Luke 18:9

The scope of this parable likewise is prefixed to it, and we are told (Luk 18:9) who they were whom it was levelled at, and for whom it was calculated. He designed it for the conviction of some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. They were such as had, 1. A great conceit of themselves, and of their own goodness; they thought themselves as holy as they needed to be, and holier than all their neighbours, and such as might serve for examples to them all. But that was not all; 2. They had a confidence in themselves before God, and not only had a high opinion of their own righteousness, but depended upon the merit of it, whenever they addressed God, as their plea: They trusted in themselves as being righteous; they thought they had made God their debtor, and might demand any thing from him; and, 3. They despised others, and looked upon them with contempt, as not worthy to be compared with them. Now Christ by this parable would show such their folly, and that thereby they shut themselves out from acceptance with God. 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.

I. Here are both these addressing themselves to the duty of prayer at the same place and time (Luk 18:10): Two men went up into the temple (for the temple stood upon a hill) to pray. It was not the hour of public prayer, but they went thither to offer up their personal devotions, as was usual with good people at that time, when the temple was not only the place, but the medium of worship, and God had promised, in answer to Solomon's request, that, whatever prayer was made in a right manner in or towards that house, it should therefore the rather be accepted. Christ is our temple, and to him we must have an eye in all our approaches to God. The Pharisees and the publican both went to the temple to pray. Note, Among the worshippers of God, in the visible church, there is a mixture of good and bad, of some that are accepted of God, and some that are not; and so it has been ever since Cain and Abel brought their offering to the same altar. The Pharisee, proud as he was, could not think himself above prayer; nor could the publican, humble as he was, think himself shut out from the benefit of it; but we have reason to think that these went with different views. 1. The Pharisee went to the temple to pray because it was a public place, more public than the corners of the streets, and therefore he should have many eyes upon him, who would applaud his devotion, which perhaps was more than was expected. The character Christ gave of the Pharisees, that all their works they did to be seen of men, gives us occasion for this suspicion. Note, Hypocrites keep up the external performances of religion only to save or gain credit. There are many whom we see every day at the temple, whom, it is to be feared, we shall not see in the great day at Christ's right hand. 2. The publican went to the temple because it was appointed to be a house of prayer for all people, Isa 56:7. The Pharisee came to the temple upon a compliment, the publican upon business; the Pharisee to make his appearance, the publican to make his request. Now God sees with what disposition and design we come to wait upon him in holy ordinances, and will judge of us accordingly.

II. Here is the Pharisee's address to God (for a prayer I cannot call it): He stood and prayed thus with himself (Luk 18:11, Luk 18:12): standing by himself, he prayed thus, so some read it; he was wholly intent upon himself, had nothing in his eye but self, his own praise, and not God's glory; or, standing in some conspicuous place, where he distinguished himself; or, setting himself with a great deal of state and formality, he prayed thus. Now that which he is here supposed to say is that which shows,

1. That he trusted to himself that he was righteous. A great many good things he said of himself, which we will suppose to be true. He was free from gross and scandalous sins; he was not an extortioner, not a usurer, not oppressive to debtors or tenants, but fair and kind to all that had dependence upon him. He was not unjust in any of his dealings; he did no man any wrong; he could say, as Samuel, Whose ox or whose ass have I taken? He was no adulterer, but had possessed his vessel in sanctification and honour. Yet this was not all; he fasted twice in the week, as an act partly of temperature, partly of devotion. The Pharisees and their disciples fasted twice a week, Monday and Thursday. Thus he glorified God with his body: yet that was not all; he gave tithes of all that he possessed, according to the law, and so glorified God with his worldly estate. Now all this was very well and commendable. Miserable is the condition of those who come short of the righteousness of this Pharisee: yet he was not accepted; and why was he not? (1.) His giving God thanks for this, though in itself a good thing, yet seems to be a mere formality. He does not say, By the grace of God I am what I am, as Paul did, but turns it off with a slight, God, I thank thee, which is intended but for a plausible introduction to a proud vainglorious ostentation of himself. (2.) He makes his boast of this, and dwells with delight upon this subject, as if all his business to the temple was to tell God Almighty how very good he was; and he is ready to say, with those hypocrites that we read of (Isa 58:3), Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? (3.) He trusted to it as a righteousness, and not only mentioned it, but pleaded it, as if hereby he had merited at the hands of God, and made him his debtor. (4.) Here is not one word of prayer in all he saith. He went up to the temple to pray, but forgot his errand, was so full of himself and his own goodness that he thought he had need of nothing, no, not of the favour and grace of God, which, it would seem, he did not think worth asking.

2. That he despised others. (1.) He thought meanly of all mankind but himself: I thank thee that I am not as other men are. He speaks indefinitely, as if he were better than any. We may have reason to thank God that we are not as some men are, that are notoriously wicked and vile; but to speak at random thus, as if we only were good, and all besides us were reprobates, is to judge by wholesale. (2.) He thought meanly in a particular manner of this publican, whom he had left behind, it is probable, in the court of the Gentiles, and whose company he had fallen into as he came to the temple. He knew that he was a publican, and therefore very uncharitably concluded that he was an extortioner, unjust, and all that is naught. Suppose it had been so, and he had known it, what business had he to take notice of it? Could not he say his prayers (and that was all that the Pharisees did) without reproaching his neighbours? Or was this a part of his God, I thank thee? And was he as much pleased with the publican's badness as with his own goodness? There could not be a plainer evidence, not only of the want of humility and charity, but of reigning pride and malice, than this was.

III. Here is the publican's address to God, which was the reverse of the Pharisee's, as full of humility and humiliation as his was of pride and ostentation; as full of repentance for sin, and desire towards God, as his was of confidence in himself and his own righteousness and sufficiency.

1. He expressed his repentance and humility in what he did; and his gesture, when he addressed himself to his devotions, was expressive of great seriousness and humility, and the proper clothing of a broken, penitent, and obedient heart. (1.) He stood afar off. The Pharisee stood, but crowded up as high as he could, to the upper end of the court; the publican kept at a distance under a sense of his unworthiness to draw near to God, and perhaps for fear of offending the Pharisee, whom he observed to look scornfully upon him, and of disturbing his devotions. Hereby he owned that God might justly behold him afar off, and send him into a state of eternal distance from him, and that it was a great favour that God was pleased to admit him thus nigh. (2.) He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, much less his hands, as was usual in prayer. He did lift up his heart to God in the heavens, in holy desires, but, through prevailing shame and humiliation, he did not lift up his eyes in holy confidence and courage. His iniquities are gone over his head, as a heavy burden, so that he is not able to look up, Psa 40:12. The dejection of his looks is an indication of the dejection of his mind at the thought of sin. (3.) He smote upon his breast, in a holy indignation at himself for sin: "Thus would I smite this wicked heart of mine, the poisoned fountain out of which flow all the streams of sin, if I could come at it." The sinner's heart first smites him in a penitent rebuke, Sa2 24:10. David's heart smote him. Sinner, what hast thou done? And then he smites his heart with penitent remorse: O wretched man that I am? Ephraim is said to smite upon his thigh, Jer 31:19. Great mourners are represented tabouring upon their breasts, Nah 2:7.

2. He expressed it in what he said. His prayer was short. Fear and shame hindered him from saying much; sighs and groans swallowed up his words; but what he said was to the purpose: God, be merciful to me a sinner. And blessed be God that we have this prayer upon record as an answered prayer, and that we are sure that he who prayed it went to his house justified; and so shall we, if we pray it, as he did, through Jesus Christ: "God, be merciful to me a sinner; the God of infinite mercy be merciful to me, for, if he be not, I am for ever undone, for ever miserable. God be merciful to me, for I have been cruel to myself." (1.) He owns himself a sinner by nature, by practice, guilty before God. Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? The Pharisee denies himself to be a sinner; none of his neighbours can charge him, and he sees no reason to charge himself, with any thing amiss; he is clean, he is pure from sin. But the publican gives himself no other character than that of a sinner, a convicted criminal at God's bar. (2.) He has no dependence but upon the mercy of God, that, and that only, he relies upon. The Pharisee had insisted upon the merit of his fastings and tithes; but the poor publican disclaims all thought of merit, and flies to mercy as his city of refuge, and takes hold of the horn of that altar. "Justice condemns me; nothing will save me but mercy, mercy." (3.) He earnestly prays for the benefit of that mercy: "O God, be merciful, be propitious, to me; forgive my sins; be reconciled to me; take me into thy favour; receive me graciously; love me freely." He comes as a beggar for an alms, when he is ready to perish for hunger. Probably he repeated this prayer with renewed affections, and perhaps said more to the same purport, made a particular confession of his sins, and mentioned the particular mercies he wanted, and waited upon God for; but still this was the burden of the song: God, be merciful to me a sinner.

IV. Here is the publican's acceptance with God. We have seen how differently these two addressed themselves to God; it is now worth while to enquire how they sped. There were those who would cry up the Pharisee, by whom he would go to his house applauded, and who would look with contempt upon this sneaking whining publican. But our Lord Jesus, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secret is hid, who is perfectly acquainted with all proceedings in the court of heaven, assures us that this poor, penitent, broken-hearted publican went to his house justified, rather than the other. The Pharisee thought that if one of them must be justified, and not the other, certainly it must be he rather than the publican. "No," saith Christ, "I tell you, I affirm it with the utmost assurance, and declare it to you with the utmost concern, I tell you, it is the publican rather than the Pharisee." The proud Pharisee goes away, rejected of God; his thanksgivings are so far from being accepted that they are an abomination; he is not justified, his sins are not pardoned, nor is he delivered from condemnation: he is not accepted as righteous in God's sight, because he is so righteous in his own sight; but the publican, upon this humble address to Heaven, obtains the remission of his sins, and he whom the Pharisee would not set with the dogs of his flock God sets with the children of his family. The reason given for this is because God's glory is to resist the proud, and give grace to the humble. 1. Proud men, who exalt themselves, are rivals with God, and therefore they shall certainly be abased. God, in his discourse with Job, appeals to this proof that he is God, that he looks upon every one that is proud, and brings him low, Job 40:12. 2. Humble men, who abase themselves, are subject to God, and they shall be exalted. God has preferment in store for those that will take it as a favour, not for those that demand it as a debt. He shall be exalted into the love of God, and communion with him, shall be exalted into a satisfaction in himself, and exalted at last as high as heaven. See how the punishment answers the sin: He that exalteth himself shall be abased. See how the recompence answers the duty: He that humbles himself shall be exalted. See also the power of God's grace in bringing good out of evil; the publican had been a great sinner, and out of the greatness of his sin was brought the greatness of his repentance; out of the eater came forth meat. See, on the contrary, the power of Satan's malice in bringing evil out of good. It was good that the Pharisee was no extortioner, nor unjust; but the devil made him proud of this, to his ruin.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk_18:9-14

Two men went up into the temple to pray.

Whom the Lord receives

Observe, from the parable--

I. HOW GOD LOOKS UPON THE HEART, RATHER THAN UPON THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE. It is not the spoken service that is regarded, but the hidden words of the heart.

II. THE INSUFFICIENCY OF MANS GOOD WORKS TO OBTAIN JUSTIFICATION.

III. THE WAY OF JUSTIFICATION IS SHOWN IN WHAT WE ARE TOLD OF THE PUBLICAN.

IV. WE SEE WHAT SPIRIT GOD REQUIRES OF AND APPROVES IN US. Not those who are satisfied with themselves are commended of Him, but those who see and deplore their sinfulness. As a bird must first stoop to fly, so must the soul humble itself ere it finds God. Behold a great wonder, says Augustine, God is high; exalt thyself, He flees from thee: humble thyself, and He stoops to thee. Because, as the Psalmist says, Though high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly, but the proud He knoweth afar off. So the Pharisee returned from the temple as poor as he came, while the publican, whom he despised, wondering how he dared to come, returned made rich by Gods kiss of forgiveness and peace. Little do men know who among them are blessed. Gods angels of joy do not always enter where they most naturally are supposed to go. (A. H. Currier.)

Self-exaltation and self-abasement

I. SELF-EXALTATION.

1. This spirit is against God, on whom all depend, before whom all men are dust and uncleanness.

2. Is ignorance, no man having real spiritual knowledge could allow this spirit to dwell in him.

3. Is guilty ignorance, for the Old Testament Scriptures expose and condemn this spirit (Eze_21:26; Deu_17:20; Deu_8:14; Hab_2:4; Isa_65:5).

4. Is pleasant to corrupt human nature, flattering to natural pride.

5. Is contrary to the mind of God.

6. Is a subtle, hypocritical spirit, often appearing as religious.

7. Deceives the heart it occupies.

8. Defeats itself, for it ends in abasement and shame.

II. DESPISING OTHERS.

1. This spirit is but another form of pride; others are despised in contrast with self, which is exalted.

2. Is against God, breaking both the law and the gospel, which enjoin loving neighbour as self.

3. Is against the precepts and example of Jesus, who despised not the poorest and outcast, the fallen and foul.

III. SELF-ABASEMENT.

1. Often branded by worldly men as meanness of spirit or cowardice.

2. Is acceptable to God, and according to Christs example.

3. May bring on us some loss or inconvenience for a season, that must be borne as a cross.

4. Has blessing now, and recompense of honour hereafter.

5. The chief example of self-abasement being blessed thus, is that of our Lord Himself (Php_2:5-11).

6. In the publicans case, the blessing began at once.

Application:

1. Every one marks universal rule or principle.

2. Warn those who have not humbled themselves before God

Exo_10:3).

3. No justification possible for man, but by self-abasement in repentance and faith.

4. The Holy Spirit convinces of sin, etc.

5. Encourage the first thoughts of self-abasement by examples of 1Ki_21:9), and Manasseh (2Ch_33:12-19). (Flavel Cook.)

The Pharisee and the publican

I. THE AIM OF THE PARABLE.

1. Stated (Luk_18:9).

2. Suggestive--

(1) That self-righteousness is possible.

(2) That self-righteousness and contempt for others are closely allied.

(3) That self-righteousness grows from the root of self-deception.

(a) The self-righteous calls upon a heart-searching God.

(b) The self-righteous despise men.

II. NOTICEABLE FEATURES OF THE PARABLE.

1. The contrasted characters.

(1) The prayer of the Pharisee.

(a) There is thanksgiving--but is it gratitude to God?

(b) There is reference to personal excellencies before God--but is it in humility?

(c) Thus prayer may be a mockery, and therefore a sin.

(2) The prayer of the publican.

(a) There is keen remorse--but not despair.

(b) There is deep awe in Gods presence--but an appeal to His mercy.

(c) Thus, the most agonizing prayer may be heartfelt and believing.

