Two men enter but only one man leaves (justified)

 This week is on Luke 18:9-14:

Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’ I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 These are classic verses but they're worth a new visit every now and then. Jesus ran into some people who felt pretty righteous and who couldn't remember what it was like not to feel that way. We run into people like that in church sometimes. Sometimes those self-righteous people annoy us to death, and other times we're the annoying-to-death self-righteous people.

Jesus talks about two different people who both went to pray. You can see by their prayers how different the two were. The Pharisee is talking about himself. He's using the time of prayer to glorify himself and bask in the glow of his self-love. He's even invoking God in conspiracy against his fellow man by looking down on the tax collector. Nothing in his prayer is about anything in God's values or character, he's just reading his resumé of self-glorification to God so that God can join his choir of self-praise.

The tax collector, on the other hand, is only glorifying God and acknowledging his inferior position. His prayer is all about God's merciful character, and about his values that he recognizes he is not able to measure up to.

The Pharisee is performing. The tax collector is trying to not be seen by anyone but God himself. Which one are you?

How do we approach God? Is he an accessory to our ego or the only medicine for our incurable sickness? Do we brag to him, or do we confess? Do we stand, or do we kneel?

How do we manage our relationships? Do we see others as beneath us? Do we just look to them as a social media cheerleading squad, like the Pharisee may have? Or are we aware of when we have sinned against them, as the tax collector was? How do our relationships affect how we approach God?

Jesus said that the guy who tried to disappear and who had wronged everyone and betrayed his own people went home justified, and the guy who did everything right and was the respected influencer in his community did not. Let that one sink in.

Spend some time this week and see which of the two you resemble the most. If you feel like you're doing a great job, be afraid. If you can't seem to get anything right, at least be confident in the fact that Jesus can.