You're listening to audio from Faith Church, located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindy.com. Now, here's the teaching. For some reason, I've been thinking lately about, some of the classes that I taught, the small groups that I led, both before and during my time in seminary. And, I look back and feel kinda bad, because I think in those contexts, I was often showing, how little I really knew of what I was talking about when, you know, as someone who really had no training and very little experience was talking as though he was an expert about marriage and parenting or walking with Jesus or church leadership.

Did I acknowledge my own limitations as I was, teaching on those things, or did I just plow on through as if I knew what I was talking about? Well, you guys can probably guess the answer to that. It turns out I have plenty of experience in what is known as the Dunning Kruger effect. It's a cognitive bias in which people with, limited knowledge tend to overestimate their ability. That is people, who are so ignorant that they don't know how ignorant that they are and, ironically believe themselves to be very knowledgeable.

And I think there's something like that going on in this parable that we've heard about the Pharisee and the tax collector. And it's not an issue about, how smart you are or how much you know about a topic. In the parable, what we're actually being confronted with is spiritual knowledge, spiritual wisdom, maturity, insight, godliness. As we look at this parable for just a few minutes tonight, I want us all to be aware, as Christians of maybe some of the challenges or dangers that we face in hearing this parable because it's natural for us to think, I've got that covered. It's a story about righteousness, and I know that I'm right with God because of Jesus.

And I, you know, I I identify with the tax collector because I'm justified because of what Jesus has done. And I know that's true of me. And and, and I I know what it means to be spiritual, and and I'm wise, and and I'm relatively godly, and and we tend to identify with the tax collector. But what if we're suffering from, similar kind of spiritual blindness like the Pharisee experiences? I have plenty of experience with kind of a spiritual Dunning Kruger effect myself.

In this parable in Luke 18, Jesus is telling a story to people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. And and it's a contrast between two men. Both of them are addressing their prayers to God. And, the Pharisees posture is described briefly while his prayer is quite lengthy. And if you noticed very self focused, I thank you that I'm not like sinful people.

I tithe. I pray. I'm faithful. And the tax collector's prayer is brief, but his posture is described at some length. He he stands off at a distance, unable to to lift his eyes towards heaven, no doubt, because he feels himself unworthy.

And he repeatedly beats his chest as a sign of grief and describes himself literally as the sinner. And by way of these two, Jesus is contrasting, we could say two ways of spiritual wisdom. One that appears wise and one that actually is wise. And and when we start into this parable, it's easy for us to marvel at the delusion of this Pharisee. Right?

This professional religious person parading his righteousness before God and and other people. He's he's confident that he's gonna be able to look God in the eye without any problem, because he leads such a virtuous life. And and even if he knows he's not perfect, at least he knows he's better than than that guy. And in hearing this story, maybe you're like me. I can be so busy condemning the Pharisee that I miss seeing how I can be like him.

Because like the Pharisee, I can be blind to my own faults, blind to my own sin, blind to my own arrogance, and I can trust in myself and my goodness. I can tend to get myself wrong. And I can tend to get other people wrong too. Like the Pharisee, I I can be harsh towards others. Right?

Writing them off as lost causes, as ignorant, as as hopeless, as irredeemable, as immature, maybe even evil instead of seeing them as people who are weak and needy and broken just like I am. And I can get God wrong too because I have the nerve to think that he and I see eye to eye on all kinds of things, thinking that he would approve of me, approve of my judgments, and that God must be as proud of me as I am in terms of how good a life I'm living. If the Dunning Kruger effect is when you're too ignorant to know how ignorant you are, then then I have an idea or a fear what we could call this condition. When you think you're spiritually together, but when you're actually suffering from blindness, we could call it the Jeff effect. In this parable, Jesus shocks and disturbs the Pharisees.

And through the parable, I think that's what he's intending to do with us, to to shock us, to disturb us, to challenge us. True spiritual life, Jesus says, belongs to the humble, Those who aren't so impressed with their virtues that they can't acknowledge their vices. The tax collector, Jesus says, has a better chance of seeing God face to face because he can see himself honestly and clearly. And in a similar way, through spiritual insight, I think Jesus is saying, belongs to those who can see their weakness, their failure, their sin. True spiritual maturity is owning how far short you fall of spiritual maturity, spiritual wholeness.

And and beyond reminding us of our ongoing desperate need of God's grace, Jesus is also showing us that humility is the heart posture that opens us up to God, that opens us up to his life. God doesn't love us. God doesn't bless us. God doesn't do good to us because of how good we're doing. We don't measure up because of how well we're performing, especially not in comparison to others.

