April 24, 2000
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May 21 Lesson
Be humble in spite of how wonderful you are
___Luke 18:9-14
___9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
___13 "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.'
___14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
___By Bill Blackburn
___Who is the most self-righteous person you have known? (Stop to think about it.)
___Who is probably the most humble person you have known? (Stop to think about it.)
___When was the time you most needed the mercy of God? (Stop to think about it and to give thanks.)
___With that reflection, let's look at this lesson.
___I am absolutely convinced one of the biggest problems in Texas Baptist churches of all stripes, styles and sizes is self-righteousness. Especially is this so in churches that do not reach lost people and disciple them. The longer a church goes with just saved people, it begins to stagnate, and before long it can have the foul-smelling odor of something dead.
___Contrast this with a church that is reaching lost people, has many new Christians in the congregation and regularly has pews sprinkled with the lost. When you see someone come out of drugs and into the deliverance of Jesus; when you witness someone come to Christ, get out of an affair, and then back to his wife; when you see someone stop cheating on her clients because she has come into relationship to Christ and she risks her business and jail by coming clean, you are more focused on the power of transformation in Christ than you are on the sin committed. Plus, as you bond with these people in the body of Christ, you identify with them and feel less self-righteous about your own life.
___In a prison crusade in Hunstville with Bill Glass, I was in the day room of a cell block with about 70 prisoners. One young man I had been talking with told me: "Watch out out there. You could end up in here. I was the associate pastor of a Baptist church when I was arrested." I thought, "There go I but by the grace of God."
___But if every Sunday you are just with longtime Baptists who come into church looking like, as my late friend Grady Nutt would say, "They had been hairsprayed with holy," watch out! You can easily feel justified, proud and self-righteous.
___"To some who were confident of their own righteousness ..."
___Not always do we have such a clear declaration of the purpose of a parable as we have in verse 9. Jesus constantly battled against the self-righteous hypocrisy of many of the Pharisees.
___How simple yet powerful is this parable by the Master. "Two men went up to the temple to pray ..." One was a Pharisee, a religious leader whose desire no doubt was to please God by his life. The other was a tax collector, not popular in any age, but certainly not so when he collaborated with the hated occupiers of the land and extortion was one of the benefits of the job. He was hated. "How dare you to come up here to the temple and stand in the presence of a righteous Pharisee!"
___"God, I thank you that I am not like other men ..."
___The Pharisee essentially says, "God, aren't you proud of me!" He justifies himself just like you and I do. He compares himself favorably to the likes of robbers, adulterers, or even "this tax collector." Second, he tells what he does that ought to make God so proud the Pharisee belongs to God. He fasts, and he tithes even beyond what is required.
___Why is self-righteousness such a problem in our churches? I am convinced it relates to two things. First, the number of people in church who are not saved but think they are, and, second, the number who never got discipled and therefore don't know the mission of the church nor their own mission from God. Churches are either focused on mission or maintenance. But if your sense of what it means to be a Christian is to be nice and to attend church, then it is a short step to being a critical spectator rather than a Christian on mission in a church on mission. (And criticism is not one of the spiritual gifts!)
___"Lord, you must be proud of me! I've been nice, especially when you compare me to the criminals and the drunks, and I've gone to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and attended an average of two committee meetings a week."
___"God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
___Wonder what brought this tax collector to his knees? Was he in trouble? Was he suddenly aware of his sinfulness? Had his wife left him?
___In the beauty of the storytelling of our Lord, we don't know. But here he is--a repentant man asking for mercy, and, as the Scottish New Testament scholar I. Howard Marshall notes, "The ground for appeal lies solely in the mercy of God."
___"... This man ...went home justified before God."
___What is Jesus declaring in this statement? In both testaments, "justified" means to be put in right relationship.
___But on what basis is this tax collector put in right relationship with God? As Marshall notes, what ultimately matters is what is in the heart, and justification rests on the mercy of God rather than works to earn God's favor. Did this man have some acts of restitution to carry out? Did he need to work step No. 8? Yes. But like Zaccheus, coming to Jesus is first, and then the acts of restitution.
___From self-righteous to humble
___One of the real dangers of preaching, teaching or writing on this parable is self-righteousness. Reinhold Niebuhr, the American theologian so prominent in the middle of this last century, was preaching at Riverside Church in New York City on this passage and came down so hard on this proud Pharisee that some in the congregation thought when he came to his concluding prayer, Niebuhr would pray, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men such as this Pharisee!"
___But to avoid self-righteousness, listen to some of the reasons Jesus was so critical of many of the religious leaders of his day who considered themselves righteous. Let's learn from this negative example summarized by the German theologian Joachim Jeremias:
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___Let's ask: "When is 'they' 'me'?"
For thought and discussion
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