God forgives the humble, not the proud

Intro

When I was younger, I played a game of cricket against Steve Smith at a school cricket carnival in Dubbo. Even back then in 2006 he was the talk of the competition. I wanted to show Steve Smith how good I was. I went out to bat and who was bowling, but Steve Smith. The first ball he bowled to me, I hit him for 4. It didn’t matter that it was an under-edge past the keeper, I had hit Steve Smith for 4! I was proud of myself. The next ball, I charged down the wicket, missed it, and got stumped. I was left red faced and embarrassed. My pride was my downfall.

Fast forward to 2015, and my good mate, after a big night on the drink, decided to impress his mates to show off his driving skills. He came off the road, smashed into a tree and totally wrote off his car. Because he was too proud to admit and deal with his drinking problem, his marriage broke down. His pride has led to a great amount of difficulty and pain in his life.

I wonder though, have you ever thought about what God is impressed with? In God’s providence and kindness, my mate did not die in that car crash. But imagine if he had. What would he have said before God? To get a bit more personal: If God asked you, why should I let you into heaven, how would you answer?

I suspect if you asked your neighbour or your average Canberran, their answer would be. Because I’ve been a good person, I haven’t sinned really badly. Me and God, we’re mates!

In this part of the Bible we see that there are two answers to the question, but only one that is right. And it might surprise you which one that is.

Context

Luke was a disciple of Jesus, a medical doctor, and he writes this account of Jesus’s life to show with certainty that the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection really happened at what that means for those reading his Gospel. And all throughout Luke’s account of Jesus’ life, he records that Jesus frequently associated with cheats, kids, the blind, with those that had skin diseases, with prostitutes and with tax collectors.

By contrast, for those that are important, enjoy high status, who live the good life, Jesus often warns them that that they are in great danger of missing out on the kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus often says that being wealthy, morally upright, and of high religious learning is dangerous when it comes to God. And it is to these people that Jesus tells this parable. Look at verse 9

Luke 18:9 NRSV

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

This parable of Jesus is a parable of warning to those who trust in themselves. A warning to us. In this parable, we see two people, two prayers, and two promises.

Two People

Firstly, we’re introduced to two people that are both going up to the temple to pray. They’ve come to the place where God met with his people.

The first man is a religious man, or Pharisee. He was your gold star citizen. He was highly educated and an expert in God’s commandments. You could be sure he dotted his I’s and crossed his T’s. He was a leader of the Jewish community and respected by everyone. The temple was the sphere of the religious and so the Pharisee was in his domain. He knew all the right things and had friends in all the right places. He went up to do his business with God full of confidence, assurance and pride.

The second guy is a tax collector. Tax-Collector’s were despised, hated by society. I mean even today no-one really likes giving their money to the tax man do they? This guy was a traitor. (AFL reference?) These guys were Jewish men that would take money from Jewish people and giving it to Romans, the Jews enemies. Isolated from his community. He was totally out of his depth coming to the temple to pray. It’s a place he may even had a deep fear of.

I wonder which character you think best represents you?

The stage is set to hear what these two men are going to pray.

Two Prayers

Have you ever had that experience of someone telling you how good they are? How good their family is, the latest awards they’ve won, the latest thing they’ve achieved? Look at Verse 11. The Pharisee boldly stands on his own before God and tells God how good he is. He wants to impress God. 5 I’s in two sentences. He thanks God for what he is not like. Robbers, evil-doers, adulterers. And then the Pharisee gets personal. And God, thanks that I’m not like that filthy tax collector over there. And then he talks about what he has done. Fast twice and gives a tenth of all that he has (Lev 16, 27)- fast one day in a year (100 times more than what God’s law says)- In Jewish law. (Deut 14:22). In the Pharisees eyes he has earned his right to be accepted by God.

It’s easy for us to get riled up about the Pharisee. He is so self-righteous! But friends when we look closely at ourselves, who is the person at Church we didn’t want to sit next to today? Which parts of town would we not want to go to? What type of people do we look down upon and use to say to ourselves, I’m better than him or her?

When we look closely at ourselves we too are self righteous. How often do we stand in judgement over other people, even if it’s just in our own heads. (My Own example) We often compare ourselves to others to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. We identify moral failings in others to establish our own goodness. I’m not that bad, I haven’t committed murder.

In this way we are exactly like the Pharisee. His own self-righteousness drove him away from others and it drove him away from God. And our own self-righteousness drives us away from God as well.

One commentator on this passage wrote: ‘The problem for the Pharisee was not that he wasn’t far enough down the road when it came to impressing God, it was that he was on the entirely wrong road!’ The Pharisees did not recognise who he was before God. He glances at God, but focuses on himself.

