Luke 18:9-14 (NIV) To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is a well-known parable of Jesus. But the context and target audience of any parable must always be kept in mind, including this one. Too often neglecting those two key parts of this parable has led to a theology where people believe that we must constantly emulate the tax collector, claiming forever to be miserable sinners, utterly unworthy to even lift our eyes to heaven.
But the target of this parable is not the average person, but those who were so confident in their own self-righteousness that they have forgotten about the grace of God entirely. They pat themselves on the back for their success in achieving what they consider to be their own right-standing before God, and look down with scorn on those whom they see as less righteous than themselves. Such were many of the Pharisees.
In the parable, Jesus draws a strong contrast between the self-righteous Pharisee (not a parody, by the way; this really was how many of them thought!) who marched into God’s presence believing that they have earned the right to be there, and that God is glad that they showed up, and the lowly, lost tax collector. The Pharisee’s sneering prayer leaves no room for God’s grace, either in his own life, or in the lives of those he so freely denigrates. It is, instead, a hymn of praise to his own righteousness, his own fastidiousness in keeping all of the minutiae of the law.
The tax collector, though, had not come to gloat, but to repent and to seek God’s grace and forgiveness. In place of the Pharisee’s self-assurance, he has only self-awareness of his lost state. In place of the Pharisee’s list of accomplishments, he could only identify himself with the simple label of sinner. Instead of pride, he has only heart-wrenching grief.
The moral is not that we always need to come before God’s throne like the tax collector, in shame and disgrace (unless, of course, we come with a load of sin to confess). It is that no one should ever strut into God’s presence like the Pharisee, proud of our own self-accomplished righteousness. Once we have truly repented and become one of God’s people, the proper way to approach God is neither strutting nor groveling, but in a spirit of grateful thanksgiving for the grace that enables us to be forgiven, to be holy, and to draw near to God in the first place.
Father, thank You for this vital lesson. It really is easy to hold up the tax collector as a positive role model for all Christians instead of just turning away from the model of the Pharisee, Jesus’ stated purpose for this parable. Help me to always approach You appropriately, with gratefulness and thanksgiving for Your grace that saves me and that operates in my life, forgiving me, empowering me, and enabling me to serve You without fear in holiness and righteousness before You all my days (Luke 1:74b-75). Amen.