III. THE LORDS COMMENT ON THE PARABLE.

1. The self-exalting prayer of the Pharisee He condemns.

2. The contrite petition of the publican He approves.

3. The reality of answers to prayer He affirms.

4. Christ here enunciates a solemn truth (Luk_18:14). Lessons:

1. Conformity to religions forms no proof of true piety.

2. True penitence ever seen in self-abasement. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

The Pharisee and the publican

Our Saviours design in this parable was--

1. To condemn a censorious disposition, a groundless contempt and bad opinion of others.

2. To correct those false notions of religion which lead men to overlook its principal duties.

3. To expose and reprove that part of selflove which makes us proud of our righteousness.

4. To recommend repentance and humility towards God as the first step to amendment.

5. Lastly, to caution us against all pride and conceit in general. (J. Jortin, D. D.)

Remarks on the parable

1. How vain must be the hope of those who expect heaven because they are not so wicked as others.

2. Let us beware how by comparing ourselves with others we are led to despise them.

3. No sinner, after such an example as that of the publican, can have any excuse for not praying right, immediately.

4. Every one of us must be humbled before God, if we would partake of His mercy. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)

Belief in the virtues of others

Who does not believe others virtuous, would be found, were the secrets of his heart and life known, to be himself vicious. We may lay it down as an axiom, that those who are ready to suspect others of being actuated by a regard to self-interest, are themselves selfish. Thieves do not believe in the existence of honesty; nor rakes in virtue; nor mercenary politicians in patriotism; and the reason why worldlings regard religious people as hypocrites is their own want of religion--knowing that were they to profess a warm regard for Christ, the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, they would be hypocrites. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Satisfaction with external ceremonial acts

Let us do this Pharisee justice. He put in a claim for something done, as well as something left undone: I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess. But this was ceremonial goodness. We must distinguish: moral goodness is goodness always, and everywhere. Justice, mercy, truth, are the same under the tropic and at the pole, in the year 4000 before Christ and 4000 after Christ. But ceremonies are only good at certain times, and under certain circumstances. Fasting, if it make a man peevish, is no duty. Tithes are a way of supporting Gods ministers; but the Church or the State may provide another way, and then tithes cease to be duties. Now observe why Pharisaical men find it easier to be content with ceremonial observances than with moral goodness. They are definite acts, they can be counted. Twice a week the ceremony is done. Go over my fields; not a tenth sheaf or shock is left standing. Search my stalls: not a tenth colt or calf is kept back. But moral goodness is more a state of heart than distinct acts. Take the law of love; you cannot at night count up, and say, It is all done, for love has no number of acts. (F. W. Robertson.)

The Pharisee and the publican

Pharisee and publican, they both went up, as to a common home, to the great national temple. The Pharisee and the publican had this in common--they understood that prayer is a serious business--the highest business of man--that it is the highest and, if I may so say, the most noble, the most remunerative occupation in which a human being can possibly engage. Man has not always thus understood the real capacity of his soul--the real greatness of his destiny. There are thousands in this great city at this moment who do not understand it. Enervated by pleasure, or distracted by pain, absorbed in the pursuit of material objects, driven hither and thither by gusts of passion, slaves of the lust of the eyes or of the pride of life, men forget too easily why they are here at all, and what they have to do in order to fulfil the primal object of existence. When once a man has these fundamental truths well in view, the importance of prayer becomes immediately apparent. Prayer to something--prayer of some kind--is the higher language of humanity in all places,at all times. Not to pray is to fall below the true measure of human activity, just as truly as not to think. It is to surrender the noblest element of that prerogative dignity which marks men off as men from the brutes. Heathens have felt this; Deists have felt it. Jews felt it with an intensity all their own; and, therefore, when the two men, the Pharisee and the publican, went up into the temple to pray, they simply obeyed a law which is as old and wide as human thought. They gave expression to an instinct which cannot be ignored without wronging that which is noblest and best in our common humanity. Not to pray is not merely godless: it is, in the larger sense of the term, inhuman. They both obeyed this common, this imperious instinct; but here the difference begins. It was not the practice of the Pharisee, or the fact of his thankfulness, which made him less justified than the publican. What was it? My brethren, it was simply this--that the Pharisee had no true idea at all present to his mind, impressed upon his heart, of what it is that makes the real, the awful difference between God and His creatures. It is not chiefly that God is self-existent while mans is a dependent form of life. It is that God is, in Himself, in virtue of the necessary laws of His being, that which we are not--that He is perfectly, essentially holy. Until a man sees that the greatest difference of all between himself and his Creator lies, not in metaphysical unlikeness of being, nor yet in the intellectual interval which must separate the finite from the infinite mind, but pre-eminently in the moral chasm which parts a sinful, a sinning will, from the one all-holy, he does not know what he is doing in approaching God. Practically, for such a man, God is still a mere symbol, a name, whose most essential characteristic he has no eye for; and thus, like the Pharisee of old, he struts into the awful presence, as if it were the presence of some moral equal, only invested with larger powers and with a wider knowledge than his own. While the angels above prostrate themselves eternally before the throne, crying, Holy, holy, holy, proclaiming by that unvaried song the deepest difference between created and uncreated life, the Pharisee has the heart to turn in upon himself an eye of tranquil self-approval--to rejoice, forsooth, that he is not as others--to recount his little charities and his petty austerities--to enwrap himself in a satisfaction which might be natural if a revelation of the most holy had never been made; for observe, that the Pharisee does two things which speak volumes as to the real state of his soul.

1. He compares himself approvingly with others. I thank Thee that I am not as other men, or even as this publican. He assumes that in Gods sight he is better than others. But I ask, has he warrant for the assumption? He supposes that sin is measured solely by its quantity and weight, and not by the opportunities or absence of opportunities in the sinner. We know--every living conscience knows--that it is otherwise. If any one point is clear in our Lords teaching it is this--that to whom much is given of him shall much be required, and, as a consequence, that in the case of the man to whom much is given a slight offence may be much more serious than a graver crime in another, at least in the eyes of the Eternal Justice. This consideration should prevent a readiness to compare ourselves with any others. We know nothing about them. We know not what they might have been had they enjoyed our opportunities. They may possibly be worse than we are; they may be better.

2. The Pharisee reflects with satisfaction upon himself. He may, he thinks, have done wrong in his day. Everybody, he observes, does so more or less. He is, as far as that goes, not worse than other people. In other matters he flatters himself that, at least of late years, he is conspicuously better. He has kept out of great sins which the law condemns and punishes. He could never by any possibility have been taken as a member of the criminal classes. He fasts twice a week according to rule: he pays his tithes conscientiously: he is fully in every particular up to the current standard of religious respectability. Surely, he thinks in his secret heart, surely God cannot but feel what he feels himself--that he bears a very high character--that he is entitled to general respect. And the publican has nothing toplead on his own behalf. He may have been a Zaccheus; he may have been a legal robber; but he can think of himself, whatever he was, in one light only--as a sinner standing before one Being only, the holy, the everlasting God. The Pharisee is nothing to him, not because he is indifferent, but because he is mentally absorbed--prostrate before One who has filled his whole mind and heart with a sense of unworthiness. Out of the deep have I called to Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Oh, let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? But there is mercy with Thee. That is his cry. That cry is condensed into the blow on the chest--into the God be merciful to me, a sinner. (Canon Liddon.)

True thoughts of oneself

In the old tombs of our cathedrals--in this cathedral three centuries ago--there were frequently two figures on the monuments, one of the deceased king, or knight, or bishop, resting above in his full robes of state as he wore them abroad in life, and another, beneath, of a thin, emaciated skeleton, which recalled to the eyes of the beholder the realities of the grave below. It is well, Christian brethren, to have in thought this double image of ourselves--what we are before the world, if we like, but, in any case, what we are before our God. It was the Pharisees misery that he thought only of how he looked to others. It was the publicans blessing that he cared only for what he was before the eyes of God. Let us struggle, let us pray, while yet we may, for a real knowledge of ourselves. Let us endeavour to keep an account of that inward history which belongs to each one of us, and which will be fully unravelled at the Judgment--to which every day that passes adds its something--of which God knows all. To do this may take trouble, but the result is worth a vast deal of trouble. Anything is better, in religious matters, than that which St. Paul calls beating the air--an aimless religion which moves perpetually in a vicious circle, because it has no compass--because it has no object. The more we know of God, the more we shall have reason to be dissatisfied with self--the more earnest will be our cry for help and mercy to Jesus Christ, who took our nature upon Him, and who died upon the cross that He might save the lost, that He might save us. There is no real reason for anxiety if we will but come to Him simply with broken hearts. Now, as in the old time, He filleth the hungry with good things, but the rich He hath sent empty away. The Pharisee and the publican stand before Him in the ranks of His Church from age to age. They are, in fact, eternal types of human character, and to the end of time, the worlds judgment between them is falsified, and this man--the publican--goes down to that last home which awaits us all, justified, rather than the other. (Canon Liddon.)

The Pharisee and the publican

Suffer me to attempt to disabuse your minds of some of the misconceptions which have grown up around this parable, and which prevent (as it seems to me) the real point of its teaching coming home to our hearts.

1. In the first place, I think that we generally fail to understand the respective positions of the two men in regard of character. There ought, I think, to be no mistake about it that the Pharisee was the better man of the two in every practical sense. Of course it is possible that this Pharisee was a mere hypocrite, like many of his class, and that his account of himself was false; but there is no hint of such a thing, and it would be a perfectly gratuitous supposition. Taking his own account of himself as substantially true, it cannot be denied that he had much cause to give thanks to God for what he was. If he had thanked God with humility that he was not like other men, remembering that his comparative innocence was due to Gods grace and to the advantages of his position and training, he would have done well. I do not know how we can thank God too much for keeping us back from evil. But he gave thanks that he was not even as that publican, and this of course goes against him in our estimation, because we know that the publican was nearer to heaven than he was. And yet, if he had humbly thanked God that he had been saved from the bad traditions of the publicans business, and the bad surroundings of the publicans life, we could not have blamed him. There are some occupations, some ways of making a living, so beset with temptations, in which a man is so dependent for success upon his own sharp dealings, in which he is so driven to take advantage of the follies and vices of others, that we may well thank God that we have been delivered from them. It is indeed sad to see Christian people entangled in these perilous and hurtful pursuits, obliged to defend themselves from the accusations of conscience by building up false and unchristian principles of morality.

2. Another misconception there is which I wish to point out to you, and that is the mistaken notion (as it seems to me) that the publican was actually justified by his lowly demeanour and self-condemning words. Our Lord does not say that. He says the publican was justified rather than the other. I imagine that neither was truly justified, but of the two the publican was nearer being justified than the PhariSee. Far as he yet was from the kingdom of heaven, he was not nearly so far as the Pharisee, for he was in the right way. In his humility he stood as it were on the threshold, and there was nothing to hinder his entering in if he was prepared for the necessary sacrifice; whereas the Pharisee had missed the entrance altogether, and was getting further and further from it. But never let us think that our Saviour meant this for an example of sufficient repentance. If the publican went back, as so many do after the same outbreak of self-reproach, to his exactions and extortions, to his tricks of trade, his petty deceits, and his unrighteous gains--if he went home from the temple to cook his accounts with the government, or to sell up some poor wretch who could not meet his demands; do you think that his beating upon his breast and calling himself a miserable sinner would avail him aught? Nay, it would but increase his condemnation, because it would show that his conscience was alive to his sin. What our Lord means to impress upon us in this parable is the fatal danger of spiritual pride, which made the Pharisee, with all his real cause for thanksgiving, to be further off from the kingdom and righteousness of God than the publican whom he despised. The spirit of self-righteousness is such a blinding spirit; it warps and distorts the whole spiritual vision. What should have been a prayer in the mouth of the self-righteous Pharisee was turned into a glorification of himself; and instead of asking God to make him better, he told God how good he was. And this brings me to the third and last misconception of which I shall speak. It is that of imagining that the spirit of self-righteousness must always take the same form which it presents in the parable; that Pharisaism must always be the proud relying upon the outward observances of religion; but, in fact, as a very little observation will show us, it has as many different forms as there are fashions in religion. The modern British Pharisee amongst ourselves, when he gave thanks that he was not like other men, would never think of speaking like the Pharisee in the parable; he would more probably say something of this sort--God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, priest-ridden, idolaters, superstitious, or even as this benighted Ritualist. I never fast, I never think of giving tithes, and so on. The error of the Pharisee was in substance this, that he thanked God that he punctually performed those duties which came quite natural to him, and that he sought to turn Gods attention to other peoples faults by way of exalting his own merits. Now, this is an error which is constantly reappearing under one guise or other. We are always disposed to thank God that we are not as this Dissenter, or as that Romanist, when all the while they may be living nearer to God than we in honesty of intention and purity of heart. We are always apt to imagine that we can commend our faith by protesting against other peoples errors, and our practice by condemning faults to which we are not tempted. (R. Winterbotham, M. A.)

Acceptable and unacceptable prayer

1. A contrast in attitude and manner.

2. A contrast in spirit.

3. A contrast in prayer.

4. A contrast in reception. (J. R. Thompson, M. A.)

The purpose of the parable

From the introduction it might be inferred that the chief purpose for which the parable was spoken was to rebuke and subdue the spirit of self-righteousness. To do this effectively is not easy, though that is no reason why it should not be attempted. Another service, however, was probably also kept in view by the Speaker, which was much more likely to be accomplished, viz., to revive the spirit of the contrite, and embolden them to hope in Gods mercy. This is a service which contrite souls greatly need to have rendered them, for they are slow to believe that they can possibly be the objects of Divine complacency. Such in all probability was the publicans state of mind, not only before but even after he had prayed. He went down to his house justified in Gods sight, but not, we think, in his own. He had not found peace, to use a current phrase. In technical language, we might speak of him as objectively, but not subjectively, justified. In plain English, the fact was so, but he was not aware that the fact was so. In saying this, we do not forget that there is an instinct, call it rather the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, which tells a penitent, there is hope in God, there is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared; wait for God, as they that wait for the dawn. But a man who beats his breast, and dares not look up, and stands afar off in an attitude which seems an apology for existence, has some difficulty in trusting this instinct. To fear and despond suits his mood rather than to hope. There are physical reasons for this, not to speak of spiritual ones. The whole behaviour of the publican speaks to a great religious crisis going on in his soul. For that beating of the breast, and that downcast eye, and that timid posture, are not a theatrical performance got up for the occasion. They bear witness to a painful, possibly a protracted, soul-struggle. But one who passes through such a crisis suffers in body as well as in mind. His nerves are sorely shaken, and in this physical condition he is apt to become a prey to fear and depression. He starts at his own shadow, dreads the postman, trembles when he opens a letter lest it should contain evil tidings, can scarce muster courage to go into a dark room, or to put out the light when he goes to bed. How hard for a man in this state to take cheerful views of his spiritual condition, to rejoice in the sunlight of Divine grace. In the expressive phrase of Bunyan, used with reference to himself when he was in a similar state, such an one is prone rather to take the shady side of the street. Is it improbable that one object Christ had in view in uttering this parable and the judgment with which it winds up, was to take such contrite and fear-stricken ones by the hand and conduct them over to the sunny side? (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)

Forgiveness most needed

A friend of mine--a missionary preacher--being once called upon to give spiritual consolation to a sick man on the point of death, asked him what he could do for him. Pray for me, was the reply. My friend said that he would do so most willingly, but added, For what shall I ask? The man answered, You know best. The preacher told him that this was not so, and that he, himself, could alone know what he wanted. Still the dying man would say nothing but, You know best. I leave it to you. At length my friend left him, promising to return in a short time, and hoping that then he might be able to say what it was he wanted to pray for. When the preacher returned, the man directly said, I have been a great sinner; I want forgiveness. (Bishop Walsham How.)

After confession of sin comes forgiveness

We do not always know that we are forgiven; we are not told that the publican knew he was pardoned, although I think that as he went down to his house he must have had some sense of the fact that he was accepted of God. But still we do not always know of our forgiveness. I once visited a canal boatman on his death-bed, and I never remember to have seen a man more affected or more repentant of his sins. Yet he could not grasp the fact of his forgiveness. I tried all I could to bring it home to him, but unsuccessfully. Yet in my own mind I have no doubt that he was forgiven. In order to be pardoned I do not think it necessary to have a firm conviction that we are pardoned. In fact, it is logically absurd to think so. (Bishop Walsham How.)

The humble prayer the best

You can fill an empty jug with clear water from the spring; but it would be foolishness to bring to the spring a jug already full. The Lord has no blessing for the heart that is full of haughtiness; that He reserves for the heart emptied of self. And remember that, after all, it is the worthiest who are the most humble. It is the best filled stalk of corn that bends its head the lowliest. (Sunday School Times.)

