I return to the book of Luke. Luke 18:9-14 is an account of the parable that contrasts a proud Pharisee with a humble publican. Both men are inside the temple engaged in prayer. All the major points of this parable have been thoroughly covered in Sunday sermons.
I would bring forth the minor points – which may prove to be just as major if given enough attention.
The treasure buried deep in these verses is the matter of prayer. Both men stand in the same temple, both men pray, both men pray to the same God. I would venture to say that prayer is sort of a universal constant between men.
We must ask how it is that the spirit in a man may either succeed or fail in the handling of such a constant.
Two different men engage in the same spiritual communication with the same spiritual God. How is it one is justified and the other is not? The answer rests in how each man uses his spirit.
Let me be clear on this one point: prayer is a spirit-to-spirit communication. All successful communication demands that there must be something in common.
Think of a lock and key. The lock is iron. A wooden key will likely fail to open the lock. In similar fashion, a key of ice or of glass will break. Opening a lock is a material-to-material communication. There must be something in common.
A spiritual lock requires a particular kind of key – a spirit key made of the same spiritual metal.
Everything in existence requires something of whatever it has a relationship with. A cool fluid drink requires cup-likeness to hold it. A cup in reverse has nothing in common with the drink. A relationship between a road and the vessels that traverse it requires wheels. A relationship between vessels and an ocean will require something different – like paddles or sails.
Prayer is a spirit-to-spirit communication, as I have said, but what does God require of man, spirit-to-spirit-wise? That is certainly something to consider. Here is something else to consider. God is a spirit. To pray to a spirit requires a material (so to speak) with something in common.
This is a big pill to swallow but prayer is a God-to-God communication. Logic dictates that if God is spirit, then spirit is God. To answer the objection that not all spirits are God, I give this response. All spirit is God. Within those parameters, there is spirit used correctly and spirit misused.
Free will is in the nature of man. In the nature of man is found every evil possession and fallen angel. Free will in man is spirituality (our part of God) that is not always used correctly.
The parable of the two praying men portrays prayer as a God-to-God communication with the first spirit in the account (the Pharisee) misused by pride and self-righteousness. The second spirit in the account (the publican) is used correctly by humility. Humility justifies the part of God found in the publican. The misuse of the part of God found in the Pharisee finds no justification.
Here is the wording of the parable, which we may assume are the words of Jesus. “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself . . .” Luke 18:11. We may take these words to exemplify common usage. The communication was God-to-God; the communication was spirit-to-spirit. The Pharisee's misuse of his part of the spirit-to-spirit communication was an exaltation of his small footprint in the bigger picture.
God, as a lock, is properly exalted and does not require exaltation from the smaller part of Himself found in the Pharisee. An exalted God requires one thing from the small part of Himself found in a man – humility.
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