The Exaltation of the Humble—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 20C/Proper 25C (Luke 18)

Luke 18:9-14 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

⁹ He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

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The word “righteous” often has a bad reputation. Many assume that the word righteous is simply a shortened version of self-righteousness. It can be extended to that meaning but needn’t have that meaning. Often to be righteous is to be religiously devout. It might carry the meaning of one who follows to the letter all the protocols of the faith. When we think of such persons, we might have in mind a Puritan or a Pharisee (more about that group in a moment as we get into the parable that stands at the center of the week’s Gospel reading). Most of these are negative concepts, but what if being righteous simply involved the humble submission of one’s life to the ways of God?

The reading for today features a Pharisee and a Tax Collector. This parable follows one that speaks of the persistence of the widow in the face of an unjust judge. That parable spoke, at least in part, to the nature of prayer. This one has to do with other forms of religious devotion. As such it addresses and redefines what God might expect from us. In this parable, we have two people who stand at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the question of righteousness. On one hand, we have a Pharisee and on the other a Tax Collector. The Pharisee is a respected religious leader who sought to live a righteous and holy life before God. On the other hand, the tax collector is viewed by the larger community as the epitome of unrighteousness. Tax collectors were employed by Rome or its vassals and thus were viewed by their neighbors as collaborators with the oppressors. In so doing they enriched themselves by robbing their own people on behalf of the empire. While the Pharisees are viewed unfavorably in the Gospels they were highly respected among the people. As for tax collectors, they were generally reviled. Now, it should be noted that both Pharisees and tax collectors tended to be wealthy. We know how the tax collectors got their wealth, but it's less clear how the Pharisees got their wealth. It’s quite possible that their wealth was inherited, but whatever means they used to get that wealth they tended to be wealthy. They also presented themselves as being devout and faithful to the teachings of the faith. Ironically, despite the picture painted of them in the Gospels, their theology largely matched that of Jesus.

While the two people featured in this parable lived at opposite ends of the social spectrum, even if not from different economic ones, they had come to pray. In their prayers, as Jesus told the story (remember this is a parable), we see expressed the attitudes the two men had about God and each other. One was proud and the other humble.

When we who are Christians read about the Pharisees, we must always acknowledge the possibility that anti-Jewish sentiment tends to color the original text and our reading of it. The Gospel writers tend to portray them in a bad light. They serve as the foil for Jesus’ messages. While that is true, we needn’t embrace these caricatures of the Pharisees. In fact, theologically and politically, the religious party that stood farthest from Jesus wasn’t the Pharisees but the Sadducees. Let us then remember that the Pharisees were respected religious leaders who sought to live faithfully the teachings of the Jewish faith. That is, they sought to live holy lives before God. To do this, they believed that they should remain separate from anything considered unclean.  

With that warning in mind, we can engage with this particular story about a particular Pharisee who seems to exhibit self-righteous tendencies that can afflict many religious people who seek to live righteous lives (we often apply the same attributes to the Puritans who sought to live according to the laws of God). The question raised here has to do with how God might judge us. Is God bound by our criteria or a different set? Do we place too much emphasis on outward appearances?

Self-righteousness is not simply a religious sentiment. Feelings of moral superiority can be found in many different settings, especially political ones. Do you ever feel morally superior to members of the opposing party? I have to admit, I’ve been known to do just that. Self-righteousness stands at the core of the myth of American exceptionalism. We Americans are not alone in this, but patriotism can often exude a feeling that one’s nation is superior to all others. This can lead us to overlook our own faults. We may feel as if our nation can do no wrong.

The Pharisee in this parable expresses a sense of moral superiority when it comes to how he viewed the tax collector. When he looked over at the tax collector, he felt pretty good about himself. He took pride in his commitment to fast and pray, something he did twice a week. That was above and beyond what was expected of a Pharisee. He also prided himself on paying his tithes. He wasn’t like those other people who were “thieves, rogues, adulterers,” and of course tax collectors. While he wears his righteousness before God on his sleeve, he would make a good church member. He’s faithful in his religious devotion. Of course, he’s also proud of it. He would us all to know how righteous he is. So, here’s the question. Does that describe you or me?  

