Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

To some who were confident in their own righteousness and looked

down on everyone else. Jesus told this parable. Two men went up

to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that

I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or

even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth

of all I get. 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. I tell you that this man

rather than the other went home justified before God. For all

those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble

themselves will be exalted. People were also bringing babies

to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples

saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to

him and said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder

them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly,

I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like

a little child will never enter it.

Well, as you know by now, Jesus told stories. He told stories

to help us understand how different the kingdom of God is from

the world in which we live.

And the world we know.

He tried to help us to not see the world through sin's distorted

perspective, but see it through the way he designed it, the

way he intended for.

Us to live and to relate and to flourish.

And so he told these stories, these.

Parables, and they all started with the.

Kingdom of heaven is like.

Or the kingdom of God is like, interchangeable.

As you know, it's upside down from what the world values. And it's

not just a little different, it's totally different. We're going

to see today the difference between the self righteous and the

humble and how dramatically different it is. And as I've shared

with you through the semester and will in the spring again as we

continue in the parables, it's a daily process to day by day understand

and internalize and live in the kingdom of God. Because the kingdom

of God is not for somewhere in the future in heaven. The kingdom

of God, he said, is now. And we can live in the kingdom.

Of God spirit right now, day by day, to see, to love and to follow

every day just a little bit more.

So today, what God sees when we.

Pray, what does God see when we pray?

He told the story of a parable.

Of a tax collector and a pharisee.

Now, Jesus was more critical of the self righteous than any other

sin that he ever talked about. More often he attacks self righteous

religious.

Leaders than he attacks any other type of sin.

And today is another example of that. In this parable, to understand

the details of the story and understand the significance of it,

we really have to understand the context of when they live. We

have to understand some of the history about which he's referring

to, and we have to understand some how the Jewish faith operates.

This was before the Messiah. This is before the Holy Spirit came.

So how did people relate to God in those days? And when you understand

that, then this parable takes on even more meaning. And so the

story starts like this. Two men went up to the temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee and the other.

Was a despised tax collector.

Now the Temple in Jerusalem no longer stands. You see on television

often Jewish people.

Or other leaders going to the wailing wall.

The wailing wall is a retaining wall of where the Temple

used to be. The Temple was up on top of that where they've now

built some other.

Structures and dome of the rock, these kinds of things.

But the Temple is all gone. In fact, Jesus said when he was living

on earth, he said, within one generation, every stone will be removed

from the Temple. Pretty dramatic statement, because the Temple

was the center of everything. The Temple was the most holy place.

The Temple was kind of something everybody assumed would

be there forever. But it's true. About 40 years after the crucifixion,

the Romans attacked Jerusalem and took down every single stone

of the Temple and removed it. But the Temple was where the Ark

of the Covenant was. The ten Commandments that Moses wrote on

stone, and those were in the Temple held there in Jerusalem. But,

but more important than that, it was a place where the presence

of God was. This was not an ordinary church. This was a very

special place where.

The presence of God was, where glory.

Resided, where prayers were heard, where sacrifices were made.

And so the Temple was constructed really with four, excuse

me, five different layers to it. The first was on the outside

was the court of Gentiles, because the Jewish people were the

chosen people.

They're the ones who were. It was their faith.

And they would go inside more fully. But the Gentiles could be

on the outside. It was really kind of outside of.

The actual gate of the Temple.

But that was one place you could be. Then you could go into

the next court, and that was called the court of women. Now men

and women could both be in that court, but women could not go

Past that, into the inner courts. The next was the court of

Israel. That's where Jewish men went and where priests went,

because that was an elevated place for them. And then there was

the holy place, even closer into the center of the temple, where

sacrifices were made and people would bring animals and follow

sacrificial process there in that center. And then the center

of the temple was called the holy of holies. It was the place

where God dwelled on earth. It was separated from everything else.

In fact, there was a huge curtain, thick curtain, don't think

of a normal curtain, I mean, a huge, thick, thick, thick curtain

that surrounded it. And once a year, only one time a year, the chief

priest, after he purified himself, following the ritual that

were.

