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Righteous or Self-Righteous?Preached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, 2009 by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults I Corinthians 12:1 “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” Today’s Gospel focuses one of great problems that good people often face: the “burden,“ if you will, of their own goodness. Sometimes, when we have been living in covenant, doing what we should, and perhaps receiving blessings from God because of it, we may be in the gravest spiritual danger. That is, when we are striving to be righteous, striving to be “good” in the eyes of God, that very activity may be dangerous to us if we take knowledge of it. Our Adversary below is always more than ready to exploit any advantage, especially one where spiritual pride is involved. An apt analogy may be when one meets the truly physically beautiful person who is not really aware of their own beauty; they do not regard it and may even disparage themselves, being humble. Contrast this with the great majority of celebrities, particularly those on the stage or in the movies, who are self-aware of their own great good looks to the point of total self-absorption or complete egoism. What a difference there is! In today’s Gospel, our Lord draws a perfect contrast “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others” by drawing a wonderful word picture of a Pharisee and a Publican. The Pharisees were often the objects of Christ’s scorn and usually were the example of what “not” to be, with the notable examples of Nicodemus and certain unnamed others, who secretly believed on Christ. Yet, we ought to recall the origin of the Pharisees; namely how they arose to defend Judah and Israel from the gross idolatry that had brought so much suffering upon them. Remember how the Jews fell into such a state of “mixed” belief, that even their pagan statues populated the very Temple itself. Recall how God, in His longsuffering and mercy, sent prophet after prophet to call His People back into repentance, yet they would not. After literally hundreds of years of warning, God finally executed judgment on Judah in the form of the Babylonian Captivity, and later, the near-total destruction of Jerusalem. Even in the last stage immediately before the sack of the city, Jeremiah warned the people to submit to the yoke of Babylon and live, even if it meant a state of servitude. Had Judah done this, even Nebuchadnezzar would have turned his fierce wrath and accepted their repentance. Instead, the Jews during the reign of Zedekiah refused, even trying to flee the siege of Jerusalem through a break in the city wall. This failed, and resulted in Zedekiah seeing his sons slain before him. He was then blinded and taken to Babylon as one of many captive kings. After this, the Babylonians then proceeded to destroy Jerusalem, including the fabulous Temple of Solomon, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Much later, under the reign of Artaxerxes the Persian and then Darius the Mede, Jerusalem’s wall and Temple would be rebuilt, as related in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra. Although it was indeed glorious to have the Temple in Jerusalem again, it was nowhere near the grandeur of the former temple, nor could it have been. Later, Jerusalem would be savaged again by the Greeks, until Judas Maccabeus and his sons led a successful revolt against the Hellenization of Judah. It was during this period that the Pharisees arose, men zealous for the Law and for the purity of Jewish belief. Their calling was to safeguard Jewish society from the evils of heterodoxy, so that the suffering brought on by idolatry could never happen again. It was a worthy goal. Yet, like all things human, absent the guiding Spirit of God, Phariseeism became twisted and self-centered. The Jews sought righteousness through their own deeds and their interpretation of the Law, thus ensuring, even requiring God’s favor towards the nation of Israel. Their religion became show without substance, mere mechanistic practice without faith or belief. Hypocrisy and outward show became the norm, to a large extent. That brings us to the Gospel selection for the day. Christ clearly draws a contrast between the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble, penitent publican. Thus, our Lord draws a fascinating parallel between appearances versus reality, which is, as you know, a persistent theme in literature and in life.
Our Lord then tells us of the publican. Here is a man who was universally despised as both a tool of the Roman occupiers and as an extortioner. Publicans, or tax collectors, as the NKJ version translates it, were Jews employed by the Roman state to levy and collect Roman taxes. Their compensation depended on the total amount of tax revenue raised. Thus, they usually asked for and received more than what was due, in a fraudulent manner. No wonder they were hated, not only as symbols of the occupation, but also as taking advantage of their position to wring as much money as possible out of the population. You may agree ;that it’s bad enough to be seen as a collaborator, but a corrupt collaborator is even worse! This may be why another Publican, the ”short of statured” Zacchaeus, in Luke 19:8, said that he would restore four-fold to anyone from whom he had over-collected when Christ told him that He must stay with him that day. This act of repentance on Zacchaeus’ part prompted this wonderful statement from Jesus: And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:9-10) Similarly, let’s examine the publican’s behavior in the temple from today’s Gospel. He stood “afar off,” not even daring to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he looked down and “smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” The contrast couldn’t be clearer. What really drives home the point of the parable is Christ’s last statement: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14). We know this by conventional wisdom, in sayings such as “Pride goeth before a fall,” which is actually taken from Proverbs 16:18-19: ”Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Thus, the humble publican was justified before God, while the Pharisee was rejected. His supposed righteousness meant nothing, while the penitent publican, despised by men, was favored by God. Of course, there is a great lesson in this for us. We Anglicans, with our beautiful music and liturgy, our excellent lectionary and our wonderful Book of Common Prayer, are liable to fall into such a spiritual trap, if we are not vigilant. When one has so much goodness, the temptation may arise to look down on those of other traditions. We in the clergy also must guard against spiritual pride as well, precisely because we have been so blessed with the Apostolic Succession and the historic episcopate. Anglicans do have a lot of advantages; unfortunately, sometimes we may be a bit too aware of them, rather than accepting these blessings from God in an humble and contrite spirit, like the publican. It is my firmly held opinion, for whatever it’s worth, that TEC (formerly PECUSA) became too aware of their advantages and began to rely on the wisdom and supposed righteousness of man, rather than of God. Anglicans in general have always had a rationalistic bent, that is, we celebrate the mind as a means to worship God, as well as the emotions and the working of the Spirit. Yet, this same celebration of the intellect can very easily lead to pride and all its incumbent evils. The end result may be a conviction that God’s Will for us is an “evolving” process, rather than what has been revealed to us in His Word Written and the holy traditions of the Church. As the bishops of GAFCON have stated, this has led many in the Anglican Communion to proclaim “another Gospel,” one clearly at odds with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This “new Gospel” is one in which many aberrations of Christian behavior are embraced and are seen as merely a “lifestyle choice.” Thank God for those good and worthy bishops who are calling the Anglican Communion back to contrition and repentance! The lesson to us is plain: we rely, not on our own righteousness, but that of Jesus Christ. As Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” When we, like the Pharisee, depend on our own works for justification, or feel pride in our goodness, or indulge in self-righteousness, we run the risk of being rejected by God. Yet, when like the publican, we approach God in a lowly and humble spirit, relying only on the merits of Jesus Christ, we will have eternal justification and redemption. Thanks be to God! Luke 18:14 4 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." AMEN. 1 Matthew Henry, Commentary on Luke, BibleWorks 7.0 |
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In the parable, we see the Pharisee, dressed in his long robe, no doubt
with flowing phylacteries and all, standing and praying to himself. Some
commentators have observed that this “prayer” is not really a prayer at
all, but rather an “address” to God.