Two Men Pray in the Temple (Luke 18: 9 – 14)

9Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” 13But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” 14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

There are three different parts to a sermon – The characters in the passage need to be placed in a historical context; the passage needs to be placed within a wider Biblical framework and then application needs to be made to how we live today. Every sermon has to say something to say about God and something to say about us; understanding God means understanding ourselves.

This is a story (parable) typical of the type told by Jesus. He was a wandering preacher always looking to catch people’s attention and here he picks up on two archetypical characters. It would be somewhat like starting a story by saying ‘An Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman…’

The Pharisees were admired and the tax collectors were hated. The Pharisees were the people who would strictly observe and even exceed the demands of God's law. They would fast on Mondays and Thursdays. They scrupulously tithed or gave one tenth on everything they acquired, even down to the herbs in their garden (Luke 11:23). Jesus is taking a stereotype and playing for laughs – his listeners would have recognised the type of person he was talking about. His description might have been a slight caricature of the Pharisees, but it was close enough to make his point: if you end up complacent and self righteous all the religious observance in the world is not going to help you. The tragedy is when religious activity becomes a measurement of God’s grace. We can make the same mistake as the Pharisee and confuse righteousness with our behaviour rather than equate it with an attitude of faith and love to others.

Tax collectors were seen as traitors serving the needs of the occupying Roman forces and cheating their own people. It was their job to collect taxes for the Romans. They worked on a tax farming system. Chief tax collectors bid on the contract for collecting taxes for a certain district. If the won the contract they would be responsible for delivering to the Romans the amount of money agreed upon. They could then assess more taxes than had been previously agreed; they would extort, threaten and cajole people so that they could pocket the difference between what the Romans expected and they had managed to raise. If a farmer or businessman could not or would not pay, they would turn him over to the soldiers. Extortion and threats were part of this system. Tax collectors were considered the scum of the earth. The Pharisee’s comment that he was glad not to be like him would have been echoed in the minds of his listeners

The Biblical context to this passage is the new order that has been brought in by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In this parable Jesus takes an extreme to illustrate the new order brought in by the Kingdom of heaven. You can not measure a person’s worth by appearance alone (do not judge a book by its cover). The Kingdom of Heaven is a commonwealth of believers where all are alike in front of God – there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, black nor white (Gal 3:28).

Since God revealed his plan of salvation, there is no merit in us trying to be as good as we can be as a way of gaining self worth and social standing. There is no value in being a modern day Pharisee if we end up behaving carefully, correctly and coldly. The point is to trust in the efficacy of what God has done for us rather than trying to draw strength from our own sense of self worth. The Pharisee may have been fair in being glad not to be a Tax Collector. He was wrong to think himself the better person because of it.

For some people it is a relief that Jesus takes away from them the need for to justify them; for others it is disconcerting that they can no longer prove their own worth. Jesus told a parable to illustrate the fact that people can not earn their own salvation – everyone gets the same wages at the end of the day. "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who hired men to work in his vineyard at the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hour. He then paid them all the same wages of one denarius on the basis that he had the right to do what he wants with his money and they should not be envious because he was generous. "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matthew 20:1-16).

We are all the same in front of God and so there is no room for security in comparing ourselves to others. This passage turns the idea of ‘God helps those who helps themselves’ on its head. The integrity of the Tax Collector’s position is that he puts his trust in God rather than tries to draw strength from his own social position. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honour me (Psalm 50:15). The message of the passage is to look to God when we feel helpless – trust in God rather than rely on ourselves.

Finally there is the application of the passage to our lives. The dogma of our society is choice and competition. We live our lives within the ethos of the free market – everything is choice and therefore everything ends up being compared to everything else. The tyranny of comparison is that it contains within it an assumption of norm and some form of implicit judgment. We end up as the modern day Pharisees deciding everything on the basis of what suits us best. The Bible draws a distinction between judging and condemning (1 Cor 2:15). It is an instinct to want to make sense of things and to work out what we do or do not think of as important. In this sense categorisation is inevitable but comparison is destructive.

How do we behave when we walk into the supermarket and immediately feel that we are better off than someone we encounter? Try acting like the wise old owl in Edward Richard’s poem (look, listen and love):

The wise old owl lived in an oak;
The more he saw the less he spoke;
The less he spoke the more he heard:
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting (Fran Lebowitz).

Every person in this life has something to teach me — and as soon as I accept that, I open myself to truly listening (Thanks to Catherine Doucette)

The first duty of love is to listen (Paul Tillich).

You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time (M. Scott Peck)

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something (Wilson Mizner)