Prescribed in the Torah, the Old Testament,.

The first five books, he would go into the holy of holies one time.

A year into the presence of God, because it was a pure place.

So that's where the temple was that they went to. And now in this

holy of holies, just so you understand the significance of it,

as I said, there was this veil, they called it a curse curtain,

separated God from the sinful world. And when Jesus was crucified

while he was on the cross, after he said, father, I commend

to you my spirit. And he said, it is finished. And he died on the

cross. That huge veil in the temple that was so thick you couldn't

imagine.

It tore open and the spirit of God came into the world in a new

way.

That's how significant this place was. So when Jesus said the

Pharisee and the tax collector were going to the temple to pray,

this wasn't like us.

Going to church to pray.

This was a very special place to come as close as you could to.

The prayer presence of God. That's why they went to the temple

to pray.

Now, in those days there were set times for prayer. They would

pray at 9 o' clock in the morning and they would pray.

At 3 o' clock in the afternoon.

And these were communal prayers. So a lot of people came

at those times, weren't the only times they.

Prayed, but those were the primary times they prayed.

And a lot of people would come and they'd stand in the courts, in

the temple, or they'd get on their knees and. And they would lift

their hands up.

Or they would stand up. One of the two was what was customary.

And they would all pray out loud.

At the same time. That was how they shared in prayer.

Well, the Pharisee came and he was a religious leader. Now the Pharisee

as a religious leader, Pharisee means separated one. So

he was separated as one more holy than other people in that.

In their culture and in their faith,.

Because he was to be devoted to purity and obedience to God's

law. The Pharisees followed very carefully the first five books

of the Old Testament, the.

Law of Moses, the Torah, as they call it.

And it was God's way in those books of giving very prescriptive

direction on how to separate yourself from the world and be connected

to God and impurity. And he gave them helps and guides on how

to navigate through a sinful world, emphasizing ritual, purity,

tithing, fasting, prayer and sacredness of the Sabbath. So that

was what the Pharisees were.

Focused on, or what they were supposed to be focused on.

There were about 6 to 10,000 Pharisees. So there was a lot of

them, but they weren't, you know, a huge number. But they were

respected by the people as holy men. They probably wore some

kind of robe that identified them and a sash that would stand

out. And people knew that this was somebody special. They'd probably

give way to them because.

These were important people in their religious tradition.

They were really feared by a lot of people because they were the

moral authority. And they were the ones who decided what was moral

and what was not moral.

And.

And they were judgmental about people who didn't follow the law

of Moses as they did. But they were also disliked by the Romans.

The Romans couldn't stand the Pharisees because the Pharisees were

about the Jewish people and the nationalism of Judea. And they

were resisting the assimilation that the Romans wanted

when they conquered the Judea to assimilate them into the Roman

Empire. And so there was a lot of.

Tension around the Pharisees.

So that's who we have going to this temple to pray. The Pharisee

went to the temple. He should go there. That's what a Pharisee

should do. But he went there to be heard and seen and to get the

admiration.

Of his peers, not to get closer to God.

In fact, he goes in and begins to pray and lists his achievements

and lists the sins of others and says, I'm glad I'm not like them.

You see, for the Pharisee, his prayer,.

The temple, was a stage, and that's all it was.

He wanted everybody around him to hear him, to see him and to know.

How wonderful he was as a religious leader. But then we have

the tax collector.

Totally different environment, totally different set of.

Circumstances than a tax collector.

You see, when the Romans occupied Judea. They had to get taxes

from the.

People to pay for the Roman government and the Roman legions

and all the costs of that.

And so they created a system called tax farming. And in tax farming,

what they would essentially do is assign a territory and they would

say, out of these blocks or this little community or this village,

whatever it may be, we need those people to pay, let's say, $100,000

in today's dollars, okay? So we need them to pay $100,000 so a

tax collector could come and buy the right to. To collect those

taxes in that region. So he would pay the Roman people, Roman

government, $100,000, and then he would go out and everything he

could get.

Over $100,000 was his profit. So he'd try and collect 130, $140,000,.

