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Turning the Tables on Pass/Fail Religion
What if Christianity is not about deserving people being rewarded but undeserving people receiving mercy?
Pass/Fail Religion
In pass/fail religion, the world is divided between those who are passing and those who are failing. In other words, good people pass and bad people fail. In this system, good people deserve to be rewarded with a good life while bad people deserve to receive coal and ashes.
This is how the New Testament Jewish sect called Pharisees viewed the world, diving people into two groups. Those who were passing and those who were failing. The good and the bad. Those deserving of blessing and the rest, who were deserving of judgment.
In their estimation of what it took to pass, Pharisees were sure that they had easily cleared the threshold.
In their eyes, they were “the good” people.
In Luke 7:36–50, one of these Pharisees, a man named Simon, invites Jesus over for dinner.
It is during this dinner that Jesus blows up Simon’s understanding of religion, showing us that the Christian message is not about good, deserving, righteous people (those who “pass’) being rewarded but is about bad, undeserving, unrighteous people (those who…
