I'm a pharisee...aren't we all?

So this whole 'read through the Bible' thing has been going ok. We powered through Job, Jeremiah and Lamentations first (I guess getting through the really depressing stuff first). But today we started Mark. Mark just dives into the story of Jesus’ ministry with no back-story of his birth or anything like that. And he packs a lot of stuff in the first 2 chapters. The story of Jesus calling Levi is probably the hardest hitting for me. After Levi has Jesus and a bunch of his followers over for dinner, the Pharisees start calling Jesus out for ‘eating with sinners’ (not really all that hard to believe…we’ve all heard the whole ‘bad company corrupts good character’ bit applied to pretty much any interaction outside the church). But Jesus just comes back with this infamous line (2:17): “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” I say this is infamous because we as a church have flipped our theology in a practical sense. We really do teach that you have to fake it until you make it. We live and act as though behavior change fosters faith instead of flipping that and falling on the grace of God in acknowledgement of our depravity. Because deep down, we really don’t think we need him…we’re righteous enough, right? 'Empire' is a song by the band As Cities Burn that talks about this – “I was a Pharisee / I never saw my need for grace / then your love came to me / stood next to mine and I saw I was poor / show me I was poor / show us we are…” It’s so easy to shake my head and agree with all that, but if I take a step back and look objectively at myself, it’s tough to say that I live like I need somebody to save me (or even that I’ve already been saved). One of my biggest hopes is that I can see myself against the light of what is truly good through the filter of God’s grace…instead of seeing myself compared to the people I choose to bring to mind.