Have you ever noticed how really good people think they are better than God? They might be good because they are moralists or because they are religious. But it doesn’t matter – either way – really good people, whatever the motive, think they are better than God.
I was listening to a friend go on and on about how God, if he exists, has done this or that and it’s all wrong. I’m sure they thought they were just being reasonable, but they weren’t. I realised, as I listened, they were putting themselves over and above God. They thought they were better than God.
When you or I, criticise someone’s actions or speech, deciding what they’ve done or said is wrong, isn’t this just what we are doing? Regarding the issue in question, we must think we know better than them. We know what is right and wrong.*
The less famous older brother in the parable of the prodigal son does just this. In case you don’t know the story (Luke 15), the younger brother has walked away from his Father, his family and squandered half the family’s wealth. He represents the prostitutes, tax collectors, criminals, drug users and others whose lives reek with failure. The father, in the story, who looks for, waits for and then, welcomes back his younger son represents God.
Jesus is sharing the startling fact of the gospel in a nutshell. The Father, God, welcomes back the prostitutes, tax collectors, criminals and other sinners just like you and me. And, it is no grudging welcome. In the story, the father throws a party for his youngest son. The lost and dead son has been found and is now alive. Jesus, says the same thing unfolds in heaven. The angels party hard when anyone turns to God. All who seek mercy from the Father receive it.
But in the story, the older brother judges his father for this welcome. ‘When this Son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ (Luke 15:30). The good, upright, faithful older brother is really angry. The welcome is wrong, and the party is monstrous. In his eyes, what the father does is worse than the failure of the younger brother. How dare the father welcome back the son.
Jesus tells this story because he, God in the flesh, was currently being judged by good people. They were upset that he cared for whores, tax collectors, criminals and other sinners. Actually, they were more than upset. They thought Jesus was in the wrong.
This is what many (or all?) moralists and good people do. My friend, had decided that God was in the wrong because he, God, wasn’t fixing things now. He wasn’t smiting the evil people and fixing all the world’s problems. For that is what fixing many of the world’s problems would require - don’t you agree? Dealing drastically with the people who do wrong. And so my good friend thought he knew better than God. And even, that he was better than God.
Now, this really turns things upside down. For it means these good people think they know better than God who offers the forgiveness in Jesus and holds back his judgment so the wicked can come to him.
How good is the good person who doesn’t want others to find forgiveness? How good is the person who wants others to receive judgement? And, how good is the person who thinks they don’t need forgiveness and that they know better than the God who offers it?
*This isn’t saying we can’t ask questions about what God is doing or why (See Psalm 73 or Job’s questions in Job) or that doubts suddenly rule you out of the Christian faith. Nor am I saying that challenging questions or even criticism of church leaders is wrong. Both of these are important and, believe it or not, part of Christianity. Rather, the issue here is the self-assured attitude that condemns God without even the possibility of considering that God might, maybe, just know what he is doing.