The Church is a place for prayer

These two men went up to the temple to pray--not to meet their friends, nor that they might comply with a respectable custom, nor for the purpose of agreeably passing away an hour in varying the ordinary tedium of every-day engagements. No, but to pray: And surely, this should be our great object when we come up to the temple of God. Many seem to think, that to hear the sermon is the great end they have in view when they enter a church; but God has said, My house shall be called an house of prayer. If we had a petition to present to an earthly monarch, our great endeavour on entering the presence chamber would be to approach the throne, and make our wants and desires known. We would not think it the most important part of the proceeding to have a little conversation with the servants or attendants that stood around, nor would we feel satisfied by their giving us some information as to the character of the august personage who is indeed present himself, the way in which his favour may be conciliated, or his gifts procured. These things might be very important, but the king, the king is the absorbing idea--the servant is a minor consideration. (A. Gladwell, B. A.)

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself

Lessons from the Pharisees prayer

There are three cautions which the Pharisee impresses on us; for these things were written for our learning,… he being dead, yet speaketh. And in the first place, let us beware of pride. This is the great lesson the parable inculcates. Spiritual pride incapacitates a man for receiving the blessings of the gospel; it is the great obstacle which the Spirit of God has to struggle with and overthrow. Secondly, let us beware of formality in religion. We are all born Pharisees--more anxious to appear than to be Christians. To conclude, let us beware of resting in anything short of the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. (A. Gladwell, B. A.)

Pharisaical prayers

God, I thank Thee--such in spirit, and almost in word, was the expression of the great Roman historian, Tacitus--I thank Thee I am not as the miserable sect called by the infamous name of Christians, odious to all mankind. God, we thank Thee, said the philosopher of France, that we are not like those benighted men who converted the barbarous tribes, or erected the Gothic cathedrals. I thank Thee, said the splendid Pope Leo X., that I am not as this ignorant monk, Martin Luther. God, we thank Thee, said the great movers of the political and social revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in England, that we are not as those fanatics, the blind poet of Bunhill Row, and the wandering tinker of Bedford, or the scrupulous bishop who could not accept the Act of Settlement, or the Lincolnshire pastor who spent his long life in itinerant preaching; and yet those early Christian martyrs, those mediaeval missionaries and monk of Wittenberg, were mightier in the long run even than Tacitus, or the encyclopaedists of France, or the philosophers of the Renaissance. And those wayward Christians in England, as they seemed to be, John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrims Progress, Bishop Ken, author of the Morning and Evening Hymns, John Wesley, the author of the religious revival in England, went down to their graves as much deserving of the praise of true statesmen and philosophers, even as Clarendon and Bolingbroke, as Walpole and Hume. (Dean Stanley.)

The prayer of pride

When Philip, king of Macedonia, laid siege to the fair city of Samos, he told the citizens that he came a-wooing to it; but the orator well replied, that it was not the fashion in their country to come a-wooing with a fife and a drum: so here we may behold this Pharisee in the posture of a beggar or petitioner, going up to the temple to pray, and yet telling God he standeth in no need of Him; as if, saith Chrysostom, a beggar, that were to crave an alms, should hide his ulcers, and load himself with chains, and rings, and bracelets, and clothe himself in rich and costly apparel; as if a beggar should ask an alms in the robes of a king. His heart did flatter him in secret, and with his mouth he did kiss his hands, as Job speaketh (Job_31:27). Coming before his Physician, he hideth his sores, and showeth his sound and healthful parts, in a dangerous case; like a man struck in a vein, that voideth his best blood, and retaineth his worst. And this is against the very nature of prayer; which should lay us at the feet of God, as nothing before Him; which should raise itself and take its flight on the wings of humility and obedience; which should contract the mind in itself, and secure it from pride; which should depress the soul in itself, and defend it from vainglory; which should so fill it that there may be no room for hypocrisy. Then our devotion will ascend as incense, pure and holy Exo_30:35), seasoned with the admiration of Gods majesty, and the detestation of ourselves. (R. Farindon, D. D.)

The Pharisees mistake

The mistake of this Pharisee was, that he compared his outward life with the lives of disreputable people, and so took to himself the credit of exalted superiority. He should have looked in the other direction. Ii you would come to a just estimate of your character, look at those better than you, and compare yourself with them; look at those whom God has set for our examples, the prophets, the apostles, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and measure yourself by them; look at the holy ten commandments, and try yourself rigidly by their requirements; and this Pharisaic trust and pride in your own goodness will melt away like frost before the sun. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

An egotistical utterance

With what prominence and frequency he flourishes the big I! I thank thee that I am not as other men. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. The whole utterance contains thirty.three words, of which one refers to God, five are Is, and the remaining twenty-seven are either commendations of himself, or allusions to others in unfavourable contrast with his own superiority. Self--self--self--in utmost intensity runs through the whole of it. There isnot a trace of genuine devotion in the entire piece. There is a marvellous thrusting forward of ego, to which all the references to God, the temple, and other people, are made subservient. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

The fine prayer

The celebrated Professor Francke, who founded the great Orphan Asylum, in Halle, was walking one day in the fields with one of his colleagues. All at once the voice of a person praying drew their attention. They stopped, and on looking observed behind a bush two children on their knees, one of whom was praying fervently to God. The two professors listened, and were edified with the devotion which the young Christians seemed to possess. When the prayer was ended, the children rose. Well, said the one who led the devotions, with a self-complacent air, didnt I make a fine prayer? This last remark caused Francke and his companion a painful surprise. But after a moments reflection, one of them remarked: This child has shown openly what often passes in our minds. How often, when God has disposed us to pray with some fervour in presence of our brethren, do we rise from our knees with a secret vanity; and if shame did not restrain us, we should ask with this child, have not I made a fine prayer?

The poorest the best

Lucian, in one of his dialogues, relates the case of two men going into the theatre to play on the harp: one harp was covered with gold and jewels, but its strings broke, and the admiration of the spectators was changed to contempt; the harp of the other man was a very poor and common one, yet it gave out the sweetest sound, and delighted all. The former harp represents the Pharisee, who plays upon his outside worth and fair appearance; the latter harp resembles the poor publican. (Preachers Promptuary.)

Need, not magnificence, the best aid to prayer

When Morales, the painter, was invited by Philip the Second to court, he came in such a magnificent costume, that the King, in anger, ordered a sum of money to be paid him, and so dismissed him. The next time they met he appeared in a very different dress, poor, old, and hungry, which so touched the heart of the King, that he immediately provided him with a revenue which kept him in comfort for all the future. So when men come to the throne of grace it is not their magnificence but their very want which touches the heart of God. (W. Baxendale.)

Self-praise in prayer

His prayer is like the pillar of brass which Trajan erected to himself in Rome, and which he covered with the record of his own triumphs. His prayer is a sort of monument over the tomb of his own dead heart, upon which he inscribes his fancied virtues. (J. Wells.)

God be merciful to me a sinner.

Humility of prayer

I. WHEN DO WE PRAY WITH HUMILITY? Learn this from the publican. It is when we acknowledge the infinite majesty of God and our own misery.

II. WHY MUST WE BE HUMBLE IN OUR PRAYERS?

1. God demands that we should pray with humility.

2. Reason itself teaches the same. Who would pay any attention to a proud beggar?

III. WHAT WE ARE TO DO IN ORDER TO LEARN TO PRAY WITH HUMILITY. A humble prayer can only proceed from a humble heart. Therefore endeavour to become humble of heart, by employing the following means:

1. Being convinced that humility is a grace of God, pray to Him that He may give you this beautiful virtue.

2. Call frequently to your mind what you are in real truth.

(1) What is your single self in comparison with the more than one thousand millions of men? You seem to disappear in the prodigious multitude.

(2) What are you relative to your body? Dust and ashes.

(3) What are you relative to your soul? True, your soul is the image and likeness of God; but what have you made of this Divine image by your sins of the past and of the present? And as to the future, when you reflect on your sins, have you not every reason to tremble before the severe judgment of God?

3. When you approach God in prayer, call to mind who God is in all His splendour and majesty, and who you are--a wretched sinner, a beggar sunk into the greatest misery, a culprit sentenced to death. And then, overwhelmed with the burden of your misery, speak from the depth of your heart to Him who alone is able to deliver you. And if you are troubled with distractions during your prayer, humble yourself again before your Lord and Master, and implore Him that He may not suffer you to commit new sins by negligence; but cease not praying in spite of distractions, and your prayer will be acceptable to the Lord. (J. Schmitt.)

The publicans prayer

This is the only thought which befits a living man in the presence of his Creator. What other link can come between the God of holiness and love, and the sinner, but mercy! God be merciful.

I. In these few words of the contrite soul there is AN ARGUMENT WHICH GOD WILL NEVER REJECT. It is the plea God loves. God be merciful to me because I am a sinner. David knew that blessed argument when he said: Lord pardon my iniquity, for it is great. God has made a book, and it is for sinners; God has filled it with promises, and they are for sinners. He has given His own Son, and it is only for sinners.

II. THE WAY TO OBTAIN THIS FITTING CONDITION OF MIND. It is to be reached in the same way as the publican attained it. His whole mind appears to have been occupied with God, the rest was only secondary. Most persons when they try to cultivate penitence, look into themselves. It is the study of God, not of ourselves, which makes the penitent mind. Nothing makes sin seem so sinful and so hateful as the contemplation of the love of God.

III. WHOEVER WOULD BE TRULY A PENITENT MUST HAVE RIGHT VIEWS OF MERCY. It is an easy thing to say God have mercy upon me. Upon the just apprehension of what this mercy is depends the whole power and acceptability of the prayer, If God, simply by an act of sovereignty, forgave a sin and remitted the punishment, it would not be mercy. Before God can show Himself merciful to a sinner He must receive a satisfaction and an equivalent. That satisfaction is Christ. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The cry that opens heaven

1. When I come to analyze this prayer of the publican, I find in it, in the first place, an appreciation of his sinfulness. He proved himself honourable, and there were a great many admirable things about him, and yet he utters this cry of self-abnegation. What was the matter with him? Had he lost his reason? Had some low, contemptible cowardice seized upon him? O, no. For the first time in all his life he saw himself. He saw he was a sinner before God, utterly helpless and undone. At what moment that discovery flashed upon him I know not; but standing there in the court of the temple, surrounded by all the demonstrations of holiness and power, his soul has extorted from it the anguish-bitten cry of my text.

2. I pursue the analysis of my subject still further, and I find in this publicans prayer the fact that he expected nothing except mercy. He might have said: I am honest in all my dealings. When ten dollars are paid to me for tax, I hand it over to the Government. If you look over all my books you will find them right. My life has been upright and respectable. He made no such plea. He comes and throws himself on Gods mercy. Are there any in this house who propose, by making their life right, to commend themselves to God? Do you really think you can break off your bad habits? Where then are we to be saved? Is there no balm for this mortal wound of my soul? Is there no light for this Arctic night? Is there no hope for a lost sinner? Yes; and that is what I came to tell you about. Mercy. Free mercy. Pardoning mercy. Suffering mercy. Infinite mercy. Omnipotent mercy. Everlasting mercy.

3. I push this analysis of my text one step further, and I find that this man saw that mercy would be of no advantage to him unless he pleaded for it. He did not say: If I am to be saved, I will be saved, and if I am to be lost, I will be lost. There is nothing for me to do. He knew that a thing worth having is worth asking for, and therefore, he makes the agonizing cry of my text. Mark you, it was an earnest prayer, and if you look through this Bible you will see that all the prayers that were answered were earnest prayers. But, mark you this, the publicans prayer was not only earnest, it was humble. The Pharisee looked up; the publican looked down. I remark further, there was a ringing confidence in that prayer. He knew he would get the blessing if he asked for it; and he did get it. (De W. Talmage, D. D.)

A sinner praying for mercy

I. THE BLESSING HE ASKS IS MERCY: God be merciful to me.. Did you ever ask yourselves what mercy is? It means, in common language, pity Shown to me miserable for pitys sake. Strictly speaking, it ceases to be mercy, if the miserable have any claim on us. It takes then the character of justice. And mercy has exactly the same meaning in Holy Scripture. It signifies Gods kindness extended to miserable man of Gods own pure goodness.

II. We may turn now to THE CHARACTER IN WHICH THIS MAN PRAYS. He says, God be merciful to me a sinner. He prays in a character that corresponds exactly with the temple services, and also with the blessing he supplicates. There at the altar falls the sacrifice, and who needs a sacrifice but the sinful? He pleads for mercy, and who needs mercy but the guilty? And it a blessed thing for a sinful man to be thus willing to take his own proper ground when he prays. He must take it, if he means to obtain Gods mercy. All the mercy that exists in God, bound less as it is, is mercy for sinners.

III. Observe now THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS WORSHIPPER PRAYS. And here again all is in harmony. His manner accords well with his character and his petition.

1. He is a sinner, and consequently he prays most humbly.

2. This publican prayed also very earnestly. He smote upon his breast. No matter what led him to do so. It was doubtless a mixture of feelings. Indignation against himself, a sense of his own pollution and misery, a thrilling apprehension of coming wrath--these things took possession of his mind; they agitated him; and like a man driven to extremities he could not restrain his agitation, he smote himself as he cried for mercy. He became exceedingly earnest in his prayer for it. He prayed for nothing else; he thought of nothing else. Mercy is everything with him.

IV. There is yet another circumstance in the parable to be noticed--THE SUCCESS OF THIS MANS PRAYER.

1. It was, first, abundant success, success beyond his petition.

2. His success was also immediate. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The publicans prayer

I. Observe THE OBJECT OF THE PUBLICANS PRAYER.

1. The light of nature teaches man there is a God, a supreme Being, and Governor of the world. There is not a rational creature to be found upon the earth but admits this truth. And, hence, all attend to same kind of worship.

2. Revelation makes known to man the true God in His nature and attributes, and exhibits His conduct towards the children of men.

3. But we must remember that God is never savingly known, even by those who have the Volume of Divine revelation, by the unassisted powers of nature. Hence, in addition to Revelation, it is necessary that the mind be enlightened, in order to its perception of Divine truth. And to do this is the exclusive prerogative of the Holy Spirit.

II. THE SUBJECT OF HIS PETITION--mercy; and the description he gives of himself--a sinner. God be merciful to me a sinner!

1. On the part of man, here are two things implied:

(1) Misery. A sense of deep wretchedness, as being sunk in iniquity--totally depraved, and in every part polluted. The truly awakened sinner feels that he is spiritually diseased; and that, from the crown of his head to the soul of his foot, he is wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.

(2) A deep sense of unworthiness. The truly contrite soul brings no qualifications; no merit, no sacrifice of his own; but comes as a sinner, and having for his only plea, the mercy of God in Christ Jesus.

2. There are also two things, in the exercise of mercy, on the part of God, which the spiritually enlightened sinner especially regards.

(1) Pity, or compassion. When the Holy Spirit brings the sinner to a saving knowledge of God, He enables him to look up to his heavenly Father, as the God of compassion.

(2) Pardon, or forgiveness. I, even I, says God, am He that pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin. The Holy Spirit teaches all true believers that the justice of God is for them, and on their side, as well as His mercy.

III. WHAT THIS PRAYER IMPLIES, WHEN OFFERED TO GOD IS A PROPER SPIRIT.

1. True humiliation for sin. Even after the manifestation of forgiving love, the man who enjoys it feels deeply humbled before God.

2. This prayer, when offered in a proper spirit, implies evangelical repentance. God says (Eze_36:31).

3. This prayer implies submission to the righteous judgment of God.

In conclusion, we learn from this subject--

1. That the ground (or cause) of a sinners justification is out of himself.

2. Learn that no outward reformation, even though accompanied by the strictest attention to religious duties, can save the soul.

3. Learn that no sensible sinner, no humble penitent, need feel discouraged in approaching the God of mercy for pardon.

4. Learn, finally, to beware lest you make the mercy of God an excuse for your continuance in sin. (T. Gibson, M. A.)

A sermon for the worst man on earth

I. THE FACT OF SINNERSHIP IS NO REASON FOR DESPAIR.

1. This man who was a sinner yet dared to approach the Lord. Emphatically he applies to himself the guilty name. He takes the chief place in condemnation, and yet he cries, God be merciful to me the sinner. If this man who was the sinner found forgiveness, so also shall you if you seek it in the same way.

