Righteousness rooted in humility

Sermon for Trinity 11

2 Samuel 22:21-29  +  1 Corinthians 15:1-10  +  Luke 18:9-14

Our Scripture lessons today take us from the heights of Pharisaical pride down to the deepest depths of humility, and then back up again to a righteousness that remains rooted in humility.

Jesus concludes our Gospel with these words: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. To exalt is to lift up. To humble is to lower down. Humility is an attitude of the heart, an attitude that shows itself in a person’s demeanor, a person’s speech, and a person’s actions. Humbling, Jesus says, is going to happen to everyone, one way or another. Everyone is going to be humbled and brought down low. The only question is, who’s going to do it? Will you lower yourself down, or will God do it?

Now, there are different kinds of humility, but only two that are approved by God. The first kind is for those who really are higher than others in some way. They’re higher in office. They’re stronger, smarter, better at something, richer, nobler, more important somehow. Humility doesn’t mean denying those things. To pretend that everyone is equal in gifts and abilities and responsibilities is to deny reality. Humility means that, in spite of their higher position or their greater accomplishments, those who are higher don’t look down condescendingly on those who are lower. They don’t brag about themselves. They don’t demand better treatment. In fact, they gladly serve the people who are in the lowest place. This is the humility of Jesus Himself, who, though He is higher than all creation, humbled Himself all the way down to suffering and dying on the cross in order to serve sinners. That’s a humility we Christians are called upon to imitate, and Jesus’ parable of the ambitious wedding guest highlights that kind of humility.

But today’s Gospel highlights the other kind of humility. This kind of humility is for sinners of all kinds, and especially for those who have been fooling themselves into thinking they’re higher, better, or more important than others, when, in reality, they aren’t, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

That’s how God sees the human race according to the strict judgment of His holy Law. Those words apply to the Pharisee as well as the tax collector. The only difference is, the tax collector knows it, and it weighs heavily on him, as it should.

Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. That’s the opposite of humility. That’s what it means to exalt yourself, to deny the reality of your sin and your utter neediness before God, and then, thinking you’re better than your neighbor, to look down on him and despise him. We call it a “self-righteous” attitude. And it damns people to hell.

So Jesus painted the picture of the self-righteous Pharisee to shame the self-righteous, to lead the self-righteous to humble themselves before it’s too late, before God Himself does it. There stands the Pharisee in the temple, daring to brag to God about how righteous he is, daring to remind God how much more righteous he is than that sinful tax collector over there.

And then there’s the tax collector, standing off in a corner, penitent, beating his breast, confessing his sins, seeking nothing from God but mercy.

From man’s perspective, the Pharisee has every reason to brag, and the tax collector has every reason to be ashamed. But here Jesus reveals God’s perspective: Both men are sinners. But only one of them—the tax collector who humbled himself before God—goes home justified, forgiven by God and declared to be righteous in His sight. He humbled himself, and so God exalted him, whereas the Pharisee who exalted himself is humbled by God. And if God humbles you, who is left to lift you up?

So proud self-righteousness is condemned by Jesus, and humility is praised, the humility of recognizing that, before God, we really are all the same when it comes to our sinfulness and need for His mercy. One may commit more sins than another outwardly. But it’s like the difference between a person who is dying of internal injuries vs. a person who is dying of both internal and external injuries. There’s no real difference, is there?

Now, recognizing that you are just as unrighteous as everyone else is the beginning of humility, but it isn’t yet righteousness. True righteousness also includes the humility of not trying to save yourself; of trusting in God to do it all, of crying out to Him for charity, for mercy, for grace. But you can’t do that without a promise of charity, a promise of mercy, a promise of grace. And you have that promise in the true Temple of God, at the real altar of sacrifice—the altar of the cross of Christ. There God has heaped up all the sins of every sinner and punished Christ for them. And here in the Gospel you have God’s promise that all who humble themselves, that is, all who lower themselves to acknowledge their sins and who look to Christ for mercy, will surely find it.

The tax collector found it. He went down to his house justified, exalted to the status of a righteous man before God, and so will you, if you humble yourselves. That’s not a one-time humbling. It’s the daily repentance that characterizes the Christian life.

But then, humility doesn’t mean staying in a corner somewhere, doing nothing but beating your breast in sorrow. God exalts the humble, first with justification. Then, with opportunities to put righteousness into practice, to serve and to excel.

What great things can be accomplished by such people whose righteousness is rooted in humility! Look at King David! From his slaying of Goliath, to his victories over the Philistines, to his uniting of the tribes of Israel, to his plans for building the Temple, He accomplished great things for the kingdom of God. And, when it came to his dealings with Saul and with his enemies, he could truly say, as you heard in the First Lesson today, I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Now, this David of 2 Samuel 22 is the same David of 2 Samuel 11 who slept with Bathsheba and murdered her husband! It’s the same David who confessed in Psalm 51, For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight. David the sinner humbled himself before God, and God exalted him. He forgave him, and then David, in humility and in forgiveness, went forth to serve God, not trusting in himself, but trusting in the One who had exalted Him.

The Apostle Paul did the same thing. He was a murderer, a persecutor of the church. But Jesus warned him to humble himself, and he did, and he was forgiven. And as he remarked in our Epistle today, by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Once God had exalted him in forgiveness, God also exalted him by giving him ways to serve, and Paul went forth from then on, to serve God with his whole life, recognizing his own hard work and his achievements, and yet always in humility, giving God all the glory for it.

This is what righteousness rooted in humility looks like—first the tax collector, who comes before God with nothing but a confession of his sin and a cry for mercy. Then the righteousness of God’s free justification and forgiveness for the sake of Christ. Then the righteousness of the forgiven sinner serving God and doing good to his neighbor, because now you see your neighbor, no longer as someone who is beneath you, but as someone who is right down there in the depths of sin with you, who is just as sinful and deserving of God’s condemnation as you are. Now you see your neighbor, not as someone to despise, but as someone to love, as someone to serve, even as Christ loved you and came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. May we all humble ourselves in this way! Then God will be the One, not to humble us, but to lift us up in due time. Amen.