From countable to accountable Lk 18:9-14

The basic assumption of this story is our lives are accountable to God. In other words, if the Pharisee does not consider being accountable to God important, he would not consider going to the temple to pray to God about what he has done. Likewise, if the tax-collector does not consider being accountable to God significant, he would not go to the temple to pray to God and ask for mercy and forgiveness. The context of the story is the temple, but the story is not ended in the temple. Rather it is home. Accountable to God is found not in the temple, but in home.

In the eyes of the Pharisee, being accountable to God is simply not to do the wrongs, and do the rights. It is not easy to achieve these, and therefore, we should give a credit to the Pharisee. Nevertheless, this is only the superficial meaning of being accountable to God, for it is too individualistic and legalistic. In this story, being accountable to God is about how you treat the people who are moral, religious and political deficits. Jesus never condemned the goodness and seriousness of the Pharisee, but he was criticized for seeing himself higher and better than the people who are moral, religious and political deficits. God cares about our moral life, but God cares more about how we treat others. Christians would like to use the word, God’s grace, instead of luck, for the latter has no denotation of a subject and a will. However, in some occasions, the word, luck, may be more appropriate than God’s grace. For instance, the survivors in the recent Manila event are very lucky, and because of luck, we do not need to explain why some people are unlucky. In fact, we do not know the reason. If I was one of the survivors, I was hesitant to say God’s grace upon me, for this would irritate the unlucky. The Pharisee fails to receive the tax-collector, not only because the tax-collector has done something moral, religious and political wrong, but also because the Pharisee only has the idea of will, and no idea of luck. Since our lives are a matter of will, we are responsible for what we have done, and no excuse is accepted. Without the idea of luck, the Pharisee may still be able to accept the tax-collector, but the tax-collector is remained as a sinner in his eye. On the contrary, if the Pharisee has the idea of luck, he will try to understand the tax-collector and uses terms like ‘tolerable’, ‘excusable’ ‘acceptable’ to relate to him. Either that I am so lucky or that I am so blessed allows us to be more gracious, sympathetic and tolerable to people who are moral, religious and political deficits.
Being accountable to God does not mean moral cleanness and sinlessness. Otherwise, it is moral cleansing. Being accountable means to accept people who are not lucky or blessed.

For the tax-collector, being accountable to God is willing to receive God’s forgiveness. Some of you may find it difficult to accept it, for being accountable is more understood as a matter of doing. There is a strong image in our faith that on the final day of judgment, everyone should be accountable for what s/he has done. There is a Christian hymn called ‘Only leaves’.

恩主正尋找收獲果實，在祂寶血買贖人中；
祂要尋找聖靈的果子，察看有無榮神事工。
只有葉子獻我恩主，祂的心何等悲傷，
當祂正尋找果子的時候，我們只有葉子獻上。

This hymn may stir up our emotion and encourage us to work for God diligently, but its mistake is to change being accountable to God to become a matter of countable. When countable is more important than accountable, God has turned to become someone like the Goddess of Justice whose eyes are covered. God does judge, but His eyes are not covered and His ears are not closed. He listens and he embraces. Being accountable to God is not just to tell God that we have done a great job, but courageously to confess that we fail. We fail in relationship, fail in family, fail in work and fail in ministry. It is not the holiness of God that reveals our sin, but rather it is the graciousness of God that we do not need to cover up our sin and failure. It is not the moral or religious sin that prevents us to serve God, but rather it is the hypocrisy.

You perhaps ask whether my exposition would give too many excuses for people. What I have said is not about finding excuse, but is about how to treat people different from us compassionately and to face ourselves courageously. Being accountable to God is to be what we are called to be. It is not a matter of doing, but a matter of being.