Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
It was not necessarily the case that those to whom this description applied would easily recognize themselves in it. The initial hearing of the address seems safely distant as we laugh that there could be people like that. But then we begin to uncomfortably realize that by our very certainty that this parable is about someone else it has in fact become about us. We have convinced ourselves that our practices and beliefs are correct and as a consequence we tend to infer the inferiority not only of the beliefs and practices of others, but of the people themselves. All of this is surprisingly hard to avoid from a human perspective. We imagine that if we knew what we were doing was wrong we would change it, with the corollary that we must in fact be righteous. Yet this ignores our capacity for self-deception, for telling ourselves stories that justify us rather than really being open to what God might have to say. The symptom that makes it easy to diagnose this sickness is when we begin to judge others. It is then that we fail to recognize that any measure of righteousness in us is wrought by the grace of God and not by our efforts, that, apart from mercy, it would quickly become evident how far short of the glory of God we would fall.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself
Do we approach God with a sense of entitlement, as if the position we take up is ours to claim, and not a instead a gift from God? The immediate consequence of taking God for granted is that we forget how to direct our prayers toward him and begin speaking only to ourselves, saying words to reassure ourselves and to convince ourselves of our own righteousness. In order to genuinely approach God in prayer we need the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, and that is deeply related to humility regarding ourselves.
But 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.’
This tax collector acted in this way because he better understood his limitations and God's greatness than did the Pharisee. Looking at himself, he could take nothing for granted, knew deeply that he had nothing in him with which God would be impressed or for which God would somehow be indebted to the man. But precisely because he didn't think believe himself to merit or deserve anything on his own he was open to making a genuine request, a prayer to God and not to himself. His humility ensured that he was opened outward onto God whereas the pride of the Pharisees closed him in on himself.
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
The point is not that we ought to fill our minds with self-hatred. But being sufficiently aware of our liabilities to know better than to try to justify ourselves is a helpful corrective, especially for those of us who tend to live comfortably convinced that we more or less have our act together, and who often forget that, if this is in any sense true, it is entirely gift. When we know better who we are apart from the mercy of God we are better able to recognize and depend on that mercy. It can save a lot of effort at the immense task of self-justification that the Pharisee began, but could never truly finish. One suspects that after listing all the good things he did he was still desperatelyg trying to come up with more, suspicious that even that, after all, could never be enough.
Your piety is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that early passes away.
This tendency of humanity to self-justify is the reason God sometimes allows us to be afflicted, to confront our limitations in a way that is hard to deny, but precisely with the purpose of healing us and restoring us to life. He will bring us even to the lowliness of the tax collector in the parable if that is what it takes to open us to the grace he wants to give us. It may be the case that we need not learn this the hard way if we can come to simply realize the truth of this parable. May God himself open our hearts to this revelation.
Come, let us return to the LORD,
it is he who has rent, but he will heal us;
he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.
He will revive us after two days;
on the third day he will raise us up,
to live in his presence.
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