From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts:
Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
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.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Sunday’s Gospel, Luke 18:9-14
In this parable Jesus presents us with a Pharisee and a tax collector. Tax collectors (even the wonderful men and women who work for our IRS in our day) are never going to be popular. For Christians, the Pharisees start with two strikes against them because they are so often opposing Jesus in the Gospels. And yet—this Pharisee is a good man.
Note, Jesus does not say he is lying. This Pharisee is faithful to his wife, is not chiseling those he works with, nor is he scheming to accumulate great wealth. He pays tithes on everything he makes (going beyond what the Law called for) and fasts twice a week—again, well beyond the norm—practices recommended to help make up for those in the community who do not or cannot strictly follow all points of the Law. A solid, zealous, practicing worshiper, a core member of any local synagogue.
The tax collector hangs back, but this is not a sign he has been skimming from the receipts or coercing poor widows to enrich himself. As one commentator notes, “it is a matter of his employment.” He works for the Romans, enforcing taxes that support Rome’s domination. The Romans decree the taxations and are savvy enough to farm collections out for at least two reasons: locals best know who has the resources to tax, and locals take the immediate heat for insisting people pay. We may assume a collector, even a non-abusive one, was not a welcome guest in many homes, nor is it likely would he push his way forward to be seen praying in the Temple.
The only point Jesus emphasizes about the tax collector’s worship? He asks for mercy. The fault of the good Pharisee? He does not. In this, the Pharisee exalts himself. Omitting to ask for mercy is exalting ourselves as if we had achieved our own salvation, our own deep reconciliation with our God. The truth of the matter is otherwise. Like the Pharisee, we have not committed adultery, stolen from our employers, or schemed dubiously to acquire wealth. Even so, we know we remain “sin-beset.” We realize we certainly remain capable of sin. We have to acknowledge there are times (even if fleetingly) we intend to walk off the path. We permit ourselves some “small” sins and try to hide them from ourselves. When we are honest with ourselves, we know these things. How much more does our Lord know them of us?
The early Christians understood all this thoroughly, we may be sure. As written in the first letter of John: If we say, “We are without sin,” we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us of every wrongdoing. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
(1 John 1:8-10)
If we are saved, we are saved only by the mercy of God, only by His sacrifice for us, only through and in Christ Jesus. Every saint realizes he or she is a sinner. In 2000 years of Christianity has even one saint ever said anything else?
Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!
For further reflection:
I just ran across this line from a sermon by St. John Henry Newman: “…all men are quite sinners enough to make it their duty to behave as the Publican.” Our status before God changes instantly when we are baptized and accept him as our Lord. Our whole self and our behavior then take the rest of our lives to bring into perfect alignment with our new status. In fact, the illuminating power of Christ within us should make the shadowy areas of our thoughts, words, acts and refusals to act stand out more sharply than before, and encourage us to more willingly acknowledge our continuing need for the Lord’s mercy.
Quote from Newman’s sermon “Reverence in Worship” Sermon #1 in Volume 8 of his Parochial and Plain Sermons