Preached by Marion Weitz
We apologize for the poor quality and many technical issues with this service. There is also a copy of the manuscript attached if you would prefer to engage it this way.
PRIDE AND HUMILITY (LUKE 18:9-14)
LUKE 18:9-14
HE ALSO TOLD THIS PARABLE TO SOME WHO TRUSTED IN THEMSELVES THAT THEY WERE RIGHTEOUS, AND TREATED OTHERS WITH CONTEMPT. “TWO MEN WENT UP INTO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY, ONE A PHARISEE AND THE OTHER A TAX COLLECTOR. THE PHARISEE, STANDING BY HIMSELF, PRAYED THUS: ‘GOD, I THANK YOU THAT I AM NOT LIKE OTHER MEN, EXTORTIONERS, UNJUST, ADULTERERS, OR EVEN LIKE THIS TAX COLLECTOR. I FAST TWICE A WEEK; I GIVE TITHES OF ALL THAT I GET.’ BUT THE TAX COLLECTOR, STANDING FAR OFF, WOULD NOT EVEN LIFT HIS EYES TO HEAVEN, BUT BEAT HIS BREAST SAYING ‘GOD, BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER!’ I TELL YOU, THIS MAN WENT DOWN TO HIS HOUSE JUSTIFIED, RATHER THAN THE OTHER. FOR EVERYONE WHO EXHALTS HIMSELF WILL BE HUMBLED, BUT THE ONE WHO HUMBLES HIMSELF WILL BE EXHALTED.”
PRAY
We find in this passage of the gospel of Luke, a familiar parable of our Lord Jesus. It comes with an introduction by Luke setting the scene and ends with our lord summarizing its teaching. It seems rather straight forward, so I think we will just follow the scripture verse by verse and allow it to reveal itself to us more fully.
One of the first words of notice we come upon is the word ‘Also’. Also is a connection word, and the author is using it to connect this parable to the one we saw in the previous passage concerning the persistent widow. The parable of the persistent widow shows us that we serve a God of justice. We will see that this passage outlines another very important aspect of Gods character, that we serve a God of mercy.
Luke continues setting the scene by announcing the audience as, “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” The point of note in this introduction is actually in its somewhat ambiguous and general nature. As we pay attention to the scenes as Luke would typically set them up, we normally see that Jesus is talking to either the Pharisees, or scribes, or disciples or Saducees, or some combination of these. But here it seems decidedly vague, leaving the uneasy question lingering in the air, “could He be talking to me?”. “Have I trusted in myself that I am righteous?”, “Have I treated others with contempt?” Spoiler alert…He is…and we have.
It’s here we are introduced to the cast of characters (verse 10a): “Two men went up into the temple to pray,”. If we stop here the playing field is level, simply two men on a journey. They are going up to the temple to pray. Presumably to seek God. The temple was seen as a unique place that God had chosen to make his presence known and available to His people in the second temple period this audience would be hearing it in. This could be seen as something commonplace, where temple services were held twice a day and many would come out of a sense of community and obligation, or it could be seen more profoundly as a journey from the realm of a broken world, stained with sin and its stench of decay, its broken promises and strained relationships, its disease and despair, and to try yet again another day, to go to God in faith, that maybe today will be the day, if you get close to Him, God would reveal His Glory, ease your despair, guide you in truth, heal you in love. From the outside, the journey looks the same. But God doesn’t concern himself with outside appearances.
As we finish verse 10 the inherent influence of outside appearances is brought to the foreground. “…one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” At this point the playing field becomes anything but level. To the audience of the time, there could not have been a starker or more revealing contrast. The Pharisee is hands down the most pious and therefore the most righteous of the two. The temple is his home turf. He knows the scriptures. He studies day and night. He follows every law. He knows long and eloquent prayers and would typically have large swaths of scripture memorized for the reciting. This man is about to dominate the prayer scene! And the tax collector, the one despised and the rejected. The outcast. The other of others. Tax collectors were basically third rate extortioners working for the Roman empire to keep their own people under occupation. A tax collector was a Jew who was used by Rome to collect taxes from the Jews because they would understand the inner workings of the Jewish society and be able to know where the money was and how to get it. They were despised by the Jew for their betrayal, but also because they would typically take advantage of the enforcement arm of the empire to extort the people for more than was due, in order to increase their own wealth at their brothers expense. They were despised by the Romans as traitors without a people, greedy and easily manipulated. The audience would hear tax collector, and immediately see a man with zero redeeming qualities. The audience knows immediately that the story ends with the Pharisee crushing the prayer scene and the tax collector having his shame revealed and going home crushed and defeated.
