Luke 18:10-14 The Publican and the Pharisee

How often I read this parable and look to the Publican thinking, “What an excellent example;” but I don’t stop to pray in humility for God’s mercy. Then I look to the Pharisee thinking, “What a hypocrite; How foolish he looks in his self-righteousness.” My mind almost forms the words, “I am glad I am not like him.”

And there it is: I and the Pharisee are one. I need to stop reading like a Pharisee and start praying like a Publican. For in telling this parable Christ’s intent was not that we would simply see the Pharisee’s sin, but our own, and that we would not simply see the Publican repent, but do it ourselves. The proof that we have grasped Christ’s intent is precisely our arrousal to repentance. Do we close the Scriptures and go about our day, content to merely observe the sin of the Pharisee, just as the Pharisee was content to observe the sin of others? Or do we close the Scriptures and beat our breast because, like the Publican, we recognize our own sin, to which there is no response but repentance?

God, be merciful to me a sinner.

MCO