THE ARROGANCE OF FAITH: Luke 18:9-14

There are attitudes that corrupt our good morals, especially our Christian life, and go unnoticed. Indeed, we offer ourselves a self-satisfaction that harms us and destroys our Christian faith (Prov.16:18). One of them is arrogance. What is arrogance? It's a haughty attitude, it's thinking that you know everything better than everyone else and you make others feel it.

Arrogance can manifest itself in various ways, such as the feeling of being the richest, the most awesome, the best, the smartest, even the most religious or spiritual, etc.

I don't know if arrogance is part of our upbringing, but many people tend to become arrogant as soon as they find themselves in a certain high social, religious posture. What for? Because arrogance provides a pleasant and comfortable sense of well-being.  For example, the parable of the Pharisee in the Temple says a lot (Luke 18:11). It is in this parable that we discover that arrogance is not only an obstacle to prayer, but also hinders spiritual growth or maturation and above all erases us from the presence of God. 

    Also, arrogance is one of the biggest obstacles to wisdom or the acquisition of other knowledge. It is impossible for the arrogant to learn from others. As the Sages teach us, "Who is wise? He who learns from all" (Talmud – Pirkei Avot 4:1). The arrogant absorbed by his narcissism always lives at the expense of the flattery of others. He shows his faith as the best.

    Reading Luke 18:9-14, one realizes that the parable is addressed to some who were convinced that they themselves were righteous.  This is what Jesus reproached the Pharisees in Lk 16:15 and this is what will illustrate the behavior of the Pharisee of the story. The attitude described here is a flaw that is found in believers who set themselves up as "better Christians".  

    In fact, as an ethical meaning that Luke intends to give to the story: the reader is invited "to see the attitude of the publican, an example proposed at the initiation and in that of the Pharisee a counter-example" (J.Schlosser).

    The Pharisee addresses to God a thanksgiving in which he draws up the catalogue of virtues: the faults he does not commit, then the two prescriptions he fulfills going further than the Law requires (Fasting and tithing: cf. Lk11.42). The portrait is not a caricature.  Our man knows what he owes to God and does not take credit for being righteous--this is a point on which Luke is silent in his introduction to v.9. Even the way he stands out from thieves, unjust and adults is an echo of the prayer of the psalms. And yet, it is this aversion to sinners and their rejection, yet inscribed for example in Ps26, that God will hold against him: this righteous knows his superiority and despises (v.9) other humans. Aware of his sinful state, the publican, for his part, does not dare to roll his eyes and his prayer is a call for help: he recognizes himself as a sinner and invokes the mercy of God. But the account does not tell us that he promises to right his wrongs as Zacchaeus will do (Luke 19:8). Nevertheless, the publican teaches us here a great doctrinal lesson that escapes everyone: "believe in God", what is it?

     Although many people believe in God, most of them do not understand what true faith in God is. It is possible that many believers disagree with this word and say, "Do you have so little esteem for us? Given that we have believed in God for many years, is it possible that we do not understand what faith in God is? Some say, "To believe in God is to admit that there is a God, and I believe that God created the heavens, the earth, and all things, and that God really exists. Isn't that believing in God? Some say, "I often read the Bible, pray, attend gatherings, and spread the gospel. Doesn't this count as true faith in God?  Some say, "I can recite the famous chapters and words of the Bible. So who dares to say that I am not a true believer in God? Some say, "I am able to sacrifice for the Lord, and I have been working, preaching, and spreading the gospel for many years, and I always look at and support my brothers and sisters. Don't I really believe in God?  People use many sayings like these to prove that they truly believe in God. However, have we ever thought about whether these views are correct?

     Indeed, although people are familiar with the word "God" and phrases such as "God's work," they do not know God, let alone His work. No wonder then that all those who do not know God have a confused belief, an "arrogance of faith".

     People don't take belief in God seriously because believing in God is too unknown, too strange for them. In this way, they do not meet God's requirements. In other words, if people do not know God and do not know His work, then they are not fit to be used by God, let alone can they fulfill God's desire. "Belief in God" means believing that there is a God; it is the simplest concept of faith in God. Moreover, believing that there is a God is not the same as truly believing in God; on the contrary, it is a kind of simple faith with strong religious connotations.

 True faith in God means experiencing God's word and work on the basis of a belief that God is sovereign over all things. Thus you will be freed from your corrupt disposition, satisfy God's desire, and know God. Only along such a journey can it be said that you believe in God.

     Thus, with authority, Jesus then draws the totally unexpected lesson from the situation from God's point of view (v.14a). God declared just one of them, answered his prayer, and forgave him; but not the other who had asked for nothing. Situations are reversed. This new situation, which Jesus publicly reveals, invites his listeners to understand God's behavior, even before inviting them to imitate the publican. The paradoxical nature of the message is enough to startle: the publican is forgiven without having to the preable repair his wrongs and having reconciled with his neighbor.

 Luke recalls here the law of overthrow which is caused by the arrogance of the Pharisee. Being too sure of oneself generates a situation of reversal. In other words, arrogance makes us move away from God's will without our knowledge.

     For example, in the Bible, the arrogant are legion and constitute themselves as enemies of God. Some make the headlines: Pharaoh was arrogant and passed for God (Ex.5:2). It took a heavy-handed intervention on God's part for him to bend to His will. In 1 Sam 17:42, it is also said that Goliath, full of arrogance, "looked, and when he saw David, he despised him, seeing in him only a child, blond and of a beautiful figure" and the situation was reversed in david's favor.

     In the Gospels, in addition to the blatant case of the Pharisee in Luke, there is, among others, that of Martha, Mary's sister, who displayed herself in the presence of Jesus in an arrogant attitude towards her sister (Lk 10: 38-42). And Jesus paradoxically tells him that it was his sister who took the "good part".  In view of all this, we find that arrogance always places man in a position of condescension, that is to say, considering everyone less than him and ultimately puts him  in a reverse situation.  This vice is subtle and is never discovered in us. He gives us the assurance of being with God yet he distances us from God.

     This means that only God justifies us by faith in Jesus Christ. We should be careful when we talk about God, because we always tend to bring divine majesty back to our human limitations.

    Do you think you are arrogant? Do you think this is something negative or on the contrary, it is positive and understandable? To make his interlocutor feel that we are superior to him, that we are right, that he is wrong, that he does not understand anything, that it is we who are in the truth, is it a strategy to try to get our ideas across or to make ourselves stand out? Is this a character trait that can never be changed? Is it something that we inherit from the people who educated us or is it something that we develop on our own over the years, in other words according to our social evolution, is it a question of education, culture or not?

     Let us learn a lesson. To be arrogant, to talk only about ourselves and to tell the story of our successes at length will not put others in a good mood towards us. Let us instead let our actions speak for us and we will be more appreciated. 

     If we just brag about our work without proving anything, we will quickly be labeled as someone unreliable. People will laugh at us and talk behind our backs. Arrogance has never been a good deal with good testimonies, so it is a question of knowing how to distinguish between trust and arrogance so as not to create a negative image of ourselves. This is what the Bible recommends to us in Prov.27,2: "Let another praise you, and not your mouth, A stranger, and not your lips."

     Ultimately, arrogance is one of the worst evils that destroy our Christian life and above all destroy our closeness to God.

Prof.  Jimi ZACKA

Exegete