Scripture - Luke 18: 9-14

Rev Andy Braunston

Introduction

One of the interesting features of human existence is that we often don’t really know ourselves very well. We may know others – their strengths and their weaknesses, but we are not as good as knowing ourselves. Jesus realises this as much of his teaching is concerned with this interesting facet of humanity. He tells us to take the plank out of our own eyes – which we don’t see – in order to deal with the speck we have seen in another’s. Today’s reading concerns two people; the religious person who has no self knowledge and the sinner who knows himself all too well.

Setting the Scene

We see two characters in today’s reading, a Pharisee and a Tax Collector. Most people now have not heard of the first and whilst we may not think of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs with undiluted joy, they are a far cry from the tax collectors of the New Testament time.

The word Pharisee comes from the Hebrew word prushim meaning "separated", that is, one who is separated for a life of purity. The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). Jesus was very critical of the Pharisees because he felt many of them were hypocrites. He couldn’t fault their knowledge of the Law, just their convenient way of finding ways of avoiding it’s personal demands and their self righteous way of dealing with others as illustrated in today’s reading where the Pharisee gives thanks that he is not like those around him. He is holy, worse he knows he is holy and there is nothing as bad as a person who is convinced of their own holiness and sanctity.

Tax collectors were used by the Roman government to raise revenue. They worked essentially as a franchise. A person would buy the right to collect taxes in a certain area. To make a profit he would collect more than he had paid for the privilege. Of course human greed being what it is, meant that the excess of the tax collectors was not checked. In addition the Jews had to pay taxes to Rome partly as tribute as a conquered nation and partly to pay for the costs of occupation. Paying the tax, therefore, was a form of collaboration, and an expensive form as people were overcharged; tax collectors were, therefore, hated. Those who were Jewish were particularly loathed.

Interestingly the person who is holy and supposedly close to God has no idea of the real state of his soul, whereas the sinner and outcast knows that he is in need of God’s love and mercy.

Our Own Self Awareness

How self aware are we? Are we like the tax collector who is aware of the need for God’s love and mercy, or the Pharisee who is more concerned with the evil around him than with the state of his own soul. Or are we, perhaps, a mixture of both?

It is easier, especially as we get older, to become aware of the problems of others. I get more and more wound up by silly things – some neighbours of mine have a charming habit of putting their rubbish sacks on their front step, not being bothered about actually going three meters further and putting the rubbish in the bin! I get so wound up by this. We can sink into patterns of thought and behaviour which mean that we become less aware of ourselves.

However, an issue for many of us brought up in religious traditions where we were encouraged to feel guilty about our gender, our sexuality, who we love or how we live is that we can have a very unrealistic view of ourselves. We can be like the tax collector and wail a lot about how awful we are and yet in truth we are nowhere near as bad as we make out.

We know how awful it is to be with someone who is arrogant and has an inflated view of themselves. We wonder how happy they are underneath. Well it is also difficult to be a person who has a very low negative opinion of themselves. If we don’t love ourselves we will never believe that someone else loves us and our own relationships will suffer. If we don’t value ourselves we will let other people take advantage of us and make us do things we don’t want to do. If we are not happy with ourselves we will never really be happy or understand people who are joyful.

It is important to have a realistic view of ourselves and to try and see us as God sees us – human, imperfect but still pinnacle of creation with great capacity to do amazing things.

Those of us who have had to tell others something secret about ourselves – either around sexuality or gender – have had to become self aware first. I couldn’t tell anyone else I was gay until I admitted to myself that I was, that this “phase I was going through” seemed to be dragging on for some time! Only in accepting myself for who I was, was I able to start the process of learning to love myself and realising that God loves me for who I am – of course God has taken me on quite a journey in these last 21 years, but the starting place for things getting really interesting was knowing myself.

Conclusion

How well do you know yourself? Will you be like the Pharisee who is self-righteous, or will you be like the tax collector who was wallowing in his sin? Or will you be able to be realistic and realise that you are fusion of both a saint and a sinner?

(Rev Andy Braunston)