Luke 18:9-14 Commentary

A Pharisee and a tax collector walk into the temple to pray… It sounds like it could be the start of a bad joke. And in some ways, it is—especially as you read Eugene Peterson’s version in The Message: “The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man…”

This Pharisee wants attention: he has noticed who is in the space and wants people to notice him. Peterson’s use of the word “pose” really emphasises the showy-ness of the moment. The more standard translation is that the Pharisee “stands by himself” so that he is not at any risk of being touched by someone less righteous than he. What he prays, then, about his sense of righteousness is accurate to how he lives and guards himself.

And it’s not so much that what he is doing is wrong—praying at the temple is an important part of the life of faith, but the method and the motivation reveal the problem and why Jesus is telling this story. Even as he comes to pray to his loving God, he has compared himself to all of the people he’s walked by and rather than finding himself wanting, it’s everyone else who fails to measure up. The Pharisee assumes God sees these people (and himself) the same way that he sees those around him. Able to point out the faults of everyone else, able to name his checklist for spirituality, what’s left for him to work on? What’s left for God to do but praise this Pharisee and thank him for being so awesome?

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? God actually does see this man in the same way that God sees the thieves, rogues, adulterers or tax collector. God sees each as his children, his creatures, the objects of his love and redemption. It doesn’t take more of Christ’s blood to redeem the tax collector than it does to redeem the Pharisee. It’s a worthwhile point to remember as we pray today for other people’s minds and hearts to change. Yes, it is appropriate to pray for them and for God’s Spirit to move, but we must also keep on guard for any hint of superiority or self-righteousness.

The tax collector stands a far way off while praying because he does not feel worthy. Peterson translates the description of him as “slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up,” praying to God for mercy because he knows he’s a sinner. He might be feeling like he doesn’t measure up to guys like the Pharisee, but that hasn’t stopped him from showing up and praying about what’s true for him, right here, and right now. The tax collector reminds us that it is better to be imperfectly on the way than it is to think we’ve already arrived.

Peterson puts Jesus’s conclusion this way: “Jesus commented, ‘This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

I love that last part: if you’re okay with telling God the truth about the sort of state you’re in, you’ll actually be in a posture that allows the Holy Spirit to do something about it. I, for one, want to see how that redemption story plays out.

Textual Point

The NRSV translates verse 1 in this way: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”

The NIV translates it: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable…” Similarly in The Message: “He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people.”

“Trusting in yourself” is a phrase that needs to be carefully nuanced, so the NIV’s alternative makes Jesus’s intended meaning clearer for us. We’ve read stories throughout Luke, like of the persistent widow against the unjust judge, where they have had to trust God’s promises or an internal moral compass shaped by God’s meaning of right and wrong. In other words, trusting in yourself is not inherently sinful. But as the NIV and The Message’s word choice makes clear, what the Pharisee felt was most definitely not that.

Illustration Idea

Miroslav Volf has just published a book (Fall 2025) called The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse. In the Preface he writes, “It takes only a quick perusal through the Bible to see that striving for superiority is a dominant theme in the story of human suffering and wrongdoing.” To illustrate the point, Volf briefly retells the Cain and Abel story about what happens when we our sense of being superior is challenged and how it leads us to violence as we try to preserve the lie that we are better than someone else. The alternative, of course, is to remember God’s grace, our human equality, and that every success and benefit, etc. is a gift to be received. The tax collector, even though far off, has turned towards God in his humble prayer and is closer to being ready to receive than the posing Pharisee is by a long shot.