Scripture: Luke 18:9-14
Journal: Where and how do you try to elevate yourself? What would it look like to actively seek to
lower yourself instead? How will you do that
today?
Reflection: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked
down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable.” Sort of grabs your attention right from the
start, doesn’t it? Definitely
cringeworthy, probably because we each see that tendency in ourselves. For in order to look down on someone else,
you have to have raised yourself above them at some point. The problem is that it’s usually a very
subtle thing; we do it without even realizing it. That is until we are confronted with it in
story form, then it’s easier to see.
So Jesus tells us a
story. He wades into the dark places of
the heart with the light of truth. He
sets up a contrast that’s sure to get our attention and shake us up a little,
if not a lot. On the one hand there is a
Pharisee—religious, pious, wise, right, and sure—who challenges each of us to
acknowledge and examine the state of our own hearts, minds, and souls. And on the other hand is the tax collector. A
tax collector! Of all things! Jesus might as well have selected a scammer,
a computer hacker, or a telemarketer. Tax
collectors were the scum of the earth in those days, the lowest of the low, the
lostest of the lost. And yet in
this story, as is often the case with Jesus, the outcast is set up as the
hero—the one who sees things as they truly are, rather than through the lenses
of his own self-importance and self-righteousness.
And the point of the
story? Simply that if you live your life
trying to raise yourself up—trying to climb higher, in your own eyes or the
eyes of others—you are setting yourself up for a fall. But if you recognize your desperate need for
Jesus, and your inability to make things (anything really) “right” on your own,
then there is good space within you for God to come in and fill you with his
love and mercy.
For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Did you get that? Everyone who humbles himself. Not just everyone who gets humbled by life’s
circumstances, but the one who humbles himself. Those two are very different. Humbling yourself calls for an active,
ongoing process—the process of continually lowering ourselves.
The Greek word for exalt (hypsoō)
means to elevate. Which is a
wonderful and terrible word, especially in reference to something we are trying
to do to ourselves. Jesus wants us to
know clearly that everyone who tries to elevate himself will be humbled. And the Greek word translated humble
in this passage (tapeinoō) means to bring low. Thus, if your life is about elevating
yourself, you are in for a wild ride, but if your life is about bringing
yourself low, then you are right where God wants you. There is actually room in your life for God
to move and to work and to act.
So let us always remember
that in the kingdom of God things are often backwards: less is more, small is
big, low is high, and last is first. Only
when we empty ourselves of self, can we possibly be made full. Lord, have mercy!
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: O Eternal God, my heart is not filled with
proud thoughts; my eyes do not look down on others; I don’t even begin to get
involved in matters too big and too wonderful for me. When I take this perspective—when I look at
life through these lenses—it is easy for my soul to be still and quiet and at
rest. I don’t need to prove anything, I
don’t need to constantly try to be any more or any less than who and what you
created me to be. It is so incredibly freeing. It is like being a little child, held in the
loving embrace of its mother—safe, secure, content, loved. Help me to always operate from this place of
wholeness and peace. Amen. (Psalm 131, JBV, Jim Branch Version)
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