THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

172SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESSThe Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax CollectorLuke 18:9-14“When the devil cannot stay us from a good work, then he laboureth by allmeans to make us proud of it.”--Henry Smith“The truly humble Christian does not inquire into his neighbour’s faults;he takes no pleasure in judging them; he is occupied wholly with his own.”--AthanasiusIt is easy for us modern readers to believe that we are not guilty of what Jesus indicts inthe Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, that is, “Pharisaism,” while partaking of thesame errors.Churches in the Holiness tradition such as ours (The Christian & Missionary Alliance)are filled with people who are scrupulous in their observance of certain values and standards theyperceive to be critical to spirituality. Many of these people are sincere believers who have cometo judge theirs and others’ spirituality by whether they conform to certain standards imposed by acertain church or denomination. In Jesus day it was the Pharisees who were the strict Jews. Theywere the ones who took the Law so seriously that they protected it by providing the Oral Law,that is, the tradition of the elders, which gave the practical interpretation of the Law. This led tointerpretation which emphasized the letter of the Law rather than its spirit and thus resulted inlegalism or legalistic, external righteousness.CONFIDENT OF THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS (18:9-10)It is no wonder that Jesus targets the following parable to those who are "confident oftheir own righteousness":“ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down oneverybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple topray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector” (vv. 9-10).Did the Pharisee in this parable go to the temple to pray to God or to announce to allwithin earshot how good he was?