Luke 18: 9-14
9] He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:
[10] ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”
[13] But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” [14] I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’
Jesus loved to tell parables with striking contrasts, and he loved to tell them to a particular audience. He didn’t mind, though, if people other than his intended audience overheard what he was saying. He tells this parable for the benefit of a particular group of people - “those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and regarded others with contempt.” Let’s just start with his intended audience. Who is Jesus talking to?
The description given is two part - it has to do with their view of themselves, and their subsequent attitude toward others. In this Gospel story, these two things are connected - my high view of my own religious virtues, and my contempt for the failings of others. Somehow the greater my opinion of my own greatness before God, the lower opinion I’m going to have of you.
Luke explains right away that this is a story about contrasts, told to people who see the world neatly divided into two camps – good people like myself, and rather bad people like all those other folk. And so Jesus gives us a study in contrast in this parable. It is a simple story of two men. He says they both went up to the temple to pray. So far so good. Going up to the temple is a good thing, and going up in order to pray is an even better thing. You know, My house shall be a house of prayer and all that stuff. So far the two men are on equal footing. But then the differences begin.
One contrast at the outset, before we even look at who the men are, and what they have to say, is the length of their prayers. Now it might just be coincidence, and that’s it, but it seems to me that one prayer is rather long-winded and wordy; the other prayer is only 7 words long, and it uses even fewer words in the greek. Now I’m sure there is a place for long prayers, after all Jesus says elsewhere that the Pharisees like to recite long prayers in the marketplace. And just because a prayer is long doesn’t make it long-winded. But only one of the two prayers gets right to the point. I’m just sayin it’s there.
Then Jesus gives us the cast of characters. We have seen enough type cast movies to know that as soon as they are introduced, the bad guy and the good guy are easily identified. “One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector” From our vantage point we think we can see where this is going. We think to ourselves, Jesus is going to give us an example of something to avoid, and an example of something to imitate.
Enter the Pharisee with sinister background music.
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”
We suspect we are supposed to avoid the behaviour of the Pharisee, but what exactly is wrong with his prayer?
First, we note that he is “standing by himself” - he comes to the temple and has no desire to be part of the fellowship of the people of God. His time at the temple, his prayer, his religion, is a matter for himself alone. He neither needs nor is interested in needing, the rest of the community of believers. You can come to the temple, and still be “by yourself”, simply because you don’t want to go through the trouble of actually loving your neighbour as yourself. That is what the Pharisee is doing. He’s right there in the temple, and yet he chooses to “stand by himself.”
Then we have his prayer. He begins well enough: his first word is “God.” But although God is the addressee of his prayer, God is not the center of his prayer. God is mentioned once, and the Pharisee uses the word “I”, 4 times. The prayer of the Pharisee is more concerned with what “I have done”, than what “God has done”. “I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all my income.”
The prayer of the Pharisee highlights what his good character is, rather than what God’s good character is.
The Pharisee’s spiritual focus is all on himself, and because of this he thinks that he himself is the standard and measure of what righteousness is. He trusts in himself that he has accomplished all that is necessary to be right with God, and if God is not convinced by the fact that the Pharisee has made a few religious observances and tithed a few cheques into the temple collection plate, then God should just look around at some the awful people who come to church. God, you should be grateful to have someone like me in your congregation to raise the moral average up a few notches! By having me in the temple, thinks the Pharisee, I’ve raised the standard a bit on my end of the bell curve.
It is not a big stretch to see that the Pharisee “trusts in himself” that he is righteous, and from that beginning we can guess who the Pharisee’s real object of worship is going to be.
Enter the tax collector.
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'”
Just like he did with the Pharisee, Jesus tells us a little bit about where the tax collector is standing. He is not described as “standing by himself”, but rather, he is “standing far off”.
What is the difference?
Like the Pharisee, he starts off well – his first word is God. But that is where the similarity ends. The tax collector is a picture of humility before God. The tax collector knows that he is a sinner - he is at least this honest with God. He also knows that his hope lies not in his own actions, but in God’s actions: “God, be merciful”. The Pharisee drew attention to his own character - the tax collector draws attention to God’s character – be merciful. He highlights the character of God. And as such, the prayer of the tax collector tells us more about God than the prayer of the Pharisee.
It is a worthwhile question to ask sometimes: if someone is listening to my prayers, or to the prayers of the church, do they learn more about God, or more about me? Who is at the center of our prayer?
What we have are two competing standards of righteousness.
The tax collector knows that the standard of goodness and righteousness and love is not "how well I do compared to my neighbours", but how well I do compared to God. And we know that we all fall short of the ideal. We do not love God with all our hearts, and we do not love all of our neighbours as ourselves. If I think that I have “made it” spiritually, I am guilty of pride. If I know I still have a ways to go, then God can help me get there.
The Pharisee is content, even pleased, with his spiritual status - he thinks he has spiritually arrived. The tax collector is not satisfied - he wants to be a different person, and he knows that only God can help him become what he is meant to be as a human being.
Then come the uncomfortable words:
I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
I was rather hoping that Jesus would provide a third option. You see, sometimes we can look at both of them and say “thank you Lord that I am neither like the Pharisee nor like the tax-collector”. I am aware of all the faults of the Pharisee. We know all about churchy self righteousness and how often Jesus condemns that sort of thing in the Gospel. Nothing to see here.
But really, am I supposed to be like this tax collector? Surely I am not really supposed to be like this fellow. I would much rather put myself somewhere in between on the “holiness scale” - I are not self righteous like the Pharisee, but surely I am not nearly as bad as the tax collector, with all of his unhealthy self-image and defeatist attitudes - the stuff that therapies are made of and self help publishing. Send this man to Dr Phil!!
So I get caught in the very subtle net which Jesus has laid out. Your see, we naturally abhor the Pharisee, because somehow we know that we are not supposed to be like him. But in our haste to avoid and condemn the Pharisee, we overlook the second half of Jesus’ point: We are supposed to emulate, imitate, the tax collector, and if we say no to this option, we are no different from the Pharisee - we look at the tax collector and we thank God that we don’t need to be like him.
If we simply condemn the Pharisee, then we are no different. - It is just a bit of a cycle. The Pharisee judges the tax collector, and we judge the Pharisee, and we, like the Pharisee, thank God that we don’t have to be like the tax collector - we don’t need to beat our breasts in dramatic fashion, we don’t need to implore God’s mercy - we are not like the Pharisee, but neither do we really want to be like the tax collector. Do we really implore God’s mercy in our prayers?
The truth is that Jesus is holding up the tax collector as the true model. What does the tax collector do? Jesus says: “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
What is it to have the humility of the tax collector? It is an attitude of dependence upon God for all we are and all we have. It is a recognition that our lives are a gift - that we are not self-made, and that if we are to become the kind of people Jesus calls us to be, we will not do it by our own efforts, we will do it by acknowledging who God is, and calling upon God for help in becoming what we are meant to be.
well, that's where I'm starting for now
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