Targeting Self-Righteousness...

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled “Invite”. During this series we are looking at several events from history where Jesus engaged and invited those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with Him.

During this series, we are going to discover what Jesus said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to discover how Jesus said what He said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands in a way that equips and empowers us to follow the example of Jesus when it comes to inviting those who are far from Jesus to follow Jesus and live in relationship with Jesus.  

This week I would like for us to look at an event from history that is recorded in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And it is in a section of the gospel of Luke that we see Luke give us a front row seat to a confrontation that reveals a timeless truth about how Jesus engaged and invited someone who was far from Him to follow Him. However, before we jump into this event from history, we first need to understand the context in which this event from history took place.

In Luke 18, we find Jesus engaged in a conversation with a group of people who were the Pharisees. The Pharisees, who were the self righteous religious leaders of the day, asked Jesus a question about when the Kingdom of God would arrive on the earth. Jesus after answering their question, proceeded to engage in a conversation with His disciples surrounding what would happen at the end of God’s story here on earth so that they would not be deceived by any false teachers and their teaching concerning the end of God’s story here on earth, when the Messiah would return to earth.

Jesus then told a parable to His disciples to encourage them to live a life that pursued God in prayer and that did not become discouraged when they did not receive an immediate answer to their prayers. Now, as we have talked about in the past, a parable is an earthly story designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. And it is in this context that Jesus turned to the crowds that were following Him to proclaim another parable. Now, with that context in mind, let’s jump into this event from history together, beginning in Luke 18:9:

And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

Luke begins to give us a front row seat to this event from history by explaining who the parable that Jesus was about to communicate was directed to. You see, this earthly story that was designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth that was directed to those in the crowd who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.

In other words, the target audience for this parable were those in the crowd that trusted in what they did for God in order to be right with God. The target audience for this parable were those in the crowd who compared what they did for God with what others did for God. The target audience for this parable were those in the crowd that looked down on others and who viewed others as being of little value and worth because they did not do for God what they did for God.  The target audience for this parable were those in the crowd who looked down on others as being of little value and worth because their performance for God did not measure up to how they performed for God.

Because that is what self-righteous people do. Self-righteousness, by very definition is to believe that you are right with God because of what you do, or have done, for God. Self-righteousness. Self-righteous people believe that they are right with God and are awesome because of all that they do for God, while believing those who are not right with God are awful because of what they do not do for God.

You see, self-righteous people often view others that do not measure up to their standard of performance as being of little value and worth, while viewing themselves as being of great value and worth. Self-righteous people often view those who do not do what they do for God as being of little value and worth, while viewing themselves as being of great value and worth because of all that they do for God.  After revealing the target audience for the parable, Luke then reveals the parable that Jesus told in verse 10. Let’s look at it together:

 ¹⁰ "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'

Jesus began His parable by introducing the two characters of the parable, a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now in the Jewish culture of the first century, the Pharisees were viewed by most Jewish people as the spiritual superstars of the day. The Pharisees held positions of power and status in Jewish culture and were viewed as being insiders who were close to God.

By contrast, in the Jewish culture of the first century, Jews who were tax collectors were hated by their fellow countrymen for two reasons. First, these tax collectors were hated because they would often charge higher taxes than necessary in order to make a profit. Since the Roman Empire did not care what these tax collectors charged as long as they received what was due them, many tax collectors became wealthy by charging over and above what the Romans asked.

Second, Jewish tax collectors were hated and were viewed as traitors because they were working for the enemy. Jewish people so despised tax collectors that they had a separate category for them. There were tax collectors and there were sinners. There were those who sinned and then there were tax collectors. Jewish tax collectors were viewed as outsiders who were far from God.

Jesus explained that both the Pharisee and the tax collector went into the Temple to pray. Now to fully understand the picture that Jesus is painting in this parable, we first need to understand what prayer is and what prayer looked like in Jesus day. Now prayer simply put, is a time where people spend time in communion with God and in communication with God.  In the Jewish culture of Jesus day, people prayed out loud in the temple.

So, for those who wanted to show how spiritual they were, they would pray in a raised voice so as to attract attention and impress others. And if that wasn’t enough, they would also repeat their prayer requests over and over again. However, Jesus explained that while the Pharisee was having time in communion with God, the Pharisee was not communicating to God about God.

Instead, did you notice who the Pharisee was having time in communion with: The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself”. You see, the Pharisee was not communicating with God. No, the Pharisee was communicating with Himself so that God could hear the conversation that he was having with himself. The Pharisee was praying to Himself and letting God know how thankful he was that he was so much better than those whose performance did not measure up to the moral standards of the day and were who viewed as being outsiders when it came to a relationship with God.

The Pharisees prayer to himself, if communicating in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: God, I thank you for me. I thank you that I am not like these other people who are all up in here. I am not like that robber over there; I am not like that guy over there who does not do what is just and right; I am not like that dude over there who is always sleeping around on his wife. After all God, just look at me and all that I do for you. I take two times a week to give something up to create space for You. I always give 10% of the money that I get back to You. Just admit it God, I am awesome. After all look what I do for You that makes me so much better than everyone else that is here in church today.”

After revealing how the Pharisee prayed about himself to God, we see Jesus transition to reveal the prayer of the tax collector in verse 13. Tomorrow we will look at that prayer…