The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector answers the question about how a person is justified, meaning declared righteous by God.
Righteousness was a major topic among the Jewish people during the life of Jesus because righteousness was needed to:
• Experience eternal life
and
• Escape judgment
The Pharisees were certain they would escape judgment and experience eternal life because they thought they achieved righteousness.
The Pharisees were certain the tax collectors and sinners would experience judgment and forfeit eternal life because of their sinfulness.
Let’s define righteousness.
Righteousness is being sinless in our thoughts, attitudes, actions, and behaviors.
Righteousness is a state of innocence before God, having never sinned.
To the first-century Jewish person under the law, righteousness equaled obedience to the law.
Deuteronomy 6:25
And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.
The Pharisees were confident they gained a righteous standing before God because of their commitment to obey the law.
Their self-righteous confidence led them to condemn others who were not as committed as they were or who neglected the law completely.
Jesus told a parable to correct the view of the Pharisees:
• that righteousness could be obtained through one’s own righteousness.
and
• that eternal life could be forfeited through one’s sinfulness.
The parable is named The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
Let’s examine this parable.
Luke 18:9-12
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 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.’
Let’s breakdown these verses.
A Pharisee and a tax collector went to the temple to pray.
Pharisees were dedicated to obedience to the law – the Ten Commandments.
Pharisees created additional laws to obey so the Ten Commandments would not be violated.
Pharisees prided themselves on their “obedience to the Ten Commandments” and the other laws they created.
The Pharisee proudly stood by himself at the temple, away from the crowd…the other people gathered there to pray.
By standing alone, the Pharisee exalted himself above the crowd and the tax collector, showing he is not a sinner like them.
The Pharisee lists how he is morally superior to the crowd and tax collector.
The Pharisee states he is religiously superior to the crowd and tax collector because of his commitment to giving and fasting.
Luke 18:13
“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.’”
Tax collectors were thieves…they robbed people of money by collecting more money than was legally required – see Luke 3:12-13.
Because of his shame and guilt, the tax collector stood at a distance from the crowd gathered at the temple to pray.
Because of his shame and guilt, the tax collector would not look up to heaven when he prayed.
The tax collector felt shame and guilt because of his robbery of the people and because of other sins in his life.
The tax collector recognized he had broken the Ten Commandments.
The tax collector admitted he had broken the Ten Commandments.
The tax collector asked God for mercy.
Mercy is not enforcing punishment upon a person who has broken a law.
Jesus describes that God did much more than have mercy on the tax collector, God gave him grace.
Grace is God giving us something good that we do not deserve.
Mercy is God taking away something bad that we do deserve.
Grace includes mercy but adds abundant goodness.
The grace the tax collector received was justification.
Luke 18:14
“I tell you that this man [tax collector], rather than the other [Pharisee], went home justified before God.
We will examine justification in PART 2: CLICK HERE
