FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
(Part 95)
OF PHARISEES AND PUBLICANS
March 13, 2021
Today’s gospel:
Luke 18:9-14
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.” (v.10). Jesus pronounced judgment on them: “I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former” (v.14a). The latter was the tax collector; the former was the Pharisee.
Now the Pharisee said, “I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” That is good. What is not good is “the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous” (v.11b), which could have been the lifestyle of the tax collector. So why was the latter justified and the former not?
It was how they prayed and how they presented themselves before God. The Pharisee boasted before God and was “convinced of (his) own righteousness and despised everyone else.” (v.9). He thanked God for his self-perceived stature of righteousness (v.11). On the other hand, “the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’” (v.13). He humbled himself, unlike the Pharisee who stood proud before God. Thus, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (v.14b).
There are some lessons for us to learn.
First, we are all sinners and none of us can proudly stand before God and proclaim our own righteousness. We might actually do good things (such as fasting and tithing), but before God, we have all become like something unclean and all our just deeds are like polluted rags (see Isaiah 64:5a). We have nothing to brag about before a holy God. And so we do not compare ourselves to sinners and rate ourselves accordingly, but we compare ourselves to God, in whose holiness we are to grow into. And there we see how miserably we have failed.
Second, we are to abhor sin, but we are not to look down on the sinner. We hate the sin but love the sinner. And when we see a sinner, we say to ourselves, there but for the grace of God go I. It is only by the grace and mercy of God that we are able to overcome sin and do good. So rather than condemning a sinner, we look upon him with empathy.
Third, it is right to acknowledge our sin and confess sin to God, but we must also put our lives aright. God is merciful to the sinner who repents. We must turn away from our sin (such as greed, dishonesty, adultery) and begin to live our lives in the righteousness of God. It cannot be, as it often is, that we commit the same sins over and over again. Though God would forgive us over and over again, we should seek to amend our lives if we truly love God and are repentant of sin.
Fourth, God brings down the proud but lifts up the lowly. As pride is a great sin, God will not want it to take hold of our lives. But for those who are humble, who recognize themselves as sinners, the foundation for God’s exaltation is there. There is irony here. The one who presents himself as righteous is rejected, while the one who presents himself as unrighteous is accepted, justified and exalted.