2. Next, remember that you may not only find encouragement in looking at the sinner who sought his God, but in the God whom he sought. Sinner, there is great mercy in the heart of God.

3. Moreover, the conception of salvation implies hope for sinners. That salvation which we preach to you every day is glad tidings for the guilty. Salvation by grace implies that men are guilty. The very name of Jesus tells us that He shall save His people from their sins.

4. Let me further say that, inasmuch as that salvation of God is a great one, it must have been intended to meet great sins. Think you God would have given His dear Son to die as a mere superfluity?

5. If you will think of it again, there must be hope for sinners, for the great commands of the gospel are most suitable to sinners.

6. If you want any other argument--and I hope you do not--I would put it thus: great sinners have been saved. All sorts of sinners are being saved to-day.

II. A SENSE OF SINNERSHIP CONFERS NO RIGHT TO MERCY. You will wonder why I mention this self-evident truth; but I must mention it because of a common error which does great mischief. This man was very sensible of his sin insomuch that he called himself THE SINNER; but he did not urge his sense of sin as any.reason why he should find mercy. I want you, therefore, to learn that a sense of sin gives no man a right to grace.

III. My third observation is this: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR SINNERSHIP GUIDES MEN TO RIGHT ACTING. When a man has learned of the Holy Spirit that he is a sinner, then by a kind of instinct of the new life, he does the right thing in the right way.

1. This man went straight to God.

2. He went with a full confession of sin.

3. He appealed to mercy only.

IV. THE BELIEVING CONFESSION OF SINNERSHIP IS THE WAY OF PEACE. God be merciful to me a sinner, was the prayer, but what was the answer? Listen to this: This man went down, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The penitents prayer

The arrangement of these words is perfect. On one side is Deity--alone--without an attribute, far grander in that solitude than if ten thousand titles had been added to His name--God. On the other--thrown into the greatest possible distance--is man; and he, too, is alone; and his whole being is put into one single expression--it is not a description, it is a synonymy--me, a sinner. And between these two extremes--spanning the distance, and uniting the ends--is one link--simple--grand--sufficient--mercy, nothing but mercy Ñ Godbe merciful to me a sinner. I may mention, for the sake of those who do not happen to know it, that there are three points in the original, which could not well be rendered in our version; but which make this strong language stronger still. There it is, the God, and the sinner; as if the publican wished to give the greatest possible definiteness to all his expressions;--the God--the good God--be merciful to me; as though he were the only man on the face of the earth who needed the forgiveness--no comparisons, no distractions, no deductions; the mind concentrated, the mind absorbed, upon the one guilty self, The God be merciful to me the sinner. And in the very phrase which he selects--be merciful,--there is rolled up atonement; it is, be propitiate. Doubtless that man had been taught to see mercy all in sacrifice; to recognize no pardon out of covenant, and no covenant out of blood. The God be propitiate to me the sinner. I think you will see, brethren, that there is great force in that distinction of language. Weakness always deals in generalities. A man is general in his thoughts and his expressions till he begins to be in earnest; and the very moment he begins to be in earnest, he is individual. Hear men, as men generally speak about God. They say, the Almighty; and they say, the Almighty is very good, and, we are all of us bad, and, none of us are as good as we ought to be; that is the language of natural religion, if, indeed, it be religion at all. It is loose, because it cannot afford to be accurate; it shuns just what a spiritual man loves-personality. How different is the teaching of the Holy Ghost! The soul cannot be particular enough; it lives in exactnesses; it individualizes everything. The God be propitiate to me the sinner. To make true prayer--or, which is the same thing--to make true peace, two things are wanted. Some persons, to a certain extent, attain the one, and some the other; while, because they do not, at the same moment, attain both, the end is frustrated. The truth lies in unity. The one thing is to exalt God very high; and the other, to demean self very low. If you lift up the attributes of God, and do not proportionably debase yourself, you are in danger of running into presumption. If you take deep views of your sinfulness, and do not, at the same time, magnify the grace of God, you will run into despair. A God high in His glory, and self down in the dust, that is best; and let me advise you to look well to it whether you are doing these two things with parallel steps. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The ingredients of real mercy

To make forgiveness--to make real mercy--four things are required. God must be Himself just in doing it. The forgiven man must be perfectly sure that he is forgiven. The forgiveness must not incline the forgiven man to go and sin again, but it must stop him. And the rest of mankind must see no encouragement in that mans pardon to go and do like him, but rather see the strongest argument not to do it. Now, in Gods way of mercy these four things meet. First, God is lust, because He never remits a penalty till He has received an equivalent; the sinning soul has died in its covenant Head, and God keeps His word; and the very same attribute which compels God to punish man out of Christ, in Christ obliges God to pardon Him. Secondly, that forgiven man can never doubt his acceptance, because he knows that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ outweighs the universe. The infinity of Christ is in the ransom. Either he is perfectly pardoned, or the Son of God has died in vain. Thirdly, that pardoned man cannot go and sin again, because, unless he loves Christ, he is not forgiven; and if he does love Christ, he cannot love the sin which crucified Him; he cannot go and do lightly again that which grieves and wounds Him whom now his soul holds more precious than all the world. And, fourthly, the whole world in that man has seen sin in its greatest possible magnitude, because it has seen sin drag down to this earth and crucify the Lord of life and glory; the law is more honourable than if the whole world had perished; since, sooner than one iota of that law should be set aside, the Son of God has kept that law by His life, and satisfied it by His death; so sin is made viler by the very act which cancels it; and pardon is no more the parent of peace, than peace is the mother of holiness. That is mercy. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The publicans prayer

I. The substance of this prayer evinces deep CONVICTION OF SIN.

II. HELPLESSNESS. He admits the righteousness of his condemnation, and sues for mercy.

III. FAITH. He took hold of Gods promises, and made his appeal. (W.M. Taylor, D. D.)

Earnestness is brief

Earnestness does not express itself in long, inflated, pompous sentences. It is brief; it is simple. The moment has arrived when victory, long doubtful as the tide of success ebbed and flowed, may be won by one splendid, dashing, daring attack--the order is given in one brief word, Charge! On the distant waves a flag is seen, now sinking in the trough and again rising on the crest of the foaming billows; and beneath that signal, clinging to the fragment of a vessel that lies many fathoms down in the depths of ocean, are two human forms--and all the cry that sounds from stem to stern is, A wreck, a wreck! and all the order, Lower the boat! words hardly uttered when she drops on the water, and, pulled by stout rowers, is leaping over the waves to the rescue. One late in the deserted streets sees the smoke creep, and the flames begin to flash and flicker from a house whoso tenants are buried in sleep; he bounds to the door and thunders on it--all his cry, Fire, fire! Peter sinks amid the boisterous waves of Galilee and all the prayer of lips the cold water kisses is, as he stretches out his hand to Jesus, Save me, I perish! And with the brief, urgent earnestness of one who seeing his danger, knows that there is no time, and believing in Gods great mercy, feels that there is no need for long prayers, the publican, like a man who in falling over a crag catches the arm of a friendly tree, throws his whole soul into this cry, these few, blessed, accepted words, God be merciful to me a sinner! (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Justification as the result of prayer

Brethren, we have here a pregnant word as to the possibilities and capabilities of worship. Two men went up into the temple to pray, and one of the two returned to his house justified. What is it to be justified? All true doctrine teaches us a great difference between being justified and being sanctified. Justification is an act, sanctification is a process. Both are of God. But whereas the one may be the act of a moment, restoring the sinner to the Divine acceptance by a simple forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, the other in most cases is the work of a lifetime, consisting in the gradual formation of a new character by the daily influence of the Spirit of Grace. There are other uses of the word, but this is its meaning when it is applied accurately. Now, of course, there is a sense in which justification stands at the beginning of the Christian course, and needs not, and indeed suffers not to be repeated. When a man comes to himself in the far country, and says, I will arise and go to my Father, and when he not only says but does, and not only starts for, but arrives at, the home where the Father dwells, and receives from Him the kiss of peace, and the ring of the everlasting covenant then and there, that is his justification. God for Christs sake freely forgives, bestows upon him the Holy Spirit, and, unless some terrible thing should happen afterwards, sets him in the sure way, of which the end is heaven. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But our Lord Himself here speaks of a man going down to his house from a particular act of worship either justified or not justitied. And this seems to give an importance, quite beyond our common estimate, to such a service as this in which we are now engaged. You may say, indeed, that this particular occasion was the justification, in the first and fullest sense, of this publican. Now first, you may say, he felt himself a sinner, now first he sought mercy, and when he went back to his house he went back for the first time, and for all time a pardoned and accepted man. But this idea of restriction seems to have been imported into the parable. Is there anything in our Lords words to imply that either the prayer of the Pharisee or the prayer of the publican was a single and isolated one, never offered before, suggested by some crisis of the life, sudden and not to be repeated? Was it not rather the habit of the two minds thus to express themselves? Would the Pharisee be a different man to-morrow, not the exception, and not the perfection that he now thinks himself? And would the publican when he came again to the temple be no longer the sinner of sinners, but an improved, and altered, and sanctified man? Where is all this in the parable! If not, then the justification spoken of may be repeated tomorrow, and we have before us the thought of the issues of worship rather than the thought of the issues of a fundamental spiritual change. This man went down to his house justified, on this particular occasion, rather than the other. The justification spoken of is forgiveness, or absolution. Brethren, the justified man wants forgiveness; the man who has bathed the whole body needs afterwards to wash the feet. This man has brought his load of sin with him to the temple; he has come guilty and burdened, conscience accusing, and convicted. He has left undone that which he ought to hare done since he last worshipped, he has done that which he ought not to have done since he last worshipped, there is no health in him; this morning he has come, just as he is, to the God of his life; he has sought no intervention, and no intermediation of priest, or of sacrifice; he has come straight to God. He has taken for granted Gods knowledge of each of his transgressions, as well as of that root and spring of evil, which is the fallen and sinful self; and now, pre-supposing all this, he has simply to ask for mercy, which is, being interpreted, kindness to the undeserving, and he has received the answer of peace, and so now he goes back to his house justified. What of the other? His return is not described; it is left under the veil of a parable. The publican is justified beyond, or in comparison with, or rather than, the Pharisee--such is the Greek. Dare we suggest on the strength of this reticence two kinds or two degrees of justification, one the higher and more complete, but the other, though lower, perhaps sufficient? Let us look at the prayer, and judge by it of the answer, God, I thank thee for my satisfactory condition, for my exemplary conduct, for my exceptional, my unique freedom from the otherwise universal wickedness of mankind. What is there here to suggest the thought of a justification, of which the other name is absolution, or forgiveness? What is there here to be forgiven? Not having asked, he surely has not received, a boon which is only acceptable, and only appropriate to the sinner. (Dean Vaughan.)

Christian humility

The best of Gods people have abhorred themselves. Like the spire of a steeple, minimus in summo, we are least at the highest. David, a king, was yet like a weaned child. Manton is not very clear about the steeple, but he means that the higher a spire rises towards heaven the smaller it becomes, and thus the more elevated are our spirits the less shall we be in our own esteem. Great thoughts of self and great grace never go together. Self-consciousness is a sure sign that there is not much depth of grace. He who over-values himself under-values his Saviour. He who abounds in piety is sure to be filled with humility. Light things, such as straws and feathers, are borne aloft; valuable goods keep their places, and remain below, not because they are chained or riveted there, but by virtue of their own weight. When we begin to talk of our perfection, our imperfection is getting the upper hand. The more full we become of the presence of the Lord the more shall we sink in our own esteem, even as laden vessels sink down to their water-mark, while empty ships float aloft. Lord, make and keep me humble. Lift me nearer and nearer to heaven, and then I shall grow less and less in my own esteem. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Sin a personal affront to God

Sin is a personal affront, whose bitter consequences only the forgiveness of God Himself can remove, and toward which, with the publican, we must implore Him to be merciful. It does not read, Nature be merciful, nor Laws of my constitution be merciful, nor Society be merciful, nor, I will be merciful to myself, but, God be merciful;--nor yet, God be merciful to sin in general, but to me a sinner. (Bishop Huntington.)

A negros prayer

My uncle, the Rev. Dr. Samuel K. Talmage, of Augusta, Georgia, was passing along the street one day and he met a black man, who stepped out into the street, leaving the pavement, took his hat off, and bowed very lowly in the presence of my uncle. My uncle said to him: My dear fellow, why do you stand there and make such a low bow to me? Oh, he replied, massa, I owe you more than any one on earth. Why, inquired my uncle, what do you mean? Well, said the man, I was going along the street the other night, and I had a heavy burden on my back, and I was hungry and sick, and I saw your church was lighted, and I thought I would just stand at the door a minute and listen, and I put down my burden and listened, and I heard you say: God be merciful to me a sinner. And you said that any poor soul that could utter that prayer from the heart could get to heaven, and I shouldered my burden and I went on home, and I went in the house, and I sat down, and I folded my hands, and I said: God be merciful to me a sinner, but I felt no better; I felt worse. And then I got down on my knees, and I said it again: God be merciful to me a sinner. I felt no better. It was darker than it was before. And then, massa, I threw myself down on my face and cried out: God be merciful to me a sinner, and I kept on crying that until after awhile I saw a light a good ways off, and it came nearer to me, and nearer to me, and it got all bright, and I felt very happy, and I thought the next time I saw you coming down the street I would bow very low before you, and I would stand out of your way, and I would tell you how much I owed to you. (De W. Talmage, D. D.)

As a sinner

When the late Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, was expressing, in the prospect of death, some concern about the state of his soul, his physician endeavoured to soothe his mind by referring to his high respectability, and his honourable conduct in the distinguished situation in which Providence had placed him, when he stopped him short, saying, No; remember, if I am to be saved, it is not as a prince, but as a sinner.

The publicans prayer used in death

Many well-known Christians have died with the publicans prayer on their lips. Archbishop Usher did so. William Wilberforce, the liberator of the slaves, said when dying, With regard to myself, I have nothing to urge but the poor publicans plea, God be merciful to me a sinner. When the famous Grotius was a-dying at Rostock, the minister reminded him of the publicans prayer, That publican, Lord, am I, said Grotius, God be merciful to me a sinner, and then he died. (J. Wells.)

The nature and necessity of humility

I. We are to consider THE NATURE OF HUMILITY. There is the more occasion for describing this gracious exercise of heart with peculiar accuracy and precision, because mankind are naturally disposed to misunderstand and misrepresent it. Mr. Hume scrupled not to say, that humility ought to be struck off from the catalogue of virtues, and placed on the catalogue of vices. This must have been owing to his gross ignorance, or extreme malignity. The most charitable supposition is, that he really mistook a mere selfish and painful sense of natural inferiority for true humility. This leads me to observe that a mans humbling himself is something very different from his having a mistaken and reluctant sense of his own inferiority in relation to his fellow mortals. Humility is likewise different from submission, which seems to resemble it. Submission is the respect which an inferior justly owes to a superior. Furthermore, humility is something different from condescension, which is the part of a superior, and consists in stooping to an inferior. Thus the Creator may condescend to a creature, the prince to a subject, the rich to the poor, and the aged to the young. But though condescension stoops, yet it is by no means degrading. Real condescension always displays a noble and amiable spirit. I may now safely say that humility essentially consists in selfabasement, which is self-degradation, or a voluntary sinking, not only below others, but below ourselves. It is, therefore, wholly founded in guilt. None but guilty creatures have any cause or reason for abasing themselves. But every guilty creature ought to abase himself, whether he is willing or unwilling to perform the mortifying duty.

II. SINNERS MUST HUMBLE THEMSELVES BEFORE GOD, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN PARDONING MERCY.

1. God cannot consistently receive them into His favour, before they voluntarily humble themselves for their transgressions in His sight.

2. It is.impossible for sinners to receive Divine mercy before they take their proper places, and are willing to sink as low as Divine justice can sink them.

