THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE

 

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody 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 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. 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 everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:9-14

A proud person is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you.

Once I was in Montreal-Canada and was trying to ice skating on an indoor ice rink that is in the city there. After a while trying to keep my balance I was enjoying running a little faster on the skates and was quite proud of how well I was doing. But then I was going in a little fast speed, all of a sudden a spectator put his foot out and, I would say, a very unkindly foot tripped me. Flat on my face in the ice with my pride wounded I learned a lesson about pride.

Today I would like to consider the area of pride and ask you to consider how it affects you and to offer you an antidote to this disease.

A Russian Eastern Orthodox author with the name Dostoyeffskey wrote once: There is one vice of which no man in the world is free: which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people ever imagine they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls, or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have heard anyone to accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have seldom met anyone who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it, in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking about is pride or self conceit and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals is Humility.

According to Christian Teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkedness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison; it was through Pride that the devil became the devil; Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.

If you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, "How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take notice of me, or even patronize me.

The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride.

It seems to me that one of the things that every Christian needs to be alert to, is this whole area of self exaltation or pride. The bible certainly has a lot to say about it.

For example:-(PROV 11:2) "WHEN PRIDE COMES, THEN COMES SHAME: BUT WITH THE LOWLY SELF COMES WISDOM."

 (1 PET 5:5-6) "LIKEWISE, YOU YOUNGER, SUBMIT YOURSELVES INTO THE ELDER. YES, ALL OF YOU BE SUBJECT ONE TO ANOTHER, AND BE CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY: FOR GOD RESISTED THE PROUD, AND GAVE TO THE HUMBLE. {6} HUMBLE YOURSELVES THEREFORE UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD, THAT HE MAY EXALT YOU IN DUE TIME:"

 Surely the first thing with pride is to get a realistic view of ourselves. The problem with the Pharisee was he was comparing himself with the publican. His hidden vices were ignored and his perfection was compared with the Publican’s public obvious sins.

Sometimes it does us good to get a healthy view of our own sins. Position does not eliminate sin.

You might be a leading light in your community - you might be A Headmaster a Minister - a Prime Minister a Bishop or a Pope - but your sin will not be affected a bit by your position.

The only way we can come to true humility is as it says in 1 John 1 verse 9: “If we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just and will forgive us, and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”

That is what the Publican is doing in today’s Gospel story. He is coming to God with genuine confession over his sins and it is this confession and grief over his sin that brings God’s forgiveness - that is why Pride is so debilitating because
if you do not confess it, it is not forgiven.

St. Paul says: God sends no-one away empty except those who are full of themselves.

Beloved we need to be clothed in God’s forgiveness and that will deal with Pride.
 You may think that the great people of faith were perfect - but they weren’t they were simply forgiven. The key to destroying pride is a complete understanding of the gospel in our own lives. When we have that we are free from artificial ugly ego trips; free of restrictions in sharing God’s love and God’s word with others.

It is as Jesus has said - If the Son of God has set you free then you are free indeed. Amen