This morning we look at pride, humility, and how we come before God in prayer, and in life.
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Good Morning. Today, we get one of the hardest subjects to talk about, and that is Pride. No one really wants to examine themselves for the amount of pride they have, although pretty much everyone is expert in examining others.
To begin, I’ll share a quote from CS Lewis. (he says it better than me)
There is one vice of which no man in the world is free: which everyone in the world hates when he sees it in someone else; and which hardly any people; except Christians, ever imagine they are guilty themselves.
I have heard people admit they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about women or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of pride. And at the same time, I have seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy when he sees it in others. There is no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we hate it when we see pride in others.
The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, are symptoms, because it is pride which underpins each of those sins. It was through Pride that the devil became the devil.
The parable we read is tough because there is an aversion for any of us to try to seriously put ourselves in the position of the Pharisee, (the bad guy) and examine how the things he tells himself to build himself up are the things which tempt us as well. None of us wants to be him, so we have to work harder this morning. Pride is insidious, because it is that voice that tells us “We Deserve It!”
For example, a 2010 psychology study found that people who purchase environmentally friendly products feel a “moral glow” that makes them more likely to cheat and act selfishly in other ways.
In the study, subjects got rewards based on what they said they did, and “Green” players were more likely to lie about test results. The explanation is that acting virtuously in one area seems to make people feel they have earned “credit,” and now they have a license to act selfishly in other parts of their lives.
We have this overwhelming desire to explain away our bad deeds, and to judge ourselves by our own modified standards. Just in coming here this morning, we are objectively doing something positive, which many others this morning won’t bother doing. We may NOT be consciously thinking that God owes us one, but it might undergird our thinking in ways we don’t realize.
Our parable begins in Luke 18:9:
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
How would the people of Jesus time view these two men?
The Pharisee was a person most people would have admired. They didn’t just keep the Law, they place boundaries to keep from them even approaching the edges of the Law. Jesus, in his woes to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matt. 23, addressed their legalism, he said:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
The Pharisees did more than the Law required, so that they would feel justified. The kind of person we would love to have in our churches with his hard work and enthusiasm. The kind of person who would show up early to church and stay to make sure everything was put away. All that’s good.
The difference in their prayer between the Pharisee and the Tax Collector was that the Pharisee focused on the himself and what he did to look good before the eyes of God. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
It is easy enough to take apart the flaws in his prayer. I doubt I would have to caution anyone here about why it’s not go to brag before God about how great WE are. Hopefully, I don’t have to tell you that when we pray, we should be addressing God, and not ourselves or each other.
But the problem is we can often think like this, and act this way, wondering why we, as good people, who work so hard, and care for people? Why don’t we have an easier life or simply more stuff. Why isn’t God blessing me now, like I want to be blessed, like making salted caramel the world’s most nutritious food?
This Pharisee was stuck on Himself. Notice the pronoun “I.” The pharisee referenced himself 5 times in these 2 verses. Wasn’t God fortunate to have someone like him! Who got the glory in this prayer? Hint, NOT God.
The Tax Collector knew who he was before God. God, be merciful to me, the sinner! Our translation actually missed a small word in this prayer, which the NASB takes literally. The Tax Collector didn’t call himself “a sinner” meaning one sinner among many, but rather “the sinner.”
The sinner in the sense that his standing as a sinner didn’t depend on anyone else. This tax collector was concerned with was his objective standing before God, not how he felt about himself. His point of comparison was not other people around him like the comparison the Pharisee made.
His standard was God, God’s holiness, and he knew he missed the mark and fell short of God’s glory and holiness. The Tax Collector knew his sin was intolerable before God, and only God’s grace could save him. The Pharisee tried not to look at his heart, but rather at his many good works to save himself.
Jesus said then, I tell you, this man (the TC) went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
That word “Justified” means more than just being forgiven, it involves the gift of a new standing before God. To emphasize the new standing, Context is always key, Luke relates a great story which we read at the beginning of the next chapter. The story of Zacchaeus, the wee little man who was the chief tax collector in Jericho, who repented and found salvation. Salvation not due to moral perfection, or having a good character, but due to God’s mercy alone.
“God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” That was the tax collector’s prayer. And it is our prayer too. Because God has been merciful to you, by sending Christ to be the atoning sacrifice for your sins, this is how you will go down to your house today justified, declared righteous, not with a righteousness of your own, but with the perfect righteousness of Christ. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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