Something We Are All Guilty Of
Luke 18:9-14
“God, I thank you that I am not like other people.
Really, thank you, God.”
Wow, does this passage ever convict!
And if we are not all found guilty in hearing this parable, we are deluding ourselves.
We all pray this way too often.
It starts out as a brief observation of comparison.
A glance that sizes up the other.
An aspect of an individual singled out as especially distasteful.
But then, something changes.
It is no longer a passing appraisal, but rather something that leads to judgement.
It’s judgement without understanding.
It’s judgement without empathy.
It’s judgement without any attempt to see as Jesus sees.
It’s judgement without any action that tries to come near to the other person…the person whom Jesus loves.
This parable calls out this sin of ours—the sin of dismissal.
The sin of one-upmanship.
The sin of appraisal and assessment before compassion.
It calls attention to that time and space in between an all-too-quick evaluation and the final verdict of whether or not another person meets the expectations we have set out.
This passage calls attention to those moments in our lives when we are ready to judge another.
We size up another person thinking that our faith, our religiosity, our spirituality is somehow better.
Or that we, are simply too good to associate with the other.
As soon as we start to question whether or not someone deserves a place in God’s kingdom, in our church or in our circle of friends, we would do well to remember this passage.
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable…”
Ouch!
Haven’t we all done this at times?
I mean, even if we read through this parable and then silently pray, “Lord, I thank you that I am like the repentant tax collector and not the self-righteous Pharisee” we have become like the self-righteous Pharisee.
This is a tough parable.
It calls us to examine ourselves and how we think about and relate to others.
It calls us to be honest about ourselves and our relationship with God.
It calls us to be more like Jesus.
Jesus didn’t put on “airs.”
He just was who he was.
He ate with whomever would have him.
He talked and listened to whoever would talk.
He loved the rich and poor alike.
He loved the Pharisee and the tax collector, robbers and adulterers, Jews and Gentiles and all other sinners the same.
He loved us all.
And he still does.
Jesus was the humblest person who ever walked this earth.
And it was through his humility that Jesus proved his love.
I love how Paul puts it in Philippians Chapter 2: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
It’s interesting that Jesus talked about the importance of humility just about as much as he spoke about love.
And I think the reason he did this is because it is impossible to love unless we humble ourselves.
If we are caught up in ourselves and trying to prove ourselves to others…
…to get a leg up on others…
…how in the world can we get outside of ourselves in order to love others?
If we aren’t willing to humble ourselves, how can we serve?
If we aren’t willing to humble ourselves how can we see Christ in others and thus learn not to easily assess and dismiss?
Teacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor writes about encountering others as an act of faith, seeing others as strangers in whom Jesus Christ may be present to us.
We don’t have to start with the most difficult people or the most challenging situations.
We can warm up, work our way along, as we simply notice the folk who are in front of us.
She writes:
“The next time you go to the grocery store, try engaging the cashier.
You do not have to invite her home for lunch or anything, but take a look at her face while she is trying to find whatever you have picked up on her laminated list of produce.
Here is someone who exists even when she is not ringing up your groceries, as hard as that may be for you to imagine.
She is someone’s daughter, maybe someone’s mother as well.
She has a home she returns to when she hangs up her apron here, a kitchen that smells of last night’s supper, a bed where she occasionally lies awake at night wrestling with her own demons and angels.”
Brown continues: “You saved eleven dollars and six cents by shopping at Kroger,’ she says looking right at you.
All that is required is that you look back.
Just meet her eyes for a moment when you say “Thanks.”
Sometimes that is all another person needs to know that she has been seen—not as the cashier but as the person.”
The more we practice seeing others as those in whom Christ is present, the more humble and the more like Christ we become.
Eventually, we may even be able to see our enemies this way, or the people who say mean things to us and hurt our feelings.
What is causing them to be like that?
What hurts do they have?
What are they going through?
Do we know that Christ loves them as much as Christ loves anyone else?
Do they know?
And what about that Pharisee who thinks he is better than other people?
How has he become so self-diluted, so detached from real life, from what it means to be human?
Could it be that he has lost sight of his need for God?
Could it be that humility is something that he has either forgotten or never known about?
Or could it be that he has been putting up a shield to protect himself, a mask to hide himself for so long that that he has forgotten who he is?
It is in humbling ourselves and trusting in Jesus Christ for everything we have, for the very air we breathe—for our salvation and all that means that we are able to be real…
…to be ourselves…
…and to understand that we are sinners in need of Christ’s mercy and forgiveness.
“But for the grace of God go I,” a famous Christian coined that phrase long ago as he watched a man going to the gallows to be hanged.
“But for the grace of God, go I,” shall we say as we walk in the freedom of God’s love and God’s grace.
And when we forget about this.
When we mess up and forget…when and not if…may we, like the tax collector in our Gospel Lesson for this morning, “beat our breast and say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
And as we go home “justified,” believing and trusting in the love, mercy and grace of God may we remember who we really are and whose we really are.
And may we seek to see Christ in others, in all in whom we come in contact with.
And may we learn to love all people.
For loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves go hand in hand, and this is the most important command.
It’s what everything hinges on.
As we are told in 1st John Chapter 4, “We love because Christ first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates another person is a liar.
For whoever does not love another person, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
And God has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother or sister.”
May it be so.
Will you pray with me?
Lord God, help us to be real in our thoughts and actions.
And when we find ourselves judging another, remind us to call out to you for mercy and forgiveness.
Humble us so that we can love as you love.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
