GOSPEL
Lk 18:9-14
The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—
greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Some proud people believe that 'humbling' themselves
before God is good enough, but are like this Pharisee. This scene shows the Pharisee bragging on all the
works he has done to express his devotion. Jesus’ statement that the lowly sinner was
more justified would have been a shock to at least some of his listeners. How
could God like a blatant sinner more than a highly respected religious official?
This was pretty close to saying that a convicted conman who was sincerely
penitent meant more to God than leader of a super-sized church or cathedral who
was prideful to poor sinners – even when he faithfully fulfilled his usual
duties and was genial in his dealings with his preferred circle of society. Even today, such a plain assessment from
Heaven would shock people. In general, I would expect them to resist this Word
as being the real deal, even if God freshly sent a prophet to them to say
exactly that.
After all, not everything the Pharisee did here is wrong.
He was reminding God of all the ways he acknowledged the most High and God’s
laws. He made a public confession of his
faith and his testimony. This kind of
statement may have played well with the local priesthood, but the government of
Israel as a satellite state of Rome was far more pagan/secular. He knew his
stance would have limited his upwards progression within the Roman Empire. The
Pharisee has sacrificed all higher ambitions to stand for God. That’s
praiseworthy.
So what was messed
up?
# 1 Well the testimony itself sounds a bit egotistical
doesn’t it? The Pharisee sounds like he
is demanding God recognize how special his service to heaven has been (or
else?) Even then, Godlessness was so prevalent in Israel (thanks to the
occupying Romans) that the Jews often figured God ought to especially appreciate
that they still live in a way that ‘officially’ honored His name. Many had been persecuted to varying degrees
for remaining Jews. That Pharisee could have aimed for a state career if he
hadn’t valued serving God more, so choosing to honor the Faith of the Fathers
in such a detailed exacting way ought to be worth extra credit. God should be impressed!
Go ahead and laugh, but people still feel that way.
Today Christianity is mocked and marginalized in many
places, and rather than realize that this means that whole world really is
leaning towards hellish attitudes, people think they are doing God a favor for even
considering worshipping Him when His stock has slipped so much in society, TV
shows, movies, and the news media. He doesn’t seem as great to a population
propagandized against him since their earliest school years. Some of that dismissive attitude bleeds over
into church living. Even though most believers had a sense of their own sinfulness
and extreme unworthiness once, probably when they seriously converted and
accepted Jesus as their savior, this sense is easily lost.
Every now and then, it hits me hard that the whole Earth
is incredibly messed up, hate-filled, ignorant, selfish, and just plain sinful
by God’s standards. THAT is when I freshly appreciate how amazing, how strong,
how HUGE a deal is God’s Love and Grace. I figure these moments of clarity are
a gift of the Holy Spirit, because it doesn’t take long for that awareness of
the filth to fade away. I reacclimatize to my current world, and then society
doesn’t seem to be so bad. Time goes by and I start to feel pretty good about
my ethics and progress compared with others. That’s when God’s judgments and
requirements seem a little extreme. Seriously,
everyone is prone to this. As long as we look around us more than we look at
God, we will overvalue ourselves and undervalue God’s patience with our flaws
and our horrendous situation. We forget how miserable we were. We forget that
we needed saved from the very world that says God’s opinion doesn’t matter, and
the Hell that the world is headed toward. We even forget how much He loves us.
That Pharisee
wasn’t an idiot. He was just couldn’t imagine how lowly he really was compared
with God. The Pharisee didn’t see how loving and gracious God had been in
creating the Abrahamic covenant he depended on. God had set terms to show man
his own tendency towards lawlessness; God was making a pathway that allowed Him
to be officially pleased with a fundamentally flawed lowly creation like him. God
didn’t need his tithes or herbs. The Pharisee was more open with that his ‘God had
better appreciate my sacrifice or I can find a god I like better’ attitude
because he was on the earlier covenant, which didn’t include the inward warning
of the Holy Spirit about the inappropriate pride his attitude expressed. The
Comforter had not yet come to Earth to abide in the hearts of God’s people. The
Holy Spirit makes us aware sometimes of how silly we are, how hard-hearted and
prideful we prefer to be, and He does it because He loves us. It’s the abiding
comfort, love, and peace that make the remonstrations bearable. It’s shocking that any Christians could make
this mistake, but we do; we just aren’t as blatant about it, because we feel
that internal correction.
