The Parable of the Pharisee & Tax Collector - Oct 26, 2025 - Luke 18:9-14

Okay, so this is a fairly straight forward parable, isn't it? Seems to me that, at first glance, it's saying Don’t think too highly of yourself like this hypocritical Pharisee; rather, be like the self-abasing tax collector. Or, to make it even simpler, we can boil the point of this parable down to two words: “be humble.”

If only it was that straightforward … I could announce the final hymn and them we could all head into the Narthex for some more coffee or other refreshments.  If only it was that straightforward … But it isn't. But it’s not that simple. Parables never are.  There are traps we need to be aware of and beware of.

Let's look at the Pharisee. There was a lot of good in that Pharisee. 

The Pharisees were not villains. They were dedicated to observing the law -- and our pray-er actually exceeds the laws demands. He starts by thanking God. And, everything the Pharisee says is true. He has set himself apart from others by his faithful adherence to the law.  Fasting twice a week rather than once a week. Tithing on all he gets rather than just the foods and animals for which it is required.

His prayer even follows the standards of accepted prayer in His day,

An ancient Jewish prayer (from at least the 2nd century CE) used daily by Jewish men until recent times and still used daily by the ultra-Orthodox says:

Praised (be the Lord) that He did not make me a heathen, for all the heathen are as nothing before Him (Is40:17); praised be He, that He did not make me a woman, for woman is not under obligation to fulfill the law; praised be He that He did not make me ... an uneducated man, for the uneducated man is not cautious to avoid sins.

He is righteous, by the standards of his time and place, standards that both Luke and Jesus seem to employ. What, then, is his problem? It narrows down to one thing: while he is right about the kind of life he should live, he is confused about the source of that life. For while he prays to God, his prayer finally is about himself, and because he misses the source of his blessing, he despises others, who are also people God loves.  He divides people into classes – the righteous and the unrighteous, the good and the bad, the saved and the damned, my group and the rest.

Hasn’t this been an issue with the church – or with parts of it?  Unless I’ve been through certain rituals, the Catholic Church will not allow me to take communion there. Unless I’ve been born again and prayed the sinner’s prayer, many denominations believe I will not go to heaven. At least in the Anglican church, we don't make such judgments. Thank you, God, that we are open minded, not like those other denominations.

Oops!

Did you see what just happened there? I just fell into the same trap is the pharisee. I made it all about me or us, what I do How good I am. But it’s not about me It’s about God.

So what about the tax collector? Is there another trap there?

A tax collector was a government employee who has the distasteful job of collecting money from the people to support a despised foreign government.  Because of the contact with foreigners, he would be ritually unclean.  He knows that he possesses no means by which to claim righteousness. He has done nothing of merit; indeed, he has done much to offend the law of Israel. For this reason, he stands back, hardly daring to approach the Temple, and throws himself on the mercy of the Lord. But, unlike Zaccaeus, also a tax collector who becomes a follower of Jesus, he doesn't actually confess any sins. He makes no statement of repentance. He doesn't offer to change his life. He doesn't make any reparations for his sins.  This appears to be very cheap grace. I'm not sure that I want to make this prayer a model of confession.

Here’s the second trap in the parable - that’s to hear in the tax collector’s confession an example that we also ought to live our lives fully and entirely aware of our status as a sinner. But the minute we do that we’ve also shifted attention away from God’s activity to our status. And the trap is sprung one more time.

Because it shouldn’t be about us, it’s not about us— not about us being a sinner or a wretch or one who does not deserve or merit God’s grace or however we might want to formulate it. It’s just not about us; it’s about God. It’s about God’s love for everyone, saint and sinner. It’s about God’s mercy and forgiveness. It’s about God’s love each of us.

It’s about a God who doesn’t differentiate.

As soon as we fall prey to the temptation to divide humanity into any kind of groups, we have aligned ourselves squarely with the Pharisee. Whether our division is between righteous and sinners, as with the Pharisee, or even between the self-righteous and the humble, as with Luke, we are doomed.

Anytime you draw a line between who’s “in” and who’s “out,” this parable asserts, you will find God on the other side.

Read this way, the parable ultimately escapes even its narrative setting and reveals that it is not about self-righteousness and humility any more than it is about a pious Pharisee and desperate tax collector. Rather, this parable is about God: God who alone can judge the human heart; God who determines to justify the ungodly. God who loves saint and sinner. God loves us, not because (or if or when) we are good bur because God s good and God’s nature is to love.

At the end of this story, the Pharisee will leave the Temple and return to his home righteous. This hasn’t changed; he was righteous when he came up and righteous as he goes backdown. The tax collector, however, will leave the Temple and go back down to his home justified, that is, accounted righteous by the Holy One of Israel.

How has this happened? The tax collector makes neither sacrifice nor restitution. On what basis, then, is he named as righteous? On the basis of God’s grace! That “Amazing Grace … that saves a wretch like me”. When we know have nothing to claim but our dependence on God’s mercy, we forget if only for a moment, our human-constructed divisions and recognise that in God’s kingdom we are all one in our beed for God’s mercy and grace. Amen.