Jesus says these words at the end of sharing a parable of 2 men who go up to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee spends his time thanking God he's not more like others, while the tax collector beats his chest, acknowledging his sinfulness and need of mercy before a holy God.
No one wants to be a Pharisee or tax collector; we've all heard the Pharisees are self-righteous religious leaders, while tax collectors were despised as both traders and thieves within the Jewish community. Today, both are considered sinners and often the butt of Christian jokes. We have more in common with these two characters than we often care to admit. You see, we're sinners too. The only question is whose example will we follow in responding to our sin? Pharisee or tax collector?
As Christians, we're often like the Pharisee, thanking God we're not like those other sinners who do far worse things than us. While they openly drink, smoke, chew and go with girls who do, our sins are far less serious. We only lie, cheat, manipulate and commit the sin of comparison. How bad can these be in comparison with those others? Pharisees build their self-righteousness by comparing their lives to others. They live better, act better and do spiritual things better than others, so they must be better in the eyes of God!
The sin of comparison is ruining many well-intentioned Christians, including myself. It all begins innocently enough. We're just trying to be better Christians, so we read books, listen to sermons, and pay close attention to other Christians. We figure what better way to measure our Christianity than to compare ourselves with other Christians. Most of us, without knowing, have a list of people we use to measure our "spirituality." Some use their neighbors, other Christians at church and the pastor for a grid, while pastors and other Christian leaders have to use people like Mother Theresa and Bill Hybels for their grid. The sin of comparison is an escape from the only legitimate person with whom we are to measure ourselves - JESUS.
"Hold on just one minute! But that's not fair, Jesus is God!" Yes, but Jesus abandoned all rights to his authority and power as God when he came to live as a man on earth. His only standard for living was his Father in heaven, and his authority and power would have to come from his Father through Holy Spirit. Somewhere along the journey, much of the church decided Jesus was too high a standard for normal Christians, so we started comparing ourselves with each other. But let me tell you, Jesus is our only standard, and our only hope of living his life on earth is having Holy Spirit in us. As Holy Spirit filled Jesus and empowered him to live according to his Father's standard, so Holy Spirit longs to empower us to live according to Jesus' standard.
The only place to begin this journey is to do like the tax collector, acknowledge our sinfulness and deep need for mercy before a holy God. In our poverty of spirit a hunger and thirst will begin to rise up that Holy Spirit will fill. As Holy Spirit fills us with the life of Jesus, we will begin to produce the same kind of fruit Jesus did on earth. Jesus said, "Anyone who has faith (remains) in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12)." As we remain in Jesus' love, we are filled with Holy Spirit and are empowered to do what Jesus was doing and even more! (When was the last time someone preached on these verses in your church!) Jesus demonstrated a life perfectly surrendered to Holy Spirit within him. Jesus' example would be impossible without Holy Spirit, which forces us to ask whether the reason we don't do the things Jesus did is because we don't have Holy Spirit living INSIDE us (Jn. 14:17). He didn't come to demonstrate what we could do by ourselves. What good would that be! Jesus demonstrated the life of a person surrendered to the voice of God through Holy Spirit within. YOU and I are offered this life - it's called Christianity.
As Jesus says, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27)." The Christian life is a life of watching impossibilities bow their knees before Jesus living within you!
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