Attitude in prayer

Pharisee or Tax Collector?

Luke 18:9–14 NRSV

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We tend to be really in to competition and comparisons in our culture. Here we are in the middle of Football season, the NBA & NHL seasons just began, and the baseball playoffs are in full swing. In addition, we are in the final stretch of a mid-term election cycle that has just about worn us all out! Every politician compares themselves with their opponent and sees themselves as a far superior choice. If everything that is reported about the candidates in the ads, I wouldn’t be able to vote for anybody. All of that is fine – I mean, I enjoy competition as much as anybody else. I rooted for the Guardians until they got knocked out of the playoffs. It would have been nice to go to one of the playoff games, but I would never pay the prices I saw on stubhub for tickets.

That spirit of competition and comparison has no place in our spiritual lives, and yet, so often it’s what we do. We compare ourselves to others with terrible consequence because whether we find ourselves like the Pharisee, feeling superior to others or we find that in our minds we don’t measure up - the comparison is not helpful. It has been said that comparison is the thief of joy, and I believe that is especially so in this culture of social media where we often compare our worst with other people’s best. In our passage that we read this morning, we find a Pharisee comparing himself to a tax collector, among other people.

A Pharisee was a member of the Jewish faith set apart to maintain and further the divine cause (Craig Evans, Luke). They were layman - zealous about keeping the Scriptures, the oral law and traditions pure. They were the pious ‘church-goers’ of their time who attended every Bible study and prayer meeting and always tried to obey every law of the faith. They were the people that would have been there every time the doors were open. Pharisees knew how to pray. In fact, “they applied themselves to the art of prayer (Emil Brunner, Sowing And Reaping: The Parables Of Jesus).”

Jesus often had disputes with the Pharisees, and so we have grown accustomed to thinking negatively of them as soon as we hear their title. But Pharisees were highly respected and looked up to in their community. They were the leaders of the community. They would have been the ones that were chosen as board members and Sunday School teachers. They were looked up to - they were highly educated.

We need to see them as honored members of the Jewish community in order to fully understand this parable. They were the good guys; the best of the best of Jewish citizenry. It is important to remember that Jesus is speaking of one specific Pharisee and not the whole group.

A tax collector was at the other end of the spectrum. He would have been perceived by the community as the worst of the worst of Jewish citizenry, perhaps even lower. In fact, sometimes they were not even Jewish citizens, but foreigners who were sent to collect taxes from the people of Israel. Perhaps even worse, some of the tax collectors in the Scriptures were Jews who worked for the ruling Roman authorities. Those collectors were considered both extortioners and traitors - extortioners because they collected more taxes than was owed and pocketing the difference – and traitors because they served the occupying power of Rome. Again, Jesus was speaking of one specific tax collector and not the whole bunch.

Remember, as the parable opens, in order to read it and understand it as the people would have heard it then, we need to view the Pharisee positively – he’s the hero. The tax collector is to be viewed negatively – he’s the bad guy. Just the mention of a “tax-collector” would have left a sour taste in the mouth of the hearers.

The Pharisee: “O Lord, it’s hard to be humble when I see how rotten others are compared to me. Thank you Lord I’m not like those people, you know, people who steal, who do bad things and who cheat on their wives or even like this guy over there who works for Rome. Yes Lord, I am one of the very few who does more than even the Law requires – you know, I give a tenth of all I get to the temple while everyone else just gives a tenth of their income. I also go without food and water, I fast from sunset to sunset twice a week and not just once a year like most other folks. Yes, God, thank you that I am not like these other people.”

"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” (Luke 18:13).

The tax collector “slumped in the shadows” (The Message), way at the back of the temple, out of sight. He pounded his chest over and over again crying, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Two Outcomes

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

The tax collector went home from the temple “justified before God” – forgiven. He received a new right standing before God. He had received the blessing King David spoke of in Psalm 32: “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him…” (Psalm 32:1-2). The Pharisee went home not having been justified before God. He went home with nothing. Why the two different outcomes?

