Children and Pharisees

"But Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me and do not forbid it; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.'"

Matthew 19:14

Children can spot a fraud.
My children have forced me to be real, whether I wanted to be or not. Life as a mom is just so up-close and personal with kiddos . . . and their imperfections bump into my imperfections. My "I've got it all together" pretense is shattered.
Maybe that's why Jesus liked children. They are so real. Open. Honest.
Jesus is so real. And, when he walked this earth, he was too open and too honest for the Pharisees. His honesty trumped their fraudulent attempts to be good. And they just hated that. It set their teeth on edge.
Wise Guy talks a lot about kingdom living, having a kingdom mindset. I know I've still got things to learn about that. It's one of the reasons I hang around Wise Guy: He knows some things I need to learn.
Living in the kingdom must have something to do with being like a child. Living honestly, not fraudulently.



Just Thinking Out Loud: Just for today, God, let me live honestly. Let me put aside my Accidental Pharisee attempts to be good. Instead, let me be real. Like a child is real. And may it be pleasing to you. Not in a "Do you like me now?" way. But in a "Now you're being who I meant you to be" way.

Hanging Out With Pharisees

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" ... He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God ... "

Micah 6:8

I spent some time this weekend researching some buddies of mine--the Pharisees.

You probably know a few of them too, you just don't realize it.

If we're going to be talking about grace, we're going to run into the Pharisees. That's what happened to Jesus. Whenever he talked about grace, the Pharisees were right there, asking, "But what about the Law?"

I like Charles Swindoll's labels for the Pharisees. He calls them "the original grace-killers" and "the brain trust of legalism."

As I was scribbling notes from the Encyclopedia Judaica--a great resource that my friend, Scoti, recommended to me--I discovered that the Pharisees weren't all bad. They weren't all wrong about God.

Did you know the Pharisees believed God was an omnipotent (all powerful), all knowing spiritual being, all wise, all just, all merciful? They believed God loved his creatures and asked man to walk in His ways and to act justly and to love kindness. (Hhhmm. I've heard that before in Micah 6:8.) God gave man the ability to choose between good and evil--and wanted him to choose good.

I'm not going to argue with any of that, are you?

Here's where the Pharisees went wrong--way, way wrong.

They believed a spirit of holiness was obtained through a scrupulous observance of the Torah and by spreading traditional religious teaching.

Ooops! Wrong answer!

Thinking Out Loud: We Accidental Pharisees get it wrong too. We don't mean too. We're looking right at Jesus--and we're forgetting that He's all about grace. We want to talk to Him about how much time we've spent in Bible study, and then ask Him, "How am I doing?" He wants to tell us that's not the point. We keep holding up our little check lists of what we've done right and saying, "Look at this! Look at this!" And Jesus says," Will you just look at me?"

Grace.

Wouldn't You Know It?

"Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live." ~ Jackie Windspear

I'm in a Bible study with some friends. We've decided to study the topic of grace.
Timely, isn't it?
As an Accidental Pharisee On Her Way to Retirement, I have a lot to say about grace.
Not.
I have a lot to learn about grace.
I noticed one thing tonight as we discussed grace: Whenever you talk about grace, you end up talking about Pharisees. You really can't talk about one without talking about the other. The Pharisees "got" the Law--but they didn't get grace. And that's why Jesus made them so angry. Jesus was all about grace.
Being a good do-er, i.e. tell me what I need to do to be a good Christian--I learned the approved definition of grace: unmerited favor. Knowing the definition and living a life of grace are two very different things. I'm just beginning to learn that.
I discovered a new definition of grace, and I like this one better.
"Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace." (Donald Barnhouse, Bible scholar.)
Love that stoops is grace.

Just a Thought: We Accidental Pharisees get so caught up in what we're supposed to do and not do--and making sure somebody is noticing what we're doing or not doing--that we totally miss what God did for us. He offers us grace. The Bible says He lavishes us with grace (Ephesians 1:8). He loves us enought to stoop down and to offer us grace.