There was a report in my Yahoo home page this morning about a 34 year-old worker who lost his life yesterday while opening up a Wal-mart store at 5:00 am for it's Black Friday sales. He was trampled by all those poor shoppers who had been waiting in line for hours to go take hold of their TV god of wide-screenness. And what's more, some of them became angry when they were told they needed to leave due to the death of someone in the store. "I’ve been in line since yesterday morning" was the reported response from some shoppers who tried to continue their acts of worship even after their dismissal was requested. Amazing. I can hear the weepy defense now of those who will (hopefully) be directly charged with bringing about this man's death. "These are hard economic times, and I was just trying to provide a good Christmas for my family this year. Sniff-sniff."
We all want to think of ourselves as being right; this isn't a new problem, but I think perhaps it has worsened. Nearly gone are the days of humility and repentance and the understanding of what those positions even mean. We have become so crafty in thinking up quick ways to justify ourselves. The logic (or lack thereof) that I find myself and others using is really quite disturbing. In simplified form, it sounds something like this, "I don't think I've done anything wrong, therefore I have done nothing wrong." Deep. What is happening here that makes us turn into such blubbering idiots when bits of our reputation seem on the line? Perhaps it stands to reason that we really do feel confronted by some larger reality, something that is telling us we're not in the clear but need to be in order to feel comfortable both with ourselves and with that "something" that seems to be telling us we've been naughty.
Jesus saw this kind of self-justification going on with people and wasn't afraid to deal with it head on. In Luke 16, we have recorded one of His lessons on financial stewardship where He concludes, "You cannot serve God and money" (V. 13). The Pharisees were listening in and had an interesting reaction, even though it doesn't seem that Jesus even mentioned them by name. We're told in verse 14 that, being those who were lovers of money, they ridiculed Him! My goodness, why the great offense? Why the lashing out at Jesus? Here's the reasoning I think they were probably using that led them to this reaction: "We are religious people who enjoy acquiring wealth, therefore we are OK in being this way." Again, deep. Jesus doesn't let them slide but instead deals with both their faulty reasoning and their lack of submission to God. "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted in the sight of men is an abomination in the sight of God" (V. 15). So in essence, he tells them that they aren't the standard of what is right/wrong, good/bad, giving them no place to justify themselves. And then He basically tells them that if they don't use God's law as their standard, what they do will be an abomination to Him. In their lack of God motivation, we see that God was neither their means nor their end in getting to what was right; instead, they were, and Jesus says to them, "You lose."
We will however find ourselves in the "winners' circle" if we approach the Lord like the tax collector who, with eyes to the ground "beat his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner' (Luke 18:13), instead of looking more like the Pharisee in the same parable who shouts out a prayer of arrogance that sounds something like, "God, thanks that I'm the great guy that I sure do think I am." There's a big part of me that wants to say I'm more like the tax collector than the Pharisee; right away I want to! But a quick self-evaluation isn't enough. What does God see? We need to ask Him, seeing as how He is both the Standard and the Judge. Being better than others or even better than we used to be might be signs of something good going on in our lives, but it does not give us license to start thinking that we can then "reason" certain accusations away or start thinking highly of ourselves. If we do, we'll start thinking that because we worked so hard standing in line since yesterday, we should be able to stay and buy the TV over which a man lost his life.
Lord, examine my heart. Are You my motivation and standard in rightness? Please give me eyes that are fixed upon You and a soul that is in love with Your ways. Place within me a humble heart that is open to Your every correction. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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