The pharisee and the tax collector and you and me

LUKE 18:9-14

One very unique thing about this parable is that the Gospel writer tells us who is called to hear it. We know who the target audience is.

Brothers and sisters, could you and I be in that target audience? Consider it carefully before you answer. Most readers usually identify with one or the other of the two men praying in the temple.

As a starting point, when I consider the pharisee, I go back to the days of my childhood . My Mom spoke often about the people who have “I” disease. She didn’t mean the people who needed glasses. She meant the people obsessed with the word “I”, like the pharisee in this story.

“I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous… I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.”

If we took all those “I” statements and summarized them in just one sentence it would be, “I do what that  the LAW tells me to do, and I’m proud of it.” The Pharisee, like some of his neighbors, like some of us some of the time, was proud of what he did – as if he had done it all by himself. His pride was his own fault, also his own failing. He couldn’t even see it as sinful pride. The vice of pride stopped him from seeing himself clearly. He stood boldly at the front, in view of everyone else in the temple, while he told God about his own goodness.

Keep in mind that God’s law was very important to the Hebrew people – to God’s chosen people. They were taught to view the law as a gift from God. But some started to believe they had done something special to deserve it. It’s not really a gift when you see it that way.

In truth, God chose the Hebrew people. They didn’t deserve that gift any more than you and I do, which is to say not at all. None of us deserve God’s grace; it's His gift to us – a gift to use and to return to God.

That man felt that he needed to remind God how good he was - as if God would need reminding, or hadn’t noticed, and as if he had been good all by himself. Saint Paul was a pharisee by training; had it right because he was taught by Jeus himself. He told his readers that salvation does not come through the law, and that he owes everything he is to the grace of God.  

Now listen to the words of the tax collector: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” 

He speaks the truth. Like us, he’s a sinner. He knows he’s a sinner. He knows he needs God’s mercy. He asks for it, privately, quietly, in the back where only God can see and hear him. Isn’t that what we do right after we leave the confessional? Wouldn’t his simple prayer be suitable to include in our penance?

And now hear the words of Jesus, who himself is truth, as He responds to truth with truth:

“I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former”

The Truth makes it clear that just following the law isn’t going to save us – not all by itself anyway. It takes God’s grace, and it takes humility – the virtue that works against the vice of pride.

Sometimes I  wonder which one of these men I act more like. Do you ever ask yourself that question? Ever dare to answer it privately?

For some help in answering that question, go back to the first line of the Gospel passage, and read, “He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.”

We are – or could be – among “those who were convinced of their own righteousness ...” That means we’re just like the Pharisee.

The pharisee is leading that parade. Are we following his example?

Let’s pray for grace to move our hearts farther away from that crowd.