CONTEMPT FOR THE OTHER, A SUBTLE SIN OF THE RELIGIOUS (Lk 18:9-14)

 

Contempt is a negative emotion that one feels towards an individual or group of individuals perceived as inferior or uninteresting. It is also defined as the feeling that a person or a thing is worthless or beneath consideration. It gives the state of being dishonored, hated or disgraced.

 It should also be noted that contempt is a feint that serves as a camouflage to hide other emotions. In fact it is an attitude that sometimes also hides other emotions such as jealousy, pride ... One who adopts a contemptuous attitude towards another fact as if he were "above", superior. The contemptuous attitude is also a defensive reaction: "I adopt a contemptuous attitude because I am afraid to let see what I really feel."

What we read in Luke 18:9-14 makes us discover the extent of the contemptuous attitude that so many Christians display towards others. This hidden condescension expressed by so-called Christians seems to be becoming the norm of experience today. Yet it is a very subtle sin, difficult to notice.

 This well-known text (Lk 18:9,14) offers us a parable that contains neither textual traps nor exegetical knots. Its scenario is so reduced and its meaning so strongly emphasized, that it is not clear what problem such a parable could raise. Yet the evangelist Luke introduces the parable by pointing out the target: people characterized by two traits: good conscience and ostrich contempt. At the same time, he tries to compare two behaviors before God:

 1. that of a man satisfied with himself and who believes himself superior in piety over others.

2. that of a man who is not satisfied with himself and who asks for God's forgiveness.

 The Pharisee's "good conscience" leads to contempt for others through the misuse of God's Word. By giving thanks to God, this man displays his complacency towards himself. His prayer has 2 distinct accents : difference (v. 11), meritorious works (v. 12). By emphasizing his difference, the Pharisee performs a sorting : on the one hand, there is him (and, no doubt, those who are close to him, although they are not mentioned!); on the other hand, there are "the other men"," that is to say those who remain when the first lot has been set apart. And these other men are qualified by three traits that hammer their condition: they are "thieves, evildoers, adulterers". The list of turpitudes could obviously be extended. It is only illustrative, sketching at little cost the portrait of the sinful man.

 Now, the sinful man, he is there, precisely next to the Pharisee and he has seen him. The toll booth belongs to the second category of men, the notorious and proven sinners. The Pharisee, in his prayer, thanks God for having preserved him from falling into this category.

 On the other hand, the attitude of the toller is indeed reminiscent of that of the conscious sinful man. He keeps a distance from the moral and religious man, or in an absolute sense; he remains in retreat, he does not dare to come forward. The two meanings are also compatible. "he didn't even want to roll his eyes": this gesture of prayer is well known in the Bible (see Psalms 121:1, 123/1, Mark 6:41, 7:34). Looking down indicates humiliation. "he was beating his chest," a gesture that reflects an easy-to-understand mental attitude, a gesture of distress and self-accusation (see Luke 23:48).

 The toll booth's prayer corresponds to his attitude: it is a cry for help. Literally: "O God, take pity on me the sinner." The verb "ilaskomai" in the passive, means "to be favorable to a culprit", therefore to be welcoming and conducive to him. This is the request that the toll booth addresses to God: be propitious !... Take pity!... This is not exactly a request for forgiveness, which should normally be accompanied by a commitment to make amends for the mistakes committed, as in the case of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). 

What is interesting is to notice God's behavior as a judge. The portrait of the toll booth is that of a man crushed by the weight of his guilt and who implores divine mercy. It is humility outside and inside itself. He's a sad character. But he does not ignore it, nor does he look for any excuse. He knows no other help than the grace of God, and it is she that he asks for.

 The conclusion of these two prayers will be introduced by a solemn tone "I tell you" of Jesus. It has two components: The toll is justified, the Pharisee is not. The verb dikaioô, "to justify"," is dear to the apostle Paul, but it also appears in other layers of the New Testament, notably in the Gospel of Luke and Acts. Here, the meaning is simple; this man is accepted by God. Because, obviously, the passive participle "justified" has God as its implicit subject. Jesus makes God's verdict known. And this verdict is the welcome of the toller, the notorious sinner. It is therefore a verdict of grace.

 Here, our parable is not intended to exhort or guide prayer. Prayer appears as the revelation of an attitude before God and before others. Prayer is the simplest religious gesture in which a man exteriorizes the way he understands himself in relation to God and others. As such, prayer serves as a theological revealer. The parable evokes three types of judgment:

 1. the judgment that each person makes of himself,

2. the judgment that each person makes of others,

3. God's judgment of everyone, thwarting human judgment.

 And the global economy of the parable makes us understand that the last word belongs to God. It aims to make known The Judgment of God, the judgment according to which He welcomes and pardons the humiliated sinner.

 So, one wonders: what is the point of despising one's neighbor who one judges in the place of God because of his mistakes? Isn't this what Paul reveals to us in Rom 14. 4 " Who are you, you who judge a servant of others? If he stands, or falls, it looks at his master..."

 In the end, it is a question of understanding today that this text speaks to us. Let him speak to us to rid us of our illusions, of the contempt we have for others, of the bric-a-brac of our good works and good intentions, and to make us lucid about ourselves. Let him tell us about how God has decided, because he is "a God otherwise" who distances himself from our shameful condescension towards others.

 It does not matter, the place we want to make ourselves to place ourselves above others, the honor we want to offer ourselves to submit others to our orders, the self-satisfaction of the salvation we attribute to ourselves.

It is therefore up to God to evaluate us, to value us, to welcome us, to justify us beyond what we claim to be in relation to others. Beyond our pretensions, our prejudices or our clichés about others, God listens to us, looks at us, evaluates us, judges us but not as we wish, nor as we judge others.

 Therefore, if our nature of pride impels us to judge the other, to despise him often too quickly and too easily, as an authentic Christian -- if we really are -- we must constantly watch over this bad attitude and rely on the grace from which we are recipients.

 For, for God, it is such an odious response only silent contempt. In other words, contempt is the most mysterious of our feelings that God hates.

 

 Prof. Jimi ZACKA, PhD