Letters from St Paul’s - The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

The the Pharisee and the tax collector

In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks directly to the heart of our relationship with God. Some things that we all should be aware of: humility, or a lack thereof, and our justification before God. Luke tells us that He addressed this parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.”

We were warned way back in Proverbs 16:18 that “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Jesus tells us this parable, and all the parables, so that we might remember eternal lessons through simple stories. This parable is quite simple. Two men go up to the temple to pray—both religious, both Israelites, both seeking God. Yet one leaves justified, and the other does not.

The Pharisee’s Prayer

The Pharisee’s prayer sounds pious:

“God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”

Is it wrong to fast? No.

Is it wrong to give tithes? No.

These are good disciplines and virtuous things. They are tools to help us grow in godliness and to help us focus on prayer and our relationship with God and others.

It’s also good to not extort others, to not commit adultery, and who in the world likes IRS agents? He thanks God, but in truth, his words reveal pride rather than gratitude. He measures holiness by comparison—by what he does and what he avoids—and fails to see his need for grace.

Due to his pride, he is blinded and violates the commandment to love his neighbor as himself. Or, as St. Paul says in Philippians 2:3–4:

“In humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Standing there in the temple, his heart is centered on himself. Instead of looking at his life through the lens of the perfect God, he is comparing himself to sinful people, specifically to this tax collector. His prayer is not communion with God but self-congratulation dressed in religious language.

Do we do this? Do we compare ourselves to others, looking at the sins of others and congratulating ourselves that we haven’t committed that sin?

Yet… “Take heed lest ye fall,” the Bible warns us. Does witnessing the calamity of a brother or sister in Christ give us a sense of comfort that we haven’t been caught up in that kind of sin, or does it give you joy that someone was caught in a sin and punished for it?

While none of us should revel in sin, or love sin, or be lax concerning sin in our lives, we ought to feel compassion for those who have fallen, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead of pride, we should feel sadness and compassion. We should pray for the sinner. And we should reevaluate our own lives and repent of our own sins.

The Tax Collector’s Prayer

This is where the tax collector wins. He wasn’t in the temple gloating about his righteousness but was focused on his own shortcomings and sins. He saw how much he had failed God.

The tax collector “stood far off.” He would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed simply:

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

That is all. No excuses, no comparisons, no boasting—only a plea for mercy.

And Jesus tells us, “This man went down to his house justified.”

He is made right with God not because of anything he has done, but because he throws himself wholly upon the mercy of God.

Gregory Palamas, AD 1359, says of the tax collector:

“Without any other intention or thought he paid attention only to himself and God, turning over and repeating the supplication of a single thought, the most effective of all prayers (God be merciful to me, a sinner). 14. ‘And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven’ (Luke 18:13). As he stood he bowed down, and his bearing was not only that of a lowly servant, but also of a condemned man. It also proclaims a soul delivered from sin.”

And:

“He saw himself as unworthy either of heaven or of the earthly Temple, so he stood on the threshold of the Temple, not daring even to turn his gaze towards heaven, still less towards the God of heaven. In his intense contrition he smote upon his breast to show he was worthy of punishment. He sighed in deepest mourning, bowing his head like a condemned man, calling himself a sinner and begging with faith for forgiveness, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’”

Please notice these three things:

1. The tax collector was focused on himself and God—not the Pharisee, not anyone else in the temple.

2. Whatever the sin was that was bothering him, he recognized the gravity of it and felt guilt and had a repentant heart.

3. He didn’t try to justify his sin; he simply said, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Justified by Grace

Did the tax collector do something to gain his justified status? I mean, did he save a kitten from a tree? Or put out a fire that was consuming an orphanage full of children?

No.

He did one thing: he recognized that he had failed God by his sins, and he repented of it.

The heart of this parable is justification by grace through faith.

As our Anglican Articles declare:

“We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings.”

(Article XI)

That is the very lesson Jesus teaches here. The Pharisee trusts in himself; the tax collector trusts in God’s mercy.

We, too, come before God not with a résumé of righteousness, but with open hands and repentant hearts.

The closer we draw to God, the more we feel our own unworthiness and unrighteousness. It’s kind of like wearing some grubby work clothes and not taking a shower, then going to a nice restaurant where everyone is dressed very nicely and smells good. You get there and you feel dirty, stinky, and unprepared. That’s probably not the best analogy, but I think you get the point.

Humility and the Kingdom

Jesus concludes with a great kingdom truth:

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In the Kingdom of God, humility is exaltation. The proud heart is brought low, and the humble sinner is lifted up.

This is why, in our liturgy, before approaching the Lord’s Table, we pray together:

“We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.”

That prayer is the tax collector’s cry in our own mouths.

Application

The call of this parable is clear:

• Come humbly before God. Pride closes the heart to grace.

• Repent honestly. Acknowledge sin and trust God’s mercy.

• Live gratefully. The forgiven become the forgiving; the loved become loving.

The Pharisee prayed with confidence in himself; the tax collector prayed with confidence in God. One left empty, the other left filled.

Conclusion

Let us, then, be people who pray like the tax collector—

with humility, repentance, and gratitude—

trusting not in our own righteousness,

but in the mercy of Jesus Christ our Lord.

For “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,

and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”