Improvement:

1. If humility essentially consist in self-abasement for sin, then we may safely suppose that neither God the Father, nor the Lord Jesus Christ, ever exercised any affection which may be strictly called humility.

2. If humility consists in self-abasement, we may clearly see how low sinners must lie before God, in order to obtain His pardoning mercy.

3. If humility consists in a free and voluntary self-abasement for sin, then it is the most amiable and shining exercise of a holy heart.

4. Finally, it appears from this whole discourse that nothing short of real, cordial self-abasement, can qualify any of our sinful race to obtain and enjoy the happiness of heaven. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

Humility

An old writer of the Church says of humility that it is the great ornament and jewel of the Christian religion. All the world, all that we are, and all that we have, our bodies and our souls, our actions and our sufferings, our conditions at home, our accidents abroad, our many sins and our seldom virtues, are as so many arguments to make our souls dwell low in the deep valley of humility. A moments thought will convince you of the truth of this. Of what are you proud, of your holiness Think of the many shortcomings, the endless sins, great and small, the numberless yieldings to temptation, the constant infirmities of temper which have marked the course of your lives during the last year, and then set these off against the good deeds on which you congratulate yourselves, have you much to be proud of? Are you proud of your bodily strength, your health, your beauty? Remember that a sudden cold or the prick of a lancet will banish life from your bodies, that a weeks sickness will mar your beauty for ever. The flowers which bloom and fade are more beautiful than the loveliest of living beings, hundreds of animals are stronger and more long-lived than man; have we then much to be proud of here? Are you proud of your intellect, of your superiority over your neighbours in know ledge and education? Brethren, the most deeply learned knows that he is as a child amid the mysteries of nature; half his knowledge is but a groping after more light, which is long in coming, and feeble when it is gained. Our learning is best when it teaches most humility, but to be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance in the world. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.)

Justified rather than the other

Justification

I. HOW DO WE BECOME JUST WITH GOD?

1. Not by works in themselves, but by the disposition of the mind.

2. Not only by a moral disposition, but by a pious disposition.

3. Not only by a pious disposition in general, but by a believing disposition in the merits of Christ. Justification is Gods gift, apart from any desert on our part.

II. WHAT RICH BLESSING IS INCLUDED IN OUR JUSTIFICATION?

1. Forgiveness of sin.

2. An incentive and power to a new life in repentance and satisfaction.

3. Always free access now to God, and new assurances of favour and a sure hope of eternal life. (Heintzeler.)

Humility and self-reproach rewarded

I recently met with an account of a prince, the son of a king, who went to a house of correction to see the captives. Meeting there so many people, toiling at their tasks, and hobbling in their chains, his heart was moved with pity, and he resolved to give some of them their liberty. But he must first find out which of them deserved release. To satisfy himself on this point, he went from one to the other, asking each why he was there. According to the answers he got, all were brave, proper, and honourable men; one had simply been unfortunate; another had done no wrong; a third was slandered; a fourth was forced against his will; each pleading innocence, and entreating, on these grounds, to be released. At last he came to a young man, asking, And what have you done, that has brought you here? Gracious sir, answered the man, I am here because I deserve it. I ran away from my parents; I led an idle and dissolute life; I committed theft and forgery; and it would take an hour to tell all the bad things I have done. And this is what I justly deserve for my evil deeds. The prince facetiously remarked: Indeed! and how does it happen that so bad a man ever found his way in among all these virtuous and honourable people? Take off his chains, open the gates, and let him out, lest he corrupt and spoil these good innocent men, who have all been put here without a cause. He meant to say, that this was the only honest-hearted one among them; that the rest had only lied and dissembled; and that people who have no sins to confess, are not fit to have their punishments remitted. This young man, said he, confesses his misdeeds; he has humbled himself before God and me; and him alone I deem worthy of his freedom. Therefore set him at liberty. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 18:9-10. And he spake this parable — Having in the preceding parable guarded his disciples against faintness and weariness in prayer, he here guards them against the contrary extreme of self-confidence: unto certain — For the conviction of certain persons in his train; who trusted in themselves that they were righteous — Who had a high opinion of their own piety, and on that account despised others as greatly inferior to them, both in holiness and in the favour of God. Observe, reader, these persons were, properly speaking, not hypocrites: the Pharisee here mentioned was evidently not a hypocrite, any more than he was an outward adulterer; but, mistaking his real state and character, he sincerely believed himself to be righteous, and accordingly told God so in the prayer which none but God heard. Two men went up into the temple to pray — It seems it was not the hour of public prayer, but they went thither to offer up their personal devotions, as was usual with pious people at that time, when the temple was not only the place, but the medium of worship; God having promised, in answer to Solomon’s request, that whatever prayer should be offered in a right manner in, or toward that house, it should, therefore, the rather be accepted. Christ is our temple, and to him we must have an eye in all our approaches to God. One a Pharisee — As if he had said, One of that sect so honoured among them; and the other a publican — Whom they were used to number with the most contemptible of mankind.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 98. PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND PUBLICAN, Luk_18:9-14.

As the preceding parable inculcates intensity, so this illustrates humility, in prayer.

9. Unto certain—The best commentators decide that the Greek word for unto should be rendered concerning. The parable was addressed to the disciples concerning the trusters in themselves and despisers of others, of whom this Pharisee is selected as an example.

Trusted in themselves—So low was their estimate of sin, and so high their estimate of their own merit, that they proposed to stand before God, to be justified on the ground of their own excellence; nay, came into his presence, and under forms of prayer and thanks, paraded these laudations of themselves and depreciations of their fellows.

Despised others—Their great sin was, that, despising the work of elevating others, as Jesus did the publicans and Gentiles of this region, they really rejoiced in their sinfulness and degradation, over which they could glory as a superior and despotic caste. Their language was, This people that know not the law are accursed.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk_18:9. Unto certain.—This parable is not addressed to Pharisees, but to some of His own followers who were Pharisaical at heart. Despised.—Or “set at nought” (R.V.). Others.—Rather, “all others” (R.V.); lit. “the rest.”

Luk_18:10. Went up.—The Temple standing on an elevation. Probably some of Christ’s hearers were now on their way to worship there.

Luk_18:11. The Pharisee stood.—Took up a position apart from others, as the word seems to indicate. With himself.—Secret prayer, or the personal devotions offered apart from those statedly conducted by the priests for the people at large. God.—Rather, “O God.” There seems no reason why the phrase should be abbreviated in our English versions. As other men.—Rather, “as the rest of men” (R.V.); all but himself. Extortioners.—Those who injure others by force. Unjust.—Those who overreach others by fraud.

Luk_18:12. I fast, etc.—His works of supererogation. The Law prescribed only one day of fasting—the great day of Atonement (Lev_16:29). The Oral Law prescribed fasts on Monday and Thursday of each week, in commemoration of Moses’ ascending and descending Mount Sinai. That I possess.—Rather, “that I get”—i.e., one-tenth of his income, not of his property.

Luk_18:13. Afar off.—Perhaps this means from the altar or from the Holy Place. It may however, mean from the Pharisee, as though he felt his unworthiness to be near those whom he regarded, and who regarded themselves, as holy. Smote upon his breast.—A gesture of sorrow (cf. chap. Luk_23:48). Me a sinner.—Perhaps it may be rendered “to me the sinner”—i.e., beyond all others (R.V. margin). It seems, however, to detract from the limplicity of the prayer to think of the publican as comparing himself, even unfavourably, with others.

Luk_18:14. Exalteth himself.—As did the Pharisee. Shall be abased.—Rather “humbled” (R.V.)—i.e., in his failure to obtain justification from God. “The sense is, one returned home in the sight of God with his prayer answered, and that prayer had grasped the true object of prayer—the forgiveness of sins; the other prayed not for it, and obtained it not. Therefore he who would seek justification before God must seek it by humility, and not by self-righteousness” (Alford).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_18:9-14

Self-righteousness and Humility.—This is a parable which sets forth one of the great laws of the kingdom of God, viewed as a kingdom of grace—that enunciated in the closing verse: “Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” We shall best study the parable by making our starting-point the judgment of Jesus on the two men whose characters are so graphically depicted in it, and considering, in order, these points: First, the import of the judgment; second, its grounds; third, its uses.

I. It is declared that the publican went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee.—We must assume that it is not intended to call in question the statements of fact made by the two parties. Neither is supposed to have borne false witness for or against himself, whether in ignorance or with intent to deceive. Even the self-laudatory statements of the Pharisee are allowed to pass unquestioned. What is blamed is not his statement of facts, but the spirit in which he makes that statement—the spirit of self-complacency. There is the less reason to doubt this that the Pharisee is not represented as uttering his prayer aloud. He took up his posture and prayed thus with himself. Had his prayer been intended for the public ear, there would probably have been in it less depreciation of others and also less praise of himself. But just on that account there would have been less sincerity, less fidelity to the actual thoughts and feelings of the man. And just because it is a heart-prayer it is a true prayer, reflecting his real belief. It is his self-complacency alone, therefore, not its fact-basis which is liable to question. The publican’s account of himself is also assumed to be correct. Our Lord does not mean to say this publican was mistaken in imagining himself to be so great a sinner. He is a sinner, as he says in words; a great sinner, as he declares by significant gesture. The validity of the judgment pronounced concerning him does not at all rest on the comparative smallness of his guilt. These things being so, it is clear how the judgment must be understood. It means, not that the publican is a just man, and the Pharisee an unjust, but the publican is nearer the approval of God than the other who approves himself. The approval or good-will of God is what both are seeking. Both address God. The one says, “God, I thank Thee”; the other, “God, be gracious unto me.” The one expects God to endorse the good opinion he entertains of himself; the other begs God to be merciful to him, notwithstanding his sin.

II. The grounds of the judgment.—Only one reason is expressly referred to by Christ; but there is another reason implied. It is this: The publican’s self-dissatisfaction had more truth or religious sincerity in it than the Pharisee’s self-complacency, and God, as the Psalmist tells us, desires and is pleased with truth in the inward parts. The statements he made did not, even if true, warrant self-complacency. Each act of thanksgiving might have been followed by an act of confession. “I have not been an extortioner, but I have often coveted what was not my own. I have not been unjust, but I have been far from generous. I have not been an adulterer, but my heart has harboured many wicked thoughts.” For all the truly good are conscious that they have confessions to make which exclude all boasting. Another index of the self-complacent Pharisees’ want of truth in the deeper sense is that, while apparently unconscious of any sins of his own, he is very much alive to the sins of others. With a coarse, sweeping indiscriminateness he pronounces all men but himself guilty, and guilty of the grossest sins. He makes himself very good by the cheap method of making all others very bad. Our Lord expressly states a reason in support of His judgment concerning the two men. “Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” This statement is valuable, as teaching that self-praise and self-condemnation produce the same effects on the Divine mind as on our own minds. When a man praises himself in our hearing, the act provokes in us the spirit of criticism; when, on the other hand, we hear a man condemn himself, there arises in our bosom a feeling of sympathy towards him. Just the same effects do the same acts, Christ gives us to understand, produce on the mind of God. And with His teaching all Scripture agrees. God forgives sins to such as acknowledge them, and imputes sins to such as deny them, for this among other reasons, because it gives Him pleasure to exalt those who humble themselves, and to humble those who exalt themselves.

III. The uses of the judgment.—We learn from the verdict pronounced on the two worshippers that it is necessary, in order to please God, to be sincere and to be humble; but we may not hence infer that we are saved by our sincerity or by our humility. We are not saved by these virtues, any more than by boasting of our goodness, but by the free grace of God. From the introductory words we learn that the chief purpose of the parable was to rebuke and subdue the spirit of self-righteousness; another purpose, doubtless, was to revive the spirit of the contrite and to embolden them to hope in God’s mercy. This is a service which contrite souls greatly need to have rendered them, for they are slow to believe that they can possibly be the objects of Divine complacency. Such, in all probability, was the publican’s state of mind, not only before but even after he prayed. He went down to his house justified in God’s sight, but not, we think, in his own. Think not, He would say to such as he, that God casts the poor, nervous, desponding penitent out of His sympathies. Nay! the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Who can tell how many repentant ones went down to their houses cheered by the words which had fallen from the lips of the sinner’s Friend! Let us use the parable for kindred purposes still; learning from it ourselves to cherish hopeful views concerning such as are more persuaded of their own sinfulness than of Divine mercy, and doing what we can to help such to believe that verily there is forgiveness with God.—Bruce.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_18:9-14

Luk_18:9-14. Two Prayers.

I. The place of prayer.

II. The Pharisee’s prayer.—He forgets the evil he had and the good he had not. He did not see himself as God saw him. He does not ask for anything. He does not pray for the publican. He only thanks God he is not like him.

III. The publican’s prayer.—How short it is! How earnest he is! He feels his great need. He receives the blessing. What a load is lifted off his soul!—Watson.

Two Prayers.—Here we have two kinds of prayer set side by side for our instruction.

I. The first is really no prayer at all, but only a bit of self-felicitation in the presence of God. It has no adoration, no confession, no supplication. This Pharisee has many followers. Many there are whose whole stock of piety consists in not being so bad as some others are. But it is a poor kind of virtue which has nothing better to build on than such imperfect relative goodness.

II. The other man’s prayer was altogether different.—There was no measuring of himself with other people. There was no going over sins he had not committed. There was no mention of his neighbour’s sins, but freedom in speaking of his own. He was burdened with the consciousness of personal guilt, and cried to God for undeserved mercy, to be granted wholly through grace. This is true prayer. The prayer of the penitent reaches heaven. God wants this honesty and humility in our supplications. The particular sinner with whose sins each man ought to be most concerned is himself.—Miller.

Two Men at Prayer.

I. The proud man’s prayer.—

1. It was full of boasting words.

2. It did not speak about his sins.

3. It did not ask God for anything. It was therefore not a real prayer at all.

II. The humble man’s prayer.—

1. He calls himself a sinner.

2. He begs for mercy.

3. His words are few, but they come from the heart. His prayer was answered. It was a true prayer.—W. Taylor.

The Pharisee and the Publican.

I. The wrong religion.—His prayer reveals the man. It is made up of self-trust and scorn of others. Self-praise is not comely. A proud prayer is a prayerless prayer. This man confesses only the sins of other men. This Pharisaic spirit lurks in every heart, and must be starved and killed. Even in true Christians traces of the Pharisee may often be found.

II. The right religion.—His prayer shows a full belief.

1. In man’s great misery. Like the pilgrim, he has one burden, and pardon is his one need.

2. God’s greater mercy. The word he uses means the mercy of propitiation and reconciliation. This man learned God’s mercy in learning his own misery. Sin and salvation are the two foundation-stones of the right religion.—Wells.

Points of Resemblance and of Difference.

I. Points of resemblance.—

1. Both sinful, though their sinfulness took different forms.

2. Both worshippers of God.

3. Both examine their own lives and characters.

II. Points of difference.—

1. The Pharisee plumes himself upon his superiority to others; the Publican is consumed by the thought of his own unworthiness.

2. The Pharisee finds in his life a righteousness beyond even the requirements of God’s law; the Publican has no ground of hope but in the compassion of God.

3. The Pharisee has much to say; the Publican can only ejaculate one sentence.

4. The Publican is accepted with God; the Pharisee is not.

Luk_18:9. “Trusted in themselves.”—Probably these were not Pharisees, for in that case the figure of a Pharisee would not have been held up to them as a similitude. Some of Christ’s own followers evidently had given indications of trust in their own righteousness, or of contempt towards others.

Luk_18:10. The Pharisee and the Publican.—Two extreme types of worshippers. What a contrast!

I. The Pharisee.—

1. His advantages.

2. His drawbacks.

II. The Publican.—

1. His drawbacks.

2. His advantages.—Davies.

Luk_18:11. The Pharisee.—In the Pharisee and the Publican were represented the very poles of religious and social respectability. We are now concerned with the Pharisee.

