The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Pride & Love
In a classic book entitled “Humility,” Andrew Murray once wrote….
Hidden pride lives in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, and self-exaltation which stops the soul from entering the kingdom, or possessing the things of the kingdom. – Andrew Murray, Humility
What happens is us when pride, void of love, takes root in us?
This past week, our oldest son graduated from High School. Whenever you have a son or daughter, a grandson or a granddaughter graduate from high school, college, whatever it is… It’s hard not to feel a sense of pride.
And I would suggest that’s good. That’s good because it’s full of love. Pride full of love is a good thing. Whenever we take pride in a good day’s work because we worked hard and we loved doing whatever it was we did, that’s good. Whenever we take pride in people because we love them and we’re proud of them, we’re proud for them, that’s good.
But whenever love is lacking, pride can take an ugly turn.
We live in a world that in so many ways is full of pride but lacking in love.
Whenever we are filled with pride but we lack love, we become self-seeking.
We don’t look out for the interests of others. We only care about ourselves. We want our way. We want what we want and we don’t necessarily care who we hurt to get it.
And… Whenever we are filled with pride but we lack love, we become self-exalting.
We want attention. We want fame. We want people to notice us, cater to us, and put our needs ahead of their own. We want to be served.
We live in a world that in so many ways is full of pride and lacking in love.
Jesus had something to say about that.
Two Men Went to Pray
This story, found in Luke’s gospel, is a perfect example.
Jesus sees something in the hearts of his followers that he wants to address and so he says, let me tell you story.
Imagine this…
Luke 18:9-14
“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector.
Sometimes we read this story and we make the assumption that Jesus is talking to a group of prideful Pharisees. And, make no mistake about it, Jesus could be pretty hard on the Pharisees, especially in the Gospel of Luke.
The Pharisees accused Jesus of blasphemy, they criticized him for eating with sinners and tax collectors, they judged him harshly for breaking the Sabbath, and they complained about the kinds of people he would hang out with and eat with.
And Jesus has not held back in criticizing them for their hypocrisy, legalism, and spiritual blindness. He has exposed their greed and called them lovers of money. So there’s a lot going on between Jesus and the Pharisees just in Luke’s Gospel alone.
And there may have been a Pharisee or two who were there when Jesus told this story, but as far as we know, according to Luke, Jesus is with His disciples (17.22; 18.1). And if we back up one verse we find out that he’s telling this story to those who are with him “who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.” (Luke 18.9).
So Jesus is telling this story to disciples who sometimes struggle with over-confidence, self-righteousness, and who sometimes look down on other people for whatever reason.
This is not a Pharisee problem. This is a human problem.
The Very Human Problem of Comparison & Judgement
Maybe you’ve done this before. I know I have. We sometimes look down on someone else because of how they’re dressed, because of how they sing, because of how they talk, because of how they _, fill in the blank. This is what we do. We’re really good at comparing ourselves to others and making ourselves feel better about ourselves by looking down on others.
This seems to be the problem the Pharisee was facing in the story. Jesus says,
11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
Let’s pause the story again and just say this… From one perspective, this Pharisee is a good man.
He is not a cheater or an adulterer. He’s not a tax collector. In other words, he thinks he has done everything within his power to keep the Torah, to follow the commandments of God. On top of that, he fasts twice a week and gives 1/10th of his income back to God. How many of us can say we do that?
If you want to be like someone in the story, this Pharisee may be a good choice. He is striving to honor God and, as a religious teacher, lead other people into a growing relationship with Him!
When he prays, he prays to God. He expresses gratitude to God! He thanks God for his state in life and in so doing declares his dependance on God. If there were any Pharisees who were listening when Jesus told this story they were probably smiling thinking to themselves, “This Pharisee is about as good as you can be!”
BUT… THERE WAS ONE THING HE LACKED.
You can’t help but hear the overtones of overconfidence and scorn for others, which is why Jesus is telling the story in the first place.
He prays: I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector!
When your prayer is filled with pride you may want to pause.
Pride is so tempting.
Comparison is so tempting.
It’s ok to take pride in what you do.
To be proud of people you love.
Pride in that way is not evil.
Pride turns into sin when it is void of love.
The one who seemingly had it all together in life didn’t have it all together in prayer.
I Sure Am Glad I’m Not Like Them!
Now, if you’re anything like me when you hear this story you probably think at this point, “Man, I sure am glad I’m not like that Pharisee!”
