103019 – Luke 18. 9-14
Jesus is “SO good.” What a magnificent STORY-TELLER!
And this parable – is awesome. It “catches” most of us, if not ALL OF US, OFF GUARD.
There is AN IMPACT.
The CONTEXT is relatively simple. We are actually given it! Luke the author tells us “WHAT” the setting is…
Jesus told this parable to some “who TRUSTED IN THEMSELVES” that “they were RIGHTEOUS” and “regarded others WITH CONTEMPT!”
Yikes!
TRUSTING IN OURSELVES…and NOT trusting in GOD…you know, that could include “a WHOLE lot of people.” Maybe even SOME of us…if not ALL of us, right here.
We are talking about “a specific ATTITUDE,” we are talking making JUDGMENTS about others…We are talking about SELF-DELUSION….MAKING COMPARISONS, drawing DISTINCTIONS, viewing others with CONTEMPT, we are talking about a marked SUPERIORITY and HUBRIS. We are talking about seeing “others” as somehow being “LESS THAN” – ourselves. All of which is just plain “icky.” And yet, as we all know, it happens, ALL THE TIME…
SOME OF US – may even find ourselves so engaged from time-to-time! If not, much of the time…
BOTH men were religious. BOTH men find themselves at the TEMPLE. BOTH go to the Temple to PRAY.
The Pharisee is THANKFUL that he IS NOT like other people, you know, like thieves, adulterers, and rogues or even like the Tax Collector – standing “over THERE. The Pharisee is front and center, he wants to be seen, he wants to be noticed. He wants to be overheard.
He recounts his spiritual accomplishments which were many!
Almost anyone hearing this parable as Jesus told it, would have agreed…the Pharisee was RIGHTEOUS. He was probably “a very good man.” An example for his community… UPSTANDING… A man of honor…just look at his flowing robes. He was no doubt a man of wealth and power.
The Pharisee – obviously, thought “a great deal of himself.” He was after all, a Pharisee! He was one of the “good guys.”
The TAX COLLECTOR as everyone knew, was HATED and DESPISED. He was held in CONTEMPT by all. He came from “a SLIMY profession.” He was the WORST of the WORST. Tax Collectors were actually seen as being beyond redemption. They were worthless. He was a betrayer to his own people. The tax collector was “squirming” before God, uncomfortable in his own skin.
When looking at the original Greek, the word used means “to make of “no account,” to “despise utterly,” or to set “at nought!”
The Pharisee saw himself as being “morally superior”…and he probably believed in his heart of hearts that “God thought” the SAME THING.
The Pharisee and God were “on the same page,” as it were.
He “double fasted” he went without sustenance twice a week on both Mondays and Thursdays. His tithe was of course, the ten percent, which he gladly gave.
The Tax Collector KNEW that he was FAR from God. He even “stood off in the distance”…unworthy to approach the altar head on… He had more than “a ways to go.” He knew that he was a SINNER. He realized he was BAD and that he had sinned and continued IN his sin. He was anything but JUST. He could barely lift up his eyes… He knew he needed to pray and that he needed forgiveness. That is why he was present. He needed God in his life. He needed some “blessed assurance…” and so he groveled before God.
I started out by saying “HOW GOOD” Jesus was as a story teller…and he really truly was. Which of the characters in the story do you best relate to? Are you the Pharisee? Are you the Tax Collector? Are you better than both of them?
You see, we have “just been set up.” The story has got a “GOTCHA to it!”
If you personally side with the Tax Collector you have just fallen into a trap.
If you side against the Pharisee, you have just fallen into the self-same trap.
If, God FORBID, you should think that YOU ARE BETTER or in some way superior than both, you have just been “trapped.”
The point is, we are NOT TO JUDGE, we are NOT to make DISTINCTIONS we are NOT to look down upon ANYONE. WE are to be better than this. We are to rise above the fray. We are to be non-judgmental…and to simply TRUST in GOD. WE are to despise NO ONE.
Amen!