Luke 18:9 (NKJV); Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

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Myles Holmes
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1 Introduction Like the parable preceding this one, Jesus continues the theme of prayer. The parable is really a parable of two hearts and two prayers. The parable contrasts pride and humility in the human heart. In the preceding parable we learned that persistence in prayer shows what we think of God that we are confident that he is gracious and caring. In this parable we learn that our prayers unwittingly reveal what we think of ourselves (R. Kent Hughes; Luke; Vol.2; p.192). What we genuinely think of ourselves becomes the foundation of how we approach God. Luke begins the parable by saying Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others ; the crowds were gathering around Jesus the Teacher and mingling with His disciples and followers. Jesus spoke this parable for a purpose to crush their pride, to expose their sin, and to instruct us and encourage us that humility and dependence upon the sacrifice of Jesus brings acceptance by God. Jesus encourages persistence in prayer, humility in prayer and discourages pride in prayer. Darrel Bock writes; Pride preaches merit; humility pleads for compassion. Pride negotiates as an equal; humility identifies with others, recognizing we all have the same need. Pride destroys though its alienating self-service; humility opens doors with its power to sympathize with the struggle we share. Pride turns up it nose; humility offers an open and lifted-up hand (NIV Application Commentary; p.461). Prayer and humility have this in common; both are rooted and grounded in absolute and complete dependence upon God. In this parable, Jesus reaches into the hearts of people who are deluded by self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, pride. When I look back on my Christian life, and examine my current walk, and see the utter absence of humility and the profound presence of pride, I am reluctant to open my mouth knowing that teachers incur the stricter judgment. In our parable one man looked into his heart and found what he thought was only good; another man looked into his heart and found only what was evil. One discovered and confessed the truth about himself, and the other blindly failed to see his own sin, or falsely refused to confess it. When you look in your heart what do you see? What do you need from God? D. L. Moody once said, God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. The Parable s Setting (vv.9-10) Luke 18:9 (NKJV); Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Who is the audience? Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. The word in the Greek language for trusted 1

2 is peitho; and means self-sufficient or self contained. Those who trust in themselves have no need of anyone else. Jesus includes the phrase that they were righteous that is they had all they needed in and of themselves to be accepted by God. Alan Redpath wrote Pride is the idolatrous worship of ourselves, and that is the national religion of hell. Paul wrote to those plagued by arrogance, pride, conceit; And if any man think he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know (1Cor.8:2). We may say we need God or trust God, but the truth is revealed in our prayer practices. Prayer is more than just a religious exercise or a spiritual discipline, it is a cry for help, an admission of dependence. Many people flatter themselves that they are saved, they are going to heaven, because they know a great deal about the Bible or about Jesus. D.L. Moody long ago wrote; But mere knowledge about Him will not save. Noah s carpenters probably knew as much about the ark as Noah did, and perhaps more. They knew that the ark was strong; they knew it was built to stand the deluge; they knew that it was made to float upon the waters; they had helped to build it. Yet they were just as helpless when the flood came as men who lived thousands of miles away. Exposure to church, and Jesus and salvation is not the same as actually being saved. Certainly the parable is addressed to the self-righteous. Who are the self-righteous? The person filled with pride; the person who looks inside their heart and sees only good. The self-righteous include those who think they are good enough for God just as they are. They have done and are doing enough good that in the grand scheme of things God must accept them. The self-righteous believe when they face God in judgment He would never permanently reject them. They are willing to concede they are not perfect, they are willing to acknowledge they have done things wrong, but not enough wrong that God would reject them, or condemn them or permanently punish them. The self-righteous go about living their lives, doing good, worshipping God just enough to satisfy their religious obligations and ease their conscience. They believe in God, but they are reluctant to believe in judgment. Jesus adds, and despised others. The expression in the Greek language is exouthenountas which means to set aside, or to count as nothing, unimportant, insignificant. Jesus is addressing the person who may be indifferent, or apathetic to other people, but that indifference and apathy leads to feelings of superiority. The selfrighteous and the self-sufficient person may say, I don t hate the poor ; I don t hate the down and out ; I don t hate the financially embarrassed, the homeless, the downcast, the destitute, the undernourished, the sinner. On occasion there may be moments of sensitivity and compassion but also the growing belief of personal superiority. Jesus is warning the self-sufficient, the self-righteous and the person who despises others. Luke 18:10 (NKJV); Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Jesus contrasts two different people a Pharisee and a tax-collector. They go to the temple, the place to pray for devout Jews, at the hour of prayer. If a Jewish man or 2

