Daily Reflections From Higher Things®

Today's Reading: Luke 18:9-14 Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 3:1-15; 2 Corinthians 1:1-22 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Best "gotcha!" parable ever! We see what a self-righteous guy this Pharisee is and we think, "I'm glad I'm not like him!" Gotcha! Jesus won't let anyone slide. Whoever we are, there's always someone we can look down on and who probably looks down on us. It's the tax collector who teaches us what it looks like to be at the bottom of the rung, with his good confession of faith: "Lord, there's nobody to look down on. I'm the very bottom of the barrel. I've got nothing. Have mercy on me!" Jesus does have mercy! That tax collector, who has nothing and is nothing, now has everything and is everything in Jesus. Jesus takes the low spot to give us the high spot. In doing so, He drags us down and saves us from our own high spots where, wi