Author: Gary Witcher

Parables Nineteen

We have all heard about those who are so proud of their humility that they pat themselves on the back and call their wonderful attitude to the attention of everyone.  We are never less humble than when we are proud of our humility.
The same is sometimes true about faith.   Faith involves total dependence on God and His power.  About the time we develop it we become so wrapped up in our accomplishment that we stop looking to God and wind up right back where we started.
So faith does not involve a power we develop in ourselves, it involves recognizing weakness so we can depend more on God.
"My grace is sufficient for you," Paul records the Lord as telling him in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "for power is perfected in weakness.
Jesus deals with this pitfall in a discussion with His apostles recorded in Luke 17.
"Increase our faith!" the followers cry out to the Lord in verse 5.
"If you had faith like a mustard seed," Jesus replies, "you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you."
Just like a tiny seed, our greatness can be realized only when we recognize our smallness and die to ourselves, leaving everything to God to work through His power.
The next verse begins with the word "but," which means that Jesus is continuing with a related thought.  And what does He do in the following verses?  He gives a parable designed to help the apostles keep everything in proportion.
"But which of you," the Master continues," having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field,  'Come immediately and sit down to eat'?
"But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk; and afterward you will eat and drink'?
"He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?  So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done."'
Notice that Jesus mentions things that are commanded.   Some would have us believe that there are no commandments for Christians to follow. Is that what Jesus says?
Others would have us believe that, by following commandments, we eliminate faith.  Is that what Jesus says?
Should we be surprised that Jesus actually makes reference to obeying commandments in a discourse that deals with faith?
What Jesus teaches here is that it is not a question of faith or obedience, but rather a question of maintaining a proper attitude about the two.
"Show me your faith without the works," James 2:18 offers,  "and I will show you my faith by my works."
"Faith without works is useless," James says in verse 20.   Faith without works is dead, according to verses 17 and 26.  According to verse 22, faith is perfected through works.
"You see that a man is justified by works," verse 24 claims, "and not by faith alone."
Does it sound, then, like faith and acts of obedience to God's command are mutually exclusive? Or does it sound more like both must be present for either to be of any value? Faithless works are useless, just as workless faith is useless.
When we say that we must obey God’s commandments, are we implying that we are relying on our own ability and therefore feel that we have something to be proud of?  Jesus says in this parable that it is possible for us to be just like the good servant.

Unfortunately, there are those who do not understand the Lord's teaching in the last parable.   They consider themselves to be more righteous than others, and therefore superior in some way.
"And He also told them this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt;” we read in Luke 18:9-14.
"'Two men went up into the temple to pray," the Master begins, "one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.
"The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself,  "God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer.  I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'"
When Jesus says that the Pharisee is praying to himself, we have to wonder whether this means that he is not talking out loud, or that he is praying for his own benefit without any real regard for God.  Judging from passages such as Matthew 6:5, he may very well be making a great show of offering this prayer.  But he is only praying to himself.
"And when you pray," Jesus points out in the passage in Matthew, "you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full."
"But the tax-gatherer," Jesus continues with the parable,  "standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner'"'
What a combination we have here!  One man is telling God what a wonderful person he is, while the other is so ashamed that he will not even look toward God.  All that he can say is that he is a sinner.   Which one of these men does Jesus commend?
"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other;" Jesus says of the second man,  "for every one who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted."
"God is opposed to the proud," James 4:6-10 teaches, "but gives grace to the humble.  Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.  Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to groom.
"Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."
When Jesus goes to eat with Zaccheus in Luke 19, the self-righteous Jewish leaders are upset because the Lord is associating with a  "sinner." This type of thing happens more than once during the Lord's ministry.
"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost," Jesus points out in Luke 19:10.
"It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus says in Luke 5:31,32 in a similar situation.   "I have not come to call righteous men but sinners to repentance."
Does this mean that some people are already good enough and don't need Jesus?  Or does it mean that many people are like the first man in the parable and THINK they are already good enough?
Remember our discussion of the parable of the lost sheep recorded in Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7?
"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents," Jesus explains in Luke 15:7,  "than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."
God, then, is looking for those who recognize their sins and depend on Him for salvation.  And we should look out for those who fall in the other category.  Jesus warns about these people in Matthew chapter 23.
"But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men," the Lord notes in verse 5.
"And they love the place of honor at banquets," Jesus continues with verse 6, "and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi.
"But do not be called Rabbi; for One is you Teacher, and you are all brothers.  And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.  And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.
"But the greatest among you shall be your servant.   And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."
The world urges us to push and shove our way to the top. Unfortunately, there are those in the religious world who also feel that they should receive special recognition.  At the end of John chapter nine Jesus states that these people are blind precisely because they claim they can see.  Since they are convinced that they can see just fine, they do not feel any need to listen to God or to Jesus.  They are too proud to accept any help.
	But only those with humble attitudes will seek the truth that will set them free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."