The Pharisee and the Publican

Who heard this story? Jesus “spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others” (18:9). A parable is a story Jesus told to teach a truth about God. Trusting in yourself. To be righteous means to be right with God. These people were sure they were right with God because of their own good deeds. They trusted in themselves instead of in God's mercy. Looking down. To despise others means to look down on them. When we trust in our own goodness, we start measuring ourselves against other people. Then we usually find someone who seems worse than we are. Two men. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector” (18:10). The Pharisees were teachers and leaders who worked hard to keep every part of God's law. A tax collector, also called a publican, collected tax money from the people. Some leaders called tax collectors sinners (Luke 5:30). Both came to pray. Both men went to God's house, and both talked to God. From the outside, the Pharisee probably looked like the one God would welcome. What we learn. Jesus told this story for people like us. It is easy to think we are good because we are not as bad as someone else. God wants us to trust Him, not ourselves, and to treat every person as someone He loves.

The listeners (18:9). “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” Jesus aimed this story at two problems that grow together: confidence in our own goodness and contempt for other people. Trusted in themselves. They were sure they were righteous, right with God, because of what they did. Their hope rested on their own record. Jesus once told the Pharisees, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts” (Luke 16:15). Exoutheneo. The word for despised is exoutheneo (say: ex-oo-theh-NEH-oh), to treat someone as nothing. A person who measures holiness by his own record needs someone below him to feel tall. Up to the temple (18:10). “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” The Pharisees were a group of Jewish teachers devoted to studying and keeping the law. Paul, who had been a Pharisee himself, called it the strictest group of their religion (Acts 26:5). The publican. Publican is an old word for a tax collector. John the Baptist told tax collectors, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you” (Luke 3:13), and the Pharisees put them in the same group as “sinners” (Luke 5:30). Two men, one need. Jesus' listeners would probably have expected God to welcome the Pharisee. Yet both men stood in the same temple, and both needed the same mercy. Only one of them knew it. For you. Ask God to show you where you trust your own goodness and where you look down on someone. That honest look is the first step toward the prayer the tax collector prayed.

Jesus told this story to some people who trusted in themselves. They thought they were good enough for God on their own. They also looked down on everyone else. Looking down on people means thinking you are better than they are. Have you ever felt better than someone else? All of us have felt that way sometimes. The Bible says, “All people have sinned.” Nobody is good enough without God. Jesus told about two men who went to pray. Both men came to God's house. Only one of them knew he needed God's mercy.

Some people thought they were very good. They looked down on other people. Jesus told a story to help them.

He stood (18:11). The Pharisee stood apart, and Jesus said he prayed “with himself.” He used God's name, but every sentence was about himself. Thank You, God. He began, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men.” Thanking God is good. But he thanked God for how good he was, not for how good God is. The list. He named people who did wrong: “extortioners, unjust… or even as this tax collector.” Extortioners take money from people by threats. He compared himself with the worst people he could think of, and with the man nearby. Good habits (18:12). “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” To fast is to go without food for a time to seek God. A tithe is a tenth. God's law told His people to give a tenth to the Lord (Leviticus 27:30), and this man gave a tenth of everything. Fair to him. These were good things. Jesus taught His followers how to give, how to pray and how to fast (Matthew 6:2-18). The Pharisee was serious about God's law. What was missing. He asked God for nothing. He did not confess one sin or ask for mercy. He measured himself by other people instead of by God. What we learn. Comparing ourselves with others always fools us. Next to God's perfect goodness, every one of us needs mercy. Thank God for His goodness, not for yours.

Prayed with himself (18:11). “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.” He stood apart from the tax collector. He used God's name, but he was really talking about himself, to himself. A prayer of comparison. “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust… or even as this tax collector.” He thanked God, but the reason he gave was himself. His standard was the people around him, and by that standard he always came out ahead. His habits (18:12). “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” He went without food twice every week, and he gave a tenth of all that he had. God's law asked for a tenth of the harvest and of the flocks (Leviticus 27:30-32). Real devotion. These are not small things. He was disciplined, generous and serious about God's law. Jesus did not call his fasting or giving wrong. He once said tithing was right to do, along with justice, mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). Filthy rags. The problem was what he trusted. Isaiah wrote, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Even our best deeds cannot make us clean before a holy God. Nothing asked. The Pharisee confessed nothing and asked for nothing. A person who thinks he is already full has no room left for grace. For you. When you catch yourself thinking, at least I am not like them, remember that this thought is the Pharisee's prayer. Turn it into a better prayer: thank God for His mercy, and ask Him for more of it.

The Pharisee began his prayer by thanking God. Thanking God is a good thing to do. But he was not thanking God for God's kindness. He was thanking God that he was better than others. He went without food to pray, and he gave money to God. Those were good things to do. Still, he talked only about himself. He did not ask God to forgive him. It is easy to act like this Pharisee. We feel good when someone else seems worse. But God does not grade us by looking at other people. Only Jesus is good all the time.

The Pharisee told God he was better than others. He did many good things. But he did not ask God for help.

Far off (18:13). “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven.” He stood far away and kept his eyes down. Beat his breast. He “beat his breast,” hitting his chest with his hand. He was very sad about his sin. A short prayer. His whole prayer was this: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” He did not bring a list of good deeds, and he did not compare himself with the Pharisee. He told God the truth about himself. A sinner. He did not say he was a little bit bad or better than someone else. He called himself a sinner, a person who has done wrong against God. That is what all of us are (Romans 3:23). Mercy. Mercy is God's kindness to people who deserve punishment. The tax collector did not ask God to reward him. He asked God not to treat him as his sins deserved. David wrote, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins” (Psalm 103:10). Empty hands. The tax collector came with nothing to offer. That is the only way anyone can come to God. What we learn. You do not need fancy words to pray. When you have done wrong, tell God honestly and ask Him for mercy. He loves to hear that prayer.

Standing afar off (18:13). “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast.” He kept his distance and kept his eyes down, and he struck his chest in sorrow over his sin. Hilaskomai. His prayer was, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” The word for be merciful is hilaskomai (say: hih-LAS-koh-my), to be merciful toward someone's sin, turning from anger to peace. It belongs to the same word family as the mercy seat, the gold lid of the ark where blood was sprinkled for sin. Many Christians hear in his prayer a plea for the mercy that a sacrifice provides. The sinner. His words can also be read, to me, the sinner. He did not hide in a crowd of sinners or measure himself against anyone. He stood before God as one guilty man. Mercy, not reward. He asked for nothing he had earned. He asked God not to give him what his sins deserved. “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). A broken heart. David wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). The Pharisee despised others (18:9). God does not despise a broken heart. For you. This prayer is short enough to pray anywhere. When your conscience bothers you, do not hide behind your good days or someone else's bad ones. Bring your sin to God by name and ask Him for mercy.

The tax collector did not try to look good before God. He never listed his good deeds or pointed at anyone else. He just told God the truth: “I am a sinner!” A sinner is someone who has done wrong against God. That is true of every one of us. Then he asked God for mercy. Mercy is kindness that we do not deserve. He did not try to fix his sin himself. Only God could take it away. You do not need big words to pray. You can talk to God like that too. Tell Him the truth, and ask Him for mercy.

The tax collector was sad about his sin. He asked God for mercy. Mercy is kindness we do not deserve.

Jesus' answer (18:14). “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.” The tax collector went home right with God. The Pharisee did not. Justified. To be justified means God declares you right with Him. Your sin is forgiven, and God accepts you. It is like a judge saying, not guilty. A surprise. The man with the bad record went home forgiven. The one with the good record did not. God does not accept people because of their record. He accepts people who come to Him for mercy. Up and down. Jesus said, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” To exalt yourself is to lift yourself up. To humble yourself is to bow low before God and be honest about your need. God does the lifting. The tax collector did not try to lift himself up. God lifted him up. The Bible says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). How can God do it? How can a holy God call a sinner right? Jesus would soon go to the cross to pay for sin, so that God could forgive everyone who trusts Him. What we learn. You do not have to earn your way to God. Come honestly, ask for mercy and trust Jesus. God will lift you up.

Rather than the other (18:14). “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.” Jesus gave the verdict Himself. Dikaioo. Justified translates dikaioo (say: dih-kai-OH-oh), to declare someone righteous. It is a courtroom word. God did not say the tax collector had lived well. He declared him right with Himself and sent him home forgiven. Two ways to be righteous. Verse 9 described people who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.” Righteous and justified come from the same root. The Pharisee tried to be righteous by his record. The tax collector was declared righteous by God's mercy. Tapeinoo. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” To humble is tapeinoo (say: tah-pay-NOH-oh), to make low. A person can lift himself up now and be brought low by God, or bow low now and be lifted up by God. Low before God, lifted by God. In this story the humbling and the lifting happen in one prayer. The man who called himself a sinner is the man God declared righteous. Here, to be exalted is to be justified. God can do it because Jesus would soon die for sinners and rise again. Faith, not works. Paul wrote, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). The tax collector shows what that faith looks like: empty hands reaching for mercy. For you. Every day you will lean either on your record or on God's mercy. Bow low before Him, and let Him be the One who lifts you up.

Jesus finished His story with a big answer. The tax collector went home right with God. Right with God means God forgives you and accepts you. The Pharisee did not go home right with God. He trusted his good deeds instead of God's mercy. Jesus said, “Everyone who makes himself great will be made humble.” Being humble means you know how much you need God. Humble people do not think they are better than others. God lifts up people who are humble. Jesus was humble too. He came from heaven and died on the cross for us. Because of Jesus, God can make sinners right with Him.

Jesus said the tax collector went home right with God. God forgives people who are humble. Jesus makes us right with God.