The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
The Gospel reading from Luke 18:9-14 (OSB) begins with these telling words – "Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others…."
What images does this parable conjure up in your minds? Do you envision a luxuriously-dressed, well-fed or even corpulent Pharisee, head held high in pious prayer pose, with a bag full of coins tied to his waist cloth, some of which he has just dropped into the moneybox; while standing afar off cringes a scruffy Publican, unkempt and dressed in tatters, looking down and weeping? Is that what appears in your mind’s eye? I’ve seen such depictions in icons and other illustrations. But this is incorrect: the Publican or tax collector was a Jew who served the occupying Roman governor, thus he was very likely well-compensated from his allowed percentage of collected taxes in addition to whatever more he could squeeze out of Rome’s unwilling Jewish subjects. So he may well have been better-dressed and more well-fed than the Pharisee, which is why the latter despised him with an air of moral superiority.
But in his commentary on Luke (ACCS), St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote: "Lower your pride, because arrogance is accursed and hated by God. It is foreign to the mind that fears God. Christ even said, ‘Do not judge, and you shall not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.’ (Luke 6:37) One of his disciples also said, ‘There is one lawgiver and judge. Why then do you judge your neighbor?’ (James 4:12) No one who is in good health ridicules one who is sick for being laid up and bedridden. He is rather afraid, for perhaps he may become the victim of similar sufferings…. The weakness of others is not a suitable subject for praise for those who are in health."
The Pharisee despised this tax collector for being a traitor to his Jewish race and country: "Why, that half-breed quisling Publican probably extorts unjust sums from our people, bathes nude in the public Roman baths, sends his children to the Greco-Roman gymnasium where they are taught pagan ideas such as wife-swapping, abortion, and homosexual practices. How disgusting! But I! I fast and tithe like a good Jew should!" In our Carpatho-Rusyn context, we might say: "I go to church whenever the doors are open, I pay my church dues and put something in all the regular and special offering envelopes, I send my children to a Christian school, and I make halushki and nut rolls like the best of them!"
Notice in both cases the "I… I… I." As the introductory verse to this parable says, it is about "some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." The focus is on "I" - on self, not on God. Do we look down on those who are not like us, not of our cultural or ethnic background: not Eastern European, not Greek, or even not white? It is a natural – if fallen – human trait to consider one’s own culture and clan superior, but St. Paul wrote: "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." (2 Corinthians 10:12, OSB) Our measuring rod ought not to be ourselves, but Christ our God in His perfection: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48, NOASB)
How many times in the Gospels does Christ turn our stereotypes of self-satisfaction and ethnic superiority upside-down? This tax collector is just one: recall Zacchaeus (in the next chapter of Luke) and Matthew, both tax collectors, the good Samaritan, the Roman centurion, the Syrophonician woman, the woman caught in adultery, the harlot who anointed Christ’s feet with precious oil, and others. The implied message is that the Jews, the Chosen People, especially the Pharisees who knew the Law inside and out and followed it to the letter – and by extension we who sing every Liturgy, "We have found the true faith!" (Beware that you never sing that out of pride!) – we all must come to God on the same basis as those traitors, foreigners, and fornicators: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" Don’t look at the other person or in the mirror, comparing yourself with them or with yourself, but look to God in all His fearsome holiness, fall down and beg for mercy.
In Ephrem the Syrian’s Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron (ACCS), he wrote: "In the case of that Pharisee who was praying, the things he said were true. Since [however] he was saying them out of pride and the tax collector was telling his sins with humility, the confession of sins of the last was more pleasing to God than the acknowledgment of the almsgiving of the first. It is more difficult to confess one’s sins than one’s righteousness."
It is well and good that we don’t extort money, oppress widows, are sexually pure, fast twice a week, give alms to the poor – these are all good things for oneself and for society! They were good things for the Pharisee to do, and are good for us to do. But if these outward religious acts are merely a mask for pride, ethnic superiority, and self-righteousness, they do more harm than good to our eternal souls.
The Pharisee, Christ says, appeared to be praying to God but in actuality, he "prayed with himself" – he was putting on an act, he was wearing a mask: that is what the word "hypocrite" means. His prayers got no higher than the ceiling. All those good works were good for nothing, they were only for show. But the tax collector’s spirit of humility in his genuine repentance for his treason, extortion, and other sins gained for him justification – true righteousness – from God by that simple prayer that we sing and say over and over in all our services: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!" - and in our private prayers: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"
So let’s combine the outward righteous acts of the Pharisee with the inward humility of the Publican, doing good works but not to be seen by men, and also recognizing the tendency of our fallen nature to deceive ourselves that we are somehow better than others. May we say "Lord, have mercy!" from our hearts, not begging an angry, vindictive deity who’s itching to hurl down thunderbolts on us, but asking Him Who is truly a merciful God Who loves all humankind: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Sources:
OSB = Orthodox Study Bible
ACCS = Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, on this parable
NOASB = New Oxford Annotated Study Bible
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