Luke 18.9-14

THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR

(Luke 18.9-14)

‘For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted'. Luke 18.14

Are you the Pharisee or the tax collector in this gospel reading?

Let me quickly remind you of the story which Jesus told before you decide.

Two people went up to the Temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee who was full of his own importance and keen to tell God all about himself. “God, I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers or even a tax collector”.

And the Pharisee goes on to demonstrate his righteousness by reminding God, as if he needed reminding, that: 'l fast twice a week and give tithes of my income’.

lncidentally, Jews were only required to fast once a year, namely, on the Day of Atonement. However, they believed that they could earn bonus points if they also fasted on Mondays and Thursdays.

Why those two days, you may ask? Quite simply, they were market days in Jerusalem. And since Jews whitened their faces and appeared in dishevelled clothes, the Pharisee would have a big audience to see how religious they were.

As regards all the fuss about giving a tenth of all their income, they were actually only required to give a tenth of their produce, and so the Pharisee was going much further in his giving.

In short, the Pharisees sought to separate themselves [and that is the meaning of the word Pharisee] by their meticulous observance of all religious rules and laws.

By contrast, the other person who went up to the Temple to pray, was a publican. Now a publican was not a person who owned a pub, but rather, was a tax collector.

The tax collector, we are told, did not even lift up his eyes, but rather smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'

No one likes the tax man, and that was particularly true in New Testament times, because the tax collectors worked for the occupying Roman administration. Furthermore, they bought the privilege of collecting taxes from the Romans, and therefore sought to overcharge to cover their overheads.

So we have here, in Luke’s Gospel, the contrast between one person who was full of their own importance, and the other person who was only too well aware of their unworthiness.

Jesus suggests that the latter went home justified rather than the former.

And Jesus concludes with the words: ‘for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted’.

To return to my opening question: ‘Are you the Pharisee or the tax collector?’ I guess most people would reply the tax collector.

But before we become too self-satisfied, in identifying ourselves with the tax collector rather than the Pharisee, perhaps we should pause for a moment.

You see, there is an awful danger that we fall into the Pharisee's trap of comparing ourselves with a fellow Christian, and thinking, if not telling God, how good we are by comparison.

If we must compare ourselves, let us compare ourselves with God, as revealed through Jesus Christ. When we do that, all we can possibly do is to fall upon our knees and say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner’.

When I was a curate in Liverpool in the 1960s, I was very proud of the whiteness of my surplice, since it was made of pure linen, and not from some synthetic fabric, as worn by my fellow curates, which always had a yellow tinge.

One winter's day, I was standing at the graveside in Kirkdale Cemetery, with the freshly fallen snow all around. I suddenly became aware how grubby my surplice looked compared with the whiteness of the SNOW.

You see, it all depends upon what you use for a comparison.

You and I may well be better Christians than those around us, but when compared with Jesus, we look positively grubby. Then all we can possibly say is: 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner’.