You Think You are Better than Most Everyone Else Don’t You

If you are honest, then you would say yes, I agree with the title to this post…and if you are content on lying, then so be it, that again is displaying the need to look better than the rest. It is amazing to me how easily we can slip in to this, even as those who profess to follow Jesus…actually especially as those who profess to follow Jesus. Yes, us, the one’s who are supposed to have the answers. We live in a bubble wrapped world, where, instead of measuring our lives next to that of the exalted Christ, we measure it next to each other…why, because if I can stay just one step ahead of you, then I can consider myself, and look as though to everyone else, that I am a good and faithful follower of Christ.

Lest you think this is some stinging indictment from some exalted pedestal that I have placed myself on, let me tell you we “pastor guys” have it the worst. Always wanting to present this aire of being just a step ahead, so that the people we lead can have someone worthy of following. But here is reality, this is not what Jesus called us to. He called us to radical life, committed to Him, and only being compared to Him in measuring our righteousness. Isn’t that the point of the message? That when we look upon the cross we all realize we are void of anything good, unless He, by His own discretion, give it. Because even the good we do, outside of Jesus, is wrongly motivated, and again, if you are honest(which most of us are not) then you could admit that.

This is at the heart of the peculiar interaction He has with the Pharisee’s in John 8. [3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.] They bring this woman, in their hypocrisy, to expose her broken-ness, and their righteousness in “finding her out”, and in an effort to test Jesus, and look like “good people” they exploit this woman…an Jesus’ answer is strange, but noteworthy. If you are innocent, and better than her, start slinging…of course they retreat, but the point is made. Religion leads to hypocrisy that seeks to expose and exploit the broken-ness of others, while exalting ourselves as righteous and without fault.

So lets recap…we all do this, especially those who are professing followers of Jesus…and He has given us a stout answer. Before you think yourself righteous, and quietly compare yourself to the person in the next row…look at the cross, contemplate the gospel, and realize how truly broken we all are. If you can still sling a stone after that, God help you….