He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 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.' 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!' 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."
Luke 18:9-14
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| From bible.com |
Boy does Jesus love his parables. Today we read about one that at first, might sound rather straight forward, but when we dive a bit deeper, we find we might not be on the right side of this parable. So much of the gospels paint the Pharisees to be the antagonist, which they are. We know Jesus often used them as examples of what not to be.
Pharisees held very strongly to tradition and the laws. They believed in one God. This is evidenced in them reciting the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one." They were considered wise. There is a story in a Pharisaic book where a gentile walked up to two Pharisees and asked them to stand on one foot and teach him the wisdom of the Laws or the Torah. One told the man to go away, but the other simply said "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation – now go and study." Which is very much the same as Jesus answering the question "Which Commandment is the greatest?" by saying "Love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Or as we tend to simplify it now, "Love God, Love people. The rest is just details." These guys actually seemed like they might be some good people. Looking out for the people of Israel in life and after life.
Tax collectors on the other hand, were Jewish citizens working for the people in power, taking money with authority. No one likes people who take your money, especially people from the government. They were the equivalent of lawyers and politicians today. People generally regarded them as selfish, greedy, and to use church words, sinners.
Let's take a look at the prayer of the Pharisee first. "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." This prayer was probably all true. Pharisee comes from the Hebrew word Parush meaning to be separated. He set himself apart by strictly following the laws. By Jewish definition of the law at that time, this man was considered to be righteous.
Our society teaches this kind of behavior, this self exaltation. When we post our good deeds on Facebook and wait for the likes to come in. We are rewarded with endorphins because people can see how good we are and we feel good about it. And I think that the Pharisee probably felt good about himself too. We compare ourselves to others that come across our path. We think to ourselves how good we have it because we live in the greatest country in the world. As we take pride in the good things we do, in the land we live, in the status of our lives, we begin to sound a lot like this Pharisee when we pray. "Lord thank you for letting me live in a land where I am not persecuted for my belief. Thank you that I am comfortable where I am and that I am not led into poverty." Pride is a terrible friend of ego, and both are living comfortably in our heads every day.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that all the Pharisees were good people, just like anyone else, there are bad seeds as well as good in every group. Yet we know that when Jesus used a Pharisee in a parable, they were the example of what not to do. How many times have you ever said to yourself, "Man, Glad that is not me." Have you jumped at the chance to give some of yourself to the people in jail, on the streets, in group homes? Have you ever thought to yourself that at least I'm not a murderer? We tend to compare our bad with the others around us and thus say we are better than that other person and our thoughts are now very much like the prayer of the Pharisee. I don't think the Pharisee was boasting, he just missed the point.
The tax collector though, he understood he was nothing. He prayed "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." He stood off to the side, away from the "better" people and prayed. Tax collectors were often rich, though not from the Roman government paying them well, but by padding their wallets with taking just a little bit more money than was needed by from the people. Yet, despite probably having money, he knew he was nobody, and shouldn't be able to appeal to God's mercy.
Jesus seemed to rather enjoy using tax collectors as examples of good things to do. We have him calling Matthew to be a disciple who he found at a tax collectors table, in the middle of the day while he was working. Jesus went to Zacchaeus' house to eat because he acknowledged who Jesus was. And because Jesus had love for all those who seek him, he went to eat at Zacchaeus' house. They were the opposite of the Pharisees, in the Pharisee people knew them to be righteous, the tax collectors were known to be sinners. A great example how God will use the sinner to teach the people of his power and love.
The tax collector knew he was a sinner. That the only one who could make a sinner righteous was God. The tax collector came and humbled himself and allowed God to do his work in him. When people give themselves fully to God, great things begin to happen, not just in them, but also in the people around them. Look at the places in the world where the only thing people have is God. Every day these people don't know if they will be eating, or if their government is going to kill them for their belief, yet God is working well over there, every day bringing more people into righteousness. The tax collector found salvation in knowing that he was nothing without God.
We still have a problem like this in the world we live in today. One side thinks that when someone is dependent on God, that we are weak of body and mind. We are stupid because we believe in something that we can't see and they don't feel. They look down on us. The other side knows that being dependent on God relieves us of worldly pressure and allows us to put ourselves aside and follow Jesus where ever he leads us. Allows us to live for others instead of our selves. We can set aside our pride and ego, and become servants to the people, regardless of their position in life, who need God the most.
Both of these people knew who they were. One knew who he was by knowing who he wasn't and the other knew who he was by knowing who he actually is. One did everything right, but missed the mark. The other, did a lot of it wrong, but where it counted, did the only thing right. The Pharisee went in righteous by the law, and left unchanged, but the tax collector humbled himself before the Lord and left justified.
Humble is a word from the late 13th century. It means "submissive, respectful, lowly in manner, modest, not self-asserting, obedient." We can trace its root back to the PIE root, which I am not going to try to say, because my brain doesn't understand what sound dghem would make but if we move forward in time, the Latin humilis "lowly, humble," literally "on the ground," from humus "earth."
