Saturday in the Third Week of Lent, March 13, 2021

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Lord Jesus speaks here of two distinct ways of looking at oneself and at God.  The Lord identifies the first man in the parable as a Pharisee.  He need not have done this.  He could have left the man unidentified as to his religious party and attained the same basic result in his parable.  He chooses to identify him as a Pharisee, though, in order to show the weakness of their theology and its essential uselessness in aiding a person to become truly righteous.  The Pharisee in the parable does everything the Pharisees taught was necessary for righteousness: the proper fasting and tithing, and the avoidance of the ritual impurity which they believed sinners such as tax collectors contracted by their sins.  He also observes that he is not “greedy”, “dishonest”, and “adulterous”.  What he highlights, however, are merely outward actions in which he is not engaged.  To look at the Greek text, the man thanks God that he is not an extortioner, which is translated here as “greedy”.  He also is pleased that he is not an “unjust” or “unrighteous” man, translated here as “dishonest”.  And he rejoices that he is not an adulterer, translated here as “adulterous”.  He may very well be greedy, dishonest, and adulterous, but he has kept these vices to himself.  As far as appearances go, he is in a righteous state: he is a good Pharisee.

But that is all he is, a good Pharisee.  In his concern for outward righteousness, he has neglected the inward righteousness essential for salvation.  He has, in effect, chosen the easy way.  He has stayed away from unbecoming conduct without the conversion of heart all of us must have in order to serve God.  Furthermore, the pride to which he feels entitled insulates his innermost self from making a correct appraisal of himself.  Even when he does sin outwardly, his pride will prevent him from noticing, or will provide him a ready excuse for his deed, while looking for a way to blame others.

The tax collector, on the other hand, goes into the Temple (which indicates that he is in Jerusalem for one of the holy days) and he simply prays from his heart for mercy.  He recognizes himself as a sinner, makes no excuses or speeches, and is abject enough to allow us to think that he will make amends as best he can and avoid sin in the future.  Jesus says that this man “went home justified”, or, “having been made righteous”.  That is, by God.  While the Pharisee did no more than confirm for himself his feeling of being righteous — free from uncleanness — the tax collector was actually made so by God.  The Pharisee did not pray to God to be made righteous, but the tax collector did, though not daring to put it in so many words, and God answered his prayer.  In this way, too, the Lord showed how true righteousness differed from how the Pharisees understood it: it is a matter of freedom from sin, inward and outward, and not merely the avoidance of breaking the Law in outward actions.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  The one who humbles himself before God will be lifted up by God and the one who lifts himself up will be cast down, for the Lord will not hold him up, and he will not think he needs God’s help.