Note the spirit with which each prayed:

Pharisee

- Considered himself morally and religiously superior to others

- Despised those whose spiritual caliber was perceived to be less than his own; he praised himself and condemned his neighbor

- Exalted in his own religious practices

- Trusted in his own good deeds to make him acceptable to God

- Acted as if God owed Him something for his goodness

- Failed to see his sin and therefore, his own need for God

- Measured himself to others rather than to God who is absolute in holiness; he built his self-worth on the moral failings of others

- Lacked a humble and contrite (repentant) heart

He completely missed the posture of sorrow and repentance that is required in order to find forgiveness.

Sometimes we get to thinking that God wants us to try something on our own first, and then come to him in prayer for help only after we’ve worked at it and can’t figure it out. We hear the saying, “God helps those who help themselves” and think it’s true. Many people even believe it’s in the Bible. It’s not. It actually comes from Greek mythology.

A man is pushing his cart along a dirt road and it gets stuck in the mud. He sits down on the ground next to the cart and asks the gods to free his cart. Hercules appears and says, “Get up, man, and put your shoulder to the wheel. The gods help them that help themselves.”

This focus on doing things ourselves without asking for God’s help leads us to believe we actually did them without God’s help, which in turn grows to our believing we don’t need God’s help.

And if we believe we don’t need God’s help, we can easily believe that we don’t need him or his rules. We start doing our will instead of God’s, and the more we do it the more prideful we become. Our pride causes us to focus on our will which in turn makes us even more proud of ourselves.

Paul W. Powell once observed: “Pride is so subtle that if we aren’t careful we’ll be proud of our humility. When this happens our goodness becomes badness. Our virtues become vices. We can easily become like the Sunday school teacher who, having told the story of the Pharisee and the publican, said, ‘Children, let’s bow our heads and thank God we are not like the Pharisee.’”

Tax Collector

- Recognized the holiness of God; he knew the great divide that was between himself and God – “[he] stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven”

- He recognized the sin in his life; he didn’t hide it or deny it. He recognized his need for God’s grace and begged for it – “[he] beat his breast and said, ’God, have mercy on me, a sinner”

What is the spirit you bring to prayer? What is the attitude of your heart when you speak with God?

The Bible says, “God gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).

God told the prophet Isaiah, “I live in that high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts” (Isaiah 57:15).

Remember Jesus’ own words in this parable: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

How Shall We Then Pray?

What does the Lord’s parable teach us about the spirit with which we are to pray? What is the attitude of our heart when coming before God?

Pray with a spirit of humility recognizing that we are sinners saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8). Pray knowing that even the privilege to come before God is a gift (Ephesians 3:12). Pray knowing that God will turn away a prayer saturated with pride, selfishness and looking down on others. God will welcome a contrite prayer, a prayer which is honest about our spiritual state, our need for God’s grace.

“The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17; NLT)

Pray knowing that it is to an absolutely holy God we speak (Isaiah 6:3). Pray knowing that God will hear a plea for mercy, help and forgiveness no matter who you are or what you have done (1 John 1:9,10).

Pray the prayer of the tax collector for he went home right before God.

Is that the attitude the world around us sees when they see us? It is disturbing to see the difference many people see between their perception of Jesus, and the perception of His followers. A recent study asked people to use single words to describe Jesus. They responded, "wise, accepting, compassionate, gracious, humble." Then they were asked to use single words to describe Christians, they said, "critical, exclusive, self-righteous, narrow and repressive."

"There is a difference between knowing the good news and being the good news,” says Deiter Zander. "We are the evidence! How we live our lives is the evidence. Everything counts--all the time."

We are not in competition with each other for our spiritual worthiness. We are not in competition with those that are in the world. If we are going to compare ourselves, we should compare ourselves to the holiness of God. When we do that, we will respond like the tax collector: God, have mercy on me, a sinner!