Text: Lk 18:9-14
In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
The Prophet Micah says, “What does God require of you…but to walk humbly with your God?” God doesn’t want you to be proud. He doesn’t want you to demand things from God because you think you’re so special. He doesn’t want you to despise other people because you think you’re so great. He wants you to be humble before Him and with your brethren. So be humble, Christian.
I
Be humble because you know your sins. The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable wasn’t humble, he was proud. And he was proud because he was blind to his sins. He thanks God that he’s not like other people, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like that tax collector next to him. He’s different. He’s special. He fasts twice a week. He gives of all he has. There’s pride for you. Notice what he does in his pride. First, he despises other people, like the tax collector next to him. Second, he’s demands that God take notice of him. He’s positive he’s in God’s good graces. He’s sure God’s going to bless him. That’s what people do when they’re spiritually proud. The spiritually proud person demands God bless, or heal, or help, not because He’s promised to be merciful, but because it’s me we’re talking about, because I’m the one who’s suffering, and obviously I’m the most important person in the world. And then proud people despise others because I’m not sure they pray as I do, care like I do, or help as I do. Like that Pharisee, the spiritually proud think much of themselves and little of others. And they assume God is impressed by them.
But unlike the Pharisee, that tax collector enters the temple isn’t proud. He’s humble. And he’s humble because he knows his sins. He doesn’t go into the temple convinced that because he’s so great God just has to give him what he wants. He’s also not looking around at everyone else with contempt. He’s only aware of himself. And he despairs of himself because he knows he’s sinned and he’s ashamed. He knows that fasting twice a week and giving of all he has, or starving himself and giving away all he has, cannot make good for his sins. So he doesn’t go on and on about how great he is. He just beats his breast and confesses he is a sinner.
Be humble, Christian, because you know your sins. The ten commandments show you what sin is. So listen to those commandments. Examine your life according to those commandments. Let them judge you, to your inmost being. Let their demands sink in. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself. If you take those commandments to heart, then there goes your pride. Because you will realize that you haven’t loved the Lord with your all. You in fact have idols like pleasure, safety, or praise. You don’t care about His word as you ought. In fact, you hardly read it. You haven’t loved your neighbor as yourself, but you despise your parents, you get angry at others all the time, your lust and greed rule your heart, you are jealous toward others, you covet what they have. Oh, on the outside you might look like a wonderful person, just like that Pharisee. You can maybe point to great things you’ve done. But God’s Law searches your heart and reveals greater evils than your best of deeds. It finds and condemns all sorts of sin.
The knowledge of your own sin God’s law brings should deflate all your pride in a heartbeat. It should leave you in despair, beating your own breast in shame and misery like that tax collector. If it doesn’t, if your conscience is not pricked by the commandments, then you’re not being honest with yourself. You don’t know your sins. So go through the commandments again. Examine your life again, and if you stop making excuses and just let the commandments speak, you will feel the weight of guilt in your conscience for your sins and you will despair.
Your sins are humbling. The knowledge of the least sin is enough to destroy all our foolish pride.
II
But be humble, Christian, also because you know God’s mercy. Knowledge of our sins destroys pride. But it also brings despair. Knowledge of sin is part of what makes us humble, but there’s something even more important. That’s a knowledge of God’s mercy.
The Pharisee in the temple wasn’t interested in mercy. He was there to praise himself. But that tax collector was there to find mercy. He beats his breast and he says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Now, the sort of mercy he’s after is very specific. He’s not saying, “God, please let me off the hook. Turn a blind eye, sweep my sin under the rug.” That’s not how God is merciful. But what he basically says is, “God, make good for me.” the Greek is “Let there be propitiation for me.” Propitiate means to satisfy God’s just wrath over sin. So he’s saying is, “God, make good for my sins. Take away the judgement my sins deserve. Blot out my sins before your holiness and within my conscience. Take them away from your presence and from me. Repair the damage they’ve caused before you, and in the world, and to myself. Don’t ignore my sins, deal with them.”
That man found what he sought. For Jesus says that He “Went down to his house justified.” Because that’s what the temple was there for. The temple was there to deliver God’s mercy. And God’s mercy is not to ignore sins but to make propitiation for them on our behalf. The sacrifices of the temple were slaughtered to make propitiation for the sins of people. And they also foreshadowed the one great sacrifice of God’s Son, “Who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”
As a Christian, your humility comes, first, from your knowledge of your sins. That’s part of it. But your humility comes even more from your knowledge of God’s mercy and your thankfulness for it. God has mercy on you, a sinner. His mercy is totally undeserved. And His mercy isn’t that he just says, “Ah, don’t bother paying” when you admit you can’t pay the bill, but his mercy is that he pays the bill in full that you can’t pay.
Jesus has made propitiation for your sins. He has dealt with them. He’s suffered the judgement God’s holy wrath demanded of them—death. His death as God’s holy Son is of infinite value to redeem and atone. He’s made good for your sins, for every one of them before God. Through His death He’s given you forgiveness for those sins. He’s placed you in God’s good graces. And He’s done so for you, not because you’re so special, but because He is merciful. He loves the unlovable. He regards us as precious and so pays our redemption price.
To receive such undeserved kindness makes us humble before God and men. How can you not be humble before God when you know He’s had mercy on you? Would you not in thanksgiving for what He’s done for you seek to serve Him and worship Him in all you do? You don’t stand before God and demand He pay attention to you because you think you deserve His attention, but you stand before Him and make you prayers known to Him because you trust that He is merciful to you for His own sake. He will not grant your prayers for forgiveness, or health, or healing, or peace because you deserve it. But He will hear your prayers and answer them in His wisdom and grace because He is merciful.
When you know God’s mercy, how can you not be humble before men? You don’t despise them for their sins, but you are patient with them. You overlook people’s weaknesses. You bear with them. You forgive not only seven times but up to seventy-times seven because you know that God didn’t despise you for your sins and give you what you deserved—but in His love He made good for your sins. He showed you mercy you did not deserve.
So, what does God require of you? What but to live humbly before Him? So do not exalt yourself, lest you be humbled. But humble yourself, Christian, and you will be exalted.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen.