Establishment or Outcast

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The  Pharisee stood up and prayed about^[a] himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14 NIV)

One was establishment, one was outcast; one was welcomed in the temple, one was scorned; one thought he was living out righteousness, one was aware that he was in need of God's righteousness (Romans 3:10). It's real easy to be like one, and takes complete honesty to be like the other (and determining which one is easy and which one is hard doesn't make sense by worldly reasoning). Don't let your heart fool you, most of us line up with one of these guys or the other.

Which one are you?