Notes from the book:
Many people live with the assumption that
God’s love is conditional. Our behaviour, it’s assumed, determines how God feels
about us. Early on in our live we discover that the world we live in is based
on performance: some of the first words we learn are good and bad. We hear
things like “you ate all of your peas, good girl” or “do not write on the wall
with your crayon, bad boy”[1].
Jesus not only revealed the Father in his stories, he reflects the Father in
his character and his actions.
In the story of Matthew the tax collector
and the Pharisees (Matthew 9:9-13), Jesus invites Matthew to be one of his
disciples. The tax collectors were thought of as traitors and cheats as they
collected tax from the Jewish people for the Roman government and were
notorious for skimming money off the top for themselves. This is amazing,
considering that in the first century, a rabbi was usually very selective when
choosing his disciples. Being selected by a rabbi was a rare and great
privilege that was offered only to those who were deemed especially righteous.
The Pharisees, a group of strict religious men, criticised Jesus for eating
with sinners[2]. In
reality the Pharisees are just as sick and sinful as the tax collectors; they
just fail to admit it. The tax collectors, on the other hand, have no pretense.
Jesus’ narrative of unconditional acceptance goes against the grain of the
performance-based-acceptance narrative that is so deeply embedded in our lives.
People may wonder how could God possibly love sinners, and that he might be
able to love them if they promise to improve. But this is not what Jesus
taught. In Jesus’ actions and words, he proclaimed that God loves sinners as
they are, and not as they should be[3].
The story of the prodigal son also
illustrates this (Luke 15:11-32). God, it appears, is very fond of sinners. Not
their sin. The parable is not so much about a sinner getting saved as it is
about a God who loves even those who sin against him[4].
Interestingly, the prodigal son’s elder brother's problem represents the upright and
pious who could not accept the radical message of God’s unconditional love[5].
This is similar to the parable of the workers in the vineyard who worked different
amounts for the same wage. Jesus is striking at the heart of the problem we
have with grace: we don’t like it. It seems unfair, but in reality it is
perfectly fair. God is gracious to all. It smacks against our performance-based-acceptance
narrative. Our self-righteousness separates us from God: it does not turn God
from us, but us from God. It is not my sin that moves me away from God, it is
my refusal of grace, both for myself and for others. Jesus is essentially
saying to the Pharisees, “when you see the tax collectors, the prostitutes and
other known sinners coming to me, you should rejoice: they were dead and now
are alive. Instead, you grumble.”[6]
Reflections:
The author writes, “Our self-righteousness
does not turn God from us, but us from God. It is not my sin that moves me away
from God, it is my refusal of grace, both for myself and for others”[7].
This is a very interesting statement. When
new believers make a prayer to accept Jesus as saviour, it involves the confession
of sins, as sin separates us from God. Yet the author says “it is not my sin
that moves me away from God”.
I think it is a “which comes first, chicken
or the egg?” type of scenario. I believe that if a person is close to God, they
are less likely to want to sin. After all, our behaviour reflects the status of
our hearts. So I believe a person who continually sins is someone who’s quite
distant from God.
However, a person who does not commit an
act of sin is not necessarily free of sin, as one can still be full of sinful
thoughts. Sometimes a person may be so proud of their good behaviour that their
pride blinds them from seeing their own sins. Take my own example: I was a well
behaved teen, and my parents tend to label “that kid is a bad kid that kid is a
good kid” etc., so I tended to see the world as black and white. I thought of
myself as “good” and jeer at those who I thought was “bad”. I got into medical
school and thought I deserved what I got for my hard work.
As I mature, I started to realise that none
of these were to my own credit. After all, everyone is born with a different
set of cards: Some received a very good set, being born in a rich family,
talented, good looking and intelligent. Some received a very bad set, in
poverty and handicapped. And even if say I was lucky and had an extremely good
set of cards when I was born, it is nothing to get too arrogant about because
it is not even to my own merit, since no one can choose what set of cards they
are born with. I know this in my mind conceptually but sometimes my heart still
finds it hard to accept when grace[8]
falls upon people who behaved wickedly or lived their life in sloth. Nevertheless,
this narrative helps increase my tolerance of God’s unconditional love and
graciousness for all, and I pray that God continue to expand my heart’s tolerance
capacity.
Bibliography:
Smith, James Bryan. The Good and Beautiful God. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2010.
[1] James Bryan Smith, The Good
and Beautiful God, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2010): 94.
[2] Smith, The Good and Beautiful
God, 97.
[3] Smith, The Good and Beautiful
God, 98.
[4] Smith, The Good and Beautiful
God, 99.
[5] Smith, The Good and Beautiful
God, 101.
[6] Smith, The Good and Beautiful
God, 102.
[7] James Bryan Smith, The Good
and Beautiful God, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2010): 77.
[8] Smith, The Good and Beautiful
God, 102.
Coincidentally my assignment for another Morling College subject NT501 is on the Pharisees.
Below is a video with more information on Pharisaism and Jesus' ministry:
https://youtu.be/u8vakyahAUk
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