The Lutheran Hour
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"A Wrong Comparison"
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Text: Luke 18:9-14
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PRAYER: Almighty God, You are a God of holiness and a God of mercy and a God of love. In this Lenten season, remove from our hearts all desires to hide behind our shameful self-righteousness. O Lord, we pray through Your gift of repentance and gift of faith, enable us to trust only in the true and pure and life saving righteousness of Your Son the Lord Jesus. In His name we pray and we believe. Amen.
If you were to step on a scale at this moment, how much would you weigh? And how does your weight compare with other people around you? How much sleep do you get each night? Regarding the number of hours of sleep you get, how does this compare to the national average?
We are a society constantly comparing ourselves to others. Whenever we see a height and weight chart in a magazine, we quickly look for comparisons. We want to see where we fit in. How do we measure up? Where do we stand compared to other people?
Not long ago, USA TODAY carried a chart showing how much the average person in a given state owes on their credit card. Here again, we immediately look to see how we compare with others who also have credit card debt. Recently, a newspaper published a chart showing how much people give to the Sunday collection plate at church, and how much they give for other charity. Without a doubt, thousands of people studied that chart to assure themselves what little they gave fit pretty well with the national average.
In the Bible, in the Gospel of Luke, we read where Jesus explained how a Pharisee tried to make Himself look good and he did this by comparing Himself to others. Jesus said, “Two men went up into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. Now, as the Pharisee prayed he said ‘O, Lord, I thank Thee that I am not like other people; swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week,’ the Pharisee said, ‘and I pay tithes of all I get.'”
But then Jesus immediately told about another man and this second man was a tax-gatherer. This second man was standing some distance away from the Pharisee and was not even willing to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead he beat his breast saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
Now, after comparing the attitude of these two men, the self-righteous Pharisee on the one hand and the humble tax collector on the other, Jesus said, “I tell you” [the second man], the humble one, “went home justified rather than the Pharisee.” Jesus explained, “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).
How appropriate this parable of Jesus is today. You see, this is the season of Lent. We are now in the 2nd week and this is also a time when God, in a special way, desires us to examine our lives and compare our life, not with that of our neighbor like the Pharisee did, nor with the national average like we’re tempted. Instead, God wants us to compare our life with His Word, and especially with His Ten Commandments.
In the Old Testament book of Lamentation, we read “Let us examine and probe our own ways, and then let us return to the Lord” (Lam. 3:40). By God’s grace and His Spirit we will receive God’s gift of repentance. We will also be enabled to say the words in Jesus’ parable, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” With God’s gift of repentance and gift of faith, you will then be enabled to stand before God totally forgiven. In his second letter to Timothy, St. Paul explains how God grants repentance, which leads to faith.
In this Lenten season let us remember in His holy Word, God not only invites us but He actually commands us to confess our sins. More than that, through His wonderful life giving Word and Spirit, we are then enabled to confess and repent. God assures you of His promise of forgiveness. The apostle John speaks of this promise when He writes: “If we confess our sins, God is indeed faithful and righteous to forgive us all our sins, and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
I am sure some listening today may say, “I really want to confess my sins, but how do I do it?”
Well, 500 years ago Martin Luther faced the same situation. He was struggling to help lay people understand the Bible, in a simple way. In his struggle to help even clergy to understand the faith, Martin Luther put together what is called the Small Catechism, a summary of the basic teachings of the Bible. In one section, Luther set forth some simple questions and answers. Going through these Bible-based expressions enables people to have the humble attitude of that repentant man that Jesus spoke about in His parable.
I’m going to ask our announcer, Mark Eischer, to help me explain a bit more clearly what a God-pleasing confession might be. Mark will ask the Bible-based questions Luther set forth and I will give God-pleasing confessions based on the Bible.
Q. Do you believe you are a sinner? A. Yes, I believe it; I am a sinner. Q. How do you know this? A. From the Ten Commandments; these I have not kept. Q. Are you also sorry for your sins? A. Yes, I am sorry I have sinned against God. Q. What do you deserve of God by your sins? A. I deserve God’s wrath and displeasure, temporal death, and eternal damnation (Romans 6:21,23). Q. Do you also hope to be saved? A. Yes, such is my hope. Q. In whom, then, do you trust? A. I trust in my dear Lord Jesus Christ. Q. Who is Christ? A. Christ is the Son of God, true God and man. Q. How many Gods are there? A. Only one, but there are three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Q. What, then, has Christ done for you that you trust in Him? A. Jesus Christ has died for me. He has shed His blood for me on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins.
Now, these very basic and simple steps can also be used to confess your sins to God in a way that will please Him. If you would like a copy of this for future use, please write and we will send it to you.
Let’s return again to the story Jesus told. One of the things the arrogant, hypocritical Pharisee did not do was confess to God his own sin. Rather, he said, “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people who are swindlers, robbers, adulterers, etc.”
My friends, when you read this, doesn’t this also remind you of things you are also often tempted to say or at least think? O Lord, I thank Thee I am not like other people. I’m not a drunkard. I don’t watch pornographic movies. Lord, I don’t like my neighbor. I don’t download computer pornography. Lord, I have not taken bribes like so many politicians do. Lord, I don’t gossip about other people in my church. I don’t buy lottery tickets like so many other people do. I don’t drive through stop signs. Lord, I thank Thee I am not like other people who skip church or don’t read their Bible every day, and so on.
