~Chibimanager Art~

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JOKE-OGRAPHY:

In this Bible story, Jesus addresses a parable to "those who were convinced of their own righteousness." In the parable, a pharisee (a respected Jewish teacher) and a tax-collector (someone hated by most common folk) go to the temple to pray. The pharisee proudly declares himself very holy and thanks God for making him so much better than the tax-collector. Meanwhile, the tax-collector beats his chest, praying only for God's mercy. Jesus says the tax-collector goes home justified, but the pharisee does not. "He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

In this cartoon, a modern man reads this very parable. When the pharisee thanks God for making him better than the sinful tax-collector, the man reading the story smirks at the obvious pride and thanks God for making him better than the prideful pharisee. However, the man catches himself at the end, because by thinking he's better than the pharisee, he's committing the same sin the pharisee committed by thinking he was better than the tax-collector. Touché, once again, Christ!!!

Of course, the story isn't saying to abandon value judgments completely, because in order to do the right thing, we have to discern between different behaviors and actions and determine which are good, bad, better, and worse. The story is warning us against using comparisons as a vehicle for pride rather than actual growth, holiness, and love.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The astute will surely see that this is a "Tomics Ascension," where I've taken an ancient comic that was already "Resurrected" (redrawn once before) and redrawn it yet again. This cartoon was inspired by my father nearly a decade ago when this reading came up in Mass. He mentioned this was exactly his thought process while reading, and I thought it made the perfect cartoon. I don't think it's ever been the most popular Tomic, but it's a near one and a dear one to me, so I'll continue redoing it every once in a while to keep it spiffy and fresh.