In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is in our midst! (He is and ever shall be.)
Good morning. What is in your heart? That’s really the question we’re faced with this morning: What is in your heart? We hear this parable that our Lord tells in the Gospel of St. Luke—the Publican and the Pharisee. We know when we hear this that we are at the doorstep of Lent because today, believe it or not, the Triodion begins. The Triodion is the book that contains all the hymnography from now all the way through Holy Week.
When the Triodion begins, we know we’re just a few Sundays away—four, in fact, including today. (And don’t be confused: “Tri” is not because of the number of Sundays. “Triodion” refers to the three odes that compose most of the hymns in that book.) Very practically, we name it the Triodion season because it begins on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.
The Pharisee’s Boast
The Church gives us these Sundays leading up to Great Lent to prepare us for the season of repentance as we approach the Resurrection of our Lord. But we have to understand this parable to know how it actually helps us prepare.
The Pharisee was someone highly respected—someone “clergy-adjacent,” there in the Temple. He was praying, but he was boasting: “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like the others.” Can you imagine even beginning a prayer with, “Thank you, God, that I’m not like that guy”?
Of course not. We say that’s outlandish and that we would never do that. But the question is: Do we? We might never say it that way, but do we think it? What is in our heart?
When we come to church or go through our daily prayer routines, do we do it because we love God and know these things draw us to salvation? Or do we do it so we can show those around us that we are “good”? On any given day, we can be the Pharisee—perhaps not as outwardly as the parable suggests, but in the quiet of our hearts.
The Publican’s Humility
The Church gives us this Sunday so that we can learn to be like the Publican. A publican was a tax collector; he was hated. He cooperated with the Romans, who were pagans. Yet this man—an extortioner, as the Pharisee called him—humbles himself.
He falls on his knees. He can’t even look up; his eyes are cast down. He understood what he was. He understood that he needed to humble himself and that the path to salvation is through that humility.
The Pharisee had lost the truth. He had the outer garments and the outward righteousness, but he forgot that tithing, praying, and fasting are merely tools.
A Note on Fasting: As we approach Great Lent and increase our fast, our almsgiving, and our attendance at services, we must remember that this is for our salvation, not for outward expression. We are told in the Scriptures that when we fast, we do it privately. Fasting is a tool to deny the passions of the flesh and gain discipline over the physical body so we can draw closer to God.
The Necessity of Struggle
The Church brings this parable around every single year because it is so easy to fall into a “ritualization” of these tools. That doesn’t make the rituals less important—it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fast—but we must examine the motive.
The Publican came to himself with great repentance. As the hymns say, “He is justified by his tears.” We are reminded that this season is important, not just because of the struggle or the “pain” of Lent, but because gaining discipline over ourselves draws us closer to God. When we are in the struggle of Lent, we humble ourselves and thank God for that struggle.
Imagine a life without struggle. I would submit that we wouldn’t turn to God nearly as often. Struggles are vital. The Church gives us these “ordered struggles” to draw us toward salvation.
Conclusion: Whitewashed Tombs
As we prepare for the season of Great Lent, let’s remember the motives of the Pharisee versus the Publican. We must be ever mindful of the nature of our true heart.
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Let’s guard against empty actions and words.
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Let’s guard against being “whitewashed tombs”—bright and white on the outside, but dead on the inside.
Instead, let’s prepare our hearts, falling prostrate in great humility like the Publican. Let our prayer and actions be focused on God’s great mercy and love for us, despite our sin.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is in our midst! (He is and ever shall be.) Please rise.