Publican and Pharisee 2025 Fr Nicholas Carr

Glory to Jesus Christ. Most people are familiar

with obstacle courses, but in case you are not,

an obstacle course is a series of challenging

events or physical obstacles on the way to the

finish line, usually timed. And some of you may

have seen on television American Ninja Warrior.

And if you have, you know there are competitors

that race. They leap and climb over different

structures and jump and sometimes fall into big

ponds of water because they fail. And the various

obstacles are there and they try to make it through

them all to the end of the course. But sometimes

they fall and are eliminated from the course.

And this is a physical obstacle course. But you

and I, as Orthodox Christians, we face a spiritual

obstacle course. And we know the enemy would

like to see us fall. But we also know the Lord

will help us through the course. We are on this

course towards sanctification. towards seeking

to make it to heaven, towards holiness, towards

an eternity in God's presence. The path to holiness

is not easy, but it is before us. And this Sunday

on the church calendar is the Sunday of the publican

and the Pharisee. And in the gospel reading for

today, Jesus presents us with a parable. There

are two men who are on a spiritual obstacle course,

and they are facing the obstacle of pride. One

of them is a Pharisee, a religious man, trained

in religious practices, and the other is a publican,

that is, a tax collector, a profession in those

days known for some corruption. And one might

expect that the Pharisee would do much better

being trained in spiritual things. We might expect

the obstacle course to be passed by the Pharisee

and failed by the tax collector. This is the

irony. The gospel reads, two men went up to the

temple to pray. One, a Pharisee. the other a

tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed

thus to himself, God, I thank you that I am not

like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,

or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a

week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And

the tax collector, Standing afar off would not

so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat

his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a

sinner. And Jesus shows us the vice of pride

and the virtue of humility. And the Pharisee,

he's doing good things, but his heart is off.

His eyes are on himself. and not on God. And

the tax collector's eyes are totally upon the

Lord, on God. And though his actions have been

sinful, he is repentant, and his hope is in the

Lord, not in himself. Elder Arseni of Romania

has said, humility is the only power that can

free the human soul. Repentance before God is

how we must start. And then God will work in

us. And he will sanctify us. And so that one

day we will be doing the good things that the

Pharisee did, but with a good heart and our eyes

on the Lord. In a few weeks, we will enter the

Lenten fast. It will be a spiritual obstacle

course for us all. and many of us will be confronted

with temptations of various kinds. And let us

strive to stand against these with God's help

and strength. But even if we do fall, God forbid,

let us get up again and follow the example of

the publican, this tax collector. who confessed

his sins before the Lord and asked for God's

grace and mercy and forgiveness. St. John Chrysostom

says, In times of temptation, the weak look for

who to blame, the strong look to God. And so

if we do fall, let us take it upon ourselves

humbly and confess it before the Lord. Remember,

it is God who saves. We do not save ourselves.

We only let God work in us, sanctifying us. We

must acknowledge our own sins, confess and repent

of them, and then strive with all our effort

to follow Christ, to keep his commandments. And

eventually, we will, because of what God will

do in our life. did the right things for the

wrong reason. God will enable us to do the right

thing for the right reason. So during this coming

Lent, let us determine to keep the fast for the

right reasons, making it through the spiritual

obstacles that confront us and in facing the

obstacle of pride. Let us remember the words,

of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ in

today's gospel, who said of the tax collector,

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified

rather than the other. For everyone who exalts

himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself

will be exalted. Glory to Jesus Christ.