Luke 18 · Story · Humility
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Luke 18:9 to 14 sets a Pharisee's prayer of self-praise beside the prayer of a tax collector.
Jesus made a collector of taxes, a man the Pharisees grumbled about, the example of a prayer God accepts.
I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
- Where
- Jerusalem
- Who
- Jesus of Nazareth
Summary
A Pharisee prayed by thanking God that he was better than other men, and he named his fasting and his tithes. A tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes, beat his breast and asked God for mercy as a sinner. Jesus said that the tax collector went home justified, and He gave the rule that the humble will be exalted.
- The Pharisee's prayer was a list of his own deeds and a comparison with other men.
- The tax collector's prayer was one plea for mercy from a man who called himself a sinner.
- God declared the humble man righteous, so his justification rested on God's mercy.
The Parable
Luke tells the parable in six verses, and Jesus gives the verdict Himself.
In Luke 18 Jesus tells a parable of two men at prayer, and it is one of Scripture's plainest lessons in humility, the lowliness of heart before God that He commands and rewards. The story matters to every reader because each one prays, and the parable shows which prayer God accepts.
The question the page answers is why the tax collector went home justified and the Pharisee did not. The answer lies in what each man brought to God when he prayed.
Luke says whom the parable was for: "some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt" (Luke 18:9). Two men went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood by himself and thanked God that he was not like other men, "swindlers, evildoers, adulterers", or even like the tax collector. He told God that he fasted twice a week and paid tithes of all he acquired.
But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’The tax collector's whole prayer is one plea, and his body says the same as his words.
The Two Prayers Side by Side
Everything Luke records of the two men falls into a comparison.
The two men went up to the same temple and differed in where they stood, how they held themselves, whom they named, what they brought and the verdict on them.
| Point | The Pharisee | The tax collector |
|---|---|---|
| Where he stood | by himself | at a distance |
| His body | standing to pray | eyes lowered, beating his breast |
| Whom he named | other men and this tax collector | himself, as a sinner |
| What he brought | his fasts twice a week and his tithes | a plea for mercy |
| In the verdict | the man who exalts himself, to be humbled | the man justified |
The Plea for Mercy and the Verdict
Three Greek words carry the plea, the sinner and the verdict.
The tax collector's verb is hilasthēti (Strong's G2433), which the STEP Bible lexicon gives as to conciliate, to atone for sin, or to be propitious. The same verb names the work of Christ as high priest in Hebrews 2:17, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
He says moi tō hamartōlō, which the tagged Greek text glosses "to me, the sinner", with the article. The Berean text renders it "a sinner".
The verdict uses dedikaiōmenos, a perfect passive participle of dikaioō (Strong's G1344), a verb meaning to render or regard as just.
Pharisees and Tax Collectors in Luke
Luke shows the Pharisees grumbling at Jesus' meals and the tax collectors gathering to hear Him.
In Luke 5:30 the Pharisees and their scribes ask Jesus' disciples why they eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners. The tax collector, telōnēs (G5057), was a collector of public revenue, as the STEP Bible lexicon gives the word.
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus. So the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”Luke places the tax collectors among Jesus' hearers just before His parables of the lost.
The parable keeps the two groups as Luke shows them, and it reverses the verdict their reputations would expect.
The Parable in Its Place in Luke
Luke sets the parable between a parable on prayer and the blessing of little children, and Zacchaeus follows.
The chapter opens with a parable "about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). After the two men at prayer, people bring their babies to Jesus, and He says that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”Jesus makes receiving the kingdom like a little child the condition of entering it, the humility of the tax collector in another form.
In the next chapter a chief tax collector named Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus, and Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9). The closing rule of the parable also stands at Luke 14:11 and Matthew 23:12.
What the Parable Teaches
God accepts the prayer that asks for mercy, and boasting has no place before Him.
The parable teaches that a person stands before God by mercy. The tax collector brought only his need, and God declared him righteous. Paul later asked where boasting stands and answered, "It is excluded" (Romans 3:27).
It also shows contempt growing out of self-trust, for the Pharisee's prayer turned from God to the man behind him.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.The psalm names the offering the tax collector brought to the temple.
How Teachers Have Read the Parable
Gregory the Great and Matthew Henry read the parable as a warning against pride in good works.
died 604 · Gregory the Dialogist
Gregory the Great taught that the Pharisee's pride left him open to the enemy, however well he guarded himself by fasting and giving.
“(19. Mor. c. 21.) So it was pride that laid bare to his wily enemies the citadel of his heart, which prayer and fasting had in vain kept closed. Of no use are all the other fortifications, as long as there is one place which the enemy has left defenceless.”
Gregory the Dialogist · Catena Aurea by Aquinas · on Luke 18:12Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry, in his commentary of 1710, read the two men as two kinds of people who pray.
“This is called a parable, though there be nothing of similitude in it; but it is rather a description of the different temper and language of those that proudly justify themselves, and those that humbly condemn themselves; and their different standing before God. It is matter of fact every day.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Luke 18:9Puritan
The Verdict of Luke 18:14
Teachers have read the verdict of Luke 18:14 as a contrast and as a comparison.
Irenaeus read a contrastIrenaeus
Irenaeus wrote that the tax collector "received testimony from the Lord that he was justified rather [than the other]" (Against Heresies, book 4). The reason he gave was that "with great humility, apart from all boasting and pride, he made confession to the same God". The Berean text reads the same way: "this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified."
The objection is that the Greek preposition para with the accusative can compare as well as contrast, and the tagged Greek text glosses it "compared with".
Tertullian read a comparisonTertullian
Tertullian wrote that the publican "went his way 'more justified' than the shameless Pharisee", because he prayed with humility in his face as well as his words (On Prayer, chapter 17, translated by S. Thelwall).
The objection is that the closing saying sets the one who exalts himself against the one who humbles himself, and only the humbled one is exalted.
The One Who Humbles Himself
Luke 18:14 and James 4:10 both promise that God exalts the humble.
Jesus ended the parable with a rule for every hearer, and James wrote it to the churches in his own words.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.James gives the rule as a command, with the promise that the Lord Himself does the lifting.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The tagged Greek text of Luke 18:9, 18:11, 18:13 and 18:14, with Strong's numbers and morphology.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0), entries g2433, g1344 and g5057.
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 4, on Luke 18:10 to 14.
- Tertullian, On Prayer, chapter 17, translated by S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 3.
- Gregory the Great, Morals 19.21, as quoted in Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea on Luke 18:12.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Luke 18:9.