A Justified Tax Collector?

It is interesting that most people, if given a different kind of test, tend to rate themselves as "above average" in most cases.  That of course is not statistically possible, but never the less it is the reality many of us live in.

Which brings us back to the interesting story that Jesus told.  A story about those who feel superior to others in most ways, and those who have a more humble assessment of themselves.  What we sometimes forget when we read these stories, and this story, from a distance in time and culture, is that the "good guy" in the story would have been seen as "the good guy' and the tax collector as the "bad guy."  We have learned to turn the story around for them in those days . . . have learned to let Jesus turn the story around for us today?  Who are the "heroes" we root for today?  Who are the people we relegate to the status of modern day "tax collectors"?  Does the story begin to change for you?  In the time of Jesus, Jesus blew the doors off the assumptions - how many of us have found ways to securely lock and barricade those doors today?

This is what Pastor Jon explores with us this morning as we reflect on this ancient story that still speaks as powerfully as ever in our world today.  If you would like to listen to the sermon once again, or perhaps for he first time, you can access our sermon library here, or listen to the livestream version here.