3 woman were near the temple, they would go to the temple to pray. If they were not near the temple, they would pause and look towards the temple. Jesus said the true worshippers of God pray to God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Craig Keener in the IVP Background Commentary (p.239) writes; Pharisees were the most pious people in regular Palestinian Jewish society; tax gatherers were the most despicable, often considered traitors to their people. Pharisees did not want tax gatherers admitted as witnesses or given honorary offices. To catch the impact of this parable today one might think of these characters as the most active deacon or Sunday-school teacher verses a drug dealer, gay activist or crooked politician. They are different. But they are the same. We are making a mistake if we think one is good and one is bad, when in fact both are evil. You might think evil too harsh a term. Yet both are evil and wicked and corrupt. I use the term evil in relationship to the glory and splendor and purity of Christ. In the end, one is a sinner unforgiven, and the other a sinner forgiven. Their sins on the outside are certainly different, but in the essential character of sinfulness on the inside, they are both the same. The Pharisee pretended to a righteousness he did not possess; the sinning tax collector did not profess righteousness nor possess righteousness. One pretended to godliness but did not really possess it or at least denied its power; and the other neither pretended to godliness nor possessed it. Both are equally bad and guilty. One is a hypocrite and the other a gross sinner immersed in the wickedness of the world. Both need pardon, and both are offered pardon in the gospel (see Arnot s book Parables; p.511). The truth is the real difference between the Pharisee and the Publican is not the quantity or quality of their sins but rather on whom they placed their trust, and who was willing to forgive them. The Pharisee s Self-Righteousness (vv.11-12) Luke 18:11 (NKJV); The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. The religious Jew listening to this parable would not have found anything in the prayer shocking, or disturbing or self-serving. The religious Jew listening to the prayer would have thought the Pharisee was doing the right thing, he was thanking God that he was not like other men acknowledging that it was God who gave them the courage, the strength, the stamina, to face life s temptations and overcome them. The religious leaders of Jesus day would have thought it pious to thank God for one s righteousness rather than taking credit for it for oneself (see Craig Keener; ibid). Some have suggested when Jesus says, The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself that he was not really praying to God; he was praying to himself. The language and the Greek construction do not really lend itself to this interpretation. I suspect what it means is the religious Pharisee went to the front all the way to the front in the court of 3

4 the men and prayed. The Publican or the tax collector was all the way to the back as far back as one could get. He thanks God that he is not like other men;...or even as this tax collector. There is a sense in which this prayer is prayed, not to God but to build self-confidence and social appearance. The self-righteous are quite willing to compare themselves with others. C.S. Lewis wrote; A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you re looking down, you can t see something that s above you. The Pharisee does not give thanks for what he has received, but rather for what he thinks he is and does. In one sense the Pharisee places himself on one side of a righteous fence and the rest of the world on the other side of the unrighteous fence. The result of his judgment he is better than every one else. The great novelist Leo Tolstoy, who wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina or the short story How Much Land Does a Man Need have great moral force. But Tolstoy s world view was not God-centered but self-centered. He defined God as the desire for universal welfare and Tolstoy saw himself as embodying this desire. The historian Paul Johnson writes; There were times when Tolstoy seemed to think of himself as God s brother, indeed his elder brother. Tolstoy once wrote; Read a work on the literary characterizations of genius today, and this awoke in me the conviction that I am a remarkable man both as regards capacity and eagerness to work. I have not yet met a single man who was morally as good as I...I do not remember an instance in my life when I was not attracted to what is good and was not ready to sacrifice anything to it. Tolstoy saw himself as somehow above the rest of humanity. He saw himself as a great man in the line of Moses, and Isaiah, Buddha, Socrates, Pascal and Spinoza (see R. Kent Hughes pp ). He was confident in his own self-righteousness and comfortable looking down on everyone else. 2 Corinthians 10:12 (NKJV); For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. The Pharisee picks three grievous sins to contrast his own false and deluded sense of purity; extortioners, unjust, adulterers. He thanked God that he had been kept out of the public lime-light by public sins or scandalous sins. Extortion in this sense means a public official or an official who has the right to something, who unjustly force from oppressed people more than what is due. The unjust are are those who deal unfairly in the normal course of life. And adulterers were the deepest and the most daring of sinners, worthy of death. He in effect is praying, I am fair and just, kind and giving, faithful and moral, I never ago astray in my behavior. 4