Which is one of the things that makes this story so brilliant! Because… “Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.”
As soon as we say, “Thank God I’m not like them!” we’re trapped by the story because Jesus told this story to people just like us who often judge ourselves better than others by means of comparison!
Now, because some of you grew up in church and because the rest of you just heard me read this story, you already know who you want to be like in the story. You want to be like the tax collector. You want to be like the one who, at the end of the story, goes home right with God!
BUT… that’s not at all what those people who were hearing Jesus tell this story for the first time would have thought. They would have wanted to be like the Pharisee!
Why? Because… A Pharisee was respected. Religious. Typically wealthy. Right with God. Generous. Devout. He was a pillar of the community.
Tax Collectors? Despised tax collectors? They were despised for a reason. A tax collector is a traitor. A thief. He makes himself rich off of the poor, off of his own people, turning a blind eye to their suffering for his own profit! He was a friend to Roman oppressors.
Who is the worst person you can think of? Who would you thank God that you are not like them? Who is it that you despise?
THAT’S the person Jesus is inserting into this story. That’s the tax collector in the story.
Unimaginable Mercy
So Jesus says…
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’
Now, no one listening to this story Jesus was telling that day would have ever imagined a tax collector being so repentant. And they would never have imagined God being merciful to a person who did NOT show mercy to others, especially to his own people.
That’s what THIS tax collector thought about himself. He thought he couldn’t be right with God because of all that he had done!
On the other hand, this Pharisee thought he was right with God because of all he had done. So what is Jesus trying to teach us?
Jesus, when He tells this story, is on the way to Jerusalem where crucifixion and death and resurrection are waiting.
Here’s the truth about the Pharisee and the tax collector… Both men are sinners praying before a Holy God. Because of their sin, they are both dead and their only hope is someone who can raise them from the dead.
This is an important story for so many reasons but perhaps most importantly because of this,
Jesus wants us to see ourselves rightly, to see others rightly, and to see God rightly. And that happens when we humble ourselves.
I wonder if Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that day something we still have a hard time coming to grips with, that the ground really is level at the foot of the cross. And that we can only see this when we humble ourselves before God.
Humble Before God
What happens when you look on yourself and others with the same mercy and grace that God does?
What happens when we see people the same way God sees people? When we love people the same way God loves people? When this story starts to create that change within you, it could change everything about you.
When I was a teenager, I went to a concert with some friends. It was a small venue, a small concert, but we had a lot of fun. At one point, one of my buddies hopped up on the stage and then jumped off the stage into the crowd and crowd surfed from the front of the stage to the back of the room and it was awesome!
I thought, man… I want to do that. I want to be cool like that. So I jumped up on the stage and dove into the crowd, fully expectant and fully confident that they would catch me.
They did not! When my feet left the stage I saw the crowd part like the Red Sea and I hit that concrete floor so hard!
Overconfidence led to my quick demise. And I was immediately humbled. Humiliated really. But in a good way.
Hidden pride lives in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, and self-exaltation which stops the soul from entering the kingdom, or possessing the things of the kingdom. – Andrew Murray, Humility
What would happen if all of us, sin sick sinner and self proclaimed saint, what if all of us humbled ourselves before God? Perhaps we would all go home justified before God.
Jesus says…
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – v14
The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
The Good News is not that we were bad and God wanted to make us better. No! The Good News is that we were dead in our sin and pride and God wants to raise us up to new life!
Today, I want to encourage you…
Humble yourself before the ONE who humbled Himself FOR you.
Some 2000 years ago, the only person who could have entered the Temple and prayed justified before God went to a cross instead. And He didn’t just humble Himself in coming to earth and wrapping Himself in flesh, He was humiliated on a cross for you and for me. He was stripped of all His clothes, nailed to a cross, and put on display for a watching world to see.
But three days later, He was exalted. God raised Him up from that grave. And then He exalted Him to the highest place, where Jesus of Nazareth is now seated at the right hand of the Father!
O God, Be Merciful to me…
What do you need to do to humble yourself today? What prayer do you need to pray?
The prayer of the tax collector is a prayer we can all pray: ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ – Luke 18.13
Maybe you need to pray that prayer in humility today. I know I do.
Or maybe you need to go to someone and say, “I’m sorry.” Who is the “other” that you have looked down on and scorned? What do you need to do today to be in right relationship with God and with others?
What if we all did that today?
Want more from this Series… Click here.
