When We Are Loved...

The rhetoric of this fellow was fire and brimstone and filled with dire warnings of what 
will happen to sinners, of which he assumed everyone attending to the lights, awaiting the 
green, were prime examples. We were all sinners, for whatever reason – most likely that 
we had a different view on life or faith or something different to this man’s belief system. 
‘Sinners,’ it isn’t a word used terribly much these days except in particular religious 
circles where there is a pejorative implication warning of the wrath of a vengeful god who 
is only appeased by believing their particular views of faith and narrow interpretation of 
the Bible. We encounter this in various groups who condemn people on the basis their own 
explicit views or belief system – politics, gender, sexual orientation, skin colour and race, 
culture, status, faith… There are belief systems that people hold to, religiously, and use 
them to define who is in, out, lost… Sin, according to these overly zealous religious 
people, is grounded in doing what they announce that God doesn’t like and such actions, 
beliefs, thoughts… are worthy of judgement.
Is this true? Is this what it is all about? Is there a God sitting in some sublime heavenly 
residence watching the people below and marking out who is right, wrong, good or evil 
and prescribing appropriate judgement upon them like a Divine version of Santa Claus, 
‘making his list and checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice?’ Is 
this really the basis of Christian (and Jewish) faith? Is this what Jesus was all about –
judging and condemning people because they did the wrong thing, disagreed, were 
different? So many stories of Jesus are about forgiving the person who has done wrong, 
hurt another or who have been caught in lifestyles that are unhealthy for themselves and 
others around them. Jesus offers grace and mercy to all who are open to receive it.
In Luke’s story of Jesus this week (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus speaks of two men who go to 
the Temple to pray. A religious leader steps into the public area and before those gathered 
prays loudly and proudly. He thanks God that he is a good person who does all the right 
things and isn’t like other people, especially the second man, a tax collector. The religious 
man rattles off the long list of his virtues and proudly stands before God, justifying himself 
for all his goodness. 
The other man, the tax collector who has probably ripped off his own people, 
collaborated with the Roman occupiers and transgressed several laws and cultural taboos, 
simply stands aside, bowed down low and seeks the mercy of God upon him as he is a 
sinner. Jesus, perhaps somewhat surprisingly to his hearers, suggests that it is the tax 
collector, not the religious figure, who goes away justified. 
Two men go to the Temple to pray and only one goes away transformed and his selfdescriptor is that of being a sinner. It seems, in Jesus’ actions and rhetoric, that God is less 
concerned with fulfilling belief systems and legal requirements – the religious man did all 
of this to near perfection. The man justified before God was the one who demonstrated a 
depth of self-awareness, to recognise his own personal failures in fulfilling his own sense 
of humanity. This man, it seems, recognises how he has failed himself, others and therefore 
God – this is not just in transgressing laws but in becoming and being someone much less 
than the person he is created and enabled to be.
This, I suspect is the true nature of being a ‘sinner’. Whilst we deflect from this 
descriptor for all the negative connotations noted above, there is a deeply necessary 
recognition that we are drawn into life choices and lifestyles that deny us our true potential. 
The religious man in this story understands the legal requirements of his belief system –
‘believe this, do that, think something else and all is good in God’s world, and I am one of 
the good guys (not a tax collector!).’ This position lacks compassion, relationship and selfawareness. Does his belief system include people who are different, have a different 
experience of God, life, culture or see the world differently? It also presumes God is about 
law despite the clear revelation of God in Jesus is about love, grace, mercy, compassion 
and inclusion. Jesus was relational and drew people into a relationship that offered a 
nurturing, growth-promoting potential within them. Jesus invites us into a place where we 
can recognise who we are and to gain a vision of who we can be. He treats people upwards 
to become who they can be, rather than to be judged through the distorted lenses of other 
people or the cultural norms that push us into categories that often demean and exclude. 
The other point, here, is that when Jesus suggests that the tax collector, not the religious 
person, goes away justified. The temptation is to lay into the religious person for his 
arrogance and suggest that the tax collector’s humility is the key – arrogance is bad, and 
humility is good. The humble are justified and the arrogant are not. In so doing we create 
another dichotomy, one built upon our own efforts, and this also defies the point of Jesus. 
Nothing we do or don’t do justifies us before God! God’s loving embrace is extended to 
all of us and nothing we do cancels or deepens this love extended to us. God, who is love, 
holds all in this embrace and draws all into the relational web of grace and community. In 
other words, we are all in this together. We are all unique and all make errors along the 
way, but God is God and doesn’t hold this against us but draws us more deeply into the 
place, the relationship, of love.
I wonder how this might change the way we approach life and look at others? Are we 
able to contemplate the beauty and blessing that is constantly around us in the created 
world, its creatures, flora and landforms, in people who share our lives with all their 
differences, frustrations and joys, in those we meet on this journey of life, in music, art 
and craft, literature and story, activity and rest? Are we able to open our hearts, minds and 
spirits to the One who holds everything in this luminous web of love and life? This 
benevolent gracious mercy comes to each of us and dwells within each of us. It is the 
presence in which we live and move and have our being. It is the deep love at the heart of 
the universe, the rich grace of beauty, wonder and kinship. All designations, definitions 
and labels ultimately become meaningless before gracious holiness and we simply become 
people, loved and cherished in the Divine heart. We are loved by God, and nothing can 
take this love away. This love extends to everyone, regardless of what we think or believe.