In the ancient Mediterranean world everyone had a social map that defined the individual’s place in the world. It told people who they were, who they were related to, how to react, and how to behave. The world of Jesus’ parables is the Galilean village. The parables draw their repertoire from peasant experience. Only a few draw outside those narrow bounds. The parable Two Men Went Up to the Temple, which we have just listened to in our gospel reading, is alone set explicitly in a large urban setting. It very vividly illustrates who belonged inside, and who belonged outside the temple according to Jewish custom. So, let’s explore a little closer this social map of the time; how Jesus addresses it and what message there may be in it for us.

On the face of it, it would appear that the Pharisee’s prayer extolling all his wonderful virtues, smacks of extreme self-righteousness and arrogance: ‘O God, I give thanks to you that I am not like these others, robbers, swindlers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week . .’ and so on. The charge against the Pharisee’s prayer is that it is self-righteous. The question is whether its original hearers would have so judged it. It appears not. The content of the Pharisee’s prayer conforms to the way the religious elite of his day were taught to pray. He gives thanks that he is not like “the rest,” whom the social map places outside: robbers, swindlers, adulterers, tax collectors and so on. Both the prayer’s form and its content indicate that he is living up to the map drawn by the temple: he is the model of the pious man.

John Crossan, an Irish biblical scholar, has suggested a somewhat intriguing and amusing modern equivalent to the parable: “A Pope and a pimp went into St.Peter’s to pray.” Just as we would not automatically assume that the pope was self-righteous, so also we should not assume that the Pharisee was.

And what of the tax collector? Well, his prayer, in contrast to the Pharisee’s, is in the form of a plea: “O God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The temple map also determines the tax collector’s place, and so he stands at a distance, not even daring to lift up his eyes to heaven. He belongs to one of the groups that the temple map places outside the bounds. He knows his place and doesn’t move outside it. So, if both the Pharisee and the tax collector are simply conforming to the expectations their culture placed upon them, what real judgment can we say the parable is making?

At the end of the parable Jesus tells us that the tax collector returned home reconciled with God, and the Pharisee did not. Why? Well, Jesus pretty much answers this with his words: ‘Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’ In other words, in the eyes of Jesus and in the light of his vision of the kingdom of God, the Pharisee has got locked into a kind of moral self-sufficiency, believing he has earned God’s blessing and reward from all his fasting and good works, whereas the tax collector humbly acknowledges his sinfulness and need of God’s mercy. It is the latter disposition that God welcomes and rewards. And what is the lesson in all of this for us?

Well, here are some self-reflective question we might ponder on: Do I sometimes, albeit unwittingly, get locked into a kind of moral self-sufficiency like the Pharisee? Do I feel that I can earn the grace and blessing of God in my life by simply having all the right externals in place? Do I sometimes dismiss and regard with contempt those I judge to be less good than me - the alcoholic living next door; the prostitute who plies her trade on my street; the Aids sufferer dying in the hospice or the single mother with three children?

The truth is, like the tax collector in our gospel today, we are all needy, broken and fragile - some of us are just better at pretending than others. In God’s dream of humanity there are no maps separating one from the other. All are welcomed into the fold of his mercy and healing love. The gospel invites us to help each other grow, flourish and enter God’s peace. There is place for everyone, but most especially for the humble of heart and the poor in spirit.