Day 107 Bible Reading - Luke 18

Deuteronomy 28: 15-68, Luke 18: 1-30, Psalm 60: 1-4

Luke 18: 11-14

“The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Verses 11 through 14 from Luke 18 is from the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, where it is said Jesus told this parable to those who thought of themselves as righteous and treated others with contempt. The Pharisee prays to God, but it sounds like a litany of all the things the man is proud of compared to other people. He seems to be propping himself up to God at the expense of putting down those around him especially the Tax Collector. The Tax Collector in his prayer to God had no such pretensions. He knew he was a sinner, and he felt so guilty that he could not even lift his eyes to heaven. The Tax Collector prayed to God for mercy, while the Pharisee prayed to God to praise him because he needed nothing from God and thought of himself as without sin. But the Pharisee was not sinless; he had the sin of pride in his prayer. Some might say the Pharisee also had the sin of ignorance, since he did not seem to know or act like pride was a sin. The Tax Collector knew he was full of sin and prayed to God to forgive him. No wonder God looked more kindly upon the Tax Collector than the Pharisee. We cannot be too self-righteous when we pray to God. We cannot assume that we are without sin even if we do all the right things. We must always pray to God to forgive our sins because we have a nature that always sins, whether we are aware of it or not. In a small way, I do admire the Pharisee because he was so self-confident in himself. But his self-confidence turned into the sin of pride, which made him look down on others who weren’t like him.