In Luke 18 v 9-14 we read one of the forty parables that Jesus told the crowds that gathered around him. Jesus was a wonderful story teller. He mesmerized his audience with culturally relevant, simple stories that always ended with a call to decision. Those who genuinely seek Him, just as his original audience, ponder over these parables and discover the truths of the kingdom of God. Others respond in a manner best described by Jesus – “Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
This particular parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, has become one of my favorite parables (I seem to have different ones in different seasons of life). Let’s read it together and then I’ll share my thoughts and would love to read yours (please comment).
Luke 18 v 9-14:
“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Let’s take a look at the 3 distinct characters in this story.
The Pharisee: What an onboxious fella this one is! Sheesh. Did you read that prayer? How self-centered and egotistic can a person be! We can quickly dismiss any semblance we may have to this guy… puhleez, we know how to do public prayer the right way.
The Tax Collector: This guy is the broken but lovable character in the story. He is humble in all the right places and gives God the glory and honor due to Him.
God: the just judge.
I love that Luke tells us exactly who Jesus intended this parable for : People who trusted in themselves, trusted in their own righteousness and, treated others, who probably didn’t measure up to their standard of law-keeping. Obviously the parable was directed at the the Pharisees in the crowd. But who is the Pharisee of today? Who does this parable address for the present day Bible reader? The prayer of the Pharisee seems shamelessly self-righteous. However, it was most probably genuine. The Pharisees were a sect of religious Jews who made following the Levitical law their sole purpose in life. They were set apart from other jews in that they created for themselves more stringent conditions to the law in an effort to please God and have right standing with him. We have to remember, there was no Messiah yet. They were doing everything they knew how to do right by God and they took great pride in this. This is the language we are reading in his prayer. He is thanking God that he has chosen the straight and narrow path unlike the pathetic tax collector, who has not. Self-centered, but truthful.
The tax collector’s prayer on the other hand was self-denying and filled with the awarness that his sole hope was in the mercy and grace of God. He was also being truthful. He had chosen the path of sinfulness by taking up the Roman post of Tax Collector, oppressing the Jews and benefiting from the riches he gained from it.
We like clear distinctions and so we tend to put the Pharisee in the bad guy bucket and sympathize with the tax collector alotting him the ‘good guy’ title. BUt the truth is both of these people were bad guys. They were both sinning against their God. The tax collector’s public sin made it easier for him and all the world to see his need for a Savior. The Pharisee, also a sinner, but not an abvious one. His sin was a heart issue – a reliance on his ability to follow what He thought pleased God. Ironically, this very dependence on self was the sin that set him against God.
So, I bring the question back again – Who is today’s Pharisee that this parable is intended for? I hesitate to say it but we know its true. It’s us. Christians who are probably not struggling with blatant sin and who seem to think we are a little more conformed to the image of Christ than others.
The longer we are Christians, we can lose that sense of our dire need for a Savior and start focusing on bettering our lives through actions, deeds, behavioral change etc. before we know it, we are spending most of our time looking at ourselves, albeit with good intentions of conforming to the image of Christ, more than we are looking at Christ. We get bigger and bigger in our focus lens and God gets smaller. Christians can get to a place in life where we have control over obvious, public sin. Our community living and accountablitiy in churches and community groups enable us to do this. We learn to tame our sinful nature in our efforts to live right by our Lord who died for our sins. In this journey, we can easily be fooled to think we are closer to God in morality than unbelievers or even other Christians.The line of progressive morality is a man made concept. It is important to remeber that when it comes to salvation and justification here are only two chacracters – God and the sinner. We must be aware and very clear as to which one we are.
It will change our hearts.
It will change our prayers.
It will put us in right standing with God.
The word of God never fails us – It always lights our path to keep us from destruction. Pick up your Bible. It will change your life.
Thank you, Jesus, for your parables. You are the best story teller.
Pick Up Your Bible 