5 And the Pharisee probably was innocent of these three things. He does not extend his list of things he has not done, but rather cuts the prayer short and begins to compare himself with the filth, the scum, the perverts, the outcasts, at the back of the church. He evaluates his personal purity in light of the man, the publican, the pervert, the thief. Luke 18:12 (NKJV);12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess. The Law commanded the observant Jew to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement. Some thought that if fasting once a year made one acceptable in the eyes of God, fasting once a month is even better, and fasting once a week made one truly holy, and fasting twice a week made one off the charts holy. The Pharisee would fast twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, sometimes without water; sometimes restricting their diet to only bread and water. Pharisees were meticulous about tithing to the full extant that the Law implied. This means about 20% of their total income went to the offering. He tithed not only 10% of his income but 10% of all his total assets! Charles Finney wrote; The moral Law is designed to destroy self-righteousness and teach men their need of an atonement and a Savior. In short, God s Law is obviously designed to declare the perfection of God and the total depravity of man. The self-righteous are willing to engage in religious activities. They are willing to give themselves to good deeds or good works as much as is humanely possible. They work and do good in order to secure the favor of God. They believe their good works and good behavior will cause God to love them and earn favor with God. They labor their whole lives trying to accumulate virtue and merit before God. In other words, these are people who are doing good things in an attempt to please God. Matthew 5:20 (NKJV); For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Some people say, I keep the Law, I play by the rules. Romans 3:20 (NKJV);20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Galatians 2:16 (NKJV); knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. The Publican s Self-analysis (v.13) Luke 18:13 (NKJV); And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner! 5

6 The religious Jew in the first century commonly stood to pray, and would raise their eyes and their hands toward heaven. Often one would beat one s breast as a sign of mourning or grief, in this case it is mourning or grief over transgression and sin. The religious leaders hearing the story would have thought that the publican s prayer for mercy would have been invalid since the tax collector made no demonstration of repentance by restoring the money he had stolen, or exercise some form of restitution. Sure the dirty rotten sinner feels bad, who doesn t? But unless he starts to act like the Pharisee, exercise his religious obligations like the Pharisee, become like the Pharisee, his prayers are only so many words and his tears and crocodile tears. Jesus has the tax collector say, God, be merciful to me a sinner! The word merciful is the Greek word hilastheti. This is the Greek word the Hebrew scholars choose to use in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament for propitiated. It is used both in the Old Testament and the New Testament in connection with the mercy seat (Ex.25:17,18,21; Heb.9:5). Exodus 25:17-18 (NKJV); You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. The tax collector, though a tax collector, would have been an instructed Jew. He would have known about the Jewish Law, and the Jewish customs. He was in the temple, and far back in the court of the men. He is not thinking about mercy alone, but about the mercy seat, the blood sprinkled mercy seat. Leviticus 16:5 (NKJV); And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering. Scofield s note is helpful here; His prayer might be paraphrased, Be toward me as You are when You look on the atoning blood. The Bible knows nothing of divine forgiveness apart from sacrifice (see his Study bible p.1250). He prayed to God to remove His anger and judgment from him. He deserved God s anger and judgment, but he begged God to turn His anger and judgment away. He felt he would die from the pressure within his chest unless God forgave him, and gave him peace and assurance of forgiveness. He wanted to be reconciled to God, he wanted God to remove His judgment from him and accept him. There was no good thing in the tax collector, no righteousness to offer God. If he were going to be saved by God, God had to accept him simply because he came to God out of desperation, in sincerity of heart on the basis of God s mercy established on the blood sprinkled mercy seat. Micah 7:18 (NKJV); Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 6

7 The Parable s Profound Lesson (v.14) Luke 18:14 (NKJV); I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The way up is the way down. Jonathan Edwards said, Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil s reach as humility. Pride is easy to discuss humility is much more difficult because humility does not draw attention to itself. Humility serves with sacrifice. Humility does not insist on rights but rather is content to do what is right. Humility does not brag about integrity; it lives it. We often miss that which does not draw attention to itself. But God sees the humble heart and is willing to lift it up even when every one else is interested in putting it down. The tax-collector s prayer is short and sweet. He refers to himself as the sinner. The contrast is dramatic. The Pharisee compared himself to all mankind and so did the tax-collector, the depths of his sin and his shame leaves everyone better than him. Justified means declared righteous. It is a legal term that means all the evidence has been destroyed, and there is no record that we have ever sinned. It also means that God no longer keeps a record of our sins (Ps.32:1-4; Rom.4). Instead, He puts to our account the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor.5:21). All this comes from the mercy of God (Luke 18:13) and not the merits of man. Conclusion F. B. Meyer; I used to think that God s gifts were on shelves one above another and that the taller we grew in Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God s gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower. 7

Pharisee And Publican

Pharisee And Publican Lesson 4.11 The parable of the Pharisee and publican finds God eternally judging two men by their hearts and prayers, by their motivations and words. How will you fare when he judges