October 26, 2025
- Luke 18:9-14 Summary
In this week’s Gospel reading, (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus tells another parable to the large crowd gathering to listen to his teachings. Luke 18:9 says “Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.”
In the parable, Jesus purposefully chose to speak about a Pharisee & a Tax Collector. The Pharisees, at the time, were part of the religious elite and most of them hated Jesus out of jealousy. Jesus was dominating their profession in regards to prayer, preaching and being genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit. Tax collectors were hated by the Jews because they were collecting unjust Roman tax money and many times saving a portion for themselves.
In the parable (and I suppose at that time in history), people who lived near Jerusalem would often go to the Temple to pray. The rebuilt temple was the center of their worship. This Pharisee went to the Temple-not to pray to God- but to announce to all within ear shot how good he was.
The Tax Collector, on the other hand, went to the Temple and was genuinely praying to God. He was admitting his imperfections (his sin) and humbly begging for forgiveness.
So the SPIRITUAL life is filled with genuine PRAYER & HUMILITY to God/Jesus.
Galatians 5:22-23 SAYS SO…..…….
“But the fruit of the SPIRIT is 1) love ,2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) truth, 7) Faithfulness/PRAYER, 8) Gentleness/HUMILITY, & 9) Self-Control. Against such things there is no law.”
The SPIRIT-filled life is filled with the 7th fruit of the spirit, which is Faithfulness. PRAYER is part of Faithfulness.
Prayer has 3 parts and includes:
- Thankfulness to God
- Asking God for Forgiveness (as in this case) and for blessings, help, miracles, ect.
- Conversation with God (Both Us Talking to Him and Listening to His answers)
The SPIRIT-filled life is also filled with the 8th fruit of the spirit which is gentleness/HUMILITY to God.
The spirit filled life gives glory to God and is in opposition to pride (either self-pride or pride in a group of people!)
Luke 18:14 Jesus continues (& I’m sure shocked the audience and enraged the Pharisees listening), “The sinner (not the Pharisee) returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
2. Luke 18:9-14 Mrs. Smith’s Testimony
The subject of pride vs humility makes me think of a booklet our second child, our daughter Julia, illustrated when she was about 8 years old. She wisely titled the piece, Giving Grace.” I have treasured it for 11 years! One of the short, 1 page illustrations, was about a boy in her class who was bragging (prideful), he was gonna lose his tooth.
She told me, (when she was sharing her booklet with me), that she had thought to herself at school (but didn’t say anything out loud), “I’m gonna lose my tooth cause I’m not bragging about it.” Then, sure enough, she lost her tooth and the other boy didn’t:/ She understood innately what Jesus said, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
At the time, I had read and understood the gospel messages for many years prior to this and I knew Jesus had also said, in Mathew 11:25, “Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom. Julia knew innately Jesus’ law of prayer and humility without studying the gospel because Jesus reveals the mysteries of the kingdom to children. She understood Jesus’s mystery “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” in a childlike way about a boy bragging he was going to lose a tooth. Maybe Julia had understood the gospel messages because she was in Catholic-Christian school at the time but even so she had an innate knowledge (biblical wisdom), through listening to gospel in church and school that adults sometimes can’t understand.
In the book of Proverbs (AKA the book of wisdom), written 1,000 years before Jesus, Solomon said, “Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.” This is another way of saying what Jesus said, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
3. Luke 18:9-14 Related Song is Pride by U-2
I love Jesus. I love MLK and I love the song, In the Name of Love by Bono. I truly feel the power of the Holy Spirit in this song but I’m not a big fan of Bono also calling this song “Pride” or even worse referring to Jesus and MLK as “they could not take your pride.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, IT IS NOT PROUD!
Of course I’m gonna give Bono some grace on using the word pride in relation to Jesus and MLK. He was very young, (I’m sure) when he wrote this mega hit. I don’t think he had read the bible or really understood what the bible says about pride. Many Catholic-Christians don’t read the bible. Pride is the opposite of what Jesus and MLK were doing!
Jesus freewillingly surrendered to God’s plan and purpose for his life. He did not have pride. He was modeling true love for all of us which we know from the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 verse that love is NOT proud.
In his famous “I have a Dream Speech” MLK said that he saw the promised land but did not know if he was gonna get there. God’s purpose for him was to peacefully protest unjust laws, which were made against black people. He obviously had a close relationship with Jesus. He was surrendering to God’s purpose and plan for his life. He said, “I’ve seen the promised land but I may not get there with you but I only want to do God’s will.” He was a Reverend and he trusted God’s purpose and plan for his life so he did not have pride in himself or even a group. He was surrendering to God’s plan and purpose for his life.
4. Luke 18:9-14 Prayer for our Children
One of the hardest character traits to teach our children is having confidence while also simultaneously having humility/gentleness. Usually confident teenagers have self-pride until something humbles them like an injury or accident. Or teenagers who are more naturally gentle/humble are scared to try new things. The only way to teach these two character traits (confidence and humility), simultaneously to our children is through Bible education and encouragement.
Our prayer is that our children have faith in God’s power over all situations like King David but also have humility like Moses, by walking in close relationship with the Lord.
Mr. Smith pointed out, in our family bible study, that God has two ways to humble us. One way is the same as the Tax Collector. We can make mistakes (sin) and those sins have consequences that catch up to us. The other way is by trying to plan/control/work to fight and force things to happen in our own strength like Jacob (the heal catcher) God reveals his power over our works everytime! True prayer and humility is living in sweet surrender to God’s plan and purposes! Amen means “Yes” or “I surrender!”
Praying our children plan their work and work their plan but have the humility and discernment (through prayer) to surrender to God’s purpose/plan in each of their lives!