# 2 -- Today we can see the pride in the Pharisee’s
assertions but many still don’t get the whole picture. The Pharisee was trying
for higher heavenly status the same way he networked and maneuvered into
Earthly status.
In the time this was written, toadying was highly
acceptable behavior. It still is, but people are often slightly more discreet
with their flattery these days. To gain an influential person’s ear, it helped
if presented yourself as a valuable person to the VIP, so working in a certain
amount of bragging in between your bouts of flattery and other seductive
behaviors is generally a successful tactic. You want them to see you not only as a loyal
supporter, but a valuable one, as close to the leader’s status as you can manage.
As part of your claims of fealty you would work in mentions of the many resources
you’ve put at their disposal, or otherwise put to work for them. At the very
least, you would still sell yourself as an extreme ‘fan’ and remind them of how
you supported them publicly. [Celebrities feel entitled to everyone’s adulation,
devotion, and affection, so the bit that stands out is your own ‘higher’ status
and gifts – which they won’t even recognize as your contribution if you didn’t
point it out directly.] Look again at
what the Pharisee is saying. He’s exactly in this format, selling himself as a
valuable ‘fan,’ blithely unaware that God already knows all about him. Nor does
the Pharisee take in that God doesn’t require a human PR department. God doesn’t
really want us to ‘flatter’ Him.** We can’t anyway, because flattery implies
that the praise we give is excessive, but no praise is too little for the Almighty,
Holy, and True. If we think we are
flattering God, then we are actively failing to recognize how awesome He really
is! God will always be the greatest being – beyond our imagining – whether we
worship Him or not. God’s main interest in telling us about Himself is so we
can development a proper relationship with Our Father, God, the one who made
everything we have and who is also the being who has already condescended to
meet with us and care for our neediness individually. Not many worldly celebrities, even really
minor ones like a regional boss or a homecoming queen, truly care about their
fans. Worldly leaders often see followers as exploitable, expendable resources,
and feel little or no loyalty towards those they use and discard. This is
probably why God stresses that HIS leaders should consider themselves as
shepherds who protect and guide their sheep. God has strong angry words for
those leaders who call themselves Christians but view their ‘flocks’ in that
heartless carnal way.
If you - as a influential societal leader/celebrity - figure that you can set your followers to attack a
poorer person because you don’t like what he said to you, you are not humble.
You are a user and not a shepherd. If
what you didn’t like to hear was a word from God given through a poorer, weaker
person (and God LOVES to send brave impecunious believers with a Word) and you
tried to ‘get back’ at him or her for it instead of going to God prayerfully to
discern what if anything you needed to fix, then you’ve chosen a path that has more in common with
the heathen Haman than with Jesus. This you’d-better-kowtow-to-me-or- else attitude was
what initiated the crisis in Esther. Mordecai would not worship Haman, and told Haman what God thought of such
practices, so Haman griped to his fans/followers, friends, and family until
they came up with a plan to kill Mordecai – and all the Jews with him.
**People still try to manipulate God to gain favor the
same way they would an easily flattered foolish fellow human too. Seems crazy
to me to try that on with Omniscience, who sees all hearts, but I have seen
folks who give it a go!
#3 So far I have
talked only about how the Pharisee approached God in pride, holding way too
high an opinion of what he was offering God and much too high an opinion of
himself generally, but now I think we should talk about the pride the Pharisee displayed
toward the other fellow worshiping God in that service.
