May 26, 2023

Luke 18: 9-12 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed . . . “God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” (NIV)

Instead of fixing your eyes on those points in which you excel, fix them on those in which your neighbor excels you: this is true humility.*

When I worked in the church office, I was often the first to hear someone’s plea when they called to ask for assistance from our benevolence fund. Many times, I would want to say to the person, “Stop talking!” because the more they talked, the more convinced I was that they were lying about their need. The Pharisee in this parable was another person who needed to know when to stop talking.

We might give him the benefit of the doubt if he had stopped at being thankful that he was not a robber, evildoer, or adulterer – if my life had begun differently, I might have turned to a sinful lifestyle, so I often thank God for my Christian home which laid the foundation for my life choices. We might even allow that the Pharisee's reminding God of his personal good deeds was not so awful – his point could have been, “I am trying to be obedient.” But . . . to stand there, looking at the other man, and say (with a shudder, no doubt), “Thank you that I’m not like him!”

This was just a story, not a true event, but what could a person in the Pharisee’s position have known about the other man? He knew that the man was a tax collector and he knew the reputation of other tax collectors. But could he know if this one was just like all the rest? He could not have known the man’s heart, even if he knew how he lived. Turns out, the tax collector – this sinner – is the one who left the temple that day justified before God because his prayer exemplified humility. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” he said.

He knew who to compare himself to – and he knew when to stop talking!

Nothing is more inscrutable than the human heart, and . . . no act, great or small, righteous or wicked, can be so named by one who stands outside the actor’s mind.*