Lifting Up
Are you eager to be humbled?
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income." But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.' - Luke 18:9-14
Lent is a time of introspection. It is when we take the time to look into ourselves to see the truth about who we are and how we can be better.
The parable in today's reading from Luke's Gospel is the story of a man who gets caught up in his own self-worth, coming before God to praise himself. He is comparing his life to the lives of those he considers less worthy.
If we truly want to be Christ-like, we need to learn to lift up rather than tear down. What could this Pharisee have done to lift up the tax collector?
Chances are he had no idea he was doing the wrong thing. He was merely recognizing his privileged situation and thanking God for it. Or so he thought.
In fact, he was putting the tax collector down in order to lift himself up.
Jesus offers us no clue as to how the Pharisee could have acted toward this man. We have no example of how to be humble when we believe we are righteous and worthy. We only have the example of the man who is the sinner.
We are told that we are all sinners, and yet that may be hard for some to accept. What if we feel we have done nothing wrong?
When we start out comparing ourselves to others, we start down the wrong path, since we tend to see ourselves as better than some. But if we treat everyone as we would like to be treated, we don't fall into that trap.
Instead, we see ourselves in all.
Rather than say, "There but for the grace of God go I," which lifts us higher in God's eyes, we should say, "Here we are, brothers and sisters. How can I help?"
So, this Lent, let us seek to lift up everyone we encounter, not to raise them above and put ourselves down, but to bring all together as equals.
If we find that difficult, then it stands as proof we are in need of Christ's help.
What better time than now to ask for it.
More to come...