We're Fixers Because We're Pharisees

In the church, we love to "fix" things. A problem comes up, we immediately try to fix it. Someone expresses a spiritual doubt, we immediately try to fix it. A couple gets into a spat, we try to fix it ... and especially right away. A child does something disrespectful, and we try to fix it, no matter whose kid he or she is. Our elders often talk about their own tendency to want to, and in some cases attempt to, fix almost every situation that comes our way.

Part of this tendency is well-motivated. We have a vision for how things ought to be, we see things that aren't as they ought to be, we don't want to be callous and ignore the problem as if we didn't care, and so we get right on the task of fixing. On rare occasions, we have what it takes to "fix" something, but in many cases, we don't really. We can't really fix a child's misbehavior. We can regulate it. We can induce guilt or shame because of it. But most of the time we can't get to the core issue that manifested itself in a behavior we deemed inappropriate. But we want to fix it! We're fixers!

I was talking this over with our Lifestyle Discipleship Coach, Jimmy. As we talked this out, another strain of conversation we'd been having collided with this one. We are Pharisees. We are Pharisees because we judge others on our righteousness scale. We often ignore the idea that we're Pharisees because we don't hold to same outrageous rules the Pharisees in the Bible had. We don't have rules like that, so we must not be like them. But we are.

We constantly judge people. I'm not just talking about discernment, where we rightly and soberly assess sin as sin. I'm talking about judging. We see what people do, and we go far beyond discernment right into internally declaring them unrighteous. What they did was wrong and that determines how I should respond to them. I will criticize them, think less of them, and mentally categorize them as people "who need help." Often, my help. They need fixin'! And so, I try to fix them.

That's what Pharisees did. They tried to fix people with their rules. We try to fix them with rules, correction, "advice," arguments, and meddling. Their behavior is distasteful to us, and in order to get distasteful things away from us, we fix. We become very self-centered in fixing others - trying to manipulate their lives so that we don't have to endure something we don't like. We are far more like Pharisees than we care to admit. And we're fixers because we're Pharisees.

The alternative is not that we should pull away and be uninvolved. Rather, we should commit to not fix them, but be with them in the mess and draw them to the only One who can fix anything about any one of us. The behavior is only a manifestation of something far deeper, and although man can help with many issues, ultimately only God can fulfill the deepest needs of the human soul. We can offer counsel and share what we've learned from experience. We can educate and encourage. We can do things that actually do help. But we can't "fix," and to try to fix is to point them away from the only One who can.

Now, when I read what Jesus said about removing the plank from our own eye before removing the speck from our brother's eye, I realize how brilliant Jesus is. Removing that speck is fixing, and you have plenty of fixing you need done before you ever think about fixing someone else.

There. I hope I fixed this situation.

And I would be guilty of my own rant if I stopped here.

Our tendency to fix, our Pharisaism, is itself something I can't fix in you or you fix in me. The Pharisee's rules and our tendency to fix are both rooted in unbelief that God actually does transform those who come to Him. Because we don't trust Him to do so, we make rules or try to fix. Our first step is to trust that He will. If anything needs fixin', it's our tendency to disbelieve that God transforms people in Christ.