Humility: A Meditation on Luke 18

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted

in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Two men went up into the temple to pray;

the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,

God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,

extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the publican, standing afar off,

Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,

but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:

for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased;

and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Humility is not a particular mark of our age, but neither was it in Jesus’ day.  Today as then, people of certain social standing, possessed of certain titles and dignities, make sure that everyone around them is aware of their greatness.  As Americans we don’t tend to use titles of nobility from the old world to segregate ourselves, but find other substitutes that accomplish the same ends.  Our titles of middle, upper, and lower class help separate people from each other based on money; job titles such as white collar and blue collar, executive, director, management, union, labor, and others help divide people based on position; academic titles of degree, field of study, administration, and faculty separate people based prestige of intellectual accomplishment, and the awards they lavish upon each other.  In nearly every field of human endeavor there are titles to distinguish the ones in power from the ones under authority, the ones with wealth and those in poverty, the ones with dignity and those who are despised.  Try as we might, there’s simply no escaping the practical reality in human society that there are those who are exalted and those who are abased.

This rottenness of our fallen human nature which we experience in secular society, often follows us into our houses of worship.  If you’ve never found yourself in a Christian congregation where people with money, power, or various other titles of importance attempt to set themselves up in the church as the voices to which all others must yield, give it time… you’ll find that unsavory situation eventually.  The Church has the same people with the same fallen nature within her walls as secular society does, and it should not surprise us that people with pride and dominance issues seek out positions of authority and power.  It is an old axiom from the ancient world that those least suited to use power well are often most vigorously attracted to it, and those best suited to use power well are often the most resistant to such aspirations.  Something about wealth, power, and prestige pulls out the worst in people, enflaming human pride and prejudice in such a way that suffering and destruction often follow in their wake.  Those with all their titles and positions of dignity come to think of themselves as deserving of their power and accolades, while at the same time believing those under oppression have gotten what they deserve, as well.

As awful as this plays out in secular society, it is far more horrible when festooned before God.  In Jesus’ parable about the Pharisee and Publican, He pulls out the eternal significance of this evil delusion.  The Pharisee would have been a teacher of the Law, having both secular and religious authority.  He had titles, prestige, and honor in abundance.  The Publican was a tax collector, repulsive to his own countrymen because he allied himself with the occupying Romans to fleece taxes from the people… and enrich himself by the same means.  Other than the loathsome power to coerce money from people, the Publican had no prestige, no honor, and no dignity—to the Romans he was still just a Jew, and to the Jews he was traitor.  Both came before God to pray, drawn by His Holy Spirit working through His Word to faith and repentance.  Both had very different experiences.  While the Pharisee brought all his human trinkets of honor before God to justify himself, the Publican brought nothing but contrition—godly sorrow for his sins, born of a desperate hope in both the justice and mercy of God.  Both prayed, and both left the sanctuary, but only the Publican left justified.

Justification, we learn from St. Paul’s exposition of the subject in his various epistles, is to be declared righteous for Christ’s sake alone—a gift of grace and mercy given through faith alone.  No amount of earthly accolades and accomplishments can give a person what they need to be justified on their own, because as fallen creatures we can never be fully righteous before God on our own merits.  Attempting to justify ourselves to God based upon our own works and dignity leads only to the Law’s exposure of our wicked sickness unto death, and the sin which corrupts us to our very core.  Standing before God on the basis of titles, positions, wealth, power, or any other manmade segregation which people delude themselves with, receives from God only condemnation.  For when man appears before God and demands of Him what he has earned and what he deserves, God sadly gives man his just reward:  an eternity of separation in the fires and torments of hell.

On the other hand, the one who appears before God with nothing, knowing himself to be a poor, miserable, fallen sinner, declares before his holy God that he deserves nothing but death and hell.  Such a broken person does not ask of God to receive what he knows is his due, but rather begs for mercy and forgiveness, trusting in the love and compassion of his saving God.  Such brokenness of spirit and faith receives the free gift of God’s grace and forgiveness for the sake of Jesus’ death upon His Cross in the sinner’s stead.  While the unrepentant and unbelieving sinner receives from God only condemnation for his own sake, the repentant and believing sinner receives Justification unto eternal life for Jesus’ sake.  The humility of faith and repentance before God is what brought salvation to the broken hearted Publican, while the hubris of the Pharisee sealed him in judgment.

How does this Word of our Lord reach you today?  Have you puffed yourself up in titles, degrees, and trappings of prestige which you think give you honor and standing before God?  Repent!  Lay your trinkets and baubles down at the feet of Christ your savior, that He might give you the true riches of His mercy and grace.  Are you one of the broken and downtrodden, perhaps the victim of those in power who have abused and spitefully used you, seeking to find vengeance by taking their power and using it against them?  Repent!  Leave the world’s power and strivings for pride to their own destructive ends, and hear Christ call you by faith and repentance into His Kingdom of grace and mercy.  Are you a broken sinner who knows how unholy and unworthy you are, and that you have nothing to bring before God but the prayer of desperate hope which pleads, “God be merciful to me, a sinner”?  Rejoice!  For you have been called by His Word and Spirit to believe the Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation which Jesus alone has won for you, and by which Jesus alone declares you justified and righteous in His sight.  However this Word of our Lord finds you this day, let it pierce and destroy your pride, that knowing the depths of your fall before His holy Law, you might know the heights of exaltation in His holy Gospel of grace.  Hear the Word of the Lord, and with a humble and contrite heart, receive the free gift of grace which Jesus brings to heal, restore, and enliven you forever.  Amen.