It's not about what we're bringing to God. Did did you notice that in the Pharisees prayer? I mean, it's lengthy, but it's he's not even really asking for anything. He's just parading his righteousness in front of God. And and this isn't as significant as it is.

It isn't just about our spiritual condition. I mean, we live, all of us know, in a polarized environment where anyone who doesn't agree with me, who doesn't think like me, who doesn't see things why I do, who doesn't vote like I do, must be an idiot, right? Because it's so obvious that the answer is x y z that I can't even imagine how somebody could think think it would be one, two, or three. And if they do, it must mean that they're evil or deluded. Right?

Maybe something for us to notice this Lenten season is how and how often we engage in debates like that or inner monologues or how we talk about other people in ways that that exalt our insights, that elevate our wisdom and congratulate ourselves that we're not like those people. Isn't that itself a sign that we've gotten it wrong? That maybe we're wrong? We we read the parable, right, and and it it just seems laughable, of course, that the Pharisee would parade his goodness and be so sure of himself that he's pleasing God. And and yet, that very reaction is the point of the parable.

In the certainty behind our judgment of the Pharisee, we mirror the Pharisees self righteous pride. Did does that make sense? If like me, you know, you're tended to you tend to roll your eyes to think, oh my gosh, that Pharisee, how could anyone act like that? That itself is a sign that I'm not as spiritually mature as I like to think I am. Maybe the Jeff effect isn't just the Jeff effect.

There's hope though. I mean, I mean, Jesus tells us a story not to beat us up, but to help us see and to encourage us Because that's that's kind of the point of the parable too, that no one is a lost cause. Not a a greedy traitorous tax collector, not a Pharisee, not even Dunning Kruger dimwits like me. There's hope for all of us. Everyone just needs humility.

The the awareness and the acknowledgement that that we get things wrong, that we may not be trustworthy judges, not when it comes to ourselves, not when it comes to other people. That real maturity is is not how much better we look than others. And true wisdom is not in knowing how smart we are but how foolish we are. The true spiritual sight is acknowledging how blind I can be and saying, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Because everyone who exalts himself will be humble, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

We said Lent is a season to fast, to give up something in order to fill our lives with more of Jesus, to subtract in order to add, to add more love, more prayer, more gratitude, more giving, more scripture. Maybe one thing we could do is create just a little bit of space this week to reread this parable and imagine ourselves in the story. Where would I be standing? And and what would I be saying? What am I proud of?

What am I ashamed of? Who are the people that I tend to look down on to think less of to have a hard time loving, forgiving, praying for? Maybe one of the things that we can fast from, one of the things that we can subtract is my own sense of rightness. Maybe I need to give up seeing how wrong other people are. And and maybe that has implications for social media or how much I'm on my phone or how much I'm on the Internet.

Maybe it's, recognizing my own limitations and shortcomings rather than, you know, being proud of how right I have it and just, you know, keep pushing through thankful that I'm not like those people. Humility here is not about having a low view of yourself, but about having a high view of God that actually helps us see clearly and have a right perspective on ourself and others. There's there's no room for pride. There's no room for condemnation in Jesus kingdom. That's part of what he's saying.

And and maybe the thing to create space for is prayer itself. Because I I don't know about you, but when I'm not praying, it can be because I have more confidence in myself than I have in God. I can get so consumed with trying to prove myself, trying to get things to work the way that I want, trying to get the outcome that I think should happen through my own means that I need no space for God to work through me and to depend on him. Maybe I just need to cry out more. Lord, help me.

Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. You know, we we start this season with this parable because like lent, it's a challenge, it's an invitation, and it's an encouragement. It's when we recognize our humility when we recognize our pride that that humility leads to wholeness. It's when we admit our spiritual blindness that we can see clearly. And that's the place where we can know that God hears and answers our prayers for mercy and life and wholeness.

Jesus parables are meant to disrupt the the status quo of our lives, to force us to slow down, to reflect, to rethink, to reevaluate. May we have ears to hear Jesus speaking to us. Let's pray. And, I wanna pray using, inspiration from a prayer by, w David o Taylor. A prayer for Ash Wednesday.

Lord, you invite us to die to ourselves that we might find life and find ourselves a new. Help me, I pray, not to be too full of to do list and deadlines and and wants and shoulds during the season of Lent. I pray that that you would help me to make space for you to do your work of transformation in me. Grant me the grace to welcome your spirit's work to help me put to death my flesh so that I might know the fellowship of sharing in Christ's suffering and the power of his resurrection during this forty day season. Help me to see Jesus.

Help me to grow in loving and trusting you in humility and faith. We pray it in your name, Lord, the one who has healed us by your wounds and the one who brings life from death. Amen.