Luke 18:9-14 (II); The Pharisee Next Door, Second Essay

The more I look at the Pharisee, the more I see myself, or my neighbors, in him. I even wondered about the prayer he offered. He stood up and prayed the following.... But before getting to the words of the prayer, I must try to translate the Greek "pros heaton." I cheated above by translating it just like the NRSV--he stood apart "by himself." But there is another way to render these Greek words. The sentence in which they stand can also be read, "He stood and prayed these things to himself." Most scholars reject this interpretation out of hand with the following explanation--'he prayed to God, indeed, that is the first word of the prayer.' But I would like to argue that the true nature of self-centeredness is that you pray to yourself even while seeming to invoke God.

Thus, in my reading, the Pharisee was a fairly self-centered person who was always looking out for # 1, criticized those who didn't measure up to his piety or conduct, and had no trouble commending himself. Sounds like the way we try to prepare young people for life, isn't it?

Indeed, it seems as if the Pharisee has "gone the extra mile" as required by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He doesn't just go one mile (a tithe); he goes two (tithing things he doesn't have to tithe, by law). I don't see the Pharisee, therefore, in the starkly negative terms that Luke would like us to see him. I see him as a more ambiguous character, one that is more like us than we might imagine.

The Tax Collector--v. 13

The tax collector reminds me, in many ways, of the lepers we met in the preceding chapter (17:11-19). They, too, stood "outside" the community; they, too, were 'justified' or 'healed' even in the midst of doing what they were supposed to be doing. So it is with the tax collector here. He stands far off. Is there a spiritual significance to being far off, or is it only a simple geographical designation? Other NT passages speak of those who were once "far off" who have now been "brought near" (Eph. 2:13), but I will read it simply as a geographical reality. The Pharisee assumed that he ought to be in the center of the action (doesn't that sound like us?); the tax collector decided that he better stand far away. He was in an unpopular business, even though Jesus will use the example of a tax collector as a person of faith Luke 19.

Again, I don't know if I want to make a big deal about tenses of verbs. The publican "had been standing" when he prayed, while the Pharisee just "stood up" to pray. It is almost as if the publican was waiting for the path to be clear for him to pray. With the telltale biblical marks of humility (not raising his eyes--note the interesting words of the Psalm--"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high"--Ps. 131:1; beating himself on the chest--cf. Luke 23:48), the tax collector begins his prayer. He starts it the same way that the Pharisee did: "O God." But then, he differs from the Pharisee.

In fact, I would say that the form of the Pharisee's prayer is probably more "proper" than the tax collector's. At least the Pharisee begins with "I thank you." Prayers ought to begin with expressions of gratitude, we think. Note, however, that the Pharisee quickly degenerates into a prayer of separation--he thanks God for all the people he isn't like. Note, too, that the Pharisee never gets around to thanking God, really, for anything. But the tax collector doesn't even go through the formalities of prayer. Perhaps he is, to use words from the Apostle Paul, praying with "groans too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26ff.). Perhaps he is a man in great desperation, like the woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair, the woman whom Jesus said had "loved much." The content of his prayer is almost as brief as Peter's brief, "Lord save me." Here it is, "Be merciful to me, a sinner." In a sense he is accepting the characterization of him given by the Pharisee when he prayed earlier. Indeed, the tax collector realizes that he is not a righteous person. He needs mercy.

What drives a person to recognition of his/her own need for mercy? Certainly many people who pray to God for mercy do so because they are just reading the words of a prayer in the bulletin or participating in the words of the liturgy. Many people pray for mercy because they are supposed to pray for mercy. But Jesus, always good at discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, sees the good intention of the man. He had a pure heart, while the Pharisee, instead, was trying to draw a line around his tight little world to maintain his ritual purity. After I think of it for a while, I am not so sure that I don't fit the description of the Pharisee a bit better than the tax collector. I sometimes feel I know too much to be a "pure-hearted" soul. I have seen to much in my own heart, as well as in that of other people.

Conclusion

There is no doubt in Jesus' or Luke's mind who the "good guy" is in this parable--the tax collector. He went home justified. The tense of the participle translated "justified" is interesting--it is in the perfect passive tense. This tense suggests that his justification had already begun by the time he left the temple area and headed home. And Luke slips in two words at the end of v. 13. Not only does it say that the tax collector went home justified, but he did so "instead of that one" (i.e., the Pharisee). It would have been enough to say that the tax collector went home justified without having to specify the fate of the Pharisee. But he wants to make sure we understand what is at stake here: Pharisaic attitudes and words lead to a reversal, the reality of not being justified.

Thus, I think we can conclude by saying that Jesus' point is pretty clear--that the "big people" are going to be put down from their lofty situations while the "little people" will be exalted. But I think we can also conclude that it isn't very clear into which category we fit. I am afraid that most people with whom I associate are more like the Pharisees than they think they are, despite the fact that we all want to identify with the tax collector. Maybe that is why I like them. How about you?

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