Glory to Jesus Christ. Most people are familiar
with obstacle courses, but in case you are not,
an obstacle course is a series of challenging
events or physical obstacles on the way to the
finish line, usually timed. And some of you may
have seen on television American Ninja Warrior.
And if you have, you know there are competitors
that race. They leap and climb over different
structures and jump and sometimes fall into big
ponds of water because they fail. And the various
obstacles are there and they try to make it through
them all to the end of the course. But sometimes
they fall and are eliminated from the course.
And this is a physical obstacle course. But you
and I, as Orthodox Christians, we face a spiritual
obstacle course. And we know the enemy would
like to see us fall. But we also know the Lord
will help us through the course. We are on this
course towards sanctification. towards seeking
to make it to heaven, towards holiness, towards
an eternity in God's presence. The path to holiness
is not easy, but it is before us. And this Sunday
on the church calendar is the Sunday of the publican
and the Pharisee. And in the gospel reading for
today, Jesus presents us with a parable. There
are two men who are on a spiritual obstacle course,
and they are facing the obstacle of pride. One
of them is a Pharisee, a religious man, trained
in religious practices, and the other is a publican,
that is, a tax collector, a profession in those
days known for some corruption. And one might
expect that the Pharisee would do much better
being trained in spiritual things. We might expect
the obstacle course to be passed by the Pharisee
and failed by the tax collector. This is the
irony. The gospel reads, two men went up to the
temple to pray. One, a Pharisee. the other a
tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus to himself, God, I thank you that I am not
like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a
week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And
the tax collector, Standing afar off would not
so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat
his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a
sinner. And Jesus shows us the vice of pride
and the virtue of humility. And the Pharisee,
he's doing good things, but his heart is off.
His eyes are on himself. and not on God. And
the tax collector's eyes are totally upon the
Lord, on God. And though his actions have been
sinful, he is repentant, and his hope is in the
Lord, not in himself. Elder Arseni of Romania
has said, humility is the only power that can
free the human soul. Repentance before God is
how we must start. And then God will work in
us. And he will sanctify us. And so that one
day we will be doing the good things that the
Pharisee did, but with a good heart and our eyes
on the Lord. In a few weeks, we will enter the
Lenten fast. It will be a spiritual obstacle
course for us all. and many of us will be confronted
with temptations of various kinds. And let us
strive to stand against these with God's help
and strength. But even if we do fall, God forbid,
let us get up again and follow the example of
the publican, this tax collector. who confessed
his sins before the Lord and asked for God's
grace and mercy and forgiveness. St. John Chrysostom
says, In times of temptation, the weak look for
who to blame, the strong look to God. And so
if we do fall, let us take it upon ourselves
humbly and confess it before the Lord. Remember,
it is God who saves. We do not save ourselves.
We only let God work in us, sanctifying us. We
must acknowledge our own sins, confess and repent
of them, and then strive with all our effort
to follow Christ, to keep his commandments. And
eventually, we will, because of what God will
do in our life. did the right things for the
wrong reason. God will enable us to do the right
thing for the right reason. So during this coming
Lent, let us determine to keep the fast for the
right reasons, making it through the spiritual
obstacles that confront us and in facing the
obstacle of pride. Let us remember the words,
of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ in
today's gospel, who said of the tax collector,
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other. For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself
will be exalted. Glory to Jesus Christ.