If you have ever felt like saying or even thinking these thoughts, Jesus spoke about your heart, which has been tempted by shameful pride and sinful hypocrisy.
So how does one get out of all this? How do you move to a more God-pleasing lifestyle? Listen to what the psalmist says, “When I kept silent about my sin, then my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”
But, now listen to the Good News of the psalmist. He says it like this, “Yes, then I acknowledged my sin and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; And Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:3-5). What the psalmist was confessing is also what the Apostle John restated centuries later: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
So, during this Lenten season let us remember that confession, confession of sin, is not an empty act nor is it an act without promise, a law without Gospel. Instead, the psalmist rejoices in what God promises and what He provides to all those who confess their sins and not the sins of their neighbor.
Confession is the God-pleasing act of emptying ourselves of all self-righteousness, so that our gracious heavenly Father can fill us up with the perfect and soul saving righteousness of Jesus crucified and raised again for our justification.
This is also what St. Paul confessed. You see, for years St. Paul tried to be self-righteous. Finally, however, Jesus intervened and he was led to see how hopeless it was. Then, the Apostle Paul confessed, “I now count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord,” he said “count all of this self righteousness as rubbish, as garbage, or manure, in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but [a righteousness] which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:7-10).
Therefore, in this special Lenten season, God is calling you to do three things. First, stop comparing yourself to others in order to make yourself look good. Instead, say with the psalmist “Against Thee O Lord, only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight” (Psalm 51:4). Second, confess your sins honestly to God. Don’t try to hide anything. Thirdly and finally, live with the blessed assurance that when Jesus died on the cross, His blood paid for all-for every last one of your sins. Then, say with St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” O Lord, we pray in these Lenten days: Turn the hearts of each one of us into sincere repentance and enable us to stop comparing ourselves with others as the Pharisee did in Jesus’ parable in order to make ourselves look good. Instead, O Lord, enable us to reject all our own righteousness and receive through God’s gift of faith the perfect and saving righteousness of Christ. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for March 11, 2001
ANNOUNCER: In today’s message you mentioned how people look at the negative actions or traits of those around them. In so doing they are trying to make themselves look better. Is that a big problem in our culture today?
SCHULZ: Mark, I think it is. It’s also part of the secular negative and judgmental attitude that is very much characteristic of our present society.
ANNOUNCER: Maybe you could explain what you mean by that.
SCHULZ: Well, if you talk to people today, it isn’t very long before you hear them being critical of the weather or critical how people drive or about the price of food or almost anything they come in contact with. It just seems the way we think now.
ANNOUNCER: Would you say there are some key forces in society that leads us in this direction?
SCHULZ: I think so. It certainly is not the only one, but the key one is the secular media. They’re very much responsible for the very negative, I believe, and judgmental attitudes widely expressed. For example, almost anybody who runs for a public office is going to be very quickly analyzed, dissected and exposed as someone with a less than honorable intention.
ANNOUNCER: That is indeed unfortunate. But why is that?
SCHULZ: Well, again, the media. There is a slogan there. Anybody around the media knows it. The slogan says: “If it bleeds, it leads!” This means if there is sensation, bloodlines, killing or vicious gossip involved, it grabs people’s attention. This is what makes headlines. Take a look at the average news broadcast and almost any channel on television. Well-known news anchor people have a very definite way of inflecting their voice so they sensationalize almost anything!
ANNOUNCER: But in contrast to all that bad news, here on this program our message is the “Good News” of God.
SCHULZ: This is our intention based on the Bible and focusing on Jesus. St. Paul makes this observation, too, in the book of Romans when he says: “It is while we are sinners, while we are in this mess, that God rescues us in Jesus Christ.” Everybody hearing or reading this message today knows he or she has certain shortcomings. We all have our failures. We don’t need others to point them out to us. But even more important, if we are going to talk about failures, we need to measure them up to God’s Word and not just to some friend or family member. This is what we tried to stress in today’s message.
ANNOUNCER: Certainly, the most important part is the Good News that God loves us.
SCHULZ: Right. That ‘s the bull’s eye of the whole operation. We want to stress this to our listeners again. You may not feel like you are the athlete you would like to be. Maybe you feel you are not the beautiful woman you would prefer to be; or, maybe there is some other way you feel that you fall far short of what the world expects. Nevertheless, the Good News is, God doesn’t see you that way. You are one of His children. He looks at you in a positive way and when God looks at you, He loves you as His own. He is urging you to repent of your sins and leave all of your failures behind you and start a new life with Him in Jesus Christ. This is not something God expects you to do on your own. God is willing, in fact, eager to give you His Holy Spirit to empower you for this new type of living.
ANNOUNCER: What we should note is that this will not be a life of ease or a life free from trouble and temptation.
SCHULZ: Indeed. The new life in Christ is still going to be filled with temptations. There will be challenges. However, with your new mind of Christ, God then enables you to live above challenges, disappointments, and events that are sometimes not all that pleasant. Of course, the bottom line is: It all happens along with the conviction St. Paul expressed: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up on the cross for me” (Galatians 2:20).
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Dr. Schulz. That brings us to the end of our broadcast for another week.