The Exalted and the Justified
Luke 18:9-14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
All people like to talk about themselves. We take our greatest achievements and use these actions to make ourselves appear better than we are and to be more appealing to others. Naturally these tales will put us in the best light and make us the envy of those who listen to us. There are some who will embellish, that is to say exaggerate or lie about events, to make what happen seem more than what it was.
Jesus had encountered many people who were very much convinced of their own spiritual and religious superiority. Most of these were the Pharisees and Sadducees that were constantly about during Jesus’ last part of His time here on earth. These men believed that because they lived according to the rules of the elders, they were better than those who did not.
To these men Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, also called a publican. In this parable a Pharisee and a tax collector are praying in the Temple. The Pharisee is very pleased he is not like other men, thieves, adulterers, and those who do evil, even to the point of saying he is glad he is not like the tax collector who is standing next to him. The Pharisee then went on to tell God all the good he does. The tax collector, humiliated by his condition, stood a distance away and wouldn’t look toward heaven, just asked for mercy. Jesus told the assembled that the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, who went home justified before God. Justified which is to mean vindicated or made blameless.
One of the ideals Jesus spoke quite a bit about was those who tried to puff themselves up or elevate themselves above others would be brought down or humbled before others, He used this as an example in a number of parables. This concept was told to the Children of Israel by King Solomon in Proverbs 16:18 which states “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”. Earlier in Luke, Jesus told that parable of taking the lowest seat at a feast which Jesus ended with the same words as this parable, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
In Mark 10:42-45, after John and James asked Jesus to allow them to sit at His right and left in glory, we read “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus, the chiefest of all, told the disciples, and everyone throughout the ages, that He did not come to be served, but to serve.
But people seem to forget this very important lesson. Those in a leadership position believe that those under them are there for the benefit of the leader. We find this true in government, at our place of employment, and even at home. Those of us given the responsibility of head of the household at times can forget that it is our responsibility to insure the family is cared for, which is a servant role. Those who are given the responsibility of supervisor at work need to make sure those subordinate to them are given everything they need to succeed, again a servant’s duty. It becomes our obligation to insure we do not make that mistake in our lives and to gently correct those who misuse their authority.
The chiefest of us, our Lord and our God, our Savior Jesus, came to us to serve. The King of Kings did not come with the pomp and ceremony due to Him, but in great humility and almost unnoticed, and would have been unnoticed if God had not made the birth known. Our Immanuel, our God with us, was not the object of unrestrained worship and adoration, but subject to scorn, ridicule, and hatred by many. And in the end, the Savior served all people by taking our sins to be His own, as recorded for us in 2nd Corinthians 5:21, “For [God] hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Our Lord served His creation by taking the punishment we deserve, enduring the sentence of hell that is rightly ours to rescue us from ourselves. The highest of us all willingly became the servant of all.
What then do we have to exalt ourselves about? What can we possible do or say that can bring us any higher respect from God? The Pharisee in the parable boasted he fasted twice a week and gave a tenth of all he got to the Temple. Well isn’t that special!!! Jesus fasted for forty days and He gave everything. The Pharisee was thankful over the fact he was not a murderer, an adulterer, or an evildoer. The Pharisee was guilty of murder when he put down the tax collector, as is told to us in 1 John 3:15 “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” And we all know that to break one commandment is to break them all. The Pharisee’s prayer was one he prayed to himself; it was not a communication to God.
But yet we still build ourselves up. We wish to tell everyone our accomplishments and put ourselves above others. The comic strip Dilbert has a character called Topper. This character tells stories to top the tales the other characters tell. In one strip, the boss is talking about a fish he caught and it was the biggest fish ever caught in the lake. Topper said “That’s nothing. I once caught a dinosaur by using nothing but dental floss and a pull tab from a beer can.” The boss said “I’d like to see this alleged dinosaur.” Topper then replied “Too late. I also make the world’s best barbecue sauce.” How many times have we told something about ourselves for the sole purpose to make ourselves look better?
I do not want you to think that there is anything wrong about feeling good and satisfied about our accomplishments, it is not. But like all sin, it is what comes from the heart that makes everything sinful or not sinful. Do you tell a friend about how we do a job in half the time to bolster ourselves up or to help them out? As long as our aim is to help, there should be no sin. But if we say this for the pat on the back, then we have sinned. The problem is, even when we tell people to help out, there is usually a twinge of back stiffening crowing that turns our aid into a sin, but this is part of our nature; everything we do and say has sin in it.
If we look at ourselves as truthfully as we can, we would see ourselves as the tax collector saw himself; sinful and unworthy. He stood at a distance, not even believing himself worthy enough to lift his eyes toward Heaven. The man, in full knowledge of his corrupt and fallen condition could only beat his breast in sorrow and ask God for mercy. As we see ourselves as the tax collector saw himself, we too should have that same outlook. We should see ourselves as people unworthy to be in God’s house and not good enough to even look toward Heaven. We should see ourselves as people without merit or worthiness, a people who have no business to be in a relationship with the Lord. The sin that infests our soul makes us an abomination to God and all we can ask for, even if we dared to ask, was for mercy, ask for undeserved kindness.
Fortunately for us, God would not have sin shut us out from Him and Heaven. Our Lord and Savior made sure all people were made worthy to be in a relationship with God. He rescued us so just like the tax collector in the parable; we are made justified, or made blameless, in the face of God. With the saving work of Jesus, not only can we be in the house of God and look to Heaven, we are now able to call God our Father. This was done not because of who we are but because God loves us so much and would not leave us to our own well deserved fate. He pulls us out of the muck and mire of the world, cleans us off and dresses us in the pure robes or righteousness. Forgiveness has become our gift and Heaven our inheritance.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted is a message Jesus gave many times during His ministry. The idea that we can somehow elevate ourselves over others is something that Jesus desperately wanted to warn us about. If I were to ask everyone here to make a comparison between Hitler and myself, everyone here would say I am a much better person than he was, or at least I hope everyone here would say that. But before I begin to have thoughts of self-importance, I, and all of us, need to remember that in the eyes of God, there is no difference. As recorded for us in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” While the world may see a difference between the two of us, to God the sins of Hitler are no different than my own. But to God, I am forgiven and made righteous while Hitler rejected God’s goodness and mercy, and that is the only difference between the two of us. For everyone who exalts themselves will be humiliated, because they that believe in their own piousness and righteousness will soon come to believe they do not need a Savior as they have done all that is needed on their own and will put himself above the sinner and close the door of mercy on his own face only to be humiliated by the face of damnation. But those who humble themselves will be exalted because the humble will see their sinful condition and bow themselves before the Lord asking for forgiveness, who then will be accepted by the Lord and exalted by Him and given a place in the Lord’s presence in Heaven.
In His parable, Jesus gave a dire warning to those in His time and for everyone in all times about the dangers of haughtiness and self importance. These thoughts can give to us a false sense of justification which could have very dire consequences. It is the humble that recognizes the need for forgiveness and a Savior for it is the humble that sees themselves not as better as others, but as fallen. Those that exalt themselves before men will be humbled by God and those who humble themselves before men will be exalted by God. We have been taught this in the parable of the exalted and the justified. Amen.
