HONESTLY ADMIT YOUR SINS
Gospel Reading: Luke 18:9-14

O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. v. 13

We can learn a lot from the two men in today's reading who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee did everything right from a theological perspective, but he was not acceptable to God. The tax collector seemed to do everything wrong, but he went home justified before God. Let us consider why that was so.

PHARISEE HAD CORRECT DOCTRINE

Pharisees were an accepted renewal group within the Jewish faith that believed the right things, even by later Christian standards, such as the eternal life of the human spirit and justification by faith. They believed God looked at the intentions of the heart rather than mere fulfillment of external ritual of the law, although they were strict about external fulfillment.

Pharisees even had right beliefs about the Messiah. They knew where and when he would be born. They knew he would teach as no man had taught before. They knew he would be rejected by the religious leaders. They knew he would die by Roman crucifixion. They knew he would rise on the third day and give his Spirit to all nations, not just the Jews. They knew all this, yet still did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

THE TAX COLLECTOR SOUGHT MERCY

The Pharisee was proud not to be a tax collector, who was usually a Jew who betrayed his people by working for Rome and who indulged in immoral living funded by riches gained by cheating his own people. Yet the tax collector in today's reading went home from the temple justified because he knew he was a sinner who needed mercy. He made no pretense of holiness. He simply confessed his sin and honestly begged God's forgiveness whereas the Pharisee made an art of hiding behind theology.

BE HONEST BEFORE GOD

Do we have the honesty of the tax collector in confessing our sins? Or do we use theology to cover our sin? Be honest before God. Admit your sins and thank Him for your successes. Don't hide either. Then you will be justified by God.

John Michael Talbot