The Proud Man and the Honest Man

“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” — Luke 18:13 (KJV)

Jesus once told a story about two men who went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, a very religious man, who thanked God that he wasn’t like other people. The other was a tax collector (a “publican”), who knew he was a sinner and could only say, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus said it was the second man who went home right with God.

Moody says everyone looking into Christianity has the spirit of one of these two men. Either they don’t feel they need a Saviour, or they know they do.

For the proud kind, Moody points to verses like Romans 3:23: “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Not some people. All.

Then he tells a story. During meetings in a city in Vermont, a woman asked him to pray for her husband. Moody says the man was so self-righteous “you could not get the point of the needle of conviction in anywhere.” Moody told the wife he didn’t think they could get near him. She said, “You must! My heart will break if these meetings end without his conversion.”

She kept bringing him. Near the end of thirty days of meetings, the man came up to Moody, put a trembling hand on his shoulder, and asked to speak to him in a side room. Moody thought he was shaking with cold. But the man said:

“I am the worst man in the State of Vermont. I want you to pray for me.”

Moody thought he must have committed a terrible crime and asked if one particular sin was troubling him. The man said: “My whole life has been a sin. I have been a conceited, self-righteous Pharisee.”

That night, at about two in the morning, the light broke into his soul. He went up and down the main street telling people what God had done for him, and he was a keen Christian from then on.

Notice two things. First, the hardest person to reach is often not the obviously bad one but the one who thinks they are fine. Second, never give up praying for someone. That wife’s persistent prayer and love mattered.

One thing to do this week: read Luke 18:9–14 this week and ask yourself honestly which man you are more like. Then pray the tax collector’s prayer: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” And choose one person you will keep praying for, like the woman in Vermont.