Beware the Pharisee Within

This morning I was reading through the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14. In it Jesus speaks of two men who went up to the temple to pray. One of them was a pharisee, who had quite scrupulously attended to all of the finer points of the Law. As he prayed, he boasted about his personal piety and thanked God that he was not like other (sinful) men such as extortioners, adulterers, and even the tax collector.

Meanwhile, we are told that the tax collector would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast in sorrow and cried out to God, “Be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus goes on to inform us that it was this man who went away justified and he concludes his story with this admonition: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So what was my reaction to this? My mind immediately went to some of the less than humble people I know, people who I think are like the pharisee. I prayed for them that God would change their hearts and help them to better understand their own sinfulness and, in light of that, that they might better understand the beauty of God’s grace.

Then I realized the irony of the situation. Here I was, essentially being the pharisee myself. My first response to one who sinfully thought of himself as being better than others was to sinfully think of myself as being better than others. How deeply rooted is my sinfulness, how utter and complete is my brokenness that upon reading the teachings of my Lord, my immediate response would be the exact opposite that it should be?

As embarrassing as it was, I am still thankful for these two points of takeaway I have from this experience:

1. May I always remember to apply the lessons I learn in Scripture first to myself.


2. Thanks be to God, whose grace is (somehow) greater than all my sin…even when I miserably fail to do number 1.