In Luke 18, the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus describes two kinds of people who approach God. The pharisee is fastidious in his religion. He goes to church (temple), fasts, and tithes — all good things. He also prays. But verse 11 tells us, “He stood up and prayed about himself: God I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector.” His problem? Himself. The pharisee assessed his status before God not by grace but by what he did or did not do. He falsely assumed he could approach God based on his own merit. And while he had not committed any of the outward and obvious sins, his heart was full of the worst sin of all: pride.
The second person described — the tax collector — is not in an honorable vocation. In those days, tax collectors regularly practiced extortion and dishonesty and they were despised by the Jewish people. They dealt with the Roman overseers and thus were considered ritually (religiously) impure. Your average tax collector was not the kind of guy a nice, middle class, suburban family wants to have over for dinner on a Sunday evening. (Imagine a slick and seedy pawn shop owner and you might come close.) And while we do not know specifically what kind of tax collector this man was, the assumption for Jesus’ hearers would be that he was a scoundrel on the outs with God. And yet, Jesus raises him up as the one who, “went home justified before God, ” (verse 14). And why? Verse 13 says, “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
The tax collector was broken and he was humble. Isaiah 57:15 says, “For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” The lesson is: Be careful not to place your stock in your outward religious behavior. If you will instead stay humble before God and you will confess your sin, you can approach the throne of God with confidence. Why? 1 john 1:9-2:2 says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives…But if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
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