I. The Pharisees, as the name implies, were, before all things, men who insisted on their separateness from others.—Their duty was to avoid all intercourse with or assimilation to the Gentile world. They multiplied all outward signs which could distinguish them from the heathen, or from those of their countrymen who seemed to have a fancy for heathen ways. In many respects they contrasted favourably with the latitudinarian Sadducees.

II. The Pharisee, as representing the religious world of Judæa, seems to have everything in his favour, as he goes up to the Temple to pray.—What is it in his prayer that our Lord condemns? It was that his religion centred, not in God, but in himself, and was, therefore, no religion at all. He asks God for nothing—no pardon, no mercy, no grace. He feels the need of nothing.

III. The Pharisees have long disappeared from history; but the spirit of Pharisaism survives, and our Lord’s sentence on it holds good for all time. No one is safe from the infection of the Pharisaic spirit; no precautions, surely, will be thought unnecessary which may help to keep it at bay.—Liddon.

Luk_18:11-12. The Pharisee’s Errors.—

1. He thought of God as satisfied with external conduct and not as requiring purity and humility of heart.

2. He failed to see his shortcomings, and exaggerated his virtues.

3. He despised others.

The Pharisee’s Ground of Confidence.—

1. That he was not so bad as other men.

2. That he was not guilty of gross sins.

3. That he paid attention to external precepts of religion.

The Pharisee’s Prayer.—

1. He shows what he is.

2. What he does.

3. What he gives.

Luk_18:11. “Prayed thus.”—It was less a prayer of thanksgiving to God than a congratulatory address to himself. True thanksgiving is always accompanied by and inspired by humility.

“I thank thee.”—Though in the form of a prayer, the Pharisee boasts of his superiority to others. It is possible to thank God for what we do and become more than others (1Co_15:9-10), but such a thanksgiving springs out of the most profound humility.

“As other men.”—Or rather, “as the rest of men” (R.V.) He divides mankind into two classes—the evil and the good, and he finds himself standing almost alone in the latter.

Luk_18:12. “This publican.”—His eye alighting on the publican, of whom he may have known nothing but that he was a publican, he drags him into his prayer, making him to furnish the dark background on which the bright colours of his own virtues shall more gloriously be displayed; finding, it may be, in the deep heart-earnestness with which the contrite man beat his breast, in the fixedness of his downcast eyes, proofs in confirmation of the judgment which he passes upon him. He, thank God, has no need to beat his breast in that fashion, nor to cast his eyes in that shame upon the ground.—Trench.

Luk_18:13. “Standing afar off.”—I.e., from the altar of burnt-offering, in contrast with the Pharisee who took up his place near it.

The Publican an Example.—The Publican affords us an example worthy of imitation.

1. In his profound sense of the Divine holiness.

2. In his contrition for sin.

3. In his open and free confession of unworthiness.

4. In his cry for mercy.

The Publican Shows Humility—

1. In his posture.

2. By his action.

3. By the matter and form of his prayer.

“His eyes.”—Fear and shame cause him to keep his eyes upon the ground.

“His breast.”—The seat of conscience.

“A sinner.”—To the Pharisee all are sinners, and he only is righteous; to the Publican all are righteous, and he only the sinner.—Westermeier.

“Me a sinner.”—Or “the sinner” (R.V.). As the Pharisee saw in himself nothing but righteousness, so the Publican saw in himself nothing but sin.

Luk_18:14. The Fate of the Two Prayers.—The Publican’s prayer, like incense, ascended into heaven, a sacrifice of sweet savour, while the prayer of the Pharisee was blown back like smoke into his own eyes; for “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”—Trench.

Something in Both to Be Avoided, Something to Be Copied.—We should avoid the Pharisee’s pride, but not neglect his performances; we should forsake the Publican’s sins and retain his humility.—Chrysostom.

“Justified.”—Accepted by God as righteous. The Pharisee had in form attributed the excellencies he found in his own character and life to the grace of God, but the relish with which he recounts his virtues shows plainly that under the guise of humility pride was lurking. His prayer contained no request, and drew down no blessing. But the Publican’s request, proffered in humility, was granted.

Justification.—In all the passages in St. Luke where the word is used (chaps, Luk_7:29; Luk_7:35, Luk_10:29, Luk_16:15), its plain meaning is to declare righteous and not to make righteous. The Publican prays for mercy; the Pharisee trusts in his own righteousness. God accepts the Publican as righteous, but does not endorse the Pharisee’s judgment on himself. This use of the word “justify” is not peculiar to the Pauline epistles; we find it in the Old Testament (Isa_50:8; Isa_53:11; Psa_143:2).

The Two Men.

Two went to pray; or rather say,

One went to brag, the other to pray;

One stands up close, and treads on high,

Where th’ other dare not send his eye.

One nearer to the altar trod,

The other to the altar’s God.

Crashaw.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. The Pharisee and the Publican (Luk_18:9-14)

9And he spake this parable unto certain [men] which trusted in themselves that theywere righteous, and despised others: 10Two men went up into the temple to pray; theone a Pharisee, and the other a publican [taxgatherer]. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men [the rest of12men] are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican [taxgatherer]. Ifast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess [acquire]. 13And the publican [taxgatherer], standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, butsmote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a [the] sinner. 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:2 for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_18:9. And He spake this parable.—That the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican was delivered on the same occasion as the previous one (Meyer), we do not believe. In this case we should have to conceive the Pharisees, Luk_17:20, as yet present; and, moreover, it can scarcely be assumed that our Lord in their presence would have chosen the Pharisee as the chief personage of His parable. It appears, therefore, that some time afterwards, among the wider circle of the auditors of Jesus, an occasion offered itself for contrasting with one another these portraits of haughtiness and humility. Perhaps Luke gives the parable in this connection because it also stands in relation to prayer, while its conclusion constitutes a very proper transition to the immediately following narrative, Luk_18:15-17. That it, however, was actually uttered during this period in the public life of Jesus, appears to be deducible from the fact that both men are described to us as going-up to the temple in order to pray there, which certainly is doubly congruous when we consider that just during this time many caravans of pilgrims to the feast were travelling up towards the temple, and that Jesus Himself was making His last journey to the feast.

To certain men.—Πρός is here not, as in Luk_18:1, to be understood of the bare intention of the parable (De Wette, Stier, Arndt), but as a designation of the persons who were addressed. Among whom we have to seek these τινές is not stated particularly, any more than in what way they had made their self-righteous temper manifest. Pharisees proper they certainly were not, but we know how much our Saviour had to warn even His disciples against the Pharisaic leaven, and how self-righteousness was not only the ruling evil of the Jews of His time, but is also even yet the common evil of every natural man. We need not even assume (Stier) that these proud μαθηταί expressed themselves in some such way as this before the previous parable: “Pray? Oh, that we can do already better than others; nor are we lacking in faith,” and the like. We may, however, reasonably conceive that the Saviour read this proud imagination in their hearts, or that He had already remarked in actual life a similar contrast to that which He nere places before their eyes. As to the rest, Luke describes the disposition which the Saviour here attacks more precisely than the here-named persons.—In themselves, ἐφ̓ ἑαυτοῖς, they believed that they had the righteousness required by the law, comp. Php_3:4; 2Co_1:9. Of others they believed exactly the opposite.

Luk_18:10. Two men.—Here also two persons are types of two different essential tendencies. Never does our Lord represent any virtue or vice in the abstract, but always in the concrete, as it shows itself in reality. Ἀναβαίνειν, a literally exact expression for the visiting of the more elevated temple-mountain.—To pray.—The main element and compendium of the whole public worship of God. Comp. Isa_56:7.

Luk_18:11. Stood.—Σταθείς can either be taken by itself or be connected with the remark following, πρὸς ἑαυτόν in the sense of stabat seorsim (Grotius, Paulus). It would then indicate that he chose a position entirely apart, in order not to be Levitically defiled by the too great nearness of men whom he regarded as unclean. It is, however, more simple to connect the words πρὸς ἑαυτ. with the immediately following ταῦτα προσηύχετο (Lisco, Meyer). The expression εἰπεῖν πρὸς ἑαυτ. is usual. See Luk_20:5; Luk_20:14. Comp. Luk_12:17; Luk_3:15; Mar_11:31; Mar_12:7, &c. The simple σταθείς already contains a genuinely graphic touch, which vividly brings out the confident feeling of the Pharisee, and especially by the contrast with the μακρόθεν ἐστώς, Luk_18:13.

Prayed thus with himself.—Yet so loud that others also hear him. His praying is a thanking, his thanking a boasting, not of God but alone of himself. In unbounded presumption he contrasts himself not only with many or with the most, but with the whole body of other men, οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. “Duas classes Pharisœus facit, in alteram conjicit totum genus humanum, altera, melior, ipse sibi solus esse videtur.” Bengel. Yet soon he begins to distinguish the great mass of sinners into particular groups. There are the ἄδικοι in the more restricted sense, the ἅρπαγες, like a Zacchæus, for instance, the μοιχοί, not in the Old Testament scriptural sense, but in the literal sense of the word, and finally the man who stands behind him as the incarnation of all possible moral faults, οὗτος ὁ τελώνης, whom he had probably seen entering also into the temple, but of whom he knows beforehand that his prayer cannot possibly be acceptable to God. Thus does he vaunt his own person in order now in one breath to pass over to the heralding of his good works.

Luk_18:12. I fast twice in the week.—The law (Lev_16:29-31; Num_29:7) had only prescribed an annual fast-day; but he in addition keeps twice a week a private fast day, according to the custom of that time, Monday and Thursday. Here also, as in Mar_16:9, τοῦ σαββ. is the designation of the week, which was concluded with the Sabbath.—I give tithes of all.—Therefore much more even than was demanded in the law, according to which only the fruits of the field and of the cattle were tithed (Lev_27:30; Num_18:21; Deu_14:22). Ὅσα κτῶμαι, not “what I possess,” which would have to be κέκτημαι, but “what I take in,” “what comes in to me.” He is not speaking of fixed property in itself, but of the natural profits of that for which he has to thank his own insight and keenness, as to which he therefore from his point of view might easily believe that he could properly keep it for himself. Thus do his thanks in a certain manner become an intimation that God really has to thank him for all which he has the goodness to give up of his legitimate property, and as his soliloquy ends with this enumeration, we may conceive the Pharisee as now continuing in silence to please himself with the thought of the great and good things which he has done or is still doing and will do in the future.

Luk_18:13. The tax-gatherer.—In everything the direct opposite of the proud fool, whose image has inspired almost even more compassion than disgust. The unfeigned humility of the tax-gatherer reveals itself first in the standing-place which he chooses.—Standing afar off, μακρόθεν, not in the court of the Gentiles, 1Ki_8:41-42 (Starke), for he is a Jew; not at a distance from the Pharisee (Meyer), for we do not read that he had observed the latter, as on the other hand the latter had noticed him, but far from the sanctuary, which the Pharisee, σταθείς, has without doubt approached as nearly as possible, while on the other hand the publican’s courage to do this vanished even as he first ascended towards the temple-mountain. In the second place, his demeanor indicates his humility. It was usually the custom to pray with uplifted hands, 1Ti_2:8, and with look turned towards heaven, Psa_123:1-2; but he is as far from venturing on the one as on the other, comp. Ezr_9:6, because he in the temple actually thinks of God and His spiritual holiness. Finally, his humility expresses itself in his words, ὁ Θεός, κ.τ.λ. Certainly he is far from comparing himself with the Pharisee or with other men; he sees only himself in the clear mirror of the law, and feels that he has the worst to fear if God will enter with him into judgment. It is possible, undoubtedly (Stier), that we have here to understand an impulse of first repentance, if we only, above all, do not forget that the publican’s prayer continually repeats itself out of the depth of the continually renewed contrition of the publican’s heart. It is right to lay emphasis on the τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ. He accounts himself a sinner, κατ’ ἐξοχήν, as Paul names himself, 1Ti_1:15, the chief of sinners, and all for which he prays is comprehended in the single word “Grace.” It is entirely unnecessary to press the word ἱλάσκεσθαι in such a way as to see intimated in it the dogmatic conception of atonement. See Stier, ad loc.

Luk_18:14. I tell you.—In view of the high importance of the contrast, the Saviour does not once leave His hearers to judge respecting the two suppliants, but Himself passes the irrevocable judgment, in which it is silently presupposed that no suppliant can become participant of a higher prerogative than to go down again from the temple δεδικαιωμένος. Therefore, in the eyes of our Lord also, δικαίωσις is the summary of all good which the praying sinner can entreat of the holy God. The question only is, Who has good ground to hope for this privilege, he who prays like the Pharisee or he who prays like the publican? The Saviour expresses Himself, as is often the case, more mildly than abstract logical necessity requires. Although He could, considering the case in itself, have well said that the Pharisee did not go down justified at all, He, however, contents Himself with placing the benefit of the publican far above that of the Pharisee. Παρ’ ἐκεῖνον, see notes on the text; comp. Luk_15:7; Mat_21:31. The translation of the reading ἢ ἐκεῖνος in the sense of a question, “Or did he perchance, the Pharisee, go home justified?” appears to us even of itself hard, and, besides that, by no means to be recommended by the immediately following ὅτι. It is, however, at all events, arbitrary from the forbearing judgment which here the Saviour passes upon the Pharisee, to draw the conclusion (Stier) that the consciousness of the possession of justification may gradually begin to give way again, if a δεδικαιωμένος begins again secretly to trust in his righteousness.

For every one that exalteth himself.—See Luk_14:11. The repetition of such a maxim will cause us the less surprise if we consider that it expresses the unalterable fundamental law of the kingdom of heaven, according to which all men are judged, and at the same time gives the deepest ground why the justification of the Pharisee and the rejection of the publican were each entirely impossible.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The two parables of the Judge and the Widow, and the Pharisee and the Publican, although they perhaps were not delivered immediately after one another, constitute, however, together a complete whole. Both have reference to prayer, yet so that in the first, believing perseverance before, in the second, humble approach to, the throne of grace, is commended. In order to end like the Widow, one must have begun like the Publican, and in order to act as recklessly of conscience as the Judge, one must have the heart of a Pharisee in his bosom. Comp. Luk_20:47.

2. The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican shows a remarkable coincidence with that of the Prodigal Son and his brother—the same contrast of unrighteousness and self-righteousness, of humility and pride, in the one as in the other. As there the two sons represent not only the Pharisees and the publicans, but essentially all mankind, so here the two suppliants give us to recognize the fundamental and chief distinction in the relation of man to God. Every natural man is more or less like the Pharisee; whoever learns to know himself as a sinner is, on the other hand, like the Publican. Here, however, it is by no means denied that in the microcosm of a human heart often something of the Pharisee may be found along with the character of the Publican, even though we ourselves do not take note of it. The question, however, remains simply this, Which disposition in our hearts is the ruling one? According to this God will judge us.

3. As in the previous parable the Pauline idea of ἐκλογή, so in this that of δικαίωσις, comes distinctly into the foreground. “Hic locus perspicue docet, quid proprie sit justificari, nempe stare coram Deo, ac si justi essemus; neque enim publicanus ideo Justus dicitur, quod novam qualitatem sibi repente adquisierit, sed quia inducto reatu et abolitis peccatis gratiam adeptus est, unde sequitur, justificationem in peccatorum remissione esse positam.” Calvin. It is, however, of course, understood that in this definition the idea of the forgiveness of sins must be interpreted not only negatively, as acquittal from the deserved punishment, but also positively, as reinstatement in the forfeited favor of God, including all the blessed consequences connected therewith.

4. The Epistle to the Romans is the consistent development of the cardinal evangelical idea which is laid down in this parable, and the Reformation is the triumph of the publican’s humility over the Pharisaic self-righteousness, which in the Pelagianism of the Roman Catholic Church had acquired the character of a formal system.

