THE WRONG WAY TO TRY TO IMPRESS GOD: We will not be justified by our resume but by our repentance.
- Luke 18:9-14.
- There are a variety of ways that we could classify the Pharisee and the tax collector. I’m going to choose a way that I hope is memorable: the Pharisee is trying to be justified by his resume and the tax collector is only bringing a spirit of repentance.
- Let’s start with the Pharisee.
- In vv. 11-12 the Pharisee lists out what all he’s doing to be right before God. In other words, he is detailing his religious resume.
- Think of a HR director sitting down with a potential hire. The candidate has listed on his resume all the impressive things that he has done. “I see you were promoted three times at your last company.” “I see you graduated Magna Cum Laude on both your college degrees.” “I see your division doubled their profit year-to-year.” The resume makes the case “Here is why I deserve this.”
- A word that comes to mind here is “deserve.” I deserve this job because I am the most impressive candidate.
- The tax collector, on the other hand, has no impressive resume to offer. He knows he is not in good shape before the Lord. He knows his life has fallen short.
- Note that it says he “stood at a distance.” We might just presume that came from a sense of shortcoming, but it was also part of the Temple regulations. A tax collector was not allowed into the inner parts of the Temple.
- He knows he’s in bad shape, so he just pleads for mercy. He is showing a sense of repentance. That is, “I know I don’t measure up. I know I fall short. I can’t earn my way into your good graces.”
- This way, Jesus tells us, is the superior way.
- One major distinction between the two is the point of reference.
- The Pharisee makes it abundantly clear that his point of reference is those around him, especially the tax collector.
- Verse 11 - “I am not like other men . . . or even like this tax collector.”
- This is a common approach that people use to having a sense of spiritual superiority. There is always someone we can look to who is not measuring up to the standards we have created.
- “I go to church every week and they don’t.”
- “I would never commit a crime and they did.”
- “I work hard at my job and they don’t.”
- “I read the Bible sometimes and they don’t.”
- Now, of course, we tend to pick people to compare ourselves with where we are confident we can come out looking good.
- This is closely related to the 51% approach. That is, people think that we just have to do more good than bad. As long as 51% of what I do and think is good (or at least not explicitly evil) then I’m ok. I’m ahead of the curve.
- In all this, the point of reference is those around me. This generally leaves us feeling pretty good about ourselves.
- On the other hand, the tax collector knows he falls short. All he can ask for is mercy with a spirit of repentance.
- This points us toward those who don’t compare themselves with those around them but with God.
- God has a perfect standard. He is without shortcomings. He does not sin.
- If I am comparing myself to those around me, I can feel pretty good. If I am comparing myself to God, I know how far short I fall. These are two wildly different approaches. And, according to Jesus, only one works.
- Another interesting detail in this story concerns the Pharisee’s prayer.
- Verse 11 tells us that the Pharisee stood up and prayed “about himself.” Although I don’t want to put too much weight on it, it’s interesting that the word translated “about” can also be translated “to.” In other words, that could also be translated that he “prayed to himself.”
- That captures my attention because it speaks to a reality that I think is often present in Pharisaical religion. Often people in that self-centered religion aren’t necessarily even praying to God. They’re just talking to themselves. They’re pumping themselves up. They aren’t asking for God to really come in and reveal all their shortcomings. They aren’t really interested in hearing from God. They’re talking to themselves. It’s an internal admiration club.
- Let’s talk for a minute about why you should not be confident in your own righteousness.
- Let me share four reasons.
a. As I’ve previously stated, God’s standard is perfection.
- How can you think of yourself as a “good person” when you know that God’s standard of holiness is sinlessness?
b. The good things you do are often with questionable motives.
- We may look like we are noble and good in our actions, but many times those are done with motives that are less than pure.
- The teenager who mows his elderly neighbor’s lawn when she is in the hospital, but the real goal is to impress the neighbor’s beautiful granddaughter that he goes to school with.
- The preacher who grows his church because he wants to make a name for himself.
- The woman who gives to charity because she needs a little more charitable giving to get into a lower tax bracket.
c. Your awareness of your failings is woefully inadequate.
- There are many ways that you are falling short of God’s perfect standard that you are unaware of.
- Having been a Christian now for 40 years, there are spiritual things I am aware of now that I was blissfully unaware of at the start. I was just immature in the faith. Now, that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t falling short in those areas - it just means that I was unaware that I was falling short in those areas.
- One example of that is that we as Americans are so deep in swimming in materialism that I don’t think we are aware of how tied to our possessions we are. When you read what Jesus has to say about the dangers of money, I think it’s safe to say that most of us are so inured to our prosperous circumstance that we miss a significant portion of that.
d. There are sins of omission.
- Sin can be doing things we shouldn't be doing. It can also be not doing things we should do.
- This opens up a whole horizon of Christlike actions that we should be doing that we aren’t. There was a reason that Christ was so attractive to the least of these in His day. We should reflect that attractiveness in our daily walk as we become increasingly Christlike. Few do, though. And that is indicative of a sin of omission.
- Another important question is why you shouldn't look down on others.
- Again, let me give four reasons.
a. You don’t know the whole situation.
- We have very limited knowledge of what is going on in someone else’s life. It prohibits us from having an accurate understanding of the whole situation.
- Maybe someone at work is rude to us in a meeting. We don’t know, however, that their spouse mentioned divorce for the first time that morning.
- Maybe someone is not as faithful to come to church as we are. We don’t know, however, that they often get called to their father’s house on Sunday mornings because of his health issues.
