Pharisees were teachers of the Scriptures and they knew a lot about God’s word. Another man, with a job and lifestyle that everyone else despises. Jesus is about to tell us this grand joke, in a sense. I made this video to help explain the significance of this parable about prayer: Take a break! 7. He was offering it to himself. Pharisee The first guy is a Pharisee. The Lord does not grade on a curve. They were supposed to be holy and respectable people. Do any of you still have to file your own taxes? The mission, passion and purpose of Ligonier Ministries is to proclaim the holiness of God by Martin G. Collins Forerunner, "Bible Study," December 2004. The Tax Collector was not guilty of legalism, hypocrisy and self-righteousness but he may well have been greedy, dishonest, self-indulgent and undisciplined. Neither does the Lord justify one person and not another because the former is more scrupulous in his obedience than the latter (vv. The tax collector is humble. September 15, 2020 Filed Under: Bible Stories, Children's Stories. Jesus told his disciples a parable about two men who went up to the Temple to pray. The Tax Collector was not guilty of legalism, hypocrisy and self-righteousness but he may well have been greedy, dishonest, self-indulgent and undisciplined. First-century Judaism was diverse in many ways, but there were some things on which virtually every Jew was agreed. For permissions, view our Copyright Policy. In Luke 18:9-14, a self-righteous Pharisee, obsessed by his own virtue, is contrasted with a tax collector who humbly asks God for mercy. As long as we think we must add our works to this, we have missed the gospel. Parable of the Pharisee And the Tax Collector doesn’t focus on what people say when they pray, but on what they think. He goes to the temple to pray just like the Pharisee. Jesus wanted the Pharisees (and us) to understand that the things we say when we pray are not as important as the condition of our hearts. He’s viewed as a model of religious devotion. Pharisees were the teachers of Israel. One was a Pharisee and one was a tax collector. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Besides boasting to God, the other glaring fault in the prayer of the Pharisee is that he adversely judges his neighbor. Jesus makes a clear contrast between two men, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The tax collector went home justified before God rather than the Pharisee (Luke 18:14). The tax collector stood off at a distance and did not think he was good enough even to look up toward heaven. It took some nerve for the Master to portray a tax collector favorably. Notice the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector. Donate Now. Let's discover the striking differences in how people pray, and the results that occur. Why was the tax collector justified and not the Pharisee? The prayer of the tax collector is a prayer for God’s judgment to pass over him. 13–14a). He would not even look up to heaven while he prayed. * circa 1870 , Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening , The spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Why is self-righteous religious pride dangerous? The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable erred because He did not understand God’s standard for righteousness. Jewish men and women saw them as particularly holy, because they focused so intently on the minutiae of the Mosaic law that their outward manner of life was noticeably different from that of the common person. He goes to the temple to pray just like the Pharisee. 6. The Pharisee was a respected, religious member of the covenant community. The tax collector is humble. Tax Collector The other guy is a publican – a tax collector. The difference between the tax collector and the Pharisee is that the tax collector knows that he is a sinner. In this revealing parable, the Pharisee is a sanctimonious, hypocritical man. 18:13 I read about the Pharisee praying his prayer, thanking God that he is not like the other men. 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. This parable primarily shows Jesus teaching that justification can be given by the mercy of God irrespective of the receiver's prior life and that conversely self-righteousness can prohibit being justified. Meet the Publicans A publican, on the other hand, was the ancient version of a tax collector—though they were quite different from tax collectors today. Turning to God’s mercy alone does not mean turning to some vague idea of a forgiving deity. The Tax Collector, on the other hand, is someone we’d avoid. 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