THe Jesus Prayer

THE JESUS PRAYER

Luke 18: 9 - 14



Two men went up to the temple to pray to the one true God. One

man stood by himself in his shining goodness. The other man stood

afar off in consciousness of his sinfulness.



This is a pointed story. Jesus told it to some people who were

trusting in themselves for salvation, and were actively putting down

other seekers after God.



In this story the first character, THE PHARISEE, was the sort of

fellow you think of as the pillar of society. He was regular in

paying his bills, he belonged to the Rotary Club, he drove a Cadillac,

he tithed a pretty hefty income.



The second character, THE TAX COLLECTOR, was different. He was

far down the social scale. He had a shady reputation. He had

business dealings with unbelievers. He would not deny being a sinner.



The PHARISEE had a LOAD of righteousness-- self-righteousness.

It was a comparative righteousness. He compared himself to people he

despised: "I thank You God that I am not as others are -- thieves,

rogues, adulterers, or, God forbid, even like this tax collector

standing there!" And he measured his religion in adding up the good

things he did. "Add these things up," he said to God. "I fast twice

in the week, I give a tenth of all my income, I'm really quite a

valuable addition to your temple, God!"



The TAX COLLECTOR, on the other hand, stood far off, away from

the altar. His head was down. He smote his breast. He acknowledged

his sin.



It is not acceptable in polite society today to talk about "sin"

and "guilt." We deserve a break today! Remember rights, and

entitlement! Guilt is always bad-- always unhealthy.



I agree that guilt is something we do not have to live with. But

I do not agree that all guilt is either inappropriate or bad. There

is a kind of acknowledging of guilt which is actually healthy, because

it accepts responsibility. Facing real guilt is the first step to

real forgiveness and real peace with God. "IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS," is

the promise, "GOD IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AND TO

CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." (I John 1:9) [We like the "all

unrighteousness" part-- we don't always hear the "If we confess"

part!]



The Bible says that whether we are up-and-outers like the

Pharisee, or down- and-outers like the tax collector, "all have

sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) We are all

sinners by birth, and every one of us have sinned by choice. Sin is

putting anything or anyone ahead of God.



Two men went up the hill to pray. The PHARISEE went up the hill

to the temple knowing that he was better than most people. The TAX

COLLECTOR went up the hill to the temple knowing that he had come

short of God's glory. He didn't try to fool either God or himself for

even a minute. He prayed this prayer: "Lord, be merciful to me a

sinner."



Two men went down the hill from the temple that day. Jesus said

the tax collector went back home justified. The Pharisee just went

back home.



The simplicity of the prayer the tax collector prayed all too

often escapes us. We know that following Jesus involves doing as well

as being. Being Christian takes discipline and prayer. So we forget

how simple and how basic it is to say from the heart, "Jesus is Lord!"

We memorize Romans 10:9,10, but we forget the impact of that short

prayer.



When we get away from the simplicity of the faith we start

building our own righteousness. We begin to THINK like the Pharisee,

even if we don't actually put his prayer into our own words.



THIS IS REFORMATION SUNDAY - On this particular Sunday of the

year we recall one man in history who re-discovered the power of the

Jesus prayer and changed the course of history



Let me just mention again a few facts from Luther's life that

underscore this story Jesus told:



Martin Luther was born in 1483, and as a young man started out to

study law. About the time he finished law studies, in 1505, a

lightning bolt scared the wits out of him, and he promised God he

would become a monk-- went on to become a priest-- was a

brilliant but not-very-happy seeker after salvation.



The church of Luther's day was often guilty of praying the prayer

of the Pharisee. Like every human institution, our own included,

there was a strong incentive to preserve the machinery and to

forget the spirit of Christ-- to legalize and legislate, and

forget the simple truth of grace. Luther was frustrated,

unsatisfied in his own heart.



