To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”

I have a knee that has no cartilage on the inside of it. It is bone-on-bone. This is a degenerative genetic issue that exists in my family. You start out with it there, but the cartilage is weak and over time it wears away quickly. So today, I have two choices: 1) I can pretend like this limitation doesn’t exist, or 2) I can acknowledge it.

I had been a very competitive athlete in high school, and recently have gotten back to working out regularly throughout the week. In high school, I lifted weights 5 days a week, played football and rose in the ranks. At one time, I was 225 lbs and ran a 5.0 second 40-yard dash. For a lineman in those days, this was quick.

Now at 50, I still work out, but I have this knee that will bother me if I jump or run. The temptation is to mask this injury and try to compete with the others in my gym who do not have knee problems. When my adrenaline is going, I don’t feel the damage my knee is doing, and I talk myself into doing something that is unwise and damaging to my body. Every 3-4 months, it seems I forget about my problem and run on my bad knee. (My wife keeps reminding me I have learned this lesson before:)). I pay for this with trouble walking and pain in the week or so afterwards. And I have to take a break from working out.

How does this relate to today’s passage? Well, the Pharisees had a heart-level injury they did not want to acknowledge — sin. Sin corrupts our hearts absolutely. In this parable, the Pharisee tries to cover it up in a couple of ways: 1) he used comparison to others: robbers, evildoers, adulterers, and tax collectors. This made him feel better about himself by putting others down. And it diverted the attention (he thought) from his own sin. 2) He praised himself: “I tithe and I fast frequently”. This self-praise through “righteous” works is deceptive. Why? Because subtly, he is redefining God’s standard of righteousness into a works-based, comparing-to-people type of righteousness. But God seeks holiness and perfection, which is impossible apart from Christ.

Instead of humbly appealing to the Sovereign God for mercy and grace, he approached him as a proud and arrogant lord, who doesn’t need God’s help. All the while, his pride and uncaring heart is more and more exposed and creating more and more damage in his life and others.

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭64‬:‭6‬ says this: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

If we keep hiding our sin, pretending like the fatal injury is not there, will God not judge us accordingly? Just like my stubbornness about my knee injury, trying to compete against younger and healthier athletes who are not injured, if we persist in ignoring our sin, we will make our situation worse and worse. Jesus died for all of my sin and all of yours — he paid the price once and for all.

All he asks is that we be honest and repent of our sin, humbly admit our need for a Savior, and invite him to be Lord of our lives, giving him full control and complete authority.

Lord, thank you for saving such a sinner as me. I ignored my sin for too long. You have come in and made me new and now I am free from hiding all of my problems from others. I am righteous by your declaration — you counted it as righteousness to me when Jesus died on the cross and paid the price for my sin with his perfect blood. I have no words to describe my appreciation and joy! Living with you in control is an adventure beyond anything in this world!