Years ago when I worked with students at Missouri State University, a pair of creative guys made a video illustrating Jesus’s parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus told the parable to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.

They filmed their interpretation of the Pharisee’s prayer in the middle of a busy sidewalk on campus. With students steaming in all directions, one of the guys stood on a platform, raised his hands in a “look at how great I am” pose and appealed to heaven. I thought he was hilarious, but only a few stopped to watch—a guy acting weird and another guy filming it raises few eyebrows on campus.

For the tax collector, they filmed in a quiet, out-of-the-way place. The amateur video (shot with a camcorder) turned out better than expected, and I still remember it as I consider the parable. They caught the essence of the teaching.

The humble man, the tax collector, went home justified before God. Not the prideful Pharisee, despite his strict adherence to all the religious rules. Jesus emphasized this point to his audience: For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

I relate to the Pharisee more than the tax collector, so these words prick at my ego. But you and I also live in an unprecedented era of self-promotion launched and sustained by the endless assault of social media. Everyone tweets confident of their own righteousness, or takes to social media in the same mindset.

Jesus pushes us to stop looking at our screens and start looking at our hearts. How rarely I beat my breast with downcast eyes and cry, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. But this is the path to humility, and only those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Luke 18 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Timon Studler