While the Pharisee stands proudly in the sanctuary flexing his spiritual muscles, the tax collector is standing further off to the side. He’s quite self-aware of his situation in life. We don’t know how or why he picked up this profession, but he’s aware that society doesn’t view him highly. He knows that the Pharisee standing closer to the altar is his moral superior. So, he’s careful not to enter the limelight. He understands that he has fallen short of what God would have him be. So, instead of demonstrating pride in his spirituality, he stands there contrite. He might wish he could be like the Pharisee. He knows that despite his wealth, he is not a person of high standing in society. He might even feel as if God has similar feelings toward him. As a result, he comes before the altar in the spirit of repentance. There is in his words and his demeanor a sense that he wants to change. He wants to become a new person. He might want to be more like the Pharisee in the way he lived before God (without, hopefully, that sense of moral superiority).  While the Pharisee boasted of being a spiritual warrior, the tax collector beats his chest and cries out to God asking that God would be merciful to him, a sinner.

                It is probably helpful to take note of an encounter that follows in Luke 19. That encounter will get picked up in the lectionary reading for the following week (Proper 26). In that reading, Jesus encounters a tax collector named Zacchaeus who responds positively to Jesus’ message and is transformed (Luke 19:1-10). Could this parable be setting us up for the possibility that someone like Zacchaeus could change?

Of course, we’ve not yet met Zacchaeus, but the connection is intriguing. Regarding the two characters in this story, the Pharisee is offered up as a caricature and perhaps a symbol of self-satisfied self-righteous moralism. While not all Pharisees are like this, in this story he presents the caricature of the overly religious person who has figured out the religious system and knows how to play the game. This leads to a judgmental attitude toward others. For those of us who are “devout” church-going people, who might be church leaders (lay or clergy), could this be a mirror of our own realities? We might hope that the answer is no, but could we be like this? Could we, in our sense of moral superiority forget who God is? The tax collector, on the other hand, may not have the same theological pedigree as the Pharisee but in this story, he seems to have a better understanding of God’s grace and mercy.

We might ask why someone would choose a profession like tax collecting. It’s not a very respectable profession. One’s only friends would probably be other tax collectors. Perhaps he chose this profession, which involved collusion with the Romans because he knew that it was one of the few ways one could make a living. We wonder why people get sucked into criminal enterprises. The answer often lies in the realities of living on the margins of society. Survival, not morality, is often the key to life choices. It’s nice to have the luxury to live a holy life, as the Pharisees did, but not everyone was able to make that choice. Often the choices people make are rooted in outside, often oppressive, forces. Miguel de la Torre offers this view of the story: “The salvific message of the gospel that the publicans of the world, the pimps and prostitutes of today, need to hear is that they are precious and are due dignity because they are created in the very image of God. Jesus understood that part of his liberating message was to humble the proud and uplift the lowly” [Feasting on the Gospels: Luke, 2:136]. Thus, the tax collector could go home justified before God. He received mercy because he was humble before God, unlike the Pharisee who went home still self-satisfied and self-righteous, but not exalted.

                The question becomes, how do we who are religious and hopefully seek to do what is right (in other words we’re more like the Pharisee than the Tax Collector in our starting point) become righteous before God? How might we, instead of being judgmental and self-righteous, respond to the needs of our neighbors who find themselves marginalized by systems beyond their control? Perhaps the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector lies in the realization on the part of the tax collector that he needs God’s grace. Therefore, he stands ready to receive God’s blessing. In that attitude, he and all who stand in the need of grace are put in a position to be transformed (justified).

Image attribution: Tissot, James, 1836-1902. Pharisee and the Publican, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56474 [retrieved October 13, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tissot_The_Pharisee_and_the_publican_Brooklyn.jpg.