Attitude Is Everything
Posted 08-05-2014 at 07:39 AM by snowduck
Luke 18:9-14 (NIV) To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “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 all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” - Here Christ is talking to members of a Jewish denomination, probably the Pharisees. In Christ's time and place the Pharisees were very big and controlled the "religious institutions". Among other things they replaced the word of God with their own, told people they could be saved by their own works, and generally looked down big time on anyone who was not of their ranks. I think that the term we would use is that they were "full of themselves". While the Pharisees (mentioned about 87 times in the new testament) thought they were so great before God they actually became an example of what Christ said not to be like, so we need to be careful not to adopt their attitudes and become like them (Matthew 23:1-3 - Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach). When the Pharisee in the parable prayed, he didn't humble himself like the tax collector did because he thought he was so great (tax collectors were considered very low because when they went door to door collecting taxes they often charged more than the law stated then kept the difference for themselves). Thinking we're better or less sinful than others puts us in the same boat that the Pharisee was in. God sent his son Jesus (because he was the only one qualified) to be the Savior of everyone including the Pharisee, but the tax collector had the attitude that was more pleasing to him, so let's try to be more like the tax collector. What About Jesus?
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