How Not to Be the Pharisee

     We always want to be “not as other people” as the Pharisee says. If we have never been “thieves, rogues, adulterers, or extortionists” we feel secure in our goodness. But Jesus himself has told us “no one is good but God alone.”
What were Pharisees? On “Zacchaeus” Sunday last week we heard what these “publicans” or “tax collectors” were like: the worst kind of profiteers, people to whom the government had sold the license to collect tax, adding their own extortionate fees. The tax collector in that place and time was someone who had no scruples about the consequences of calling in a debt, even if it meant children might be sold into slavery. But the Pharisees were righteous: they went regularly to the temple; they gave money to support the work of the religion of Israel, they even gave money to the poor. Why did Jesus have so much trouble with these righteous men? It is very simple. Jesus had problems with the Pharisees because they did everything which was externally right and proper in the religion, but they did not have a desire for God. They had no humility, their heart was hard and their ears were unreceptive to the message of God’s salvation and holiness in their midst. They did not see God, Jesus Christ, standing right in front of them. They also did not like that Jesus was bringing sinners into salvation, making them equal to the Pharisees in the eyes of God.
     Jesus did not come to congratulate people for being good. Jesus, the Word of God, the very face of the God the Father in the world, came to unite us to him. As Christians we don’t stand separate from each other: this one rich, that one poor; this one good, that one bad; this one happy, that one sad. What does this lack of separation mean? It means that we must feel the sting of every sin in the world, because every sin belongs to humanity, and we all share in the common humanity of all. We are all one in Christ: we do not say as Cain did after he killed his brother, “I’m not my brother’s keeper.”
     What should that Pharisee have done instead of judging his brother and separating himself from a sinner through his own ego and pride? The Pharisee should have rather mourned the sin of the unrighteous tax collector. He should have said, “Lord let your grace also be given to him, just as you have mercifully helped me.” Or even better, he should have said, “Lord give me the depth of repentance and the desire to see you, such as this humble man has.”
     We know what sins we have not committed. The sins we have not committed are always easier to identify. We always want to proclaim our own goodness. But “no one is good but God alone.” What does this mean? It means that we cannot be good unless we desire God and seek him. We cannot be good unless we seek to see the face of God. We may never on this side of death have a mystical vision of God; but we may clearly see God in as much as we desire to grow in our faith. Faith consists of two motions: on the one hand rising up to meet Jesus Christ, the perfect Image of God in Communion and prayer; and on the other going down to meet and comfort and assist our fellow human beings, who are also the image of God. The Pharisees throughout the accounts of the Gospels fail to see Christ because they did everything which was externally right and proper in the religion, but they did not have a desire for God or a love for other human beings. God came to them and they didn’t need him because they thought they were good enough. They didn’t want any trouble, they were happy with the good being good and the bad being bad. They liked the separation which would allow them to feel righteous because they weren’t bad like other people. They didn’t love other human beings enough to throw aside their own pride and the separation which their self-righteousness allowed them.
     But Jesus did not come to congratulate people for being good. Jesus didn’t come just to make all things good and right. He came to change the very way the world functions. He came to make the sinners righteous, to make the evil become good, to make sinners into saints. But this wounds the egos of those people who are good, but less than perfect, and who want to take the pride of first place among the good. They don’t want the sinners to suddenly pass them up. They like being the leaders and they don’t want others to earn the reward from God which they have appropriated for themselves. They say to others: “become more like me; a good upright citizen. I am good and God rewards me. Be like me, but don’t challenge me, you’ll shake my notions of what is wise and good, maybe you’ll even force me to go beyond that to what is holy—and holiness is impossible in a world of practically minded people. Maybe you’ll even make me realize I’m a sinner in need of God’s help and salvation.” These are the kind of things which we know that we really say to ourselves by being proud and not seeking God, not really feeling that we are sinners in need of God’s help to rescue us from our weakness and inability to stand boldly before death. And this world is all vanity in the face of death. Without God it is all a joke.
     People who proclaim their own goodness and yet fight, gossip, slander, hide their sins, judge other people based on race or ethnicity… People who proclaim their own fearlessness but are afraid to truly and fully admit their own sins… such people don’t feel the need or desire for God. Such people: gossips, slanderers, self-righteous egotists, people who don’t want a difficult sermon or a God who demands hard things of us, like repentance and generosity—such people have no eyes to see God. And not seeing God they cannot make a community of true love and support.
     Pride, separation from each other and self-righteousness is not what we are here for. That is not what a Church is. We are here in the Church because we are all weak and need God. We are here because we all fall far short of God’s intentions and desires for us. We are here to learn love and not vanity and separation from each other. We are here so that we can repent to see the Image of God, Jesus Christ, and the image of God in our brothers and sisters. When we come in these doors, we must resolve to “lay aside all earthly cares” and to “know nothing except Christ and him crucified”: the foolishness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of this world. So let us be foolish in the eyes of the world, and quickly and humbly admit our sins and submit ourselves to the mercy of God the Father in Jesus Christ, flowing down on us through the power of the Holy Spirit.