PRAYER OF THE HUMBLE AND THE HYPOCRIT

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We are examining prayer.  There is a pattern of prayer and a purpose of prayer.  Jesus Christ prayed, so we should pray.  Jesus Christ prayed without ceasing, so we should be persistent in our prayer.  Jesus Christ prayed in faith believing; we should pray with the same confidence that God hears and provides:

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Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

(Hebrews 4:16)

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We understand that enduring faith is the power that produces persistence in prayer.  The quality not the quantity of that faith will determine the outcome.  We all have faith:

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For by the grace given me I say to every one of you:  Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:3)

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When we approach God in prayer, do we acknowledge that our desire to seek, to know and to believe in God is itself His gift of faith?  How do we see ourselves—deserving or despicable?  Perhaps more importantly, how does God see us when we pray?

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Jesus observes two men, a Publican (sinner) and a Patrician (Pharisee), who went into the temple to pray: one was a self-acknowledged sinner and the other a self-righteous, devotee of religious ritual (Luke 18:9-14).  How revealing is the self-conscious alongside the self-consumed!  The former was loath to speak; he hovered in the shadows hoping that no one would notice him, not daring even to take a seat at the rear:

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The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said,

'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' (Luke 18:13)

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The latter …took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself. (Luke 18:11)  Elder Howard W. Hunter comments:

Could there be greater contrast in the prayers of two men? The Pharisee stood apart because he believed he was better than other men, whom he considered as common. The publican stood apart also, but it was because he felt himself unworthy. The Pharisee thought of no one other than himself and regarded everyone else a sinner, whereas the publican thought of everyone else as righteous as compared with himself, a sinner. The Pharisee asked nothing of God, but relied upon his own self-righteousness. The publican appealed to God for mercy and forgiveness of his sins.

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In Scripture what is not said is often vital to God’s teaching and our understanding.  Let us pause and consider the facts about the two men that Jesus dismisses as irrelevant to mention.

What are they wearing?  There is an old saw:  clothes make the man.  Wrong!  Your wardrobe does not move God.  He loves the man in the Armani suit or the woman in the Dior original equally as one in tired jeans and worn gingham.  We have all seen peacocks.  They are spectacularly arrayed, yes, but are vain and vicious to the core.  Sometimes you see them in their Sunday best.  They are in the pew and the pulpit.  The professional has his seat, and God help the poor soul who would dare to sit in her spot!  Hear the Word of the Lord:

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When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. (Luke 14:8)

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Church membership is no assurance of righteous before God; only Jesus Christ can offer that to those who know they need it enough to ask for it.  A preacher once said:

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You can push a wheelbarrow into the front end of a Cadillac plant, but it will still come off the assembly line a wheelbarrow.

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Without the confession of sin and conversion of heart, a liar, a thief, a talebearer, a wife-beater, a hypocrite can enter the Church and go out unchanged, unrepentant and unredeemed.

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Humility (gentleness) should define the character and prayer of the believer.  The self-righteous prefer to pray in public, not in secret.  Indeed, they impose what properly belongs to private prayer on the public, communal worship of the church.  Of whom Jesus says:

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When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6:5)

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The most profoundly public prayer of the Church is the Eucharist.  When the assembly of the faithful gather we must leave our private prayer behind and enter into worship that unifies the disparate, to praise God in communal hymns and ritual prayers and postures.  Reverence for the One True God is never served by personal-ism and individual-ism:  You cannot make His House your house.  God is never served by a spiteful look or harsh word to Shut Up or Shush because some child or adult disturbs our private prayer:

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For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)

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Many things that we do show irreverence for Christ in His House.  Reciting private prayers during the public offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass, reading the Bulletin, answering emails and phones, or looking at your watch in such an elaborate display that the priest cannot fail to notice your disgust at the length of the service.  This is Pharisee-ism at its worst.

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Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Publican, a self-confessed sinner who made no pretense about his own righteousness, and a Pharisee, a professionally religious legalist who made no pretense about anyone’s unrighteousness except his own.  He had no interest in praying to God, because he

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… spoke this prayer to himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (Luke 18:11-12)

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No, he is not like others; he is not as good as the most humble sinner. AMEN.

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