I am a pharisee. That is, more often than I care to admit, my values, disposition and behavior more reflect those of this first century religious order than the values, disposition and behavior of the risen Christ. This is most undesirable.

Jesus was not cool with the Pharisees. The religious elite were the beneficiaries of some of His most poignant and pointed indictment and rebuke. Jesus was gracious with everyone: prostitutes, preachers, civil servants, wild men, children, blue collar, white collar. He had grace for every one. Everyone except these guys.

The fact that someone would set themselves up as “the measure” infuriated Him. That someone would excuse their own blatant and heinous failings and then pass judgment on their fellow man with abject disregard for the actual and ultimate well being of that fellow human drew His explicit ire and condemnation.

Ah, man. As much as I don’t want to be, I’m that guy. I am a pharisee. Every time my thought begins with “Well, at least I never…,” I’m that guy. Every time I don’t extend grace to my fellow very broken and confused human being, I’m that guy. Every time I pursue my rights, my needs, and my agenda over those of my neighbor and Christ, I’m that guy. Every time I thumb my nose or look right past one of the least of these, I’m that guy.

My friend wrote a song that speaks to this (link below). I believe this is a modern prophetic lament in the vein of some of the OT prophets but in the vernacular and style of our day. For me, there is a pronounced duality of meaning in the lyric.

First, there is the perspective of the singer decrying and bemoaning the whole situation. The intimate and vulnerable transparency of the vocal is heartrending and the lyric is at times, sarcastic, biting, mournful and pleading. I understand the singer. I am the singer.

But there is another meaning that speaks to me. Much of the lyric I hear as Jesus addressing these words to me, especially the chorus. He can see through my duplicity, my charade into the utter brokenness that is me apart from Him. He needs to be not the God that I have made Him, but the God He truly is. The God of First Corinthians 13.

https://paulbrendonlile.bandcamp.com/track/religion