Lifted Up

DAILY BYTE

We wouldn’t be doing this parable justice unless we also carefully considered the other major role player in the story – the tax collector. It is well known how despised tax collectors where in that day, and how by the very nature of their profession they were classed as ‘sinners’.

He also went to the temple to pray that day. But the word used to describe his praying was very different from that used to describe the Pharisee. Instead, he stood up in a very fearful sort of way – we can almost imagine his knees trembling as he did so.

His prayer also focussed on himself, but in an entirely different manner. ‘Lord,’ he cried out, ‘have mercy on me, a sinner’. In fact, that translation is not quite right – it would be more correct to say, ‘have mercy on me, THE sinner.’

Interestingly enough, Jesus describes this man as being justified before God and then says that everyone who ‘humbles themselves will be exalted’. To be exalted can be understood as being lifted up into something. A biblical understanding of ‘exalted’ would not be that of being lifted up into wealth or great power, but rather into grace and love (God’s primary values and priorities).

Humility lifts us up; it lifts us up from where pride causes us to FALL!
Humility is perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts of Scripture. Humility is not being a doormat, nor is it a lack of courage. In fact, the Biblical understanding of humility seems to suggest great inner security.

Frederick Beuchner defines humility as thinking of yourself as neither better nor worse than you really are. I really like that definition, but perhaps there is more to it than even that.

Jesus links the tax collector’s justification before God and ‘exaltedness’ back to the way he prayed. It strikes me, therefore, that we can learn much about humility from this prayer.

It’s just seven words – ‘Lord, have mercy on me, THE sinner,’ but perhaps they will be among the most important we ever learn to pray.

Jesus is teaching us that to be humble is recognise our need! That’s how we find grace, that is how we are lifted up from our fall, when we realise how much we NEED God in all things.

As John Baillie says: ‘Humility is the obverse side of confidence in God, whereas pride is the obverse side of confidence in self.’

So if they are opposites, and pride leads to us falling from who we were created to be, then humility is that quality that allows God to find us and LIFT us up into grace. Furthermore, if pride damages relationships, then perhaps humility is one of the greatest qualities we need to build relationships. Perhaps it is because as we realise how equal we all are in our need for God, and how gracefully God has lifted us up from our own ‘fall’, that we can in no way stand in judgement over others for their mistakes and failings.

If the essence of this parable is to learn to see yourself in it, can I encourage you to see yourself in both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector? For like mine, your prayers may often begin by being selfish and self-absorbed, they may even reflect vanity or arrogance or self-righteousness. Hopefully, they will in a way because our prayers should reflect the truth of what is on our souls.

But unlike the Pharisee, don’t make the mistake of allowing your prayers to END there. For it is when we realise how full of self our spirituality can be, and how good we are at hiding from that and pretending it isn’t so, it is then that it is a very good time to move onto the tax collector’s prayer and to say, ‘Lord have mercy on me, the sinner’.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, have mercy on me, THE sinner.

FOCUS READING

Luke 18 : 13-14 NIV

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, and they who humbles themselves will be exalted.