Pharisee & Tax Collector - Luke 18:9-14

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than other,

That's shocking. I mean, that's a scandal. That's heresy. How can you ever say that? And so you look at verse 10, it says,

two men went up in the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes at all I get.

So he's up close to the temple, and If you remember back in Luke 1, where you have Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, okay, he was selected to do the temple work, and all the people outside praying. This is a very holy, sacred time. And so you have here these people coming to pray, and in verse 13, infers that this, tax collector being in the back, that meant that the Pharisee was up there in the front, probably as close to the temple as he possibly could get. And that idea, he wanted to be close to God, and also to probably show off. They had prayer, 9 a.m., 3 p.m., and then on Monday and Thursday you had the market day, so probably more people there. It's a more chance that people would try to be up front and show off during those days. And so they would have a sacrifice offered, and these people wanted that applied to them. They also had incense, and they symbolized prayer, and they sort of wanted somehow a robe off on them. So verse 11, it says, standing by himself. Now the mission has said that they could look for unclean people praying, and basically boot them out. And they didn't want anybody close to them. The Pharisees had authority to pushed all the unwanted people out of the prayer area. And also, if they even brushed up against a common person, they felt they were polluted. And so the mindset would be obviously this Pharisee wanted to be up by himself, protect from all this ploy-ploy, contaminated people, regular people. And then verse 11 says,

the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

So he compared himself with others. My guess is all three of these are ways he compared himself with the tax collector. Extortioner, a robber, unjust, cheater, adulterer. And then verse 13, he has the word but, a transition there, a contrast, okay. He says, I'm unworthy. He couldn't even stand near the temple. So verse 13,

but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

So he didn't rationalize. He didn't say, well, I'm not as bad as other tax collectors. He said, I'm a sinner. And it says that he beat his breast. And Edersheim says that Jews only prayed with their hands over their heart. You don't really see beating the breast in the Bible. But one time you do see it. When do you see beating the breast in the Bible? When, OK? When? Well, one time it mentions that. No? Okay, when after the crucifixion, they left the crucifixion site beating their breasts. Okay. And, you know, I think in my mind, I'm thinking, What is it that would cause people to act this way? And, you know, I think of just the sin of the world being put upon the sinless Son of God. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says that Jesus became sin for us, the Father made Christ to be sin. Really, that's the most dramatic event in history. I mean, sure, you have Christmas, God became man. Then you have the God-man, went to the cross, to die on the cross, to purchase a place for us in heaven. And during that time, then, all the punishment was put upon him. I think if we had spiritual eye, this is all just my own imagination, but Now, if you had spiritual eyes to figure out what was happening in the spiritual realm when Christ was on the cross, it wouldn't be like some kind of little zap saying, okay, all the wrath of the Father, all the wrath of our sin was put upon the Messiah on the cross. My guess, if you had spiritual eyes, you would see billions of basically lightning bolts coming down upon Jesus Christ because he was taken upon himself. all the wrath of the Father, all the wrath for our sin. And so I'm thinking, when they experienced all that, you know, there must have been some, I mean, they didn't see that happening, but they obviously, they were up close to the most amazing dynamic in all of history, of the wrath of the Father being put upon the sinless Son of God. And when they saw that, you think, when they saw it happening, They didn't see the spiritual realm, but I'm sure something was happening spiritually that they just were totally undone. They just went away, beating their breasts, which is not common for them. Obviously, it showed great, great agony because of what they saw. So when the tax collector, in a similar type of way, shows that kind of contrition, for his sin, he saw his true unworthiness. The tax collector saw his own condition of being a sinner. He saw himself correctly. He saw God correctly. He was totally undone before God. He beat his breast. He saw his own sinfulness. In verse 13 says,

but the tax collector standing far off will not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me. a sinner.

Really, that's the only correct response any human can have. That's the only correct response we can have, is that kind of mentality of God be merciful to me, a sinner. And then what's amazing in 14, it says,

this man went down to his house justified.

