Higher Standards

I have recently been ordained to the Priesthood and this has led to more than one conversation about how things are different now that I am ordained.  A common question concerns whether or not I feel that I should be held to a higher standard now that I am a priest. 

As you might guess most people say I should be, but my answer is and will always be an emphatic "No, absolutely not." 

This is not because I want to leave room for promiscuous or delinquent behavior, it is simply a reality.  As a priest, I should not be held to a higher standard because I cannot be held to one; there is no higher standard. The very concept is an illusion.

The Law holds all people to the same standard, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)  There is only one standard for all, priest or not, and it cannot be any higher.

The problem is accurately expressed in the movie "Keeping the Faith" where Ed Norton (a Roman Catholic Priest) and Ben Stiller (a Rabbi) have this exchange:

Stiller: Jews want their rabbis to be the kind of Jews they don't have the time to be.

Norton:  Yeah, and Catholics want their priests to be the kind of Catholics they don't have the discipline to be.

...But we're not and we never will be.

The heart of the issue is not whether certain people should be held to higher standards because of their calling, but the degree to which we underestimate our own sin.  This is why we are quickly becoming a nation of atheists and agnostics.  We have such a low view of the Law and what is demanded of us that we think we are doing good enough to pass. We trick ourselves into thinking we are "doing alright" and that we are "good people." We lower the bar for ourselves and raise the bar for everyone else so that we feel okay about ourselves.  We don't realize that no one passes save Jesus himself.  We don't realize we stand under judgment in desperate need of a savior, a substitute.  This is why we stop thinking Jesus matters. We become secular humanists attempting to make the world a better place, where everyone acts like us.

So, go ahead and try to hold me to a higher standard.  I promise it will still be too low compared to the standard my Lord has for me.  But God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ while we were still dead in our transgressions.  Amen.