The Purification Story: Us Verses Some of Us

February 2, 2025
Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 23:25-36

Series based on The Seventh Story, by Brian McLaren & Gareth Higgins

Jesus told this parable to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust: “Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else — crooks, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I receive.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to look toward heaven. Rather, he struck his chest and said, ‘God, show mercy to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this person went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”
Luke 18:9-14

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The Purification Story is rooted in a positive desire for holiness, a desire to separate ourselves from things or people we perceive as impure. In the first century, the Pharisees were the key proponents of this story. They believed that strict observance of the Law, including rituals of purification, was necessary to maintain God's favor. However, their emphasis on external purity often overshadowed the deeper work of the heart.

Jesus repeatedly confronted this legalism. In Matthew 23:23, He rebukes the Pharisees, saying, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices... but you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faithfulness." His approach challenged the notion that purity could only be achieved through rituals and rules, showing that compassion and justice are the true markers of holiness.

In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus points out that there is nothing distinct about the Pharisee, despite his genuinely high moral standing. His good deeds make him no more or less worthy to enter into God’s presence.

Today, the Purification Story often emerges in religious communities that emphasize outward purity over inner transformation. While the Pharisees so often get a bad rap, we who seek to remain most faithful to our religious teachings may be far more like them than anyone else… or at least aspire to be more like them. You see, their lives truly were morally upright and as Paul says, even blameless before the law. How many of us can say the same? And yet we too hold ourselves as models of moral excellence over and against entire groups of people we deem less worthy or call “sinners.”

Jesus invites us to a more inclusive and merciful path, where the heart is purified by love rather than rule-following. We do not get to decide who is in and who is out, who is justified and who is not, and who is included in the inexhaustible love of God. All of our religious purity tests are meaningless in the light of God’s grace.