“I didn’t do it!” 

“Everyone is doing it!” 

“He did it first!” 

“Yes, I did it.”

A student caught by the teacher in the act of disobedience responds in this way in exactly this order.  Sometimes they will add, “Yeah, well, he did worse things than I did!”  Children rank and file each other’s’ behaviors.  Children’s first thoughts are to deflect their wrong behaviors by shifting the focus to the bad behavior of others.  Children throw other people “under the bus” so they can go on about their business and be saved from the discipline that follows. 

Children self-promote, blame others for what they are doing, while being “complacently pleased with themselves” as they act as if they’ve done nothing wrong just because they haven’t been caught doing wrong—yet. But they are children.  Children copy what they see and hear.  Children will follow who leads them.  They are moldable and shapable when love, dignity and respect is honestly demonstrated to children.  C.S. Lewis said, “Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work.” 

Children are given as gifts to us by God no matter how or when they arrive.  God also gives parents the help of His Holy Spirit to teach a developing human in the ways of God.  As parents, we teach them the love of God by loving them enough to confront and redirect our children when they say and do things unbecoming of God’s character. 

However, we can only lead children as far as we ourselves have been in our own maturing process as we lean on God’s love, mercy, and grace.  His Holy Spirit teaches us to develop and “bear the fruits” of His character.  (See Galatians 5 for the list of God’s character traits!)

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  1 Corinthians 13:11.

Who am I?  Childish or childlike in my walk and talk with God?  Do I still rank others as a way to evaluate myself?

Am I complacently pleased with myself, thinking I am good while I look down on others I deem “not as good”?  Let’s see what Jesus says…

Luke 18, The Message

The Story of the Tax Man and the Pharisee

^9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

¹³ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

¹⁴ Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

Luke follows up this point with Jesus’ demonstration of God’s love for infants and children.  Parents bring their children to see Jesus—to feel His touch of blessing on them because they believe He will.  But they are met with resistance!  Jesus uses this as a “teachable moment” for his disciples and for all who are watching.   Read on…

^15-17 People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. “Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.”

WHAT DO LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Do we rank and file people?  Yes, we do.  “Everybody does it!”   

The apostle Paul, a zealous Jew radically changed by Jesus with Kingdom of God thinking explains the danger of being complacent pleased with ourselves who think we are good and better than that “sinner” over there…

“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”  Romans 3:9-12

Most days, we are pretty complacently pleased with ourselves, but it comes at the expense of judging others as being not quite as good as we are.  We decide we are better than most as “law abiding” citizens, according to our self-evaluation of inner goodness, wealth, behaviors, generosity, and righteousness.  Yikes, Jesus (and later Paul) teaches us how dangerous this thinking is!   This selfishness is a slippery slope to self-righteousness that is unacceptable to God.  This is arrogant thinking which has no place in God’s Kingdom.

“Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.  For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” Romans 3:19-20

The “incident” of children being shooed off by Jesus’s guys is another perfect example of arrogant behavior on their part and fits this line of teaching.  Hey disciples!  Are these precious babies with their parents “less than” you who follow Jesus daily?  We know you gave up a lot and work hard to follow Jesus, but…Are they not worthy of the touch of Jesus on their lives?  Why are you so annoyed with parents bringing their children into the what you deem the more important work of Jesus?  Weren’t you a baby once?  Jesus was.  Jesus came into this world as a baby, born in a cave with animals looking on, to young parents God chose and trusted to nurture His Son!  Does this not prove how valuable EVERY life is to God?  God gave us HIS SON as a demonstration of His love for us! 

“But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”  Romans 3:21-25

Good deeds do not save us.  Being good enough as we see it or at least better than that guy over there, does not save us.  Only God is good.  Because of His goodness, through the sacrifice of His Son, we are made right with God.  Our relationship is sealed forever.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16  It’s about knowing that Jesus is enough to cover our sins. 

Our response—Ask God to help us cease our judging, ranking, assumptions and presumptions of others and remove this “trait” from our being.  Come as a child with childlike faith but cease childish behavior.

We cannot do it without Him.  But with Him—all things are possible!

Lord,

I’m disgusted with my own complacency on those days when I think that I have arrived at “goodness”.  Yikes!  I repent.  You are God and I am not.  You are the definition of Good, I am not.  I am so grateful you paid our debt of sins and self.  By this we are set free to love everyone you created like you love us—without conditions—only belief in you.  Lord, it’s actually a burden to rank and file others—to see and evaluate who I am in the “standings” of life when I should be focused on my standing with You. 

Continue to teach us. Continue the daily process of cleansing our hearts, transforming our thinking and restoring the joy of your salvation at work within us.  Help us to hear you above all the voices of this world who distracts us from you.

In Jesus Name, Amen