Read Luke 18:9-14
Eleven years ago, I visited the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. I was part of a team that participated in a ministry conference within the prison walls. I recall doctors, teachers, businessmen, and pastors sitting and praying side-by-side with robbers, rapists, and murderers. Each of these men asked God to forgive them of their individual sins. No one feigned that he was any better than any other person in the room. As Blue Highway sings in their song, “The Ground Is Level at the Foot of the Cross.”
Unfortunately, someone forgot to remind the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable of this spiritual reality. Compared to the tax collector praying some distance from him, the Pharisee concluded that he fared much better in God’s eyes. Relatively speaking, the Pharisee believed that his level of righteousness far exceeded that of the tax collector.
According to Jesus, the Pharisee failed to understand that he was comparing himself to the wrong standard. The standard of righteousness is established and met by God and by God alone. Any other comparison will lead one to a false self-assessment. For the follower of Christ, the temptation to evaluate one’s life in accordance with the life of another is a dicey business. As Jesus declared in a separate teaching, we may miss the log in our own eye, as we seek to point out the splinter in our neighbor’s eye. I call such a practice, “The Pulley Principle.” People who practice the Pulley Principle seek to lift their own sense of self up by pulling others down.
Jesus offers a different course of action. Jesus claims that when we humble ourselves before God and one another, God will exalt us. The reverse, however, is also true. Those who exalt themselves will eventually be humbled. Or as the old saying goes, everyone who gets too big for their britches will be exposed in the end!
Eleven years ago, I visited the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. I was part of a team that participated in a ministry conference within the prison walls. I recall doctors, teachers, businessmen, and pastors sitting and praying side-by-side with robbers, rapists, and murderers. Each of these men asked God to forgive them of their individual sins. No one feigned that he was any better than any other person in the room. As Blue Highway sings in their song, “The Ground Is Level at the Foot of the Cross.”
Unfortunately, someone forgot to remind the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable of this spiritual reality. Compared to the tax collector praying some distance from him, the Pharisee concluded that he fared much better in God’s eyes. Relatively speaking, the Pharisee believed that his level of righteousness far exceeded that of the tax collector.
According to Jesus, the Pharisee failed to understand that he was comparing himself to the wrong standard. The standard of righteousness is established and met by God and by God alone. Any other comparison will lead one to a false self-assessment. For the follower of Christ, the temptation to evaluate one’s life in accordance with the life of another is a dicey business. As Jesus declared in a separate teaching, we may miss the log in our own eye, as we seek to point out the splinter in our neighbor’s eye. I call such a practice, “The Pulley Principle.” People who practice the Pulley Principle seek to lift their own sense of self up by pulling others down.
Jesus offers a different course of action. Jesus claims that when we humble ourselves before God and one another, God will exalt us. The reverse, however, is also true. Those who exalt themselves will eventually be humbled. Or as the old saying goes, everyone who gets too big for their britches will be exposed in the end!