Two Men

Jesus was known for His parables - short stories that conveyed a powerful spiritual meaning. And in many of Jesus's parables, there appear to be two main characters, or two types of person. 

Too often, we read these parables and try to figure out which of the characters we are. If we tend toward being one, we consider ourselves righteous; more toward the other, we consider ourselves more depraved. We generally walk away inspired to be one over the other, trying to change to become more like the one we more admire, the one who seems more right. 

This feeds naturally into the comparisons we are always making between ourselves and others, comparisons where most of us come to the conclusion that we are "better" than the average other person. If we're more like the righteous-sounding character, then we're winners (and we're almost always winners); if we're more like the less-righteous-sounding character, we have some work to do. 

But there's another way to read these parables of Jesus, and I think, at least in my own experience with myself, it's the better way. 

In the parables of Jesus, when there are two men or two types of men or two groups of men to choose from, the correct reading illuminates that...I am both of them. 

For example...

Jesus tells a parable about two men who go to the Temple to pray. One is a Pharisee, the other, a tax collector. They both notice that the other is there; they've seen each other out of the corner of their eye. The tax collector lifts his hands toward the heavens and thanks God that he's not like the tax collector; the tax collector bows to the ground and says what a deplorable man he is, desperately in need of God's mercy. 

And we walk away wanting to be like the tax collector. 

But the truth is...part of us already is. And part of us is the Pharisee. 

Inside me is both a man who is looking around, comparing myself to others, trying to be righteous by being better and one who is humbled before God, troubled by my own shortcomings, knowing my own fallenness and desperate need of mercy. 

As much as we want to idolize one of these men over the other, the truth is that they both have their less-desirable traits. The Pharisee is self-righteous and caught up on his own superiority and authority. The tax collector is a sell-out, working for the state and often corrupt in his dealings with men. 

They both have their more-desirable traits, too. The Pharisee knows the statutes of the Lord and the covenant that he lives in, and he recognizes things that are displeasing to God (like being a sell-out and corrupt in your dealings with men). The tax collector knows his own corruption in the light of the Lord, even if he's not as well-versed in every single tittle of the statute. 

It's not that one of these men is righteous and the other is not. It's that both of these men are me, they are parts of myself as I wrestle with what it means to be a person of God. With what it means to be faithful. 

And here's maybe the most important thing that we can recognize about both of these men, about both sides of ourselves...they're both in the Temple. They're both seeking to worship and to pray and to connect with God. 

And if I find that that is true about both of the men in me, well, then, I suppose I am on a good road, at least.

Even as I seek to pray more like the tax collector, I must realize that the Pharisee is standing next to me in the very same Temple. And...that's something. I think.