- Maybe a student in a teacher’s class is withdrawn. She doesn’t know, however, that the student is struggling with depression.
b. You don't know what they’ve overcome.
- Not only do we not know what’s going on in that person’s life in that moment, but we also don't know what they’ve gone through in the past.
- Maybe they’ve overcome addiction.
- Maybe they’ve overcome a childhood in an emotionally abusive household.
- Maybe they’ve overcome their reluctance to go to church because of a former pastor who was caught in an affair.
c. You don't know what you would have done in their situation.
- With our wildly incomplete knowledge, it’s easy to speculate on “what they should have done.” But even if we had full knowledge of their situation, often we don’t know how we would have responded.
- All of us have thought one way about a situation until we were in it and then changed our actions.
- Just to name one situation, many of us don't understand why parents often essentially underwrite an adult child’s addiction by continuing to bail them out of financial and legal scrapes. It’s easy to say what they should do and what the best thing to do is, but none of us know how we would actually handle that situation until we got there.
d. You don’t have all the information.
- I glanced by this earlier, but it’s worth specifically mentioning here.
- I simply don’t know everything that is going on in someone else’s life. I don’t know their family situation, their marital/relationship situation, their financial situation, their spiritual situation, their work situation, their friendship situation, etc.
- Sometimes what makes no sense from where we stand makes perfect sense given the actual reality of the situation. We need to have a little humility concerning our lack of information.
THIS IS A NEW PATH: Jesus is introducing a new spiritual economy.
- Luke 18:9-14.
- Mercy: Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7; Matthew 18:33; Matthew 23:23.
- Repent: Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 11:20; Matthew 21:32.
- I’ve used the word “economy” here. I just mean a whole new system. (I don’t mean “buying salvation.”) Just as a financial economy can be capitalistic, socialistic, communistic, or one of a hundred other options or hybrids, so there are countless ways to approach spirituality.
- The Pharisee in our story is a great example of the “moral effort” approach to spirituality. Be good and do good works - that will get you close to God.
- This is actually probably the most popular approach to spirituality throughout the ages. If you want to go to heaven, you have to “be a good person.” Of course, this usually entails defining “good person” in a way that qualifies me.
- Conversely, Jesus is introducing a different, new spiritual economy. I want to unpack that for a minute with an emphasis on the fact that this is not business as usual.
- First, I want to talk about the word “mercy” in the gospels and then the word “repent” in the gospels.
- “Mercy” in the gospels.
- Let’s look at some of the places it shows up in the gospel of Matthew: Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7; Matthew 18:33; Matthew 23:23.
- Rather than a spiritual economy where we earn our way to God, Jesus is putting forward the need for mercy. We recognize our failings and we ask Jesus for mercy.
- What are we talking about when we talk about mercy? One common definition is that grace is when we receive something we don’t deserve and mercy is when we don’t receive something we do deserve. In this case, punishment and judgment are deserved because of our sinfulness and mercy keeps us from receiving something we do deserve.
- That's why we should be so grateful for the mercy of God.
- “Repent" in the gospels.
- Let’s look at some of the places it shows up in the gospel of Matthew: Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 11:20; Matthew 21:32.
- So mercy is what we need. How do we access it? By repentance.
- We acknowledge that we have fallen short and we repent of our sins. This is the path into the new spiritual economy Jesus is establishing.
- So let’s look at the plan as a whole for a minute.
- The Pharisee in the parable was going with the plan of good public relations and trying to compare himself to those around him.
- Jesus is teaching us here that that common plan doesn’t work.
- Instead, we choose to believe that Jesus is merciful. We acknowledge our sinfulness and repent of them. Jesus forgives and cleanses, giving us a new spiritual heart and the Holy Spirit to guide and direct. By this economy, we are able to actually become like Jesus.
- It’s important to understand that Jesus doesn’t, as many people presume, just teach “be nice” or “be good.” Those don’t work. No, Jesus has a completely different approach. It’s one unlike any other religion in the world.
WHERE DO WE START? Come humbly before God.
- Luke 18:14b.
- All this leads us to the close of the parable, which gives us the big point of the story.
- Rather than coming with pride and a desire to promote ourselves, we instead need to come with humility. How does this tie into the spiritual economy we just spoke of? It ties in perfectly.
- We come to God asking for mercy and we repent of our sin. All of those are acts of humility. We are humbling ourselves before God.
- What will God do in response to that? According to v. 14, He will exalt us.
- What does that mean? It means that having forgiven us and given us a new spiritual heart, He will work in our lives to make us into beings who are like Christ. We will be empowered to do great spiritual works. God will use us to bring glory to Himself. In other words, He will exalt us to fruitfulness and meaningful service.
- So we humble ourselves in repentance and He exalts us in transformation and fruitfulness.
- The words at the end of v. 14 is practical spiritual truth about the way that God works in our lives.
- On the other hand, when someone approaches spiritual things the way the Pharisee does, the results are also predictable.
- He tried to exalt himself. By comparing himself to another person rather than God, he tried to improve his spiritual rating. By engaging in good public relations, he tried to impress with his spiritual resume and his list of good deeds. This failed. God was not impressed because His real standard is perfection.
- What was the result? The Pharisee tried to exalt himself and God humbled him by not accepting what he was doing. As v. 14 the Pharisee did not leave justified before God.
- In sum, this gives us the spiritual economy of the Kingdom of God. It tells us how to get to God.
