Humility was not a word used in connection with the Pharisees and certainly not by Jesus. Here Jesus is condemning them in no uncertain terms, both for making life impossible for the average Jewish citizen whilst not obeying all the rules themselves and for their boasting and taking the places of honour.
The Pharisees were a major faction in Judaism during Jesus life. We think of them as villains because they were so often opposed to Jesus and yet in the eyes of many 1st century Jews they were admired and respected for their dedication to keeping the Law of Moses. They believed that the way to put themselves right with God was to obey fully the Law brought to them by Moses in the wilderness. The problem was that in their eagerness to keep this law they had created a whole set of complex rules and regulations concerning how to do it; meaning that a first century Jew had 613 things to remember not to do for every day of their life. This is why Jesus says, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on people’s shoulders” and it is clear that he condemns them for it. This was made worse by the fact that the Pharisees did not obey all these rules, nor did they try to help others to do so.
This is why Jesus often calls the Pharisees ‘hypocrites’ because they didn’t practice what they preached and gave no guidance to others to help them keep all the rules.
But the Pharisees were worse than hypocrites, they were puffed up, boasters and show offs. The references in the passage to wide phylacteries and long fringes indicate people who wanted to appear to be particularly pious. As the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector shows, the Pharisees were sure that because of their piety they would receive the reward of eternal life and spend eternity with God
No wonder Jesus was often in opposition to the Pharisees, no wonder he condemned them. They were trying to get to God by being good and were encouraging others to do the same. Not only were they misleading others, they were boastful about how wonderful they were.
Jesus tells us not to be like them. Jesus tells us to humble ourselves. But what does he mean when he tells us to be humble?
Philippians 2 gives us a clue because it speaks about how Jesus humbled himself. We must remember that Jesus wasn’t just the human son of God; Jesus was God himself, the second person of our Trinitarian God. In Jesus God himself, Creator of the universe, was born as a tiny baby to a peasant mother. In Jesus God gave up everything that made Him divine and became human. In Jesus God himself had nails driven into his hands and feet and then hung on the cross and died for us.
This is true humility, God our Creator taking on the very nature of a servant so that we might be forgiven for all the selfish, unloving and God defying things that we have done. This is true humility, giving up honour and power and dignity for the sake of another. This is the same humility that Jesus demonstrated when he stripped off, bent down and washed the dirty and smelly feet of his disciples. It is the same humility he asks of each and every one of his followers.
But there is another way we need to think of humility and it also is in direct contrast to the humility of the Pharisees. They believed that they could enter into a relationship with God because of all the rules they kept; because they obeyed the law. In fact all that effort was for nothing because none of them could perfectly obey the whole law, no matter how hard they tried and to break one single part of the law is to break the whole law. Paul, who was a Pharisee before his conversion, wrote of his efforts to enter into relationship with God by keeping the law, “I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is found through faith in Christ.”
As human beings we want to believe that there is something we can do to receive forgiveness from God and mend our broken relationship with him. We are proud. We want to do it ourselves and we simply can’t. There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves right with God. Nothing! We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Some people believe that they will get to heaven because of all the good things they have done. I’m sure that most of us have heard people say something like, “Well, I don’t go to church or anything, but I try to live a good life and do the right thing. I’m sure God will reward all the good things I’ve done when I die.”
There are also people who think the same way in our churches each and every Sunday. Some Christians think that they can somehow earn favour with God with all the good things they do; by being Church stewards, by serving on the Church Council or Circuit Meeting or by doing a thousand and one other things, by constant busyness in the service of God.
We cannot make ourselves right with God, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we do for him. We cannot do it. That is why God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
The simple and timeless message of the good news is this. We have all, at some time in our lives, sinned. We have all done things that are selfish because we put ourselves first instead of putting God first, others second and ourselves last of all. There is only one consequence for this sin, this rebellion against God and that is spiritual death which is eternal separation from God. No amount of good deeds can bring forgiveness for our rebellion.
There is a way we can be forgiven though, and that is through faith in Jesus. Jesus, the only Son of God, is the only person who has ever lived a life of perfect obedience, the only person who has never put himself first, but always pleased his Heavenly Father. He is the only person who has ever lived who did not deserve death and yet his did die, he died one of the most horrible deaths ever devised by man. Jesus died on the cross in our place; he took the punishment for our sins and in doing so brought forgiveness for us. All we have to do is to confess and repent of all our sins and accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord and we are forgiven and receive the reward of eternal life and the assurance of our place in Heaven with God. It’s as simple as that!
Some of us don’t like that; we don’t want it to be that easy. We want to do something to earn our salvation but we can’t, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favour. We have a gracious God who loves us more than we can ever know and it is out of that love that he unconditionally forgives us when we put our trust in Jesus.
It takes humility to accept that free gift of salvation from God and I hope that each of us here has the humility to accept the gift. Jesus said “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” If we try to gain salvation through our own efforts we will indeed be humbled, but if we have the humility to accept all that Jesus did for us on the cross we will indeed be exalted as we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God and co-heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we are humble we will truly be exalted by the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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