5. This parable is important also as a new proof how strongly and continually the Saviour, in all manner of forms, continued that conflict with the Pharisaical principle which He had already begun in the Sermon on the Mount, and which He was about to crown with an eightfold Woe, Matthew 23. Pharisaism and Christianity stand not only relatively but diametrically opposed. It is worthy of remark, however, that the Saviour views this instruction as necessary, not only for Pharisees but also for His disciples.

6. The prayer of the Publican is a short compendium of Theology, Hamartology, Soteriology, and a striking proof that true repentance and living faith are absolutely inseparable from one another. In another form we find here the same temper of mind as in the Prodigal Son, Luk_15:18. It cannot surprise us that this utterance has become for so many a motto in life and death. It was (to pass over other instances) the answer Of the famous Hugo Grotius, when he lay dying at Rostock, and an unknown minister of the gospel referred him to this parable: This publican am I!

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The continual danger of the disciples of the Saviour, of being defiled by the Pharisaical leaven.—Pride and contempt of others are commonly most intimately united with one another.—Duo, cum faciunt idem, non est idem.—A man sees what is before his eyes, but the Lord looks on the heart, 1Sa_16:7.—Pride and humility before God: 1. The diversity of their nature, Luk_18:10-13; Luke 2. the diversity of their destinies, Luk_18:14.—How one may sin even with his praying.—Many a virtue which is great in men’s eyes is damnable before God.—The Pharisee and the Publican: 1. The one so gives thanks that he forgets prayer; the other so prays that he can afterwards give thanks.; 2. the one compares himself with other men; the other considers himself in the mirror of the law; 3. the one recounts his virtues; the other cannot reckon up his sins; 4. the one keeps with all his virtues his evil conscience at the bottom; the other receives with all his sins the full assurance of justification.—The fasting which God chooses, and the fasting of the holiness of works.—The Miserere of the soul which precedes the Hallelujah of redemption.—The publican’s heart, the publican’s prayer, the publican’s lot.—One may give the tenth, yea, all his goods, to God, and yet withhold from Him his heart, that is, all.—The publican’s prayer: 1. A prayer as comprehensive as rare; 2. a prayer as fitting as indispensable; 3. a prayer as rich in sorrow as in blessing.—Happy he whose transgressions are forgiven, &c., Psa_32:1.—The way of justification under the Old Covenant.—The true penance.—The whole parable admirably adapted to fast-day and communion sermons.

Starke:—A. teacher of the right kind seeks thoroughly to uncover even to the concealed hypocrites among his hearers their evil heart.—Quesnel:—If wretched men knew themselves aright, they would not thus so easily despise others, Rev_3:17.—Cramer:—The whole world is full of those that pray, and yet not all by far are pleasing to God; therefore must we not only pray, but see to it how we pray.—When man deals with God, he must never remember what he is before others.—Quesnel:—Let not one compare himself with infamous evil-doers, but with perfect saints.—A self-elected worship of God, without the foundation of the Holy Scripture, avails nothing, Mat_15:9.—Osiander:—O man, hast thou sinned? deny it not, &c. How many have the “God be merciful to me a sinner” in their mouths but not in their hearts!—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Penitent and believing humility brings light and salvation; humility belongs in heaven, high-mindedness belongs in hell, Isa_57:15.—Bibl. Wirt.:—Man cannot by his own works or piety stand or become righteous before God.

Lisco:—Religiosity and religion in their most striking contrasts.—Arndt:—How humility expresses itself in reference to the evil we have done: 1. It acknowledges its sin; 2. and that in all its magnitude; 3. and as its own guilt; 4. and prays for grace to God.—H. Müller:—The Graves of the Saints, Frankfort, Luke 1700: Whoever will die happy must die as a sinner and yet without sin.—Schmid:—The gospel way of salvation, how it leads, a. down into the depths; b. up to the heights.—Heubner:—Prayer a touchstone of the heart.—Tremble to have only the guise of virtue and yet to be proud.—A strict, continent way of living is often joined with inflexible selfishness.—Let us prove ourselves as we go from the church home, whether we go as new men or not.—A. Monod, Sermons, 1er Recueil, p. 201, La peccadille d’Adam et les vertus des Pharisiens.

On the Pericope.—Heubner:—False and true devotion: 1. Nature; 2. appearance.—Justification before God: 1. How it comes not to pass; 2. how it always comes to pass.—Couard:—The true churchgoer.—Jaspis:—Your prayers your judges.—Ulber:—The confession of man that he is a sinner: 1. It is hard even for the mouth to utter it; 2. still harder if it is to come from the heart; 3. and yet easy if one knows himself aright.—Rautenberg:—A look into the heart of the justified sinner.—That we ought to come to God not on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of God’s compassion.—Ahlfeld:—Of grace is man justified before God; this is: 1. A true saying; 2. a worthy saying.—Steinmeyer:—As the devotion, so the reward.—Popp:—There is a division and decision.

Footnotes:

[2]Luk_18:14.—The reading of Elzevir, ἢ ἐκεῖνος, has here no adequate critical authority. That of Tischendorf, ἢ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος, is strongly supported, but gives a scarcely intelligible sense. That of Lachmann, παρ’ ἐκεῖνον, which Grotius already defended, and which is favored by B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., Cursives, deserves on internal grounds the preference, at the same time that it must be supposed that by an ancient and quite generally diffused error in copying (γάρ instead of παρ’), the true reading was very soon lost.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

HUMILITY AND PRIDE

Luk 18:9-14. “And He spoke this parable also to certain ones, having confidence in themselves that they are righteous, and treat others with contempt: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.” The holy Temple Campus contains thirty-five acres, consecrated to God, and regarded even to this day as most holy. Since none but the priests were allowed to enter the temple proper, we conclude that these two men simply entered the sacred enclosure, and proceeded to pray.

“The Pharisee, standing, prayed after this manner: God, I thank Thee, because I am not like the rest of men, unrighteous, adulterous, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all things so many as I possess.” Tithe-paying is all right, and we do not blame the Pharisee for thanking God that he was not guilty of vulgar vices and midnight iniquities. This is all fight. We ought to thank God for keeping us from terrible sin, which ruin soul and body, world without end. If the publican was guilty of dark sins which this Pharisee would blush to contemplate, and from which he. would recoil with horror, it is all right to thank God for the happy deliverance and the enviable contrast.

“The publican, standing a great way off, did not wish to lift up his eyes toward heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me the sinner! I say unto you that he went down to his house justified rather than that one; because every one exalting himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Jesus here tells the secret of the great difference between these two men. We have no right to call in question the testimony of that Pharisee as to the moral purity of his life and his amiable loyalty to the Church. That was all right, and very pertinent that he should thank God for it. O the millions of Church members who are in the succession of this Pharisee, depending on morality, legal obedience, and Church loyalty to save them! All such go down to hell, since Jesus alone can save. Here we have the clear affirmation that this publican, so despised by the Jews because he collected revenue for the Roman Government, went down to his house justified, while the Pharisee, the nice, honorable Church member, went to his house one hour nearer hell than when he went to the temple. As the publican was no Church member, had no consolation, and nothing to bolster him up, consequently the Holy Ghost had unobstructed access to him, giving him such an awful presentment of hell, damnation, eternity, and doom that, in the bitter anguish of despair, his heart was so heavy that he could not look up, while sheer agony of spirit constrained him W beat his breast with horror, crying out, “God, be merciful unto me a sinner!” Etupen, “smote,” is in the imperfect tense, showing that as there he stood, crying to God, he continued repeatedly to smite his breast, not in a formal way, but spontaneously, thus giving vent to the unutterable agony of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. God never turns away a case of that kind. Of course, he returned home justified, born from above, adopted into the heavenly family, and gloriously saved. You see from these two contrastive cases how Church membership, with its false comforts, is adroitly used by Satan in the damnation of millions. Hence we conclude that it is unsafe to receive or retain sinners in the membership of the Church, as Satan is certain to slip in like a weasel and persuade them, as he did this man, that if they keep the commandments, live good, moral lives, and show up their loyalty to the Church by paying all their dues, they are justified.

You see from this parable that this conclusion is untrue, and a fond delusion of Satan for the damnation of souls. Hence if we can not get people truly and experimentally saved, we should neither receive nor retain them in the membership of the Church, lest they lean on it, as this man did, and lose their souls.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Section 5. (Luk 18:9-34.)

Man with God: the conditions and hindrances.

The last section here closes with the consideration of man’s being with God, the moral conditions and the hindrances. It reviews in this way some things we have had before, but to emphasize some points of special importance in this particular interest, which for man is surely second to no other.

1. The first point here is that of righteousness; in which, however, the righteousness in which we stand before God is rather suggested than developed. Indeed, so much is this the case that the actual reference to it is passed over commonly, both in translations and commentaries. Here it surely supplies what would otherwise be a serious deficiency, when the object is to depict the true righteousness in opposition to the false.

The Pharisee and the publican; or tax-gatherer, furnish here, as so often; the contrast which He would present. He is speaking directly to "some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:" things which naturally go together. The two men in question are shown us going up into the temple to pray. The position that they take is taken before God, not man. As for the tax-gatherer, that is evident; no one would question it. But as for the Pharisee, though he compares himself with the other, yet he is not presented as seeking credit with men in any way: he is self-righteous, but not a hypocrite. That he prays, however, with himself, (or toward himself) shows how little in the presence of God he really is, even while he addresses himself to Him. His actual requests we do not hear; they are of no importance, even if we are to suppose he makes any. The whole of it that we hear is a thanksgiving for his own good condition; and here he forms a class by himself, in advance of those whom he vain-gloriously puts down as "the rest of men." They are "extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or like this publican," -of whom the less he knows, the more he can imagine. But that is only the negative side: positively, it is enough to say, "I fast twice in the week; I tithe all that I acquire" -all my profit. In either case he went quite beyond the law.

There is not a hint that he was insincere in this self-admiration. He was indeed but too thoroughly a believer in himself; and his conduct may have been all that he here claims for it. Outwardly correct, morally; ceremonially, going beyond what was legally required: that was what he honestly thought to be enough for God; and indeed enough to give him that unique place quite beyond others, which, as we see, he claimed. The law, in which he trusted would have told him differently; but when did a law-keeper for righteousness ever take his measure from the law? Nay, that was meant for the destruction of legality, and the "Oh wretched man that I am!" which men learn to cry under it, is at least far different from jubilant Pharisaism.

The man’s picture is complete, and no comment upon it is needed further. No one believes in him except himself, just as he himself believes fully in no one else. Moses has given sentence against them all that "there is none righteous, no, not one," and we know that whatever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God."

Now we turn to look at the other man. The Pharisee lifts up his head, because he sees nothing. The tax-gatherer is in a Presence that he dares not approach, nor lift up his eyes to. Smiting upon his breast, as if his heart were viler than his life, he lays hold upon the horns of the altar with the cry, "God be propitiated towards me, the sinner."

That is certainly the full force of his words, and the prevalent objection to its being "pressed" is quite unaccountable. The common version gives "God be merciful" only; the revised puts "be propitiated" in the margin as an alternative, but keeps the other in the text. The "Variorum" Bible, with its clippings from every source, has not even a word with regard to it. Yet propitiation by sacrifice was, as must be acknowledged, one of the leading features of the temple ritual, that temple in which the speaker stood. Moreover it is the Lord, the One who could say of just this sacrificial system, "In the volume of the book it is written of Me" (Psa 40:7), who gives us this parable. And the direct purpose of it is to show what is true righteousness before God in contrast with the righteousness in oneself in which men have ever trusted. Yet, says Van Oosterzee, "It is entirely unnecessary to press the word hilaskesthai in such a way as to see intimated in it the dogmatic conception of atonement"!

On the contrary, here is the very way of mercy which a sinner needs appealed to by one who realizes himself to be in as unique a way "the" sinner, as the Pharisee is in his own thoughts uniquely righteous. For such an, one no vague idea of God’s mercy could satisfy the soul; least of all could the Lord allow it to be supposed that it could; and that where Jewish altars were proclaiming day by day, that "without shedding of blood is NO remission." How simple, how natural, to one taught of God, and in the representation of a divine Teacher, that a convicted soul should say, "Let that blood avail for me!"

"I tell you," says the Lord, "that this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other." Here again; a wrong use is made, surely, of the comparison between the two. It does not mean that the publican was justified more than the other, nor would such comparative justification be of much comfort to one in his condition. That which avails before God is the whole question; and as the Pharisee had decided as to himself, that he, rather than the tax-gatherer, would be found righteous before God, so the Lord decides that it will be the reverse of this, the tax-gatherer rather than the Pharisee. In each case this means, the one, and not the other. And it is to the one who in the most distinct way disclaims all righteousness, that righteousness is ascribed, or imputed; but not, surely, merely because he owns himself a sinner, but because there is provided for sinners that propitiation for sin to the value of which before God, even though feebly, his faith appeals.

Thus we see again, as we have seen elsewhere, how near to Paul’s is the doctrine of Luke, although it brings us only to the threshold of it. Beyond this, still, there are things which cannot be opened to us until the Spirit of God is come from a glorified Christ in heaven, to reveal what neither eye has seen nor ear has heard.

2. The last verse in the previous part opens the way to the present one. The self-abased tax-gatherer has been exalted, the self-exalted Pharisee has been abased. And now they bring babes to Him that He may touch them, and the disciples (too much akin to the Pharisees in spirit) rebuke them for doing so. But Jesus declares that of such the Kingdom of God is, and that whoever would enter it must receive it in the spirit of a little child. Where God is known and rules, man must needs shrink into his native nothingness. Look at the earth from the sun. and what has become of its lofty peaks and granite ranges? The truly wise will own this from the heart: the pride of life, equally with the lusts of the flesh and of the eye, is not of the Father, but of the world.

3. The last portion has brought us fairly into the track of the previous Gospels, and to the end of this division we still pursue it. The story of the rich ruler shows us now the hindrance of worldly possessions, with one in other respects exemplary, and with an apparently earnest craving for eternal life. Yet he turns his back upon the Lord, -sorrowfully indeed, but none the less really; and the Lord’s comment upon it generalizes so sad a case alarmingly. If it were as hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God as for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, then who can be saved? ask the disciples. But salvation is of God; and all things are possible with Him. In fact, if a man has realized his need of salvation; God, it way be hoped, has begun that work in his soul which will make the far off country a place of intolerable famine to him, which lands or gold will be unable to satisfy. He can hardly be called "rich who has that famine-fever upon him.

4. The question of Peter thereupon shows doubtless a modified form of the rich man’s trouble, so far as disciples may be affected by it. They bad left all, -little or much as it might be, -to follow Him: what would they have for it? It is evident that what they have given up has still some value for them, then: and what will be their compensation for it is a matter of concern. The Lord’s answer seems one of encouragement, which has with it also a certain blending of reproof. They shall have what the rich man might well crave -eternal life; but in the present also -and had they not begun to taste that blessing yet? -"manifold more" than all that they had given up. Such is God’s mercy towards those who, whatever they may have deemed themselves to have renounced for Christ, were in fact but bankrupt beggars when His grace laid hold of them!

