Boomerang Parable

DAILY BYTE

This week we will be looking at the topic of humility using the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector as our guide (see Luke 18. 9-14).

The parable begins by intentionally establishing exactly who its audience is: “To some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else.” Now, because the Gospel’s relate so much of Jesus’ battle with the Pharisees, and because this particular parable is centred on a Pharisee, we tend to immediately assume that the Pharisees were the target audience of the parable.

That’s a mistake, because in the story that takes place just before this one, it is made clear that Jesus is in the midst of teaching his disciples. Furthermore, the author of Luke’s Gospel would no doubt have included this story as a message to HIS disciples – obviously those belonging to his faith community would have been his primary target audience.

What I am trying to get at is that the intended audience of this parable is ALWAYS disciples – meaning you and me. The point of any parable is that we would learn to see ourselves within it. Not our family members, not our neighbours, not our friends, but ourselves.

Granted with this parable it is especially difficult to do that. It is one of the quickest to read, but the longest to learn. This is because it deals with the topic of self-righteousness and pride which are incredibly easy to identify in others, but so very, very difficult to perceive within ourselves. The very nature of pride and self-righteousness makes that so.

However, this parable is remarkably like a boomerang. As soon as we want to throw it away because we feel that it doesn’t really apply to us, we find that it swings around in an arc and hits us on the back of our head.

Like the Sunday School teacher who taught this parable to her class, and then prayed afterwards: ‘Thank-you Lord that I am not like this Pharisee’.

So this is how the parable sets us up. By establishing that we, not others, but WE are its intended audience. Our first exercise of humility, really, is to find ourselves in its story.

Read the whole parable carefully and then pray the following prayer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, we pray that through the course of this week, you would help us to see who we are more clearly, while at the same time, we ask that you would help us to know who you are more clearly. Pray identify within us those areas of our lives that may be filled with pride and self-righteousness. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: