Trapped By Grace
Grace, We Need To Give It Or Receive It For Life
by Eric Elkin
“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people…”
Whenever I reference my college years, I feel a need to add this disclaimer, I was not on the pastor track when I attended Concordia College. You are free to interpret that any way you want. Needless to say, I was not the kind of student parents bragged about. At best, they could say, “Well, he hasn’t been kicked out…yet.”
In my junior year, though, I decided to focus on school and get good grades. It was a boring year. One of my classes that year was called Small Group Communication. On the first day, the professor divided us into teams of five students. Each group was to write one paper co-authored by all five team members. Then present the paper to the class in a way that incorporated all the team members. Each team would grade each other at the end of the project.
Committed to learning, I poured myself into this project. Two members of my team shared the workload with me. Two members did nothing. As a matter of fact, they bragged about how little they were doing to help. Every attempt to include them in even the smallest tasks was rejected. They knew as long as the project got done, and it would get done, they would get a passing grade.
The last piece of the project was an in-class discussion among the group members. We were tasked with talking about the project and deciding what we would give each other as a grade. Idiot me, I told the truth. I would give everyone an A, but I was frustrated by the lack of effort by the two team members. Regardless of my frustration, though, I would still give everyone an A.
When we submitted our grades, the two people who worked hard gave everyone a B. They considered that a fair assessment of the work done. The two people I criticized gave everyone an A, except me. I received an F from both of them. As a result, the two laziest people on the project got A’s; two got B’s, and I got a D.
“God’s Kingdom is a place of abundance where every generous act overflows its original bounds and becomes part of the unbounded grace of God at work in the world.”
That project was the only graded material for the entire class. I was irate and went to speak to the professor. He told me it was a group communication class, and I just learned an essential lesson about group communication. He would not change the grade.
As unjust as that grade might have been, a year earlier, I would have been the lazy student. Back then, Peggy and I had a couple of English classes together. On days I did not feel like going to class, which usually meant I was out having fun with friends, I copied her notes so I wouldn’t fall behind.
When I complained to her about my grade and the great injustice of doing all the labor only to have a lazy person glean a good grade off of all my hard work…well, let’s just say, I chose the wrong audience to air my grievance.
I share this story to lift up the main lesson of the famous parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. We love to receive grace, but we’re not so fond of giving it. This is the trap of grace. If grace is not given to the undeserving, it cannot be given to the deserving, because grace deserved is no grace at all.
No matter how you look at this story, you are trapped by grace. And that is not a bad place to be. Jesus corners us in such a place that the only way out is grace. We either need to give it or receive it for life.
Being trapped by grace is what Ash Wednesday is all about. We mark our foreheads with a cross to be reminded God’s divine grace cannot be limited. It cannot be defeated by death. It cannot be earned or taken away.
The ashen cross on our heads reminds us, we will never be as good as we think we should be, nor as bad as we sometimes feel. Yet, we are God’s. We are loved, and grace helps free us to believe it. Being trapped by grace is exactly where we should be.
Click to read Luke 18: 9-14
Reflection Questions:
When have you received the benefit of someone else’s work?
When have you been punished when you thought you deserved grace?
What is the grace both characters in the parable need for life?
Can grace and fairness co-exist?
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