And that was his profit from it. And so when the Pharisee says

this despised tax collector, yeah, he was despised. People hated

him for a lot of reasons. First of all, he's taken money from

them, and he's taking more money from.

Them than Rome required them to pay.

But they were also traitors because these were Jewish men working

for Rome and the Roman culture during that time. If you think our

culture's bad today, it's nothing compared to what Rome was.

It was wicked, it was horrible. It was debauched in every

single way you can imagine.

There was no presence of God in the Roman Empire. And so for a

Jewish man to.

Take money from Jewish people to give.

To this horrible government, that is a betrayal of God's chosen

people.

But they were also corrupt. Think of a tax collector as kind

of like a mafia person who strong arms, everybody, and they're

corrupt in order to get what they want. They make a lot of money,

but there's no quality of life. If you ever studied what goes

on in the Mafia world, it's amazing to me, they have all this

money, but.

There's absolutely no quality of life to what they do.

So there was corruption to it. He was considered unclean because

a Jew would not handle gentile money. To touch Gentile money would

have made you unclean. And so for a Jew to handle that money and

to interact with pagan officials, he was unclean. And because

of that, he was cut off. He was cut off from religious life.

He was cut off from community respect. He was cut off from all

moral credibility.

People wanted nothing to do with a tax collector. Despised tax

collector. Pretty accurate description. So the tax collector

also went to the temple, and the tax collector went to the temple

seeking Forgiveness.

Scripture says he stood far off. The Jew probably stood in the

outside of the court, probably not even went to the women's court,

probably stood out.

In the Gentile court.

He didn't get close to where the.

Sacrifices were made for sins.

He was drawn to God's mercy, as close as he felt safe to get to

it. But he couldn't get very far. But he came to confess. And

so while for the Pharisee, the temple was a stage, for the tax.

Collector, the temple was a sanctuary. And that's the prayer

we have when two men went to the temple to pray.

So when Jesus told the story of a tax collector as a spiritual

hero, this was scandalous. The people couldn't believe he would

tell this story. A tax collector is a spiritual hero. That

doesn't make any sense. Listeners would have been shocked.

In their world, there was no more despised figure. But Jesus redeems

tax collectors. Jesus redeems sinners. Jesus redeems the people

that everybody else.

Has given up on.

Jesus redeems those who.

Who are called despised because of their sin. You know the

story of Zacchaeus saying.

It probably in Sunday school, about the little man climbed up to

the sycamore tree to see Jesus, and Jesus came by because

he wanted to see him. He said, come on, I'm going to your house.

We're going to have a long talk.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector.

Levi, who Jesus called to be a disciple, was a tax collector. What

he changed his name to when Jesus, he followed Jesus.

Matthew wrote the first book of the New Testament. Tax collector

became a disciple.

So we have this parable. These two men, as different as can be,

tax collector who represents in the story true repentance and

humility and awareness of sin and faith in God's mercy,.

Contrasted with the Pharisee, who's self righteous, who's judgmental,

who's legalistic, and Jesus makes a judgment about these two

men.

The Pharisee went where he could be heard and seen. He won the

admiration of peers. He wanted to list out his achievements before

God and. And the temple to him was a stage. And the tax collector

came seeking forgiveness, stood far off because he wasn't worthy.

He came to confess.

And the temple was a sanctuary.

Now, when you get in the stories in more detail, then you

begin to.

Even see more of the significance of this.

Said the Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. I

thank you, God, that I'm not like other people. Cheaters, sinners,

adulterers. I'm certainly not like that.

Tax collector. So he must have seen him.

I fast twice a week and I.

Give you a tenth of my income.

You see, the Pharisee does everything right outwardly. He goes

to church, he prays, he fasts, he tithes, he shows up at all the

special Bible studies.

But his prayer reveals his heart. His prayer is, God, I thank

youk that I'm not like other people. He's not praying to God in

that.

He's holding up a mirror, a spiritual mirror, admiring himself.

That's it. He stood by himself, the scripture says, as he

was superior to others. He didn't want to be close to others.

