The parable of the pharisee and the tax collector is a challenging one. As soon as we begin to side with the actions of either character—believing that one is more right or more wrong, that one is more justified or less deserving of God’s mercy than the other—then the story has us right where Jesus wants us to be: realizing that we all actually contain a bit of each character. It’s a story that reveals how it’s possible for two different things to both be true and at work at the same time within us, and to recognize and engage in this paradox within ourselves.
Learn more about Blue Ocean Faith, including service time and location, at a2blue.org.
