The Jesus teaching that connected with me this morning was in verses 9-14. I bolded the intro because that is what caught my attention.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
One of the conundrums of faith is that the longer I walk with Jesus the deeper my faith in Him grows and the deeper my confidence in God’s salvation grows. And this is good. Very good!
However there are times when my confidence in Jesus morphs just enough to become confidence in my “own” righteousness. After all God is chipping away sin in my life and I am growing more faithful and ‘more good’, displaying more fruit of the Holy Spirit and the like.
Now the moment I take my eyes off Jesus and what He, the Father and the Spirit are doing in me and for me, I can become self-righteous and fall into the trap Jesus addresses above.
Jesus’ teaching is a stark reminder that my righteousness is always in Him and through Him and is never my own. And even more, I must never look down on others who have not yet started the journey of faith or who are at different stages on the journey of faith because every person is a sinner in need of mercy and recognizing this is God’s doorway to faith and mercy and grace…
God, have mercy on me, a sinner… Amen.
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