The Pharisee’s egotism was obvious, but he was talking
mostly to himself/God about how messed up the other guy was, and even thanked
God for allowing the Pharisee a higher social status. People still do this,
just not out loud.
Here is a simple fact, although the Pharisee acknowledged
that God was greater than himself, he still felt he held a much higher slot in
the spiritual hierarchy. If he was a dog, you’d say he was an alpha dog,
submitting to the Master, but not to other dogs. He is secure in his belief
that he holds a much higher place in life. He submits to strength greater than
his own, never to dogs weaker than himself. Those who fall to any weakness are
beneath him.
That’s very carnal behavior, the inner ape-man bellowing
and beating his abs.
The crazy bit is that many believers feel they have been
humble enough to satisfy Heaven as long as they acknowledge God – and social
equals/superiors- with any kind of deference.
In truth, this isn’t humility at all! That’s just a practical
acknowledgement of personal relationships and power bases that can hurt you if
you act ugly to them. ANYBODY will do that. Dogs, zebras, and peach-faced
lovebirds will do that. The only reason most people don’t defer to God now is
because they don’t think He exists!
No, humility means recognizing AS EQUALS OR SUPERIORS people
who do not have your advantages in life. Humility is recognizing God in every
one of us, to the lowest beggars on the street. It means being willing to love others
as God loved your otherwise worthless hide.
The rich and Pharisees ‘believers’ in Jesus’ day had lost
any idea of remembering God’s calls to humility in the Old Testament. Some still
shared food or clothing with the poor, but very few felt any obligation to
spend any time with them.
This is why the Pharisee disrespected the other believer,
the repentant taxpayer. The Pharisee saw a worthless lowlife and sneered at the
man’s tears before Heaven. He didn’t realize God loved that sinner as much as
God loved him. He didn’t see that God was willing to remake both broken lives
into something much more beautiful, but this required willingness to change and
willingness to take the relationship with God seriously. The Pharisee sure didn’t
realize that the taxman was making the right choice and he was not.
Those raised high in Christian hierarchies or in church
ministries often feel pretty blessed. Their Moms and Dads often have great
standing with God and man. All recognize they have a huge advantage in knowing
about Jesus from an early age. All that is actually fine, great even, but they
are at risk of developing the idea that their family legacy includes being pretty
awesome from birth - compared with the ‘outsiders’ and the ‘little people’ –
especially those they see as lower caste sinners. We have got to watch out for that attitude, as
it can lead to the Pharisee’s failing. God can greatly use anyone who truly
seeks His Face. Those who have grown up comfortable, in grace, are often not as
strong in faith or wisdom as those who have been in the spiritual wars and
found Jesus’ support is as faithful as He promised it would be.
Any trial another brother or sister in faith faces could be or could have been our fate. We should see Jesus in their midst. We should identify with and help those we can, as good neighbors, not as Lady Bountiful condescending to drop a few goodies to the starving serfs from our safe proud perch on the high balcony. Fake humility mouths some platitudes, congratulates itself on how much better its own life is, and keeps emotional distance from the losers shoved into its awareness. Real humility looks our fellow humans in the eyes and sees mirror of our own flawed humanity. Real humility loves others as much or more than it loves itself.
Any trial another brother or sister in faith faces could be or could have been our fate. We should see Jesus in their midst. We should identify with and help those we can, as good neighbors, not as Lady Bountiful condescending to drop a few goodies to the starving serfs from our safe proud perch on the high balcony. Fake humility mouths some platitudes, congratulates itself on how much better its own life is, and keeps emotional distance from the losers shoved into its awareness. Real humility looks our fellow humans in the eyes and sees mirror of our own flawed humanity. Real humility loves others as much or more than it loves itself.
God prefers real humility.
We had better be glad of this, because it is in God’s
incredible humility that we find His miraculous love, acceptance, interest and
concern for us. God’s not asking us to
do anything He isn’t doing Himself for us, every single day.