We continue on in verses 11&12 “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” Two things I find noteworthy here: First the tendency of our prayers to be centered on our selves and second for us to put ourselves in competition with others. Almost every commentator I read noted the astounding number of times the Pharisee was able to cram the capital I designator of self (I,I,I,I,I) into these two short sentences. It was 5 times! Of course, it’s never enough to sing praises of ourselves, but we see in the Pharisee the tendency we find in ourselves to go ahead and just point out a few of the shortcomings we see in others around us, so we can seem all the more righteous. We see the Pharisee travel his journey all the way to the temple to pray, and yet never experience the presence of God. The presence of the living God of the universe would have by the sheer awe and weight of its glory revealed the ravaging lack and poverty of the Pharisee. He would have fallen down and repented even as Isaiah pronouncing a woe to himself for being a person of unclean lips. He would have seen his sin compared to the perfect, Holy and pure truth and goodness of God, and not have tried to compare it with other sinners, but asked God for mercy. As it was, he came to the temple himself. Talked about himself. And left with himself. He asked nothing of God and he received nothing from God. We then, should not compare ourselves to others, but ask God to be merciful toward us all. We should know that we are better than no one, but that no one is better than we are. We should strive to have no thought, no word, no prayer that is not encouraging to the people of God and to our neighbors. Always used to build up and never to tear down. The kingdom of God is not a competition it is a community.
Picking up at verse 13 we read: “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” This is a much shorter, yet more profound prayer than we saw from the other man. They each seem uncanny in their reflection on self. The first managed to pack 5 separate capital I statements into two sentences, and this one somehow communicates a heartfelt anguish and longing about himself without using even one! I had always kind of puzzled over this parable, because on its surface I thought that the tax collector was justified without ever repenting. And although it is true, the term repentance is never used, to the audience listening at the time, the tax collectors’ posture and expressions described the deepest form of visceral repentance. This posture of humility in not lifting the eyes, and beating of the breast were cultural forms of expressing the most heartfelt sorrow and contrition and clearly communicate on a level more powerful than mere words, that this man was truly repentant. Even his confession of ‘me, a sinner’ carries the meaning of ‘me, THE sinner’ not as of “a sinner” that is one among many, that it might mitigate his responsibility or lessen the impact of his sin.
A couple of quick notes about what the text isn’t saying about the Pharisee and the tax collector. As we look at the Pharisee, It is not being said that following the law, fasting, tithing or even going above and beyond are bad things in themselves. Likewise, we look to the tax collector and we are not to see that beating his breast was some form of self-flagellation where he just needs to punish himself enough for the wrongs that he committed and he will be able to make it right.
Verse 14 is where Jesus, after speaking in what seemed like a straight forward manner delivers a gut punch to the audience by declaring the complete opposite of what was to be expected: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” Wait, what? Did he just say the tax collector when home justified and the Pharisee didn’t? Ok, maybe we should take another look at what exactly the tax collector did? We want to do what he did right? We just need to replay his footsteps, stand as far away as he stood, keep our eyes focused on the right spot on the floor, know how and where and how many times to beat our breast. And as we examine all this a second and a third time over, we slowly come to the realization that we are doing it again. We are trying to trust in ourselves to be justified. This time its not by following the law, or fasting, or tithing, but now its by how well we are able to humble ourselves, or show our contrition, or express our sorrow. Or maybe now it is our spiritual gifts that become the measure of our status and we adopt prayers thanking God that we are not like these others who lack humility or faith or well you fill in the blank. The one thing you use to create an ‘us’ and ‘them’ division in your Christianity. But just as the Pharisee, we are ignoring the one who we came to encounter and ignoring the command He has given, to love one another even as He has loved us.
