Reflections on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9–14

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector is one of my favorite parables. It’s such a shocking and powerful message about pride. The message can be summarized in the following sentence:

God rejects those who are self-righteous, but God exalts sinners who humbly confess their sins and ask for mercy.

The text makes the meaning clear by the opening sentence in verse 9 which says, “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt,” and by the last sentence in verse 14 which says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus’ audience likely included Pharisees or other devout Jews who kept the law but failed to see the pride in their hearts. Jesus often condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and self-righteousness (see Matthew 23).

Jesus pits two seemingly opposite social groups against each other, the Pharisees, who appeared righteous on the outside through their good deeds and religious observance, and the tax collectors, who were hated by the Jewish people because of their fraud. In an ironic twist, Jesus says that the tax collector, the “bad guy” in the story, was counted righteous in God’s sight, not the Pharisee, because of his humility. This surprising detail is meant to shock readers who expected the religious Pharisee to be counted righteous, not the corrupt tax collector.

For us today, we may tend to identify with the tax collector. We recognize our sinfulness and unworthiness before a holy, perfect God, and this causes us to humble ourselves and cry out to God for His mercy. I know I’ve certainly experienced this.

But more often than we care to admit, we also match the Pharisee, especially for Christians who grew up in church. We may consciously or unknowingly think that our church attendance, daily Bible reading, tithing, or volunteer events make us superior to those who are less “committed” in their righteousness. We may not have blindly uttered, “Thank you Lord that I’m not like all those lost pagans out there in the world!” but every time we think we’re somehow better than a convicted felon we see on TV, or a drug addict we see on the street, or even a cultural Christian at a megachurch, we become like the Pharisee.

Here’s the point: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we’re fools to compare ourselves to others when the only standard that matters is God’s. We think that we’re not that bad when we compare our living to someone else’s, especially someone who has done really bad things, but when we compare ourselves to a perfect God, even the most righteous people won’t be able to stand against God’s perfection. Only those who recognize their deep sinfulness can receive grace from God, and all of us have to guard against that Pharisaical spirit of self-righteousness within us.