The media pour out constant streams of self-help advice.  We are told that it is good to be confident and have a positive attitude to life.  There is some truth in that if our confidence is based on what is true.  But none of us is ever going to be big enough for circumstances that are bigger than us.  At those points of crisis, we rightly doubt ourselves.  

Jesus was surrounded by self-righteous people whose confidence was based on the success of their own efforts to maintain an outwardly pious life.  They prided themselves in their ability to keep all sorts of religious rules which God had never commanded, assuming that their superior moral effort pleased God, even though they despised many other people.  They had such a high opinion of themselves that they regarded everybody else as morally and spiritually inferior.  But they saw Jesus as a threat to their religious power over 'lesser people' because Jesus was welcomed by those who knew they were sinners and made no pretence of being holy (Luke 5:30).

The religious leaders were guilty of arrogance, because they thought they were better than others.  Their preoccupation with themselves prevented them from seeing that they were also sinners in need of mercy.  Their hatred of Jesus prevented them from seeing that He was God in a human body and, one day, would be their Judge.  They also forgot the Old Testament instructions to be humble and respect the poor (Exodus 23:6; Leviticus 23:22).

Unfortunately, their sort of confidence is often admired in the workplace.  It is seen in a commercial ruthlessness which some managers find attractive.  It is easily identified as people boast about what they can do and slander others. They are the people who are anxious to have the last word and have no concern to support the weak.  They are everywhere: from building sites to barrack rooms, from hotel to hospital, at home and on holiday.  You even find them in the church. Even before we study the parable, Luke's introduction is enough to tell us not to be like them.  Let us stop to reflect on our relationship style and the state of our heart which makes us behave as we do, pray for mercy and ask for fresh grace to live differently.