they might be seen by others.  They would sew pieces of cloth onto their robes that had parts of the Torah written on them so that others would infer that they were lovers of the law of God.  They were punctual and exact in ritual observances of all kinds.  They were so strict in their observance of the Sabbath they kept over 600 Sabbath laws, and they criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath and his disciples for plucking heads of grain from the field to eat.

Generally the Pharisees were held in high esteem by the people, and there was even one popular Jewish proverb that said, “If only two men are saved, one would surely be a Pharisee.”

No one doubted that the Pharisees were sincere in their faith.  Even Martin Luther acknowledges that.  Listen to what Luther said about the Pharisee from one of his sermons on this passage: “First of all you must properly magnify and adorn the Pharisee… for here you have a man who dares to stand before God, and praise his own life in the divine presence. This can never be intended as a false praise, but is meant in all earnestness and truth. He appeals to himself as a witness, and is willing to announce himself before God… give an account of his entire life, that it is spent in obedience to God.”

Contrasted with the Pharisee is a character who couldn’t have been more the opposite – the publican as he is sometimes known – or tax collector.

 Tax collectors sometimes were Jews or Gentile converts and they worked for the Romans. They were infamous for gouging the people for as much as they could get and keeping the extra for themselves – all with the blessing and backing of the Roman authorities.  Obviously they were hated and spurned by the general population for they were usually very rich and they had attained their wealth through government sanctioned corruption.   

 So the stage is set.  Two men, very opposite in life and character come to the temple to worship and make their offering.  At least they had that in common.  But that was all.  From the moment they entered the temple their differences were apparent. 

Jesus seems to turn everything upside down in this parable.  He says that the one who is more on target when it comes to authentic religion, the one who went down to his house “justified” was not the very religious Pharisee, but the low-life tax collector.  How can that be?  What kind of a value-system is Jesus employing here?  This had to be terribly confusing for everyone.

You see, this parable is a threat to anyone who has even a pinch of Pharisee in them – and I believe that includes all of us.  Most of us live with the popular notion that we will be saved by God if the bottom line is we do more good than bad in our lives.  We see religion as a kind of balance scale, and if the scale tips more to the side of good and decency then God will surely not forget us, but ultimately reward us.  We may not say that out loud, but a secret part of our being believes it to be so.  I have even known those who profess non-belief advance such thinking as a kind of insurance policy – just in case.

But this parable blows all of that away!  For no one was more sincerely religious than the Pharisee.   No one paid more attention to the detail of God’s law than the Pharisee.

But let’s look a little closer.  Let’s look at what the Pharisee’s strict religion had done to him. What kind of a person had his religion shaped him into?   First, it had resulted in a kind of posturing before God and others.  He seemed to be as concerned about outward appearance as anything else: how he looked to others and the image he was projecting to the community around him.    

Second, his religion was used as a way to gain leverage over others.  “God, I thank you I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”   His strict religion had instilled within him an attitude of superiority and condescension.  He used his religion to assert himself over others; as leverage to build him-self up at the expense of others. 

Third, his religion was me-centered.  His religion was about advancing his own agenda.  It was self-aggrandizement; self enlargement; keeping himself very much at the center of his universe, and everyone else, including God on the periphery serving him for that purpose. 

In other words the Pharisee came to God very full – full of himself – overflowing with himself.  There is no doubt he was sincere.  There is no doubt in his own heart and mind he felt he was sincere in his praise of God.  But he was so full of himself he could not recognize that his praise was more of himself that praise and worship of God.

Then came the publican came with the opposite attitude of total humility.  “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’”

In other words the publican came before God empty.  The point Jesus is making by telling this story is that when we come before the Lord the only thing we can bring is our emptiness; the acknowledgment of our sin.  The only thing we really have to bring to the Almighty God is our naked, humble, shameless, admission that without God we are dead, hungry and unfilled.

None of this made a lot of soul sense to me until about twelve years ago when I reached a place in my life of humiliation – total humiliation.  I brought it upon myself.  I was a perfectionist, driven, work-a-hol-ic and proud of it.  And then I crashed and burned.  I burned out!  I experienced an emotional and spiritual burn-out and entered a wilderness of depression.  I felt like a failure. I had failed.  I felt like I had let everyone down.  I had let everyone down. I was embarrassed, broken, empty, and spent.  But yet, it was in the midst of that wilderness somewhere I heard the voice of God and do you know what God said to me?  God faint voice whispered, “Ah, Joseph my child, finally, now I can begin to fill you.”

Up until that time I believe I was too full of myself to truly be filled with the things of God.  Up until that time the noise of my own accomplishments drown out the quiet voice of the Lord. 

I personally resonate to these words of Parker J. Palmer who had a similar experience, “I had read somewhere that humility is central to the spiritual life, which seemed like a good idea to me: I was proud to think of myself as humble! What I did not know is that for some of us the path to humility goes through humiliation -- being brought low, unable to function, stripped of pretenses and defenses, feeling fraudulent, empty, useless -- that allows us to re-grow our lives from the humus of common ground.

The spiritual journey is full of paradoxes, and one of them is that the humiliation that brings us down -- down to ground on which it is safe to stand and to fall -- eventually takes us to a firmer and fuller sense of self. When people ask me how it felt to emerge from depression, I can give only one answer: I felt at home in my own skin and at home on the face of the earth, for the first time.
--Parker J. Palmer, All the Way Down, Weavings, September-October 1998, 40.

In my own experience I know that when all I had to bring to God was my emptiness, brokenness and bankruptcy, I too went away for the first time feeling “at home in my own skin and at home on the face of the earth,” and I could add “at peace with God and myself.”

Jesus said the publican “went down to his home justified,” not the Pharisee. 

God cannot fill us if we perceive we are already full.  I don’t know about you but I look around and see a culture dying from its own fullness: violence, broken relationships, drugs and alcohol abuse, bored and angry youth, fearful people, unfulfilled people who will turn to most anything for a thrill; people who do not feel at home within their own skin and on the face of the earth.

Jesus said the publican “went down to his home justified.”  - not the Pharisee. 

The difference between the publican and the Pharisee was that the publican knew he was empty; the Pharisee was living the illusion he was already full.

For the Pharisee, religion was about what he could accomplish with a little help from God.  I believe that is a popular notion – a popular way of believing.  I see it all the time – what he could accomplish with a little help from God.  It’s a me-centered faith that pushes God to the edges.

For the publican, religion was about what God could accomplish through the empty vessel of his bankrupt life. 

Jesus said the publican “went down to his home justified.” - not the Pharisee. 

In other words, to use Parker Palmer’s words, Only the publican “felt at home in his own skin and at home on the face of the earth” and we could add, and at peace with God and himself. 

I pray the same for you and me.