In 1513, the year after receiving his Doctorate and becoming

teacher/preacher at Wittenberg, Martin began lecturing on the

Psalms. When he arrived at Psalm 72, as he was lecturing to the

students he got new insight concerning "the righteousness of

God." (Have you read Psalm 72 lately? I had to re-read it again

to see what was so revolutionary as to catch Martin Luther's

imagination:



(Psalm 72:12) For (God) will deliver the needy when he cries

for help, the humble also, and him who has no helper. (13) He

will have compassion on the poor and needy, and the souls of

the needy he will save....)



Martin Luther began to see the compassion of God. Up until this

time Luther had only feared God, as a tyrant judge. He began to

see God's righteousness as a quality which God was willing to

give to believers, and which would make them acceptable in his

Presence.



Then in his study of Romans Luther re-discovered "The Just shall

live by faith!" Luther discovered that he had had it all

backwards: WE DO NOT ACHIEVE FAITH BY BEING RIGHTEOUS, BUT WE

RECEIVE CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH! Still Luther asked

questions of himself, recorded in his works, such as:



"Are you alone wise? Can it be that everyone else is in error and

has been in error for so long? What if you are wrong and lead

into error so many people who might then be eternally damned?



But Luther could not remain quiet forever. Things came to a head

when fund raisers came through Saxony selling coupons to get

people out of purgatory. It was just three years after Psalm 72

had spoken to him, and after he had re-discovered the great truth

in Romans "The just shall live by faith!" that the crisis came.



On October 31, 1517, exactly 478 years ago this very week, Martin

Luther nailed his 95 Theses, 95 statements for debate on, among

other things, why the sale of indulgences were evil- on the

Cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany. He wrote these

propositions for debate in Latin-- but the 95 theses were also

translated into the common German, and printed, and spread far

and wide. The business of indulgences, salvation from purgatory

by works, was ruined in that part of Saxony. The Reformation was

under way.



Nearly four years later, in April of 1521, Luther was summoned to

Worms to defend his position before a Diet of the clergy and

secular rulers. On the first day of his appearance Luther saw

that he would not be permitted to make a speech, and he begged

for a day to think of his answer.



Luther was not admitted to the Diet the next day until nightfall,

and he stood in the candle-lighted Episcopal hall next to the

great cathedral. After realizing again that there was no room for

debate, Luther made this statement:



"Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the

Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and

reasoning-- and my conscience is captive to the Word of God--

then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe

nor wise to act against conscience."



And then he added the famous words: "Here I stand. I can do no

other. God help me! Amen" And with those words Luther became an

outlaw.



Thus endeth the "history lesson" this Reformation Sunday!



The "two ways of justification" are still with us today.



If we are honest-- there are times when we have stood in the

place where the Pharisee stood in the story. We have compared

ourselves to other mortals instead of seeing a holy God. We have

added up our good and hoped it outweighed the bad.



But there are NOT two ways to find peace with God. There ARE NO

human beings who can justify themselves in God's holy eyes. There are

NONE of us who dare to despise others, and compare our holiness with

other sinners.



In our Wesleyan tradition we need to learn to live in the healthy

tension between the call of God to holiness and the humility of

knowing that our performance often comes short of God's glory. Our

Savior can give us grace to live above willful sin in word thought and

deed. Our Savior also taught us to pray every day, "Forgive us our

debts as we forgive our debtors!" Can we live with the paradox of not

sinning and confession our sins? Can we seek to be God's instruments

and NOT seek to use God selfishly?



There is a prayer, an ancient prayer, actually, that came out of

this passage, no doubt. It is called The Jesus Prayer. I'm sure that

a number of Nazarenes would not want to pray this prayer because we

have been forgiven and are no longer in active, willful, outbroken sin,

no longer in rebellion against God. . . .



I can still hear the wisdom of my elders saying "If we start

calling mistakes 'sin,' it won't be long until we are calling sin

'mistakes.'" In other words we cannot excuse any willful sin in our

lives.



Still the fact remains that Jesus has given us the Lord's

Prayer-- and also he has given us this story to keep us from trusting

in our own righteousness, and comparing it with others. That ancient

prayer, the Jesus Prayer simply goes like this:



"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."



It is a powerful prayer when it becomes a way of life! Shall WE pray?





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