One Sunday an Evangelical and a drug-addict-dealer prayed. The Evangelical knelt in his pew (next to his study Bible and sermon notes and perfect looking family) and prayed, "Dear Lord, thank you so much for helping me be all I can be. Thank you that I haven't had an affair or visited prostitutes, that I haven't embezzled money from the company, and that I haven't budged on my conservative values... and that I'm not like that loser druggie I saw outside. I give 20% of my income. I fast and pray during my lunch hour three times a week." The drug-addict-dealer sat under a tree in the church yard and through his tears prayed, "O God, have mercy on me, I am a sinner."
One was heard and accepted in right relationship with God, and one wasn't.
How might we play with this parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector (Luke 18:9-14) to impact us the way it would have slammed the people it was aimed at? Honestly, who are the good, religious, upstanding people we'd like to have in our home and who are the ones we can't stand to even think about, let alone have over for a nice dinner with our children? That's the tension here. God sees things differently and has different values than we do.
The people we hope would join our church when they were looking for a new church home (that's another topic) are not necessarily the ones God welcomes into his home...
Of course what we do is important, but our hearts are so slimy, are so bent toward trusting in ourselves, so naturally inclined to feel better about ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. If Jesus is saying anything in that parable, I think he's saying that what God values is radical honesty and radical trust. In other words that I believe he is merciful and therefore cast the real me upon him, not a list of "comparables" or a eucharist of what I've done.
The only One who actually could be considered a better person, exalted on the basis of His good works, the only perfect One - made himself the lowest, a servant, showing mercy and forgiveness to the very end while entrusting himself into the hands of God. We can trust Him.
Lord Jesus, enable me to see the real me in light of the real you, my heart and your heart, my works and your work. A great sinner and a great Savior. Have mercy on me - and create in me a clean heart.
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2 comments:
amen.
When I read this, I thought of Matthew 7:1-5 (because that's what I studied last week). We might can see that speck that is in our brother's eye, but we can't see what's in his heart. As for ourselves, we have to be so completely humble and honest and trusting and lay our hearts before God because unlike that speck in our brother's eye that log in our own eye is sometimes so very difficult to see.
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