Jesus tells a story of a religious leader who didn’t need God because he thought he was a big deal. The result was a joyless, judgmental, life with no room to trust anything but self. Jesus also tells us about a sinner who cries out to God, not with excuses but for mercy. Jesus teaches that the sinner went away with God’s blessing. The truth is that we are nothing and have nothing without God’s mercy and grace. As Luther noted at his death, “We are beggars.”