This is not primarily a parable about what the Pharisee did, or what the tax collector did. At its core, this is a parable about who God is and what He has done. Through His radical love, His lavish grace and the completed and perfect work of Christ our Lord on the cross, He has justified the unjust and given us the free gift of our salvation. This is very much a retelling of the prodigal son, or as Pastor illuminated, the prodigal Father parable. The Pharisee is the older brother who has been doing all the work and the tax collector is the wayward son. The Father loves both of His sons. But in both the parables, it is the older sons focus on themselves and not realizing their need for the Father that leaves them without a relationship with God. The theme of the wayward sons returning to favor with their Father is not a testament to their good character, their good deeds, or even in their repentance and faith. The only thing that restored them to the Father was the Fathers radical love for them. They were not humble. They were both prideful and wayward and bent on doing things their own way. They were, however, humbled and there is a difference.
That brings us to our last verse. In 14b, our Lord gives the explanation: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
On one level this has to mean exactly what it says: if anyone exalts themselves, they will be humbled and if anyone humbles themselves, they will be exalted.
Sign me up for the humble myself class. Thanks!
But a pattern I often find in the words of our Lord, is that they can certainly never mean less than what he is saying on the surface, yet it is also true that it is rarely all that they mean.
As I meditated on this verse, I saw something categorical in its structure. In the first half it says: “ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,” And I saw that it was universalized. The subject of the sentence was literally everyone. This is the universal human condition. Since the fall in the garden, when our ancient parents decided to define on their own terms what was good and what was evil, we have generation after generation rebelled against our Father and our God. As the bible clearly teaches in Romans 3:11-12
“NONE IS RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS;
NO ONE SEEKS FOR GOD.
ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE; TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS;
NO ONE DOES GOOD,
NOT EVEN ONE.”
That’s when I read the second half of the verse 14b “but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” That’s when I noticed this half of the equation is not universal. This half of the equation is exclusive and unique! The subject of this sentence is ‘the one’. How tempting is it to think that we are that one! I wanted so badly to be the one who humbled himself, who because of all my humble humility exercised in faith gave me favor in Gods sight. But I realized I never humble myself. I am always humbled by God. Even if I were ever able to humble myself perfectly before God, the best I could do would be to just be me. Exactly who I am. No more because that’s boasting. No less because that’s self-deprecation. Just me. But is my perfect humility and being me just as I am enough to justify me, or exalt me? Of course not. Its only enough to lay bare the depravity and become humble out of the unavoidable truth of my own inadequacy.
So, we see in scripture there was only one who was ‘the one’ who humbles HIMSELF in Phil 2:5-11)
HAVE THIS MIND AMONG YOURSELVES, WHICH IS YOURS IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO THOUGH HE WAS IN THE FORM OF GOD, DID NOT COUNT EQUALITY WITH GOD A THING TO BE GRASPED, BUT EMPTIED HIMSELF, BY TAKING THE FORM OF A SERVANT, BEING BORN IN THE LIKENSS OF MEN. AND BEING FOUND IN HUMAN FORM, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF BY BECOMING OBEDIENT TO THE POINT OF DEATH, EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS. THEREFORE GOD HAS HIGHLY EXALTED HIM AND BESTOWED ON HIM THE NAME THAT IS ABOVE EVERY NAME, SO THAT AT THE NAME OF JESUS EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH AND UNDER THE EARTH, AND EVERY TONGUE CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.
So, we see that we are not the ones who humble ourselves, but are humbled in the sight of a mighty God. Even if we could humble ourselves, all the humility in the world doesn’t have the ability to justify us or make us acceptable to God. It is only Christs perfect life of righteousness lived on our behalf and then sacrificed for our sin on the cross that has the ability to save anyone. It has in fact perfectly and completely accomplished the salvation of each and every one our Lord has called to Himself. You may hear Him calling you even now. It is not by your righteousness, or your piety that he calls you. It is not from your humility or brokenness you are beckoned. Those who are called are ‘called according to his purpose’ out of a love for us from eternity past, before the foundations of the world. Before we had done anything good or bad God chose us to be conformed to the image of His son. And Romans 8:30 says
AND THOSE WHOM HE PREDESTINED HE ALSO CALLED, AND THOSE WHOM HE CALLED HE ALSO JUSTIFIED, AND THOSE WHOM HE JUSTIFIED HE ALSO GLORIFIED.
It starts with the call. The Tax collector heard the call and responded in repentance and asked in faith that the sacrifice being made that day for atonement on the altar in the temple would be for him. Hear the call today. We are not righteous. We are not humble. We ask Lord, that your sacrifice would be for us. We need you and without you we are lost. We are humbled only because you have allowed us to see a glimpse of your glory. We are exalted only as we are found sheltered in you. Call us to you Lord. Call us that we may hear.