My TV remote is missing. I know it will turn up. Usually I find them pushed down into the side of cushions, sitting on the back of the couch or somewhere in the kitchen. It will show up, eventually, I am not worried…
Glasses, car keys, remotes…all pretty typical stuff to misplace…eventually “the stuff” shows up unless you are MY SISTER, she just throws stuff out in the trash, never to be seen again…
But the gospel IS NOT about “misplacing stuff” or “losing stuff.”
The gospel text is actually about “repentance.”
Jesus is responding to a group of Pharisees and scribes. They are standing on the sidelines – “catcalling” Jesus. They are “grumbling and complaining” about him and his friends. They are taking potshots at him.
The reason: just look at Jesus and the people that are drawn to him, tax collectors and sinners…the worst of the worst! Offenders all of them. Sinners!
The “ritually unclean” of the earth – are coming to him.
He is A MAGNET for them. He likes them. He enjoys them and their company. It is said that not only does he WELCOME them, but that he also shares HIS TABLE with them.
Disgusting. Disturbing. Unbefitting a Rabbi in Israel.
And yet, the Pharisees are known as being a “divisive group.” They like taking “cheap shots.” They enjoy putting others down…or so people said.
Jesus was getting used to it…the “taunting, mocking, scoffing, the constant ridiculing, deriding, the heckling” and the “yelling out of their disapproval.” They did it – increasingly. He figured they would probably follow him right up to the end of his life. “Groups of scribes and Pharisees seemingly followed him…everywhere.
It was a “mindset.” It was “a total way of thinking.” A lifestyle. It was an “us against them” mentality.
They really truly did “think” that they were BETTER than others. They had THE RIGHT to criticize and to point the finger at others.
They WERE better than others, almost better than “ALL” others…
“Their FAULTS” were better than “your faults.”
God was MORE PLEASED “with them,” then he is with “YOU.”
THEY loved God “more” than YOU love God. It was obvious by their prayers, their robes, their tassels, their attendance at the Temple, the respect they were given by ALL the people, their keeping of the law…their receiving the places of honor…
They were right to look down their noses at others…they were simply “better THAN…”
Now, obviously ALL PHARISEES were not in this same category, but there were “enough of them” that it was “more than notable.”
Yeah, they stood on the street corners praying aloud with their robes blowing in the breezes. They wanted to be seen. They wanted to be known as “Men of Prayer.” Pious Men. Holy Men. Men of distinction. They were the “good guys.”
Holier than thou DID APPLY, at least to them. They were devout, dedicated, god-fearing, faithful, dutiful, and RIGHTEOUS and others, not so much.
They were LESS sinful than others…and therefore, they had the right to condemn others.
Their DIRT was cleaner than the dirt of others. They were blind to their own faults…they were not at all – like “the others.”
It was because of their “mindset,” because of their “attitude” that Jesus told a couple of parables…
He wanted to remind “them,” that God “REJOICES” that he is indeed TRULY HAPPY, euphoric, JUBILANT, delighted over ONE sinner who repents.
God is PLEASED with “the repentant one.” God loves the sinner.
Even the angels of heaven are JOY-FILLED and “ECSTATIC.”
So, how dare you criticize and grumble and bemoan that which God created!
Just WHO is the REAL SINNER, here?
“They believed” they were the choice selected few and all the rest are damned.
Such finger pointing, such calling out of others is not acceptable. It was a SMUG religious SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. You will be judged by God and I will not be.
That kind of “Pharisaic thought” is still present and very much alive today. Some people just think they are better THAN…
A judging heart is seldom GODLY.
Amen.