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As we reflect on this gospel passage today, I think it is very important for us to remember the audience that Jesus was speaking to. It says here, “He addressed the parable to those who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise everyone else.” And then the characters of the story, a Pharisee and a tax collector.... The word, “Pharisee” has come to mean a hypocrite, one who gives outward signs of being deeply religious but is not so, deep down inside, someone who likes to be thought devout and holy, but is not in actuality. The Pharisees were a sect that took the law of Moses very, very seriously and really tried to live it out to its last detail. Overly zealous, if you like, but not really bad people.

Now, they did judge that the new Christian sect was, in their eyes, heretical, was breaking away from the law of Moses, and so they did persecute this small Christian sect at the beginning. The result was that the early Christians gave them a bad rap. And so we find Matthew having Jesus painting them as overemphasizing externals, laying heavy burdens on people, seeing the law as more important than people, and so on. But remember that St. Paul, for one, was very proud to say, “I am a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee.” So I think that we may conclude that the man in the parable, in this story, was a respected member of the community.

The tax collector, on the other hand, was a despised member of the community. First of all, he was a collaborator with the Roman occupiers of the country. He was a contractor. The Romans contracted with him to collect the taxes. And the way it went was, let’s say the Romans demanded ten thousand dollars in taxes a month. They would contract with this man to collect ten thousand dollars. He would squeeze the people and collect fifteen thousand, so he would have five thousand for himself. So he was regarded as an extortioner, as a collaborator and overall as a sinner. He was not a respected member of the society.

It is the classical good vs. bad scenario that we find in lots of stories, good and bad according to popular judgment. But Jesus had a wonderful, wonderful way of turning our thought processes upside down. And it wasn’t a question of externals with Jesus. It was always a question of what was inside of a person. And one of the little lessons we are asked, I think, to learn from this gospel is that we cannot judge people by externals.

Now the prayer of the Pharisee was a litany of all the good things that he had done, thanking God that he was not like the rest of humanity. And the gospel has a wonderful, wonderful little phrase, an absolute genius of writing. It says, “He spoke this prayer to himself.” He wasn’t talking to God. He was just wrapped up in his own sense of righteousness, of what a wonderful person he was. He spoke this prayer to himself. He was the mirror image of those to whom Jesus addressed the parable, those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.

The tax collector, on the other hand, spoke to God, a very simple cry for forgiveness, “O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He knew himself. He knew the truth about himself and he was prepared to openly admit that truth about himself. Was the Pharisee lying? Well, no, he probably did do all those good things that he listed. So, why was it that it was the tax collector who was justified? Well, I believe it was because he realized and acknowledged that he could not be saved by his own power. He could not be saved just by a list of the good things that he had done. He could only be saved by the graciousness of God..... the graciousness of God.

And I think this is the principal lesson that Jesus wants us to learn in this passage. Certainly good things are to be commended and we are obligated to really try to observe God’s law, but this is not what makes us pleasing to God. This is not what justifies us, particularly if it were to lead us into despising and looking down on other people. The tax collector shows us what is pleasing to God. He trusts. He trusts, not in himself, but in God’s mercy. He confesses that he can only be saved by God’s forgiving love, God’s mercy.

What about us? .... What about us? Well, at the very end of the passage, Jesus said “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted.” And St. Teresa of Avila give us a great definition of humility. She says, “Humility is truth.” And so, I suggest a happy mix for us. We thank God for who we are. We thank God for the good that we have been able to do. We thank God for our abilities, for our talents, but all the time recognizing that everything, simply everything, is gift from God. Recognizing that without God we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing that is of any real value, recognizing that we have no cause at all to despise others or look down on them. The Pharisee prayed, “I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity.” I suggest that we pray, “I thank You, Lord, that I AM like the rest of humanity, weak and sinful, but redeemed by You, forgiven by You, loved by You. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Amen.