To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone 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 by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (Luke 18:9-12)
I love this parable. Instead of Jesus saying he spoke to Pharisees, He gives the definition of a Pharisee: Those who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else. In this parable the people they looked down on were robbers, evildoers, adulterers, and tax collectors; not people like you and me, right?
I was impressed when I was in line at Wal-Mart and a lady came back to pay for something hidden in her grocery cart. Would we all have faced the line again? The enemy has convinced me to gossip about someone a time or two even though I try not to gossip. Am I an evildoer? Adultery is too common. Sometimes people, who’ve spent their lives feeling unloved, look for love in the wrong places. I’ve never known a tax collector, but I don’t want one knocking at my door. Maybe the people being looked down upon are more like you and me than we think.
Maybe the Pharisees are also more like us than we think. Don’t we look down on criminals, robbers and evildoers? Don’t we call out people who are lazy and others who don’t wear masks in the COVID crisis? God wants us to show mercy to those whose hearts we don’t understand. The Bible tells us: “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12)
Father God, help me not look down on others as I don’t want others to look down on me. Let me always have a heart of mercy and show kindness to all. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
It is so easy to be judgemental. To make it worse, most of the time we are judging, we don’t know the person’s heart. I think that God is the only one that truly knows our hearts. He is the only one that knows everything about us. I need to do better about judging something or someone. So, I have the same prayer. God, please help me not to be judgemental as I don’t want people to judge me.
Many people were raised without love. Our father was one of those people. As bad as he had it, he grew to be a wonderful father. I thank God we didn’t have his brother for our father! When children are treated poorly, they generally don’t grow up well. I never thought to ask Dad when he began going to church and why. I don’t remember his parents going to church.
Yes, I agree about not having his brother as a father. He was a cruel person. He also changed in his later years and seemed to have faith and belief. That was due to our cousin. I am foggy about this, but I seem to remember Mom saying that his parents did go to church. I don’t know if that was in their younger years or older years or both. She mentioned a Christian Scientist church. They didn’t believe in Doctors or medical help. This a bit foggy but I think this info is right.
I guess all Dad’s dad heard in church was “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Or perhaps he just interpreted it wrong. It means guide your children with a shepherd’s rod, not beat your child. There were other things he misinterpreted too, but who knows what his father was like or was he brought up in an orphanage? People’s hearts are so messed up and fragile.