Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God

by Brennan Manning

The Pharisee of the temple (Luke 18:9–14) on the other hand, is estranged from the spirit of gratefulness. He is indignant that Jesus would care about sinners, incensed that he would befriend the rabble. The prime fault of this Pharisee, a self-righteous man who condemns sinners as unrighteous, is his belief in his faultlessness. Conscious of his religiosity, he expresses thanks only for what he has and is; he is blinded to what he has not and is not. What Jesus says, in effect, to this enemy of the gospel of grace is this: These people you despise are real sinners not because they missed their morning meditation but because their professions have debased them, lust and greed have ensnared them. However, they have sincerely repented and now have what you lack—a deep gratitude to God for his mercy and goodness. Underlying every cry of the grateful sinner is an unshaken trust in the person and promise of Jesus. Jesus’ parables of the sheer gratuity of grace rustle like refreshing rain on the parched ground of pharisaical piety, sweep like a wild storm into the glum corners of sentimental hallelujah religion, and vibrate like sharp lightning in the sulfurous atmosphere of legalists hell-bent on nonhistorical orthodoxy.