He probably wanted to be separated, maybe up a little bit

on a step where he made sure everybody could see him. He stood

by himself because he was not like them.

And Jesus was so critical of the.

Self righteous because they can't even see it. They are so sure

they're right about everything,.

They don't realize how completely wrong they are.

And then as in now the Pharisees.

Stuck together and now the self righteous stick together.

They surround themselves by other self righteous people, so they

follow on exit on Facebook and whatever else other self righteous

people, so they feel even more self.

Righteous in their being right about everything and everybody else

is wrong. Pharisees did everything right outwardly, but inwardly

there was no spirit of God.

Jesus didn't condemn the Pharisees because they loved the

Scripture. He loved that they loved the Scripture. But that was

the problem. They knew the Scripture inside and out. He condemned

them because they missed the heart of the script scripture. His

faith was about admiration and performance. His spiritual pride

is what drove him.

Or self righteousness, you can call it either one.

He was legalistic. He elevated man made traditions above God's.

Heart and spirit and he was judgmental as could be.

They controlled the religious system, kind of who's in, who's out.

What sin is bad, what sin is worse. They counted with the deciders,

all that.

Deciding who was worthy. And that's where they got their satisfaction,

but couldn't find relationship with God. Well then we have the tax

collector, it says.

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift

his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead he beat on his chest

in sorrow saying, O God, be merciful to.

Me, for I am a sinner.

He stands at a distance. He knows he doesn't deserve God. And

there are sinners who are afraid to even come close to God

because they know in comparison to God's purity, they

don't deserve to be there.

And that's who this guy was. I don't know what he, I mean, tax collector.

We saw the characteristics of that plus everything that led into

it.

We don't know the depths of all.

His sins or what his heart was, but he knew at that point he

was broken. We know that self righteous people didn't care about

him.

Glad I'm not like that tax collector.

He felt condemned by everybody around him.

Scripture says he wouldn't even look up. Now in those days,

the tradition to pray was you either stand or, or you look up.

Well, if you stood, you looked up too. But you either stand or you

hold.

Your hands up and you look up.

That's how people pray.

They didn't pray like we do now, where you bow your head and

close your eyes and that kind of thing.

The physical posture reflected their spiritual posture.

But in the Roman culture, submission meant you kept your eyes

down.

If a Roman leader came down the street, you, you would never

look up at them. You would put your eyes down and.

Not look up because you were in submission to them. And so we

have this image of this tax collector who couldn't even look.

Up because he was so broken and submitted to God. And then it

says he beat on his chest in sorrow. He was broken with pain.

He was self aware. He knew he's shamed, he knew he sinned. He

didn't need the Pharisee to point out his sin.

Boy, there's a lot of that that goes on, isn't there? We have

Pharisees all around us every day who want to point out everybody

else's sin. But you know, I don't think sinners need that. I

think they know. I think they know and they just somehow want to

come closer to God. And so we prayed.

He prayed, o God, be merciful on.

Me, for I am a sinner.

He didn't make any excuses. He could have had excuses. He might

have said, God, be merciful on me because I'm a sinner. Because,

you know, I didn't want to do this, but I really needed the money.

I got a sick child and I got to take care of that child. I had

to be a tax collector and be corrupt to do this. Or he could have

said, I, I'm a Jew and I see the hypocrites of the Pharisees and

the hypocrites of everybody else. I'm giving up on the church

and so that's why I did it. Or he could have been pulled into it

by friends and friends said, man,.

You can make a lot of money doing this, you really ought to do

it.

And he just kind of slipped into.

A life of sin and corruption. He didn't make any excuses at all.

He just said, be merciful to me because I am a sinner.

He was throwing himself on God's mercy.

He brought nothing to the table other than his need. You know,

pride resists grace and humility receives grace. God isn't

looking for people who have it all together.

He's looking for people honest enough to.

Say, I need mercy, I'm a sinner. So let's look at what Jesus

said about these two men. Story goes on.

I tell you this, I tell you this. Sinner, not the Pharisee, returned

home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be.

Humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The Pharisee's goodness, good acts couldn't save him. Self righteousness

closed the door on grace to the Pharisee.

And the tax collector brought nothing good to the table to earn

salvation. But humility opened the door to grace for him.

The Pharisee was all about comparison and self trust.

And the tax collector was all about humility and dependence.

One had the illusion of control of their spiritual life and

the other was.

About complete trust in God for their future and their spiritual

life. True spirituality begins with brokenness. No excuses, no justifications,

no conditions. God measures hearts. He doesn't read resumes.

You see, the Pharisees religion was external.

But the tax collector's repentance was internal and became

eternal. The Kingdom of God. Repentance is more powerful than

reputation.

The gospel humiliates the proud and it.

Lifts up the humble over and over. The parable series we've talked

about this semester talks about all of them.

Lead in to understand this kingdom of God upside down from what

the world's like.

And this Pharisee and tax collector, if you want to put it,

look at it in understanding the kingdom of God.

And how we're to live.

Let me give you three takeaways. Especially if you are

a Pharisee.

If you are self righteous.

If.

If you think you've got it all.

Together, if you are judgmental of other people. Look

carefully at what the Kingdom of God teaches Pharisees. The first

is stop performing and start depending.

Grace isn't a reward.

Grace is a rescue.

The way up to God in the.

Kingdom of God is down on your knees in humility.

Humility isn't a weakness. It's a spiritual strength that comes

through.

With grace and dependence. And we need to not be performing before

God or performing before each other, but just depending on the

Lord. Secondly, in the kingdom of God, trade comparison for compassion.

How do you know when you've accepted God's grace?

How do you know it? You know it when you stop feeling superior

to other people. That's when you know it. And if it ever loses

sight of that, you need to get back to the place you started.

Some people, their faith is built on pointing out everybody else's

sins. You know, that's just an acceptable form of comparison. So

we're going to talk about how bad this sin is and that sin is and

this group and what they do and that, oh, that's horrible what

they do. And we've got to do this and that. That's just Phariseeism.

That's all it is. It's an acceptable form of comparison. When

you really have the grace of Christ flowing through you, you have

love and compassion for sinners.

You don't criticize them all day long. Trade comparison for compassion.

And then be yourself before God. No pretending.

Be honest in your prayers. Stop pretending. He already knows

who you're pretending for. He already knows. Be authentic in what

you talk to him about. Authenticity is what builds relationships,

isn't it? Can you imagine being in a relationship with somebody

and you're playing a facade the whole time and you're not telling

them all the parts about you, and you're not telling them how you

really feel or where you really are? There's no relationship

there. It's a show.

Relationship with God has to be built in. Authenticity. And humility

isn't a moment. Humility is a lifestyle. Humility always permeates

what we do when we understand the power of God's grace to save

each one of us a sinner. So I want to ask you a quick question.

How long has it been since you were honest in your prayers?

How long has it been since you.

Were really honest in your prayers?

There's an old hymn I love.

I got it on my playlist too many times. It's written about when

I was born, so maybe I grew up with her or whatever. But hymn is

how long has it been? How long has it been?

And there's some questions asked in that.

Hymn that I just really love.

How long has it been since you talked to the Lord and told him your

heart's hidden secrets? How long? How long since you prayed?

How long since you stayed on your knees till the light shone through?

How long has it been since your mind felt at ease? How long

since your heart knew no.

Burden how long has it been since you woke with the dawn and

felt the days worth the living and the song says can you call him

your friend? How long has it been since you knew that he cared

for you? If it's been too long Today, last chapel of the semester.

It's a good time to start to do something about it. Well, the

parable, the Pharisee and the.

Tax collector, they both went to the temple to pray. God heard

them both.

And God saw their heart in both.

In one he saw pride and self.

Righteousness and superiority and in the other he saw brokenness,

humility and dependency and Jesus said only one went home justified

only one Pray together with me Our benediction no eye is seen, no

ear is heard no mind is conceived what God has prepared for

those who love him. Thanks for being in chapel this semester Been

great. I'll miss you till spring and I'll see you then. God

bless.