Does the self-righteousness of people who consider themselves “holy” turn you off? Well, know that it turns off Jesus, too.
Luke 18 contains a parable Jesus directed at those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” There is the religious person who thanked God that he went through all of the prescribed religious rituals and that he was better than the folks who didn’t live their lives as he did, such as the tax collector in the temple next to him.
Now, whatever you think of the Internal Revenue Service, tax collectors in Jesus’ time and place were seen as far worse. They were agents of Roman domination over the Jews, and yet they were usually Jews hired by Rome to administer the various taxes levied by the empire. Not only was the tax system itself deemed extractive and oppressive by most Jews, the tax collectors themselves were regarded as thieves—often rightly so.
Yet it is here that Jesus points to the tax collector, scorned by the Jewish elite and ordinary citizenry alike, and says that his simple plea to God for mercy had far more weight than the bragging of the self-righteous. That’s simply because in the heavenly scheme of things, if you are busy elevating yourself, there is no space for God to elevate you. But the person who bows down before God places themselves in the position to be lifted up.
That’s the thing about loving yourself, by the way. It doesn’t mean you exalt yourselves above other people. It means being honest about your self-worth, your inherent goodness and your flaws. It means acknowledging that at times you are that tax collector who needs to bow down before God and say, “Have mercy on me.” From that position of humility actually comes great power to live your best, most joyful life. It is indeed true that before God “all who humble themselves will be exalted.”