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Soul-saving humility
Eagleville United Methodist Church, October 23, 2022
Luke 18:9–14 (CEB)
Jesus told this parable to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust: “Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else — crooks, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I receive.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to look toward heaven. Rather, he struck his chest and said, ‘God, show mercy to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this person went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”
There are multiple references in the Gospels both to Pharisees and to tax collectors, and since this parable, told by Jesus, involves both, it might be a good time to go back and remind ourselves of who these two groups were and what people would have thought about them in Jesus’ day.
The Pharisees had their origins in the period between the Old and New Testaments, about 150 years before Jesus, and they lasted…