I mean, amazing. Here's this guy that's such a sinner. He has this great contrition before God, and now it says, He comes, he's reconciled before God. God imparts his righteousness to him. God forgave his sin, declared him not guilty. So God took a contrite sinner, he made him alive, forgave his sin, he injected his righteousness into him. And the only way to get to God is really what you see in verse 13 there. Man's way is self-righteousness, like the Pharisee. God's way is contrition, repentance, that complete trust in Jesus Christ. So in 14, it says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. So the Pharisee didn't. You know, when they left the prayer time, how did each one feel? The Pharisee, I'm sure, felt good. He felt pious. His ego was stroked. He thought, this is great. I'm just looking at all the people that saw me up there. The tax collector, he went away repentant, humbled. The real result, was the Pharisee was actually farther from God, dug a deeper hole, added to his depravity. He's a bigger hypocrite, more deceived. The real result for the tax collector, amazing. He's justified. He's righteous before God. He's a brand new person. The tax collector arrived near the temple to pray. He arrived spiritually dead. He left spiritually alive. The Pharisee arrived at the temple to pray. He arrived spiritually dead, he left spiritually dead. What you see there is that even though you see in like verse 12 the things that the Pharisee did, none of that stuff changes on the inside. What needs to happen is transformation on the inside. That only happens with the contrary heart you see in verse 13 with the tax collector. Another interesting thing is that in verse 14, Jesus says, I tell you, Jesus spoke with authority. Only Jesus could determine that the tax collector was now justified. Only Jesus could determine that that Pharisee was not justified. The crowd around the people praying, they did not know this. Only God has the authority to determine who is righteous and who is unrighteous. You know, in the Gospels, we see over and over, it says that Jesus spoke with authority, because he's God. He's only one that can say, like in verse 14, I tell you, he's the only one that can speak with authority what's happening in the spiritual realm. Then in 14, it says, For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So the one who humbles himself as sinful, what's the result? He then is justified. The one who basically is proud, what happens to him? He remains in his condemnation. You know, the context for It would be just parables of Jesus about the kingdom, Jesus Christ speaking about the kingdom of God, and a whole series of these statements about the kingdom. And what's interesting is right after this passage, you see where it talks about children. And it says in chapter 18, like in 16 and 17, it says that we must receive the kingdom of God like a child. And so what you have here is God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. Christ reigns and rules in the hearts of his believers. How do we get into his kingdom? Probably the whole parable here of this tax collector is what he's saying, how to get into the kingdom. In the next chapter, you have another tax collector, Zacchaeus. What happens to him? In verse 9, it says that today's salvation has come to this house. So the kingdom of God is being built through those who are knowingly unworthy. So that goes against human nature. The Jews were totally offended by what Jesus said to them. It was outrageous, it was blasphemous, but that's God's way. God's way is not self-righteousness, it's coming to him in contrition and humility. So if you are trusting 1% in your righteousness to get you to heaven, You're the same as the Pharisee. Anytime we're trusting anything within ourselves, then we're just like the Pharisee. It's only as we trust 100% in Jesus Christ and nothing in ourselves will we actually have the entering the kingdom of God. And you were not good enough, wise enough, smart enough to choose Jesus Christ and believe all men are dead apart from Jesus Christ. But God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be His. And actually, all we've done is accept it's not our part, it's only His mercy upon us and His grace upon us. We'll say that you go to UVA campus, and you see two guys walking around. They look clean cut and nice guys, respectable and courteous. You think, I should witness those guys. They might be interested in being a Christian. I should invite them to church. They look really nice. I think a lot of those guys, I think they're great. Then you see two women, and they're tattooed, they're pierced, and they're dressed very appropriately. They're sort of touching each other in a bad way, and they're kissing each other. You think, ah. But you know what? Before God, it takes just as much a miracle to change those two guys as it changes to women. In fact, in God's economy, the way you look at the way Jesus Christ was on earth, and over and over, he had compassion for the prostitutes, for the tax collectors, for those bad people, because they were the place of saying, I realize my condition, I realize my depravity. You know, for most of us, We've got a problem that way, because we think, oh, we're pretty good. You know, we've not really done what other people have done. But that's what God specializes in. His specialty is taking people who are hopeless and totally changing their lives. So it says here in In 18, verse 13 says,

but the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Let's pray. Lord, we acknowledge that you are holy, you are God, You are totally pure in every way. We acknowledge our hearts are deceitful, and we lie to ourselves all the time. We acknowledge that we can't comprehend ourselves, our sinfulness. The only way we can ever understand our sinfulness is by looking at your word, because only you understand our depravity. We acknowledge that there's no way that we are not sinful people, we can only lay ourselves before you and call to you and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Thank you very much that we call to you that way. You give your life to us and pray in Christ's name. Amen.