Luke 18:9-14
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
God looks at outcasts differently than society does...When Jesus gives us the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the Tax Collector is the outcast is His Society...The Pharisee is the normal guy, as people look at these two men...Yet, Jesus and His Father looks at outcasts differently than we do...God's heart is soft and gentile as the outcasts prays to Him in his humility...
The Pharisee thought he did and had done the right things in life and prayed about them to God...The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: "God, I thank You that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector...I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’"..The Tax Collector, however, admitted he was a sinner and he prayed at a distance from the temple...The Tax Collector would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."...
Jesus says the Tax Collector rather than the Pharisee went home justified before God...For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted...