Deacon Dominic Hoang Thuong
THE PHARISEE vs TAX COLLECTOR
2 Kings 5:14–17; 2 Timothy 2:8–13; Luke 17:11–19
Our Lord Jesus has taught us in the last few weeks about the truth of God’s kingdom through his parables. Today’s parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector teaches us not only about God’s kingdom, but more importantly it teaches us the way by which we can make into God’s kingdom and to avoid the way by which we cannot make it into his kingdom.
This parable is unique since it is only found in the Gospel of Luke. We know St Luke is a physician, so I would like to invite us to look at this parable through the lens of a doctor.
What we see from the Pharisee and the tax collector are the symptom of the deep cause underneath of each man.
We have two men going to the temple, bringing with them two opposite attitudes, and ending it up with tow opposite results.
If we know what make up someone called a Pharisee vs a tax collector, then we would understand how striking the comparison is.
The Pharisee is a religious person who is respected by his piety, who observes both written and oral Moses’s law strictly to the letter.
While a tax collector is considered as a traitor – a snake who cooperates with the Roman occupier and worse someone who collects tax from his own people for the oppressive foreign power.
He is also known as greedy and corrupted because he often collects more than required and kept the excess for himself.
The Pharisee took up his position in the temple means he made sure everyone in the temple acknowledged his piety before God.
He prayed “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, and adulterous.” We can see clearly that he thought of himself as the most moral man on earth. No one can beat him and his record of being good. He told God that he did it all by himself.
While his thought ran on to despise the rest of humanity, he must be super proud to spot the tax collector from a far to brag about his goodness because he knew a tax collector is a bad guy.
The Pharisee is not only morally good but also religiously good because he fasts twice a week while Moses law requires only fasting on the Day of the Atonement-the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. He pays 10% of his entire income to support the Levites – the temple priests and the temple and helping the poor.
The tax collector shows his repentance and humility by his location standing far off in the temple since he feels unworthy to be closer to God.
He shows his repentance and humility by his behavior beating his breast. I think the tax collector might be Catholic because that is what we do at the beginning of the mass beating our breast saying: “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”
He shows his repentance and humility by uttering the 7 simple words from his heart: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
Do you know why? this is the most effective prayer.
Because Jesus said so. He said the tax collector goes home justified but not the Pharisee. Jesus reveals to us the profound truth about God’s kingdom and who is being justified and saved and who is being unjustified and doomed.
The Pharisee who is a self-righteous man, who did many good deeds is going home unjustified while the tax collector who is a sinner, who did many bad deeds is going home justified.
What does it mean to be justified?
Justification means that we are righteous in the eyes of God not based on our works or merits but on faith in Jesus Christ. St. Paul explains: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3: 23-24)
Through our baptism, we are justified becoming righteous in the eyes of God the Father because we are baptized into Christ. Scripture said: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness in him.” (2 Cor 5:21)
We are justified because Christ “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24)
We become righteous in the eyes of God “for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)
The truth is that none of us is holy & righteous enough to enter the kingdom of God, no matter how many of good deeds we perform in our life.
As a physician, St Luke gives us a spiritual diagnose for these two men:
The symptom of the Pharisee is pride while the symptom of the tax collector is humility.
The root cause of pride is the cancer of the heart. When you have too much pride in your heart, your heart does not have any room for anyone including God. A prideful person can not love others because they see others as their competitor.
Pride is the mother of all sins. Pride is the worst sin of 7 deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Slot.
When you are too prideful,
You fail to recognize your flaws and
You fail to recognize your need for repentance and redemption.
You become spiritually blind by inflating your self-perception and distorting the reality of yourself, others, and God.
The root cause of humility is the guilt of the heart. You must be humble enough to recognize your wrong doings which you have offended others and ultimately God.
Humility is the mother of all virtues. Humility is the best virtue of 7 heavenly virtues: Humility, Charity, Chastity, Kindness, Temperance, Patience, and Diligence.
When you are humble,
You recognize your flaws
You recognize your need for repentance and redemption
You become spiritually sighted by knowing who you are in relation with others and with God.
In conclusion: Let us pray:
O God, helps us to recognize that only through your Son Jesus Christ we are justified to be righteous in your eyes. Jesus affirms that when he said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
O God, helps us to come to church with a right attitude of worshiping you. Please remove the prideful attitude in us and fill our heart with your humility, so that we are able to prioritize our relationship first to love you with all our heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbors as ourselves.