“The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:14-15)
The weight of this is too often lost. What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. You have to understand, that by human standards the Pharisees looked pretty good. They managed to justify themselves before men. And not everything they did was bad in and of itself either. But they placed their trust in their works, they sought the justification of men, and not of God. This is where everything went off the rails. It is easy to justify yourself before men. Men are sinners like you. Most are too eager to justify themselves before you and are not above a little quid quo pro in that department. Of course men can be harsh judges too. Perhaps even more fickle that way than God. Man is the opposite of God who is wholly. Where God despises the death of the wicked, man can’t wait to see the mighty fall so they can rub their face in humble pie. The Pharisees were no different there. They tended to see their wealth as a gift from God for being so faithful. The Pharisees tended to be wealthy. In fact, the “righteous” life they lived almost required the wealth. You couldn’t afford to get your own hands dirty, you had to pay others less fortunate to do that for you, so you could maintain your high position and look down upon those whose exploitation your wealth and position necessitated. In many ways you see the same thing happening today in the Middle and Upper classes, where life wouldn’t be quite as nice if illegal immigrants weren’t exploited in a countless number of occupations.
In the eyes of man, the wealth justified. God found this justification in the eyes of men to be an abomination. In the end, it isn’t men who judge the quick and the dead, but the man who died and rose from the dead for your sins.
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