Jesus, as he often did, told a story –it went something like this: (GSV – Grant Sather Version)
Two people, both men actually, started walking into a church. They were both going in to pray, but for very different reasons. One of the men was a religious teacher and the other a tax collector (known for his greed and lavish lifestyle). The religious teacher stood off to the side by himself and prayed this: “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I thank you that I’m not an adulterer, I don’t misuse my power to gain wealth, I’m not unjust or an adulterer – or even like this tax collector. I demonstrate self control by fasting two times per week; I give my tithes… thank you God that I’m obedient.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner! Don’t give me what I deserve!
Jesus continued, saying: “I tell you this man –the tax collector, went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself with be exalted.
We see here something very scary. Two people, both have rejected God – but in their own way. The most obvious rejection of God can be seen in the Tax Collector – tax collectors were despised, often took more money than was owed – saving the extra for themselves. He was probably an adulterer. Needless to say, he rejected God in the way we all are accustomed to thinking about rejecting God. He lived his life without regard to the law of God. He didn’t care about bringing glory and honor to God, nor did he consider living a good moral life to be a profitable thing. He lived his life the way HE wanted; it was all about HIS OWN desires.
We have all heard “for the wages of sin is death…” God repays lawlessness with death, sin is like flipping God the cosmic finger, it’s like spitting in his face – sin is any action, thought or attitude that is contrary to the nature of God. God sees everything, says in his word that God sees the secrets of men. Every thought or emotion you’ve ever had has been seen by God. He burns with anger towards sin, this anger is known as wrath. If you are living your life how you want now, don’t worry that will change – either in this life (when you repent) or the next (when the wrath of God burns against you for all eternity). We will call rejecting God by running your own life: irreligion.
So, both men in this story have rejected God, but if we take a closer look at the religious teacher we will be shocked to see what we find. There are four things and four words which should freak us out in this passage – I’m talking, literally cause us to shake in our boots.
1. The religious teacher believes in God. In his prayer, the teacher acknowledges the existence and authority of God. He realizes that God is real, and that he answers to Him in some way.
2. The religious teacher believes that sin is wrong. He is grateful to God that he hasn’t fallen in to sin, because he doesn’t want to!
3. The religious teacher believes that God helped him to not sin. He gives God the credit for his morality by thanking him for it, in doing so he recognizes God as the worker of his personal righteousness.
4. The religious teacher was a good person. Jesus never says that the religious teacher was mistaken when he was thanking God for keeping him from being an extortioner, etc. In fact, beyond being a good person if you examined this man’s life you would be impressed: he fasted twice a week and always gave tithes. Jesus didn’t say he did these things, but there weren’t really good things. We can assume that the teacher’s analysis of his own character was fair an honest, a noble quality in and of itself!
However, the four words Jesus uses to describe the eternal destiny of the tax collector and religious teacher are the four scariest words in the entire bible, in my opinion. Jesus said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified…” He proclaims good news on behalf of the tax collector who was heartbroken and repentant over his sin. Howerever, Christ’s next four words: “rather than the other…” tell a different story for the religious teacher. He wasn’t saved, he wasn’t justified in God’s eyes – if he were to die with nothing changing this man would spend the rest of eternity in hell. Prior to faith we know that we can do nothing to honor the Lord, despite all this man’s work for the Lord he had gotten nowhere.
Peace!
Grant
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