Luke 18:9-17
October 26, 2025
When you go to your mailbox at your home tomorrow, if you were to find your credit card bill, an advertisement from Walmart, a catalog from your favorite store, and a letter from the Internal Revenue Service that has the word, “Audit,” stamped on the front of the envelope inside, which item will you open first? I would guess that you would probably open the letter from the IRS first, with a feeling of confusion, concern, and maybe a little anxiety. You might immediately wonder, “Did I do something wrong? Do I have adequate records of my income and expenses that the IRS may need to see?” Even if you are confident that you have done nothing wrong, I don’t think anyone welcomes a letter from the IRS with great joy.
Now imagine going to the local IRS office and the person you meet, who will be doing the audit, is intimidating and known to be dishonest. Imagine that he/she will say or do almost anything to prove that what you paid was not enough and that tax auditor will get a percentage of the additional amount you must pay as a result of the audit.
Now I am not suggesting that the IRS works in this way in our country, but it is the way that tax collectors worked during the days when Jesus lived on this earth. Tax collectors were some of the most corrupt, despised, and feared people in those days. They took money from people in dishonest ways, without any concern of being caught or punished.
The Pharisees, on the other hand, were the religious leaders during Jesus’ days, who were dedicated to keeping God’s laws. They were well educated and were regarded as shining examples of religious devotion and holy living. With that in mind, Jesus begins our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells a story using these two opposite groups of people. And the way He begins almost like a joke, as if He’s saying in verse 10, “Stop me if you heard this one before. Two guys, a Pharisee and a tax collector, go into the temple to pray.” But the story He tells is no laughing matter. It is a story about how to be right with God, which was actually what the Protestant Reformation was all about over 500 years ago, and this story should cause all of us to look at ourselves and consider how are we like both the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Jesus goes on to say in verses 11-12, “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed to God saying, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give tithes of all that I get.’” The Pharisee started his prayer out well enough by saying, “God, I thank you,” but he might as well have ended the prayer by saying, “in my name I pray,” because he prayed about himself and explained why he is so much better that those horrible, despicable sinners. In particular, he said he fasts twice a week and tithes all that he gets. The Law in those days commanded that people had to fast once a year, but he goes above and beyond that by fasting twice a week. And not only does he tithe, but he tithes all that he gets – money, food, goods, you name it. The Pharisee goes above and beyond what the Law requires, so he thinks he is in good standing with God. He can approach God based on what he has done and how he lives his life. So he thanks God for himself, not for what God has given to him, and He asks God for nothing, because he doesn’t think he needs anything, and with his record his prayer suggests that he doesn’t even need God for eternal life in heaven.
But the tax collector stood off at a distance by himself. He was so ashamed of himself that he would not even look up to heaven as he prayed. Instead, with his head down he beat his chest and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” His prayer indicated he needed God. Jesus then said, “This man, the tax collector, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified, that is declared ‘not guilty’ before God.”
What in the world is going on here? That is a question we could often ask when we look at the life of Jesus. What is going on when God sends His Son to be born of a poor, teenage girl in the small town of Bethlehem? What is going on when Jesus allows a woman of the streets to wash His feet with her tears and dry them with her hair? What is going on when Jesus invites Zacchaeus, another cruel tax collector who we will look at next week, down out of a tree and goes to his house for dinner? What’s going on when God allows His perfect Son to be nailed to a cross and die for our sins? What’s going on is that we are hearing the Gospel theme of reversal, which Jesus explains after the story in verse 14 saying, “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” In other words, the unexpected is what we ought to expect from Jesus. The one we expect to be judged faithful, the Pharisee, is not; while the one we expect or maybe even wish would be condemned, the tax collector, is forgiven. Jesus once again breaks open the rational systems of our humanity and shows us that God’s way is far beyond our human understanding or expectations.
Two men went to the same temple for the same reason: to pray. And yet they experienced very different results, because their approach to prayer was very different. The Bible believing, faith practicing, tithing Pharisee used prayer as a means to getting public recognition, not to seek fellowship with God. In fact, the Pharisee stops just short of congratulating God on what a great job God did in creating him. He sets himself apart, not just from the tax collector, but from all other people. The money-grabbing, immoral, corrupt tax collector throws himself at God’s feet, knowing that he has been living his life in a way that is contrary to God’s Word, and humbly asks for mercy. Both men go back home after worship, one, the tax collector, went home forgiven, justified, and blessed. The other, the Pharisee, was not. So what’s the point here?
This story is about humility, but sometimes our self-righteous humility works its way into our prayers and we end up sounding just like the Pharisee when we say things like, “God, I thank you that I know my weaknesses and I confess them before you, unlike that Pharisee.” Or when we say, “God, I thank you that I am willing to work and compromise with others, unlike those politicians in Washington.” It is very easy for our best-intentioned prayers of thanksgiving to turn into self-congratulations, even as our best efforts of love and care can become subtle ways of making ourselves look good.
Please note that I am not saying the tax collector is a good person. He is a sinner, a man who has been dishonest and cruel. His chest beating humility is not necessarily a virtue we should follow, but his realistic assessment of his own sinfulness, his acknowledgment of his shortcomings and his need of forgiveness is something we should follow.
Neither the Pharisee nor the tax collector is the hero in this parable, as Jesus does not commend the behavior of either person at the end of this parable, “Now, go and do likewise.” Both of the characters in this story are sinners. One, the tax collector, sins knowingly, and the other, the Pharisee, sins unknowingly, but both come to worship to pray as sinners, just like us.
This story is about all people, Pharisees and tax collectors, who come to worship and pray in every church around the world. Very few of us are one or the other all the time, but most of us are sort of like one or the other some of the time. There are times when we come to worship as good, Bible believing, righteous Pharisees, who ask for nothing, and so we get nothing, and we leave the service feeling empty. But there are other times, hopefully more often than not, when we come to worship as tax collectors, needing everything, painfully aware of our sinfulness and our need of God’s mercy. And we go home with even more than we asked for in our prayers.
It is nice to know that the tax collector was forgiven, not because he was humble, but because God is merciful. If our forgiveness depended on our humility then we would constantly wonder if we’ve been sorry enough for our sins to be saved. Our standing and acceptance before God is only based on His grace, not on our works. Martin Luther summarized this message in a powerful way saying, “When I look at myself, I don’t see how I can be saved, but when I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost.”
