Tax Collector and Pharisee
Sermon by CH(PT) Keith J. Andrews
All scripture marked ESV: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
We look this morning at Luke 18 verse 9-14.
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed1 thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Lk 18:9-14, ESV)
We look this morning at a story that Jesus tells to people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
These are the same kinds of people that we have today—people that think they are doing good enough to get by. People who think that because they aren’t ax murders or child molesters—then everything is alright. That just isn’t so.
The Bible teaches that it isn’t alright—we need to confess our sins and come clean.
This should be a part of our prayer lives—because we need to come clean before God.
Jesus tells a story to them to get his point across. And, as we continue to look at the practice of confession in our prayers—it would help us to revisit these truths as well.
So Jesus begins his story,
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (Lk 18:10, ESV).
These men both went into the temple. They both had different approaches. They both came with different concerns. They both came with trials that were going on in their life. They left with different results.
We first see
1. The Pharisee
11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ (Lk 18:11-12, ESV).
Here we find the proud believer. He has it all together. He stands confidently in the temple—he is very comfortable with the temple—he is very proud of his righteousness.
Jesus runs into trouble with the Pharisee’s constantly throughout the New Testament.
Harper’s Bible Commentary says that
The Pharisees were zealous observers of the law, prominent among the people and especially concerned with ritual purity, tithing food according to Old Testamnet law, and correct observance of Sabbath.
(Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper’s Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) San Francisco: Harper & Row.)
There is not a problem with being an observer of the law, even being a zealous observer of the law. The problem is when one begins to trust in that zealousness to make you righteous.
Do you think Jesus is pointing something out to the people that he was talking to? You bet he is!
Remember the audience that he was talking to? He was talking to the people
“who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:” (Lk 18:9, ESV)
Jesus was pointing this man out because the people that Jesus was talking were those people. They were the ones who were trusting in themselves that they were righteous.
Do you think maybe Jesus is pointing something out to the people that read this today? Yes he is.
We too frequently hear of people that act as those that are more spiritual than others.
We have Christian T-shirts, Christian Bed and Breakfasts, Christian books, Christian Music, and Christian diets. There isn’t anything wrong with any of these but when you start earning for yourself extra points for using them, there is a problem. We have quantified our levels of Christianity based on which Radio station we listen too or which coffee house we buy our coffee from—some times even which church you attend.
And when we wear our Christian T-shirts and read our Christian shirts and put a fish on the back of our car--we like to say, under our breath;
‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ (Lk 18:11b-12a, ESV)
We are becoming a religion of Pharisee’s.
The word Pharisee is mostly understood to mean “separate ones”. Today we look at the verse that says
2 Do not be conformed to this world, (Rm 12:2, ESV)
And we think that everything we do should be serate form the world. We need to be carefull that we don’t so base our theology on “be not conformed” that we forget to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”(Mt 28:19, ESV)
We look at the statistical decline of Christianity and we wonder what is going on? We can’t fathom that our marketing practices are failing—oh, they aren’t failing—they are hitting their market segment. Pharisees love things that will make them feel more spiritual. The problem is that God doesn’t honor the work of the Pharisee.
Christian are expected to exhibit the fruits of the spirit—from Galatians 5:21-24;
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Ga 5:21-24, ESV).
This is what we are to exhibit to the world—not our arrogance and our super spirituality.
We as Christians need to be reminded constantly of the parable that Jesus told during his sermon on the mount.
Reading from Luke 6:39-42;
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. (Lk 6:39-42, ESV)
We must be careful not to be the Pharisee’s of tomorrow. We need to stay away from being arrogantly Christian.
We need to look at the life of;
2. The Tax Collector
Verse 13 reads.
13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Lk 18:13, ESV).
Here, we see the opposite of the Pharisee. He stood far off, not comfortable in this place of worship—not even lifting his eyes toward heaven--
The New Bible Dictionary describes the tax collectors as those who had been
“prone to extortion and malpractice from the very beginning, so that while the grossest excesses were restrained by the government, and cases sometimes brought to justice, a generally bad reputation has come down to (them).”
(Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (1155). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.)
These were not the law abiding, good reputation crowd. These were not the people that people wanted to trust.
The Harris poll studied the most trusted occupations and found actors, lawyers, and stockbrokers in the bottom three. (www.harrisinteractive.com)
In the time of Jesus, tax collectors would have ranked all the way at the bottom.
In fact, it was the Pharisee’s who criticized Jesus for eating with them.
Matthew 9: 11-13 says
11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mt 9:11-13, ESV)
The tax collectors were the lowly. Matthew was a tax collector. Zacheus was a tax collector.
This tax collector did not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Lk 18:13, ESV).
This is the attitude we should have when we approach God.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we should throw our morality to become as immoral as the tax collectors—but we should recognize that we as already as low as the tax collectors and approach Christ Jesus humbly and submissively.
We need to live our lives and specifically our prayer lives with the humility of a tax collector—fully aware of our sinfulness before a Holy God. It is then that we can begin to comprehend the sacrifice that Jesus paid to pay our penalty.
Jesus says
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Lk 18:9-14).
When we are so spiritual that we forget our dependence on God, we then receive our blessings from ourselves and from our own performance of spirituality.
Jesus said the same of those who pray loud in church.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (Mt 6:5, ESV)
But the one that is humble, receives his blessing from the Lord—he is truly blessed.
We are to humble our selves before the Lord and confess to him our unrighteousness.
That is what confession is. It is not just reciting what we are doing wrong and then going back and doing them again the next day. It is a humble anguish, like the tax collector beating his breast, expressing his remorse for the sin that was in his life.
So what about you?
You have a choice this morning, whether you are going to leave here as the Pharisee or the Tax Collector.
Are you going to be a arrogant Christian, who seemingly does no wrong and holds that over the heads of everyone you meet.
Or, are you going to be humble, recognizing your guilt of sin and continually live a life of confession.
You may not be a Christian. You’ve never seen the need to confess your sin to anyone—especially not a God that you’ve never seen or heard.
You may be like the Tax Collector—living your life for the now, but then one day you wake up and see the destruction that it is causing to world around you and you humble yourself before God and confess your sin.
The Bible says all of us are sinners, through our nature and our choices. We are all condemned to die because this sin. This death is on earth—that is why people die—without sin, it would not be so. And that is death spiritually—to live eternally apart from God, but also to live in the eternal punishment of hell. We deserve that, because of our sin.
Yet, Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty for this sin by his death on a cross. And all we must do is accept this payment as our payment and we can live eternally with him.
Once you approach God, which a complete understanding of your sin—once that you understand that you sin and my sin each lead us to death and that death was then paid for by Christ in our place—that is humility. Then we are able to understand what it means to completely confess our sin to him that we may be washed clean of this and live righteously for him.
