The Inverted Pharisee

(originally written May 2010)

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18.

So much of life is about the attempt to glean understanding. It is significant that the most commonly used metaphor for understanding pertains to sight. Do you see what I mean?

If all of life is about God (which it is), and ultimately about worshipping God and understanding who He is, then I would offer this suggestion: worship is ultimately an issue of sight. More specifically, worship means becoming more like what you are looking at.

This is not a novel idea; this is an inescapable component of the human condition. Whether it's friends, music, literature, politics, physical location, etc., we are, like it or not, hugely influenced by the things with which we surround ourselves, or as is often the case, the things which seem to surround us. I've heard it said that sanctification isn't about trying harder on our Christian behavior checkoff list, it's about becoming like someone you're falling in love with. I think sanctification is an outgrowth primarily of the Holy Spirit's indwelling; but as much as it is up to us (another conversation for another day), it is about worship. And to worship something you have to look at it.

We've all heard the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector going up to the temple to pray. The pharisee begins by thanking God that he is not like the stinking masses of sinners, including the downcast tax collector nearby. But the tax collector won't even dare to look up, but beats his breast and begs God for mercy. However, I think if the parable were set today there would be a third party involved. The pharisee, the tax collector, and the inverted pharisee.

The inverted pharisee stands watching the first two offer their prayers up, but when he speaks, it is not in the desperate whisper of the convicted man, it is with the self righteousness of the pharisee. The only difference is the object of his scorn. "Thank you, O God, that I am not like this prudish, hypocritical pharisee whom you will surely punish with eternal damnation. I eat and drink with tax collectors and whores, I make sure everyone knows my Christianity is mature and nuanced enough to handle interacting with the "outcasts" of society. I would rather get drunk with these "genuine" sinners than even worship in the same building as those intolerant pharisees. I write blogs daily and post all the sins this pharisee and those like him commit. I likewise inject enough sarcasm and offensive language into my status updates that there will be no confusing me and those who take pride in their purity. For I take pride in my stains."

So which one of these things is not like the others? Man #2 is the only one looking at Christ. Ironically he felt too condemned to even raise his eyes to heaven- it is doubtful he is even aware of the scornful pharisee who is looking down at him. The first and third men both have their eyes acutely fixed on and their mouths loudly proclaiming the difference between themselves and the dirty sinner nearby. The tax collector is the only one in danger of receiving life giving change, because his eyes are glued on his savior. In his agonizing cries for help he is worshipping and being sanctified. He has a vision- and the other two are too busy congratulating themselves to notice that their growth and witnesses have ceased; that they are in fact, perishing.