But have a look at the Tax collector. He stood at a distance. He can’t even look up to God and beats his breast. There is clearly something bothering him. Maybe he is fed up with life as a tax collector? Not sure. But he demonstrates grief and mourning. Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector simply says one sentence. His prayer expresses a longing to be forgiven. He wants God to be merciful. He wants God to turn aside his anger at the sin that is within him. Unlike the Pharisee, he can’t offer a long list of his accomplishments, or the things he has refrained from doing. He recognises that he falls short of God. He calls himself a sinner, and pleads the mercy of God!

Friends, this is the heart of saving Christianity. To beg God for mercy. The Bible tells us that God is angered by our sin. God has created us to live under his loving rule and enjoy him. But we turn away from him. We want to run our lives our own way. Compared to God’s holy standards we all fall short.

And yet despite this truth we have something deep within us that thinks that we want to justify ourselves, to show how good we are. We are taught it from the time we are toddlers. We want to hold something up to God and say, Look God, here’s what I’ve done, haven’t I been so good, surely you’re pleased with me. But it’s not enough.

But look at verse 14. Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector that goes home justified rather than the Pharisee. Justification- What is this and what does this mean? Right relationship with God. ‘I need help- desperate need of help.’ I’m utterly lost without God. His sin is taken away.

Why is this?

Luke 5:32 NRSV

I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

If you think that getting into heaven is about being a good person, then please read what Jesus says here. The Tax collector was a traitor, someone who people thought couldn’t possibly be right with God. And yet he recognised his sin and asked God for mercy. For forgiveness.

(Is that something you’ve done? Is it time for you to do business with God by owning up to the fact that you can’t please him by your own efforts. Love to speak with you about it.)

Because friends at the end of this parable Jesus holds out two promises

Two promises

The punch line of this Parable comes at the end of v 14.

Luke 18:14 NRSV

I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Friends, what is stopping us from heaven. Our stubborn pride. Proudly hanging on to the lie that we can earn our way to heaven. It is foolish!

Marcus Einfeld was a judge in NSW. He was the first president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. He was caught speeding in Sydney. The fine was about $70. Claimed that another women, who had been dead for 3 years, was driving the car. When this was found out, Einfeld then wrote a 20 page document outlining that it was another women, also in the US, had driven the car, and she had also returned to the US and died. Because he couldn’t humble himself, Einfield’s lies got worse and worse, he was sentenced to three years in prison and all of his titles were stripped from him.

This Pharisee was the cream of the crop and he didn’t make the cut. Later on in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul lists off all his achievements and status, and says that they are all like rubbish compared to knowing and trusting Jesus Christ.

Friends, if you try to be a good person in the world, people will notice. You will get praises. People will welcome you. People will think that you have the good life. But please remember who Jesus is addressing in this parable. Those who are confident in their own righteousness and look down on people. God sees every aspect of our lives. He sees my heart, all of our hearts, and it’s dark, sick and in need of God’s mercy.

Conversely, those who humble themselves will be exalted. You might be here today and feel like you are too far from God to be forgiven? That you’ve done things God could never forgive. Friend’s take heart from this parable. The Tax collector recognised his sin, and he went home in the right with God. He pleaded with God for the mercy that is found in Jesus. No one is too far gone for God. Later on in Luke’s Gospel, a convicted criminal dying next to Jesus asked for God’s mercy and Jesus said to him: ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’

We live in a world that likes to applaud those that have got it together. And yet God is looking for people who humbly admit that they haven’t got it all together. Those who admit their sin and trust in him. Who are humble, not proud. For there will be a day where those who are humble before God will be exalted and given eternal life. For God forgives the humble, like this tax-collector, but opposes the proud, like the Pharisee.

How can this be? Well, the very same person, Jesus, who said: whoever humbles himself will be exalted was the one who humbled himself by dying on the cross so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus isn’t just all talk, no action. He walked the walk. The King of the universe went to the cross to save proud sinners like us.

See the King who made the sun, the moon and shining stars, Let the soldiers hold and nail him down so that he could save them.

Jesus demonstrates true humility by dying on the cross to save proud people like you and me.

But the Christian Gospel does not end there. Jesus humbled himself to the point of death on a cross, but was raised from the dead, given all authority and power, exalted, and is now sitting at the right hand of God.

And he calls everyone to turn to him.

Have you turned to Jesus? If you are still trying to save yourself, hear what Jesus says. There will be a day when everyone of us will be judged. You might be confident of your own righteousness before God. You might be sitting there right now and thinking. I’m good. I can make it on my own. Can I warn you that this attitude only leads to being opposed eternally by God. The only way to be in the right with God, is to humbly trust Jesus.

For those of us who do trust Jesus, this parable is a great one to keep coming back to. For the Christian life is a continual life of coming to God and asking for mercy. To keep admitting our pride and coming to God for mercy.

Which one will you choose. Yourself or God’s mercy found in Jesus Christ?