Pharisee and Tax Collector

Tonight was the first Wednesday night I got back to Friendspeak after being absent for several months. George said he had a reader for me. David and I had dinner at Taco Bueno before we went to Friendspeak. The lady that George had in mind to study with me didn't come. I ended up studying with another girl Ling.

We read the story of the pharisee and the tax collector. Within five minutes of reading, I sensed that Ling was very focused on her pronunciation. So I pointed out a few mis-pronounced words in order not to discourage her. But all the rest of her questions throughout the night were about the pronunciations, no any grammar or comprehension questions at all. That was quite different from the readers I used to have. So I turned my attention to her pronunciation. By the end of the first half hour, I began to ask her some comprehension questions: Do you know who pharisee was? Do you know what type of person a tax collector was? Why did Jesus put these two people together? Who did Jesus like better and why? ... I could tell these questions opened the door of her thoughts. Her facial impressions told me:" I never thought about this." She said, although the pharisee did good things out of ourward compliance and the tax collector orally asked forgiveness for the bad things he did, the reality was the pharisee did good things and the tax collector did the bad things. So the pharisee was still better than the tax collector.

That probably represented some people's thoughts. I had to explain why I thought differently. It was true that the pharisee did "good things" and the tax collector did bad things in the past, but Jesus' point was "from the time they finished prayers and went home", the tax collector got right with God while the pharisee didn't. The tax collector experienced the transformation during the prayer by confessing his wrong-doing and asking for forgiveness. His eyes was on God and his attitude was repentance. But the pharisee was trying to find good points by comparing himself to someone who was worse than him. His eyes was on the sinner and his attitude was pride. If we compare ourselves to people who are worse than us, sin will always has its way to enter our mind; if we compare ourselves to people who are better than us, we will always find room to improve. All I can be sure is that the pharisee was on the downhill road and the tax collector was on the uphill road since then.

After hearing this, Ling smiled," In Chinese, we have a saying: the person who runs 50 steps out of fear laughs at the one who runs 100 steps. Is there an equivelant phrase in English?" I couldn't think of any. It was time to finish the study. I asked David, Paul, and Mark. Finally Mark thought about a saying that was close enough:" The pot calls the kettle black!" Ling was very happy that she found her answer.

David talked to George about the possibility of picking up the UTD new students. We signed up for one student. More still need the pickup and temporary housing. Hope we'll be able to find more people to help. David had planned to get some medicine for Sue and send it to her. But it was already late. We headed home instead.