Job CLXXX

 There will always be a difference in attitude between those who stand before God in their own righteousness and those who stand before Him in His righteousness. Between those who acknowledge their frailty and say, as Isaiah did, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” when standing in the presence of God, and those who feel as though they are on equal footing with Him.

Those who stand before God in their own righteousness boast of their works, their accomplishments, their rigid, ritualistic, performative genuflections, as though these things ought to impress God to no end. Although they may not come out and say it, they feel entitled to more in this life because of what they deem as impeccable service, not realizing that their righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God.

Those who’ve come to believe the sun rises and sets with them, that they are indispensable to the Kingdom and the work thereof, also share the commonality of thinking themselves spiritually superior to everyone else, looking down on those who acknowledge their frailty, their need for forgiveness, and their dependence on the grace of God. Like the Pharisee in Christ’s parable, they believe they saved themselves from themselves by themselves, and well, that just makes them better than everyone else, doesn’t it?

If you or I could do it on our own, there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. If there were no need for Jesus to die, then God allowing it to proceed even when, weeping tears of blood, Jesus asked that the cup pass from Him, would have been needlessly cruel and unnecessary. It’s because there was no other way for man to be reconciled to the Father that the Son had to endure being scourged, mocked and ridiculed, nailed to a cross, pierced in His side with a spear, and die between two thieves.

It’s difficult to contextualize what Jesus endured, given that we’ll whine about a hangnail nowadays, but a modicum of research into the practices of that time is enough to humble us into the dust and bring on tears of gratitude for the love He exhibited for mankind. Yes, Jesus died for you and me, but there was much He had to endure until that fateful moment arrived when the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the Son of God expired.

Jesus suffered. He suffered to such extremes that, try as we might, we cannot fathom. Do you know what it was to be scourged during Roman times? It wasn’t just getting lashed with a leather whip or a sturdy stick. The lashes were administered with a flagellum, which was a whip embedded with shards of bone, metal, or glass, its only purpose being to rip flesh from bone.

I had a handful of intimate encounters with the switch growing up, and although it smarted, and there were often welts, it wasn’t the end of the world. Whenever my brothers and I misbehaved, my grandmother would make us go into the orchard, pick the tool of our demise, and bring it back to her so she could administer the discipline.

The secret was getting the right kind of switch. If it was too dry and brittle, it would break on impact, and she’d just have us get another one. If it was too green, it stung far worse than it should, so the secret was getting a stick that wasn’t long enough to get a nice swing, and just the right level of dry where it wouldn’t break, but wouldn’t sting as much either. It’s incredible the things you figure out as a child when you know you’re about to get a whipping. Jesus didn’t get to pick the tool that would be used for His lashes. It was standard. It was a flagellum, and by the time the Roman soldiers were done, He was likely unrecognizable.

Even with all that Job endured, his suffering is eclipsed by what Jesus suffered, not because He was guilty of anything, but because he willingly paid the debt we owed. The just suffered for the unjust that He might bring us to God, yet men keep telling themselves that they can attain what Jesus died for mankind to accomplish by their own self-righteous hubris.     

Luke 18:9-14, “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 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!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

I guess that’s the part of the Bible we don’t concern ourselves with. We’ll just add it to the rest of the mounting pile of Scripture passages we ignore because they’re uncomfortable and challenge our preconceptions. Just because we ignore them, it doesn’t mean they cease to exist.

The sad reality is that the Pharisee paled in comparison to the antics of some within Christendom nowadays. They no longer itemize their accomplishments to God in prayer alone; they post them on social media for likes, inflating any small act of kindness to the point that one would think they solved world hunger.

If they water fasted for half a day, by the time they talk about it, it’s a three-day dry fast. If they prayed over their meal four days out of seven the past week, they’re suddenly prayer warriors.

God sees not only the prayer, the fast, the charity, or the kindness, but also the intent with which these things were performed. If the intent was to seem more magnanimous than others rather than to feed the hungry, God knows. If the purpose was to elevate one’s spiritual status in the eyes of others rather than the sincere desire to spend time with God, He knows. God knew Job. Not only his faithfulness, commitment, and integrity, but also the intent of his heart while doing these things.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.