A Parable That Works Like a Judo Master
Through the eyes of Luke, I watched the Pharisee slowly climbed the temple steps. Self-righteousness oozed from his every move, pooling beneath him every time he paused. It’s a miracle he never drowns in the ooze while laying in bed at night.
The Pharisee opened his mouth and spoke as if to himself but in a tone loud enough for two dozen other worshipers to hear.
“God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector…”
The wretched tax collector stood alone a little ways off. His pained eyes were downcast, and his shoulders were slumped. I wondered if the Pharisee’s self-righteousness might drown the tax collector as well.
I couldn’t help but utter my own prayer to God.
“God, I thank you that I am not like that Pharisee at the temple praying, looking down on the tax collector.”
Did I miss something?
Yes Daniel, you did indeed miss something.
Luke front loaded the story (Luke 18:9-14) with an explosive charge: “[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.”
Naturally, I condemn the Pharisee as soon as I read his grimy, self-righteousness prayer. I compared myself to him, and reassured myself that my deeds prove that I am much more righteous than he is.
Then I become the Pharisee. Like the hands of a Judo master, the parable uses my own weight against me. I condemn myself by condemning the Pharisee.
Now I am ready to hear where righteousness comes from.
1. Righteousness is not found by comparison
The Pharisee first compared himself to other men. That’s the first hint that I am looking in the wrong place to find my righteousness.
If two men were sitting side by side, suffering heart attacks, they wouldn’t judge their chances of survival by comparing shoe sizes. Neither should I judge my eternal condition by how I stack up against another man’s external appearance.
2. Righteousness is not found in works
The Pharisee proceeded to list a sampling of his good deeds. I am sure he could have gone on further, but God wasn’t taking notice anyway.
The Pharisee was not righteous by his own right any more than he was righteous by comparison. Neither am I.
3. Righteousness is found in Christ, always
Paul had the Pharisee beat, hands down.
“If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (Philipians 3:4-6)
Paul also knew all of man’s righteousness is rubbish.
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ…in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philipians 3:7-9).
Charles Spurgeon comments,
“You will enter Heaven as fully by grace as if you had never lived a godly life, nor had practiced a single virtue.”
Now that I have been thrown to the floor, I am ready to kneel beside the tax collector, beat my breast, and say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
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Powerful commentary, Daniel. Thanks for sharing your honest response to these Scriptures as you moved from missing something to receiving wisdom and truth from your Father!
It is a relief to admit sin, to not be encumbered by the weight of God’s law and the weight of our inability to uphold that law, to rest freely in His grace. Paul talks about this freedom all the time. I am only beginning to grasp what it means and how wonderful it is.
Works come as fruit of the Spirit living within us, not because of anything within ourselves. Paul reminds us all the time to glorify in Christ alone. He had all sorts of works to fall back on – upholding the Jewish law and then reaching so many with the Gospel – but he always carefully reminded us that any human “righteousness” is as filthy rags to the Lord (a long, hard lesson for this prideful child to learn) and pointed to the only good and perfect Being, our Lord and Redeemer!
Praise the Lord for revealing to us our sinful nature and allowing us to sincerely confess our sins! and praise Him for His great and everlasting mercy to pardon those sins!
Ah, yes. It’s the pharisee to the pharisee. I have many pharisaical moments. Thanks, Daniel, for being transparent and truthful.
Do you mean “thrown” instead of “throne” in your last line?
BTW, I’m glad I’m not like that guy in your picture being owned by the other dude.
Oops!
Ruth, you deserve some sort of award for coming to the blog so regularly to share your heart and hope in God. I appreciate you.
You got me. Homophones have long been the bane of my grammatical existence.
My instructor owned me like that once (or twice..or…). Still kept going back for more though.
I really enjoyed this commentary. I’m glad I’m not like the 21st century Pharisees who dwell in the blogosphere!
I was listening to Matt Chandler talk about this section not too long ago. He pointed out the Pharisee was actually praying a Christ-centric prayer which made it even hard to swallow.
I mean, how many of us would NOT thank God that we are not like robbers, murderers and adulterers?
How many of us DO NOT draw it to God’s attention that we tithe?
Not many.
Christ-centric, or God-centric? Curious how Chandler developed that.
That raises an interesting point though, because David’s prayers frequently pointed God to look at his blameless walk.
[...] other words, I thought Jesus was bringing the smack down on puny [...]