Parables From Luke: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

As you think about the difference between the self-centered Pharisee and the truly humble tax collector, you might enjoy this humorous video - if you can accommodate videos and sound, check it out! (It is less than two minutes!) Try this one also!

I guess we are on a humor roll this week, because I found this list - compiled by Warren & Debi King - I'll just share part of it - it's called "You Might Be a Pharisee..."

You might be a Pharisee if...
...you think you are the only one who does any work in the church
...you try to catch your brothers or sisters in Christ in a sin
...you call the members of your church "they" instead of "we"
...your prayers for others are lengthy, but acknowledgment of your own sin is short or not at all
...you want to be a leader or else you get your feelings hurt
...you are easily annoyed by other people's children
...you condemn the motives of others without getting all the facts
...you think arguing in class is getting to the meat of the word
...you love for everyone to know about your own good deeds
...you are more concerned about what others think of you than what God thinks
...you are offended by these comparisons!


Read the words of the old hymn "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" written by Joseph Hart in 1759.

How do these words stir your heart? What is about the words that seem a bit uncomfortable in our 21st century approach to faith?

Here are some eloquent thoughts shared by William Loader:

"The story (of the Pharisee and the tax collector) is meant to be subversive. It deals with self righteousness. It goes a little further than that in that it connects such self righteousness with an understanding of religion which serves to reinforce the self assuredness. Religion can be very dangerous. It can produce self delusion. It can lead people to do terrible things; or better, people can use it to inspire themselves to do terrible things, as we have seen on 11 September. But the collusion with self delusion comes in many other forms. It is there where Christians are thanking God they are not like ‘those Muslims’. It is there where individuals and communities are defining their identity by their enemies and in the process, like the Pharisee, refusing to see their own foibles and failings.

"The message of Jesus is quite sharp: bolstering one’s sense of identity by disparaging others (even when they are terrible sinners) so easily leads to illusions of grandeur and a failure to see ourselves as we really are. It is a kind of goodies and baddies game. The answer is not to pretend the toll collector has done no wrong, but to accept our common humanity and to know that our real value is in loving and accepting ourselves as God loves us and not upping our value by downing others. The toll collector is also a person of worth. We can forget trying to earn credit points with God and establishing our worth on a relative scale. When we do so we will have so much more time and space and energy for compassion, both receiving and giving it. ‘Pharisees’ need it - as much as toll collectors."



The tax collector is a great example of true humility - no false pride - utter dependence on God. In the "Rule of St. Benedict," we read about the twelve degrees of humility. (The Rule of St. Benedict has been used as a guideline for Christian community in monasteries and convents since the sixth century.)

The Degrees of Humility (paraphrased and abbreviated):

1 - I always have the fear of God before my eyes, being mindful of what God has commanded.

2 - I do not love my own will, nor am pleased to fulfill my own desires, but seek to carry out the will of God by my deeds.

3 - For the love of God, I subject myself to a superior in all obedience, imitating the Lord.

4 - If hard or distasteful things are commanded, I accept them with patience and even temper.

5 - I hide from my superior none of the evil thoughts which rise in my hear nor the evils I commit in secret, but I humbly confess them.

6 - I am content with the lowest of everything.

7 - I not only declare with my tongue, but believe in my soul, that I am the lowest and vilest of men.

8 - I do nothing but what is sanctioned by the common rule of the monastery and the example of my elders.

9 - I withhold my tongue from speaking, and do not speak until I am asked.

10 - I am not easily moved to laughter.

11 - When I speak, I speak gently and without laughter, humbly and with gravity, with "few and sensible words," and not loud of voice.

12 - I let my humility appear to all - always having my head bowed down, eyes fixed on the ground, ever holding myself guilty of my sins, always saying to myself what the tax collector said - "Lord, I am a sinner and not worthy to lift up my eyes to heaven."

PLEASE NOTE that these were not rules for everyday Christian life - but rules for the monks who surrendered to the very disciplined life of the monastery. Having said that - as different as our daily life is from the twelve degrees of humility, is there nevertheless something that we could learn from St. Benedict?


Jesus' parables from Luke cause us to question our relationship to the things of this world. I am always challenged by the thoughts of Christian speaker and writer Tony Campolo. If you dare, read this interview with Campolo - where he addresses this provocative question - "Would Jesus Drive a BMW?"