Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

As Christ continues his journey towards Jerusalem, that place of suffering and shame where he will be rejected by the religious leaders, and despised the religious community, and ultimately put to death even as the perfect, righteous Son of God, He tells a parable about two very different kinds of people.

We need to recognise as we come to this passage that Christ witnessed these people around him in his own day.

He had interacted with them throughout His journey, and was prompted in this very instance to speak this parable, by those around him who belonged to one of the categories of people - those who were self-righteous.

It was out of concern, or perhaps rather righteous indignation from Jesus, that He confronted a particular group of people, a people that had a self-confidence about their own righteousness.

As we look at this passage, we really do need to come with humility, and hearts that desire to know the true state of ourselves.

We need to consider the state of our hearts.

As we live and interact as professing Christians with the world around us, along with other professing believers, we need to ask where our hearts are.

What is the nature of our heart attitudes.

1.

The Comparison (vv.9-10)

As Christ addresses this important matter of the state or condition of the heart, the heart posture, he does so in the context of those who placed themselves above others in their thoughts.

Note the attitude, or the posture of the heart of the people to whom Jesus is addressing this parable.

He speaks to those who were confident of their own righteousness.

Furthermore, they were those who looked down on others.

They were condescending and unkind in their attitudes towards others.

They saw themselves as better than other people, or at least more righteous than others.

I don’t want us to overlook the condition of the people to whom Jesus was talking.

Notice that they were confident.

They were confident of their own position before God.

They had confidence that they were on the right path.

They had a confidence that they were right before God, but that confidence was in themselves, in some way or another.

Turn with me briefly to Jeremiah 17…

Notice the emphasis in this passage in Jeremiah in where ones trust is placed.

The one who would place his trust in man, in people, in themselves, or others.

But trust in man, whether in oneself or some powerful leader, is a vain hope.

Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful.

The only place that ones trust ought to be placed is in the Lord.

And that’s applicable in the context of what Jesus is saying through this parable.

It is a vain hope indeed to place ones trust in man… in your own righteousness, in your own ability to save yourself.

In your own ability to do anything, really.

As Jesus confronts these people who place their confdience in their own flesh, he is confronting the oldest problem in sinful humanity’s history.

Trust in yourself, in your own thinking, in your own ways, rather than trust in God!

Our trust must be in God to save us.

As we continue, we see that Jesus proceeds to emphasize this truth through a parable.

Jesus presents his parable of two very different people.

Notice the characters that Jesus introduces.

Firstly, he introduces the Pharisee… This was the example of the self-righteous man.

Little more needs to be said about this person.

Pharisees fully relied on their own righteousness for attaining favor with God.

But we should consider something further, and quite important.

That is, that the Pharisee was a person that fitted nicely into the temple environment.

That was where he was most at home and comfortable.

As Jesus conveyed this parable, his hearers would have understood immediately that the Pharisee belonged here, and he was doing one of the things that he did best - praying!

On the opposite side is the tax collector.

This was a man that was despised by most Jewish people.

Despised by the people of Israel in particular, because of the work that they did for the Roman Empire, collecting taxes, even from their own people, and usually exploiting them and over-taxing them.

In terms of the Tax Collector going into the Temple… well, he certainly didn’t belong there.

This was no place for a tax collector.

These men would have been considered unclean, and in general, would have been scorned, particularly in the temple.

Further than this, it would seem extremely strange for the tax collector to pray.

After all, what would such an unclean thief be doing praying to God?!

That’s the kind of idea that would have gone through the minds of Jesus’ hearers.

Christ really aimed here to set up in the minds of his hearers these starkly contrasted people in order to drive home his point that superficial, surface level evaluations of people do not reveal the heart of the people before God.

Even as we come to this text this morning, we need to ask ourselves, in all honesty… genuine humility before God… where is my heart?

What am I being like?

With that in mind, let us consider the parable, and the people, in further detail.

2. The Contemptuous (v.11-12)

Christ first turns his attention to the Pharisee, to the man that we can only say is contemptuous.

Although he was known to “belong in” the temple before God, his heart before God was problematic.

What does such a person look like?

Notice that the Pharisee stood and prayed about himself.

The emphasis from Jesus’ parable is on the content of the man’s prayer, which was revealing the nature of the man’s heart.

What was he praying?

Where was his focus?

He was focusing on himself.

I thank you that I am not like....

I fast twice a week… I give a tenth… It’s focused on his work and what he does well.

But there’s also a sense in which he was focused on others… but only insofar as he could make himself look good against them.

He was looking at those around him with a view to comparison for his own benefit.

As a pharisee, he was utterly preocuppied with comparing himself with people around him by looking at what they did (or did not) do.

He did not think about those around him with any sense of care or concern.

Rather, he was focusing his attention on their weaknesses, with a view to emphasizing his own good / greatness.

Now, because we know this account so well, we tend to autmoatically write of the Pharisee as.... a Pharisee.

We know his heart was proud.

But think about what he’s saying.

He says, “I thank you…”!!!

He would have argued that He was just grateful to God for what he was.

But notice that he goes on to list those people from society that were of bad reputation.

Robbers, evil-doers, adulterers… or even like this tax collector.

He’s comparing himself to these others and glad to not be like them.

But as he does this, there is no deep conviction of personal sin.

Having mentioned God once, he delves into self-congratulations.

Nowhere does he confess sin.

Nowhere does he ask for forgiveness of what he has done.

His heart is proud before God, and so while he mentions God in his prayer, and appears to thank God for something, his heart is far from God.

I appreciate the comment of William Hendriksen at this point…

He begins by comparing himself with other people.

Not, however, with truly devout men like Samuel (1 Sam.

1:20, 28; 2:18, 26) or Simeon (Luke 2:25–32), but with those of bad reputation.

He says that he is not a robber … as if he were not at that very moment robbing God of the honor due to him.

He is not a cheat or dishonest person … as if he were not cheating himself out of a blessing.

And he is not an adulterer.

Well, probably not literally, but was not this proud Pharisee departing from the true God, and thereby making himself guilty of the worst adultery of all (Hos.

1:2; 5:3)?

Notice that the Pharisee also goes on to emphasize and focus on the good things that he does.

Verse 12 - “I fast twice a week, and give a tenth of all I get...”

Notice that he is saying over here that he goes above and beyond what the law even required.

The Mosaic law never required a fast twice (or even once) a week.

There were particular times of fasting that were set aside, but it was never stipulated to fast twice every week.

This man was devout towards God… And he showed it by his regular self-denial.