Theological Truth: We are all sinners saved by God’s mercy. Forgetting that corrupts are relationship with God and others.
Come Holy Spirit and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
There’s an old joke among clergy about the preacher who asks his colleague, “Did you hear my sermon last week on humility? It was a masterpiece!”
Humility is a slippery slope. And I’m not talking about the outright arrogance of the braggart who assumes all his successes are the result of his genius, diligence, and the well-deserved favor bestowed upon him by God. Humility is every bit as challenging for Sunday churchgoers who can easily slip into thinking that we have received God’s mercy and forgiveness because of our holiness and piety. This sort of self-determined righteousness subtly puts our egos in that preferred place where we control our salvation; we climb up to an equal footing with God; and from those lofty heights, we look down on everyone else. But it’s slippery up there….
Hence Jesus tells this parable, to those of us “who [may begin to] trust in [our]selves that [we are] righteous and regard others with contempt.” As far as parables go, Luke makes the point of this parable very clear. He even gives us as a catchy summary: “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled. And those who humble themselves will be exalted.” But that’s where the ease of this crucial spiritual lesson ends. As soon as I think, “Okay, simple. I’ll just be humble,” I begin down the path of relying on myself, sliding towards exalting my ability to secure Divine favor, slipping into being proud of my exemplary humility.
Maddening right!? No wonder Paul cries out, “Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) No wonder Jesus provides this parable to remind us that we all stand together in need of God’s mercy and grace. So, let’s take a closer look at this obvious, but not easy parable.
One of the things that makes this parable difficult is our familiarity with the role of the pharisee. We have come to expect the Pharisee to be the villain and the tax collector to be the hero. But this is exactly opposite of what Jesus’ listeners would have expected. The Pharisees were role models of law-abiding faithfulness. Tax collectors were greedy traitors persecuting their own people. The idea that the tax collector would go home justified would have been ridiculous – scandalous even. The power of the parable is in this reversal—this shock—that we can’t assume who is righteous; we best not presume to trust in our own righteousness, but only in “God’s manifold and great mercies.” (BCP, p. 337) And we definitely shouldn’t look on others with contempt.
To understand how painfully accurate the parable is, we need only honestly ask ourselves, “Do I feel superior to the Pharisee?” Aren’t we tempted to pray, “I thank you God, that I am not like that self-righteous Pharisee”? Busted.
We can’t trust in ourselves, that we are righteous, but we can trust in God’s mercy. We can’t regard others with contempt, because we are all sinners in need of salvation. We are, as the best explanation of healthy evangelism that I’ve ever heard puts it: “merely one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” We didn’t make the bread; we didn’t invent the bread; we need the bread every bit as desperately as everyone else. We stand together in the humble search for the Bread of Life.
People are searching more than ever. Some point to a religious renewal underway in this country. Unfortunately, the tendency of seeing ourselves as righteous and viewing others with contempt is also alive and well. In a recent column, David French, evangelical Christian and Opinion Columnist for the New York Times, writes, “The steady decline of Christianity in America seems to have slowed, perhaps even paused….[but] There is darkness right alongside the light.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/opinion/christianity-charlie-kirk-revolution-revival.html). To explain the light of healthy religious revival, he quotes legendary evangelical pastor, Tim Keller, who “Noted that revival begins with repentance.” This holds true for us and throughout Scripture. “In other words,” French writes, “Revival begins with the people proclaiming, by word and deed, ‘I have sinned.’” This sounds a lot like the enlightened prayer of the tax collector: “O God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
But French goes on to point out the different, darker side of American Christianity, that “looks at American culture and declares, ‘You have sinned.’ And it doesn’t stop there. It also says, ‘We will defeat you.’” Can you hear the Pharisee’s tendency to trust in his own righteousness and regard others with contempt? We are always more likely to see the speck in our brother’s eye rather than the log in our own. It is very tempting to elevate our own moral purity by looking down on others. We act like the Pharisee who focuses on the sinner he presumes is beneath him, rather than the God who is mercifully near him. Rather than turning to our fellow beggar and rejoicing in having received the Bread of Life, we keep a wary eye on “those people” while we cozy up to God as if the bread-baking was our little secret. We exalt ourselves at the expense of right relationship with God and our neighbor.
So, what are we to do, assuming we want to go home justified? One strategy is to be aware that if or when we start thinking or thanking God that we are not like “them,” we’ve missed the point. Time to repent and start again. Have mercy on me Lord, a sinner.
This is the common ground we all share. We also share in the gracious, generous offering of union with God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This gift is given to each and all of us through Grace by humbly admitting that:
- I have sinned and need this grace, and
- God in Christ offers it freely to us all
This is the justification that comes from a Love beyond any of our doings. Therefore, any and all self-justification is unnecessary. I no longer see myself as better or worse than anyone. It is all gift and we are all in it together. This is genuine spiritual renewal. As French concludes, “We will know when [this] revival comes because we will see believers humble themselves, repent of their sins, and then arise, full of genuine virtue, to love their neighbors — to help them, not hurt them — and in so doing to heal our nation.”
God, have mercy on us, sinners. Send us out into the world in right relationship with You and all our fellow beggars seeking the Bread of Life.
