Luke 18:9-14--The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Luke 18:9-14
English Standard Version
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The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 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!’ 14 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.”

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Jesus is still focused on telling parables to the Pharisees and those who are believing their system of self-righteousness, even though that Jesus knows most of them will not listen and will not repent, but that doesn't stop Him from saying the things that will convict some but will condemn many because they have been told the truth and rejected it.

Jesus tells a story about a Pharisee and a tax collector.  We would expect to see the Pharisee in the temple, but we would not expect to see a tax collector there.  They had been declared unclean and cast out of the congregation because they were seen as traitors against the people of God, because they served the Roman government and collected tax and tribute for Caesar, but they also stole from the people by collecting more than the tax that was due, and made themselves rich by taking advantage of others.  Probably the only reason that we'd see a tax collector in the temple like this would be if he were coming to repent of the sins he had committed and was asking for restoration and forgiveness.  So, remember the lessons that we've already head about the two sons in the parable of the Lost Son, because we're going to see them play out in front of us again, just the setting and context has changed slightly.

We start first with the Pharisee this time (the self-righteous one) who is busy trying to worship in a way that brings much attention to himself.  His "prayer" that he makes imagining he is having a conversation with God is a conversation with himself about how good he imagines himself to be because he's not like all the "sinners" that he sees around him--like that tax collector over in the corner.  This tells us that the Pharisee is looking around on the horizontal level, even when he's "praying" to try to compare himself with others, even others who have come to the house of God to repent and be forgiven, but the Pharisee can't see someone that God would forgive and make clean.  He can only see someone that he imagines has done more bad things than he has done, ore maybe done things that are more heinous for the sins the Pharisee committed may have been numerous, but certainly not anything that would make him get declared to be "unclean" and cast out of the Temple and the congregation!  The Pharisee imagines that this "sinner" and those that the Pharisee puts in the same category as him (notice, it is the Pharisee making the categories here, not God) are "deplorable" and "irredeemable."  Jesus tells us that the Pharisee goes away not being justified before God and not having his prayer heard or answered by God because all he did was try to exalt himself.  His goal was for other people to hear him talk about himself and how good he though he was, and to put other people down.

Now the scene shifts over to the tax collector that is standing in the corner, trying not to be noticed.  He is standing far off not daring to approach the altar because he knows he is unclean before God and God's holiness might overcome him and kill him if he approached the LORD in an unworthy manner while he was still unclean.  His gaze is towards heaven where he cries out to the LORD in words that seem to parallel the words of the prodigal son, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son."  He beats his chest and cries out, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."  He knows both who he is and who God is, and that God is the only one who can forgive and restore him, but he also came to the LORD in faith believing that all he needed to do was ask and the LORD would be willing to forgive and restore him.  What from the Old Testament might indicate this to us?


Exodus 34:5-7
English Standard Version
5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
The tax collector knew that he needed the God described in the portion that is bolded and underlined.  God is willing to deal with the man's iniquity, that is his high-handed sins that had gotten him in so much trouble, the transgressions where he had accidently crossed the line of God's Law and the sin where he had missed the mark of doing what God had called him to do and being what God had called him to be.  This tax collector is coming to the LORD in a spirit of repentance and falling on the grace and mercy of the LORD for he realized that he stands guilty and condemned without God's forgiveness.  Jesus says that it was the tax collector who went down to his house justified...and there is not even any evidence that the tax collector approached the altar to make any kind of blood sacrifice.  Isn't that amazing?  All he needed to do was pray for God to forgive him, and the LORD did it because the tax collector's request was consistent with the nature and character of God.  This man that was once an outcast has been brought near to God and been put in right standing before Him whether men would recognize that or now.