Mike’s Meditations: Keeping All the

MIKE’S MEDITATIONS: Keeping All the Rules

Mike Van Vranken, Spiritual Director

DO YOU EVER THINK WE GIVE THE PHARISEES A BAD RAP? Surely there were times they tried to trick our friend Jesus. And yes, eventually, many, or maybe most of them accepted handing Jesus over to the Romans. But don’t we also have a negative stereotype of the Pharisees that repels us a little? After all, these are children of God, made in his image and likeness. And without question, they are very good at keeping all the rules. They have memorized and taken to heart every hoop they need to jump through to be good Jews. They obey God’s commands down to, what seems to be, every detail. Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). Parables are stories that are created to challenge and even disturb us. The storyteller is painting us such a radical picture in hopes we will notice God’s loving movements in us to such an extent, that we are changed. It seems in this parable; the Pharisee and the tax collector show up at church at the same time. Luke tells us the Pharisee “took up his position” to pray. You know, following all the rules, he came in, genuflected, entered a pew near the front of the church, knelt on a kneeler and made the sign of the cross. He then began to give God thanks for his privileges. He honestly admits he’s not like many other people. He is not greedy, obviously meaning he shares what he has. He is honest – not a liar and doesn’t cheat people. And he’s not adulterous. He fasts twice a week and pays his tithes on his entire income, not his after-tax and expenses money. He sounds like the model Catholic to me. I don’t know that I can keep up with his virtuous lifestyle but I respect his dedication. Based on what we see here, I think we would say this is a holy man. But still, we hear that description of “Pharisee”, and we can automatically think he’s a bad dude. Next in Luke’s narrative, in walks a tax collector. Now that title can also nourish its own negative stereotype. Tax collectors were religious traitors. They, very often if not always, overcharged their fellow church members and kept the difference in their own pockets, making some of them very rich. And the tax money they collected went to the evil empire – the oppressive Roman government. Knowing his place, this tax collector sits in the back of the church, it does not say he “took his place” so we can assume no genuflection, no sign of the cross and no kneeling. It looks like he doesn’t keep any of the rules of praying. Interestingly, he kept his head bowed which, in modern society, is a proper gesture for praying. It seems we may have a humble man on our hands here. His action and body language not only include a bowed head, but he also beat his breast - another outward sign of humility, but also deep sorrow for wrongdoing. His simple prayer is “Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner.” It looks good for the moment. But he does not promise to change his ways, no commitment to tithe or become honest or any of those virtues of the Pharisee. Shouldn’t the Pharisee’s credits for doing it all “correctly” weigh much more than those of the greedy tax collector? Well, not according to Jesus. Jesus is strictly looking at the humility of the two and justifies the tax collector and not the Pharisee. Of course, we’ve seen Jesus not pay attention to the rules before. Remember his disciples picking corn on the Sabbath and he himself healed on the Sabbath. And remember that other story where the workers who came to work at the end of the day and worked for maybe an hour, received the same wages as those who toiled in the hot sun all day. Maybe that’s why they crucified Jesus: he’s a liberal! What do we make of all this? As always with scripture, how God moves us with this today might be different than the next time we study it. For me, Jesus is looking on both men with love. He recognizes their dignity as children of God. I imagine he wants us to see the good in both of them because both of their lives matter. Both of their lives are as important to God as any other lives. Jesus condemns neither. Like the Mary and Martha story, one way might be better, but Jesus has us look at both men and I believe he’s asking us to love both and to emulate the good in both. He is showing us how to live our sacred and holy lives as God’s intimate creation, not looking at the rules, but searching the heart. The heart! There is no life without it. And Jesus is always pro-life.