HUMILITY EXALTED

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever met someone who was spiritually arrogant?

You know the person, right?

They’re the one who seem themselves as God’s gift to the Christian world, the one who would have you believe they are spiritually superior to others as if they have achieved some level of righteousness, unattainable by others. In worst case scenarios, these Christians would rival the bible labeled Sons of Thunder, James and John, who felt they had spiritually excelled as Christians to the point where they earned seats to the right and left of Jesus. They also might be seen as modern day Pharisees who lorded over those they were tasked to lead spiritually in the Jewish religious culture.

In the end translation, these Christians act as if they had never heard the word “humility” and indeed, this is sad because as we see in today’s scripture passage, Jesus seemed to think being humble was important. Look again at His words here:

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

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  Luke 18:9-14

Now we don’t know exactly who the audience was. There is no mention of who the people identified with. We only know that they were “confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else”.  This could have very well been the Pharisees as it fit their modus operandi but we don’t know for sure.

What we can say with absolute confidence is that the Pharisees were targeted as being sinfully self righteous and arrogant within the context of Jesus’ parable. There is no questioning this. And Jesus comparing and contrasting the Jewish religious authorities with tax collectors, who were among the most hated group of Jews during Jesus’ time, had to rub in even more salt in the Pharisees’ wounds.

As we look back to the parable, the Pharisee and tax collector are in the temple, coming before God in His holy dwelling place. That’s what they had in common but it stopped there. For look again at the words the Pharisee said in addressing the Maker and Master of all things:

“‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”

Who is the object of attention in the Pharisee’s statement? Is it God?

Hardly. Count how many “I”’s within the proclamation. Four, correct?

“I thank You that I am not like other people” such as “robbers, evildoers, adulterers” or even like the man in my company, “this tax collector”.

“I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

Do you really catch what the Pharisee is saying?

I’m not a sinner like these other people and I thank You God for that. Look at the things I do that make me so much better than them.

Right.

I guess the Pharisee failed to understand (or failed to want to accept) that one does not earn his way into heaven and God’s good graces through works as well as the truth that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, a concept that was not lost on the other man in the temple.

For look how strikingly different the tax collector’s words were in comparison to his Pharisaical companion.

“He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

Note here how the tax collector completely recognized his fallen state when standing before God. He knew he was a sinner and God hated sin. It was a precarious place to be in the presence of the Lord. We sense the remorse and shame the tax collector must have been feeling because he could not even look up to heaven. He didn’t feel he was worthy enough to stand in God’s holy temple but he did the only thing he felt was appropriate at the time.

He humbly asked for God’s mercy and, in doing so, set the stage for Jesus to make His point to His listeners.

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Here we find an important word in understanding the power of Jesus’ intercession on behalf of sinful man.

The word is justified.

Now, you don’t need a PHD in theology to know what it means to be justified. All you need to do is remember this simple memory trick. For when you are justified, Jesus stepping onto the stage to tell God the Father that He has paid the price for your sins at the cross, you become:

Just as if you had never sinned.

That’s it. That’s what it means to be justified.

Through the blood of Jesus, we are covered and our sins are washed away so we appear to God the Father as white as snow. All our sins stains are washed away and we are cleansed. Indeed, God sees us as if we had never committed a single transgression and it’s all because of Jesus.

Back to the parable where Jesus makes it clear the tax collector, not the Pharisee, was justified that day in the temple. For he was the one who shows us how humility is exalted, or held in the highest regard by the Lord. No person deserves or has earned God’s favor, grace, or mercy. He doesn’t need to give it but He does to those who humbly come before Him and repent of the sin He despises so much.

To not do this, to behave as the Pharisee did, elevating yourself spiritually above other, will only earn you being humbled by God. If you won’t adopt it yourself willing, God will impose it on you against your will. His will is always going to be done. Period.

Friends, which one of the two parties in Jesus’ parable are you most like: the pompous, spiritually arrogant, professing Pharisee or the unassuming, regretful, confessing tax collector?

Your answer will go a long way toward knowing whether you’re on the road to being humbled or exalted by our Father in heaven.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com