Proud To Not Be Proud?

Harry preached on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector today in his series on the beatitudes -- today's message was on meekness. I thought that was great after hearing a message from John Piper on the same passage, with a different focus.

Today God used Harry to remind me of two points I typically forget -- that the Pharisee in the story really is as good, by man's standards, as he claims to be. He's not exaggerating. The people of the day would look at him as the model to follow, the one we should be more like. They wouldn't look at him as some hypocritical jerk who doesn't know God. Conversely, the tax collector in the story really is horrid in the eyes of the people. He's a sellout to Rome, taking money from his own people for taxes to fund the government that is oppressing them -- and taking extra money as well to line his own pockets. Yet the tax collector is the one justified before God, not the Pharisee, because the Pharisee puts the focus on himself and the tax collector puts the focus on God alone.


Thank God for constant reminders of this, because pride seeps into our hearts so so easily.

I thought after service before going to lunch with the family I would re-read the parable for myself just to get it in my head even more. I flipped to Luke 18:9 and read this preceding verse:

"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable"

Stop.

I didn't get to the parable yet, and already there's trouble! What came into my head? "Thank you God, that I don't look down on other people." That sounds right. That sounds nice. We have the knowledge of Christ. We know his words and teachings. We know we shouldn't be putting ourselves above others, because we are all under God. So what's the problem?

The problem is in what is implied in the statement. It might as well read "Thank you God, that I don't look down on other people, like those self righteous people who look down on other people." Oh crap. I did the same thing. By thinking that way, I've just split people into camps in my mind and put myself above other men -- different men than the Pharisee did, but it's the exact same thing.

Think of this way through two people, Moral Deist and Ima Sinner:

- Moral Deist thinks he's really good. He gives God the credit for it. Even so, that kind of thinking leads him to look down on all those "other" people who do horrible sins. He prays "Oh thank you God that I'm not like those guys who cheat on their wives, or those guys who sell drugs, or those guys who are workaholics and never see their family, or those guys who murder and rob other people, or those guys who molest kids" and so on.

- Ima Sinner knows he's not good. She prays "Oh thank you God for showing me my sin and turning my heart to Jesus Christ. Thank you for showing me that in my own heart, I was the adulterer, the drug dealer, the workaholic, the murderer, the thief, the child molester, and so on. And thank you so much that you showed me this, and that I'm not like one of those hypocritical self-righteous people who put themselves above others, because we are all sinners who need to be saved by grace."

Moral's two groups were the people who do "good things" and the people who do "bad things". He put himself in the people who do good things group and thought himself above the people who do bad things. But the prideful act of looking down on others and thinking himself above them puts him square in the latter group anyway.

Ima's two groups were the people who don't think themselves above others and the people who do. She put herself in the people who don't think themselves above others group. The prideful act of creating two such groups in her mind puts her in the latter group anyway.

That is why the parable doesn't have the tax collector pray "Thank you God, that I'm not like the Pharisee", but rather "Have mercy on me God, a sinner".

In the end, there really ARE two groups -- the saved and the lost. But crossing that line comes through faith in Christ, which in itself is a gift from God. Really getting that leaves no room for a man to put himself above another.

A verse came to mind as I was writing this that very much applies -- "I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Romans 12:3)

LORD, kill our pride.