While I was waiting to catch a plane, a businessman ran up to the airline attendant, demanding immediate entry on the plane. The attendant asked him to go to the end of the line and wait his turn. The man shouted, "Do you know who I am!?" He said he was a senior executive who flew often, and he could have her fired. She said, "Well, I guess I'll wait for that call, but you'll still have to go to the end of the line."

Similarly, one day, Jesus was talking with "some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else." So he told a story about a Pharisee who approached the temple with a superior attitude. He was thankful he wasn't "like other people." His virtues were impeccable. He tithed faithfully. He knew he measured up to the standards of a good religious man.

Then Jesus described the tax collector. He knew he could never measure up to God's perfection. He cried from a distance, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." He had no sense of entitlement. He made no excuses to justify himself.

Can you feel the painful silence in the room as Jesus exalted a repentant tax collector over a Pharisee? Jesus exalted the man who knew his place in the game of grace. How about you?