THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

176This despised tax collector ends his prayer by asking God for mercy. And that is the onlylegitimate favor to ask.JUSTIFIED BEFORE GOD (18:14)Having contrasted the Pharisee's self-righteous and disdainful piety with the taxcollector's sincere and faith-filled penitence, Jesus pronounces judgment:"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified beforeGod” (v. 14).The word justified (dikaioo) means "to be found in the right, be vindicated and thus freeof charges." When we are justified it is as though God looks upon us as though we have neversinned.What liberation! What hope for the despised, the scum of the earth!As Isaiah, the prophet, put it:“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles atmy word” (Isa 66:2).EXALTATION OR HUMILIATION (18:14)Jesus ends this parable with a warning and a promise:"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbleshimself will be exalted" (18:14).Jesus gives us another paradox of the spiritual life. While exalting oneself leads tohumbling, humbling leads to exaltation. Similarly Jesus' brother James says “God opposes theproud but gives grace to the humble" (Jas 4:6). Pride turns us into God's opponent, His enemy.If this parable teaches anything it is the importance of humility before God. This iswhy the offer of salvation goes to people who would normally be regarded as excluded from it.