October 9: Luke 12-18

I finished listening to another message by Alice Shirey of Orchard Hill Church (scroll down to June 22 podcast) titled "Be You! Not What You Have". This message was about not comparing ourselves to others (what they have or how we perceive them to be) or trying to tear others down to boost ourselves up. Towards the end of the message, she reads Luke 18:9-14, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector that Jesus told to teach a lesson to people who were confident in their own righteousness and who looked down on everybody.

In this parable, both a Pharisee and a tax collector went to the temple to pray. The self-righteous Pharisee prayed aloud about how thankful he was that he was not like other "bad" men, evildoers, adulterers, or tax collectors. He bragged about the good things he did. But the hated tax collector stood at a distance and didn't dare even look up to heaven as he said in anguish "God have mercy on me, a sinner." Jesus said about the tax collector:

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." ~Luke 18:14

If you find it hard to relate to the Pharisee and tax collector characters, watch the short "modern" version of this parable in this video.

You might be thinking right now "I'm glad I'm not like that first guy, the Pharisee", but you see, that's the whole point. Just thinking that way IS being like the Pharisee. We are not meant to compare ourselves to others, and really what is the point, since NONE of us measure up. It's like a dirty fork saying "I'm so glad I am not a dirty spoon. I do not have dried up chili on my surface and at least I did a great job spearing those broccoli flowerettes." The spoon recognizes it has been stained and is in need of rinsing clean. BOTH are dirty. BOTH need cleansing.

We all need to recognize that we can never impress God by comparing ourselves to others and we should not try to impress others either. We are all sinners, saved by grace. God calls us to humbly come before him to ask for forgiveness, not publically boast about how "less dirty" we are.