How many times have you thought, in the quiet of your own heart: thank God I am not you? This sermon shows that comparing ourselves with others always ends the same way, either we put someone down or we lift ourselves up. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18) reveals that a person can pray to God while worshipping himself, and go home worse off than before he prayed. Listen and ask yourself which way you are looking today, at other people, or at God.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus tells this parable to those who trusted in their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. How might the first hearers have reacted to setting a respected Pharisee beside a tax collector who worked with the Romans?
- Everything the Pharisee says in his prayer is true: he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all he gets. So what is wrong with his prayer, and why is it the tax collector who goes home justified?
- The sermon says comparing ourselves with others sooner or later leads us either to put someone down or to lift ourselves up. When do you catch yourself thinking "I'm so glad I'm not you" or "I wish I were like you"?
- The Pharisee compares himself with people, while the tax collector compares himself with a holy God. How does your view of yourself and others change when you stand before God rather than next to another person?
- The speaker warns that we can even become proud of our humility, like the Sunday school teacher who thanked God that we are not like the Pharisee. How can you recognize that subtle pride in yourself?
- Who is it easy for you to look down on this week, and what can you actually do to stop comparing yourself with that person and instead ask God for mercy for both of you?