5. Once more, therefore, He puts before them what was the way that was opening now before Himself. Here indeed was sacrifice -such as yet they prove unable even to comprehend. The end for Him is in resurrection, in which the life of service taken up once more, His joy is accomplished in what for them and us secures all blessing and the glory of God.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:9-14 The topic of prayer (18:1-8) leads into this parable about the right attitude for approaching God.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 18:9. Καὶ πρός τινας, also to certain persons) Previously He had spoken to the disciples, exhorting them to perseverance in prayer: now He deters certain persons from rashness and perverse self-confidence.—πεποιθότας ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς, who trusted in themselves) in themselves, not in the grace of God, when praying; Luk 18:10. The antithesis is πίστιν, faith, which has respect to God, Luk 18:8. So πέποιθεν ἐπὶ τῇ δίκαιοσύνῃ αὐτοῦ, Eze 33:13, LXX.—ὅτι, that) For the very question at issue turns upon that, who in prayer is to be counted righteous [the self-justiciary, or he who stands righteous by faith].—δικαιοι) righteous, needing no justification, Luk 18:14. The antithesis is τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ, “me, the sinner,” Luk 18:13.—ἐξουθενοῦντας, who made nothing of, despised) accounting them unrighteous [as compared with themselves].—τοὺς λοιποὺς, the rest of men) all and each: Luk 18:11.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_18:9. It is the more arbitrary to assume that the following doctrinal narrative was originally delivered in another connection (Paulus, Olshausen, de Wette; comp. Kuinoel), that it rather affords a confirmation of the probability (see on Luk_17:22) that the Pharisees, after our Lords rejoinder to them, Luk_17:20 f., were no longer present. The historical connection with what precedes is not more closely to be indicated than is pointed out by the characterization of the τινές as τοὺς πεποιθ. κ.τ.λ. These men, according to Luk_18:9, must in some way or another have made manifest their disposition, and thereby have given occasion to Jesus to deliver the following discourse as far as Luk_18:14. Who are the people? Assuredly not Pharisees, since it is actually a Pharisee that Jesus presents as a warning example. Possibly they were conceited followers of Jesus (Schleiermacher, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius), but more probably: Jews of a Pharisaic disposition, since Luke does not here, as at Luk_18:1, designate the disciples expressly, and it was just for Jews of this kind that not only the example of the Pharisee, but also that of the publican, was the most humiliating.

πρός] He spoke to them. To take it as at Luk_18:1 (Kuinoel, de Wette, and many others) is unsuitable, since there are persons in this place, and the context suggests no occasion for departing from the usual ad quosdam (Vulgate).

τινας τοὺς πεποιθότας] designates the persons in the abstract indefinitely, but in the quality in question specifically. See on Gal_1:7, and Bornemann, Schol. p. 113; Bernhardy, p. 318.

ἐφʼ ἑαυτ.] they put on themselves the confidence that they were righteous. For others they did not entertain this confidence, but assumed the contrary and despised them.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 18:9-14 . The Pharisee and the publican .

Luk 18:9 . πρός τινας , with reference to certain persons; who not indicated, of what sort definitely described. This introduction is doubtless an editorial heading extracted from the story. It is true, but not necessarily the whole truth. The story may have been spoken to publicans to encourage them to hope in God’s mercy at the Capernaum gathering, e.g. παραβολὴν : it is not really a parable, but simply an imaginary incident within the sphere to which its moral belongs.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican: Luk 18:9-14.

Vers. 9-14. This parable is peculiar to Luke. Who are those τινές, certain, to whom it is addressed? They cannot be Pharisees. Luke would have named them, as at Luk 16:14; and Jesus would not have presented to them as an example, in a parable, one of themselves, while designating him expressly in this character. Bleek thinks that they were disciples of Jesus. But Luke would have equally designated them (Luk 16:1). They were therefore probably members of the company following Jesus, who had not yet openly declared for Him, and who manifested a haughty distance to certain sinners, known to be such, who were in the company with them; comp. Luk 19:7.

The word σταθείς, standing erect (Luk 18:11), indicates a posture of assurance, and even boldness (comp. standing afar off, Luk 18:13). — Πρὸς ἑαυτόν does not depend on σταθείς: “standing aside, at a distance, from the vulgar,”—it would have required καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν (Meyer),—but on προσηύχετο: “he prayed, speaking thus to himself...” It was less a prayer in which he gave thanks to God, than a congratulation which he addressed to himself. True thanksgiving is always accompanied by a feeling of humiliation. The Pharisees fasted on the Monday and Thursday of every week. Κτᾶσθαι denotes the act of acquiring rather than that of possessing; it therefore refers here to the produce of the fields (Luk 11:42).

To strike the breast: an emblem of the stroke of death which the sinner feels that he has merited at the hand of God. The heart is struck, as the seat of personal life and of sin.— Λέγω ὑμῖν (Luk 18:14): “I tell you, strange as it may appear...” — The idea of justification, that is to say, of a righteousness bestowed on the sinner by a divine sentence, belongs even to the O. T. Comp. Gen 15:6; Isa 50:8; Isa 53:11.

In the received reading ἢ ἐκεῖνος, ἤ is governed by μᾶλλον, rather, understood. The suppression of the adverb rather serves to prevent the idea that the Pharisee also received his share of justification. In the reading ἢ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος (more strongly supported than the others), ἤ is explained in the same way, and γάρ has, as is often the case, an interrogative value: “For think you that he (the Pharisee) could be justified?” This somewhat difficult turn of expression has occasioned the Alex. correction παῤ ἐκεῖνον.

Our Lord loves to close His parables with axioms formally expressing the fundamental laws of moral life: God will overthrow all self-exaltation; but He will turn in love to all sincere humiliation.

Undoubtedly, if Luke’s object was to point out in the ministry of Jesus the historical foundations for St. Paul’s teaching, this piece corresponds most exactly to his intention. But no argument can be drawn therefrom contrary to the truth of the narrative. For the idea of justification by faith is one of the axioms not only of the teaching of Jesus, but of that of the O. T. (comp. besides the passages quoted, Hab 2:4).

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Two things especially make our prayers void and of none effect: confidence of our own righteousness, and the contempt of others: and an humble heart is contrary to both these.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 9. Despised] εξουθενουντας, Disdained, made nothing of others, treated them with sovereign contempt. Our Lord grants that the Pharisees made clean the outside: but, alas! what pride, vain glory, and contempt for others, were lodged within!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) Unto certain which trusted in themselves . . .—Here, as above, the purpose of the parable is stated at the outset. It is, perhaps, open for us to think that isolated fragments of our Lord’s teaching, treasured up here and there in the memory of disciples, and written down in answer to St. Luke’s inquiries in the second stage of the growth of the Gospel records, would be likely to have such an introduction.

The “certain which trusted” are not specified as being actually Pharisees, and included, we may believe, disciples in whom the Pharisee temper was gaining the mastery, and who needed to be taught as by a reductio ad absurdum, what it naturally led to.

Despised others.—Literally, the rest—viz., all others. The word for “despise,” literally, count as nothing, is again one of those which St. Luke has, and the other Evangelists have not (that in Mar_9:12 differs in form), but which is frequent in the vocabulary of St. Paul (Rom_14:3; Rom_14:10; 1Co_16:11, et al.). This universal depreciation of others would seem almost an exaggeration, if experience did not show—e.g., as in the history of Montanism and analogous forms of error—how easily men and women, religious societies and orders, drift into it, and how hard it is to set any limits to the monomania of egotism—above all, of religious egotism. It never uttered itself, perhaps, in a more repulsive form than when the Pharisees came to speak of the great mass of their brother-Israelites as the brute people, the “people of the earth.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9-14. The Duty of Humble Prayer. The Pharisee and the Tax-gatherer.

9. which trusted in themselves that they were righteous] See Luk_16:15; Php_3:4; 2Co_1:9. The Jewish words ‘Jashar,’ ‘the upright man,’ and ‘Tsaddik, ‘just,’ expressed their highest moral ideal; but they made their uprightness and justice consist so much in attention to the ceremonial minutiae of the Levitic Law, and rigid externalism so engrossed their thoughts, that they had lost sight of those loftier and truer ideals of charity which the Prophets had continually set before them-. This fetish-worship of the letter, this scrupulosity about trifles, tended only to self-confidence and pride. It had long been denounced in Scripture. “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness,” Pro_30:12; “which say, Stand by thyself come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day,” Isa_65:5. This is the sort of ‘faith’ which the Son of Man shall find on the earth, —men’s faith in themselves!

and despised other] Rather, the rest. The word ‘despise’ means ‘treat as nothing,’ ‘regard as mere cyphers,’ Rom_14:3; Rom_14:10. The Rabbis invented the most highflown designations for each other, such as ‘Light of Israel,’ ‘Uprooter of Mountains,’ ‘The Glory of the Law,’ ‘The Holy,’ &c.; but they described the vast mass of their fellow- countrymen as “accursed” for not knowing the law (Joh_7:49), and spoke of them as ‘empty cisterns,’ ‘people of the earth,’ &c. See on Luk_5:32, Luk_7:34, &c. This Pharisee regards with perfect self-complacency the assumed ruin and degradation of all the rest of mankind. In one sense the Parable represents the mutual relations of Jew and Gentile.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he spake this parable unto certain,.... Or with respect to certain men; having a view to them, in order to expose their pride, vanity, arrogance, and self confidence:

which trusted in themselves that they were righteous; or, as if they were righteous; or because they were so in their own eyes, and in the esteem of others: the ground of their trust and confidence were themselves, their hearts, and the supposed goodness of them, their outward holiness, their moral behaviour, their duties, and good works, their almsdeeds, and religious exercises, their ceremonial observances, and fleshly privileges; on account of which they thought themselves very righteous persons, such as could not fail of being accepted with God, and justified in his sight; whereas there are none righteous in, and of themselves, no, not one. All the descendants of Adam, as such, are sinners, destitute of a righteousness, and filled with all unrighteousness, and are enemies to true righteousness: no man is naturally righteous, nor is he capable of making himself so, by any thing he can do: none are righteous by their obedience to the law of works, for that is imperfect, and cannot justify before God, in whose sight no flesh living can be justified on this account, however righteous they may appear before men, or may be in their own eyes: for this is contrary to God's way of making men righteous, and would disannul the death of Christ, and encourage boasting in men. Such trust and confidence must be very vain, and arise from ignorance; from ignorance of God, of the perfection of his justice, and of the nature of his righteous law; and of themselves, of the impurity of their hearts, and the imperfection of their obedience. These were of the "pharisaical" sort, and of which complexion were the generality of the Jews; and many of these were now standing by Christ, and within the hearing of this parable, and for whose sake it was delivered:

and despised others; or, "every man", as the Syriac and Persic versions read; all the rest of mankind, all but themselves; they made nothing of them, had them in no account; treated them as persons unworthy of the regard of God, and not fit to stand near them, or to be named with them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Ver. 9. That they were righteous, and despised others.] Pray to be preserved from this perilous pinnacle of self-exaltation.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Unto certain - Unto some.

Which trusted in themselves - Who confided in themselves, or who supposed that they were righteous. They did not trust to God or the Messiah for righteousness, but to their own works. They vainly supposed they had themselves complied with the demands of the law of God.

Despised others - Others who were not as externally righteous as themselves. This was the character of the Pharisees. They trusted in their outward conformity to the ceremonies of the law. They considered all who did not do that as sinners. This, moreover, is the true character of self-righteousness. Men of that stamp always despise all others. They think they are far above them in holiness, and are disposed to say to them, Stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou, Isa 65:5. True religion, on the contrary, is humble. Those who trust in Christ for righteousness feel that “they” are, in themselves, poor, and miserable, and guilty, and they are willing to admit that others may be much better than themselves. Certain it is, they “despise” no one. They love all people; they regard them, however vile, as the creatures of God and as going to eternity, and are disposed to treat them well, and to aid them in their journey toward another world.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In this chapter we have three examples of prayer: one of the persevering widow; another of the poor publican, who solicits the divine mercy by the acknowledgment of his crimes; and the third of the proud Pharisee, who only goes to the temple to pronounce his own panegyric, and enter upon a accusation of his humble neighbour, whose heart is unknown to him. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By the term certain, or some, he unquestionably understandeth the Pharisees and their disciples, who (as we have all along in the history of the Gospel observed) were a generation of men who were eminently guilty both of a boasting of themselves, and a scorning and despising all others.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And he spake this parable. With this parable, "the Pharisee and the publican," St. Luke concludes his memories of the last journeyings toward Jerusalem. The incidents which directly follow took place close to Jerusalem; and here St. Luke"s narrative rejoins that of SS. Matthew and Mark. No note of time or place assists us in defining exactly the period when the Master spoke this teaching; some time, however, in these last journeyings, that is, in the closing months of the public ministry, the parable in question was certainly spoken.

Vers. 9-14. The Pharisee and the publican.

The lesson as to prayer is continued. The parable which follows exhibits the spirit and conditions of effectual prayer. Mark the two features of the audience specially addressed. He speaks to certain

(1) who trusted in themselves as being righteous;

(2) who, as the outcome of this trust, despised others.

He spoke in the previous parable of "God"s own elect." Now, the Pharisees accounted themselves the elect of God. They were puffed up by this confidence. They regarded themselves as the righteous, who kept the Law, both oral and written. And, indeed, they were most scrupulous as to every requirement; nay, they were willing to burden themselves with minute and vexatious observances. And the sin which beset them was the pride shadowed forth in one of the two who went up to pray. As the illustration of the elect, the Lord chooses a tax-gatherer, one of a hated class, for whom, in Pharisee-thought, there was no place in the kingdom of heaven. The instruction is suitable to every time. Pharisee separation and pride are features to be recognized in the Church of this day, as they were prominent in the Jewish Church of our Lord"s day. Ever to be studied is the antithesisrespectability in the Pharisee, non-respectability in the publican. See the two. The one, with his broad phylactery, his supercilious bearing, his Pharisaism reflected in every feature of his sallow countenance, as with measured step he proceeds to the temple. In its inner court he stands erect; he arranges his prayer-robe, he looks around, the face darkened by a scowl as he observes the publican in a distant corner of the sacred building. And then he lifts his eye. No prayer trembles in any tone; no pleading escapes through any word; he "speaks with himself" rather than with God. It is a soliloquy, a self-gratified recital of his own piety. If he says, "God, I thank thee" (vers. 11, 12), it is not for any grace that he has received, it is not in acknowledging that only through a higher mercy and strength he is what he is; nay, with something of familiarity in the address, he bids the Almighty join him in admiration of his virtues, on account of which he is lifted above other men. Only by certain averages of his own striking does he measure his excellence, the climax being reached, when there comes the contemptuous "even as this publican." Oh, what a superior person, to be sure! With what satisfaction must highest Heaven regard one who fasted twice in the week, and gave tithes of all he possessed! The other, with hurried gait, as one intent only on pouring out his heart before God, takes his place far off. He has no wish to disturb the complacency of his fellow-worshipper. He claims nothing; self-assertion in every form is absent from his heart. The only presence with him is the Holy One of Israel. Beneath the vision of his holiness all that is of the earth must keep silence. He wilt not even lift up his eyes. He has not much to record; human righteousness even is but a filthy rag when held up to the light of that Perfect Holiness. And as for him, oh, there can be only the one prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" (ver. 13). He is overpowered with the conviction of sin. His only refuge is the mercy of the eternal. "I tell you" (Ver. 14). concludes Christ, "this man is manifested to be one of God"s elect. He, not the other, returns to his house the one accepted and justified." The parable is most suggestive.

I IT IS THE EXPOSURE OF SPIRITUAL PRIDE IN ITS ROOT AND FRUIT. Its root, the measurement of self by "other men." God is not in the thought. The song of the seraphim, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts," sounds faintly in the ear. The mind is not occupied with him and his holiness. It looks around rather than above. The standard is a social one. There is "a zeal for the law, but not according to knowledge. Having settled the constituents of righteousness, and having in conduct realized these constituents, it looks from the legal vantage-ground on others. And, seeing the many below the elected level, it whispers within itself, "I thank thee that I am not as they." The I struts abroad with a distinct sense of superiority. This pride is the parasite of religiosity. And religiosity is the whole religion of many. Religiosity means the performance, punctilious and sincere, of acts and offices, functions and services. It may comprehend a wide area of the existence. It may fill up much of time and much of thought, and he who abounds in it is held to be a religious man. But it is a morality untouched by the motion of the broken and contrite spirit. There is no distinctively evangelical motive force. On an earlier occasion the contrast between the routine religiosity and the warm religion of the heart was presented at the dinner-table where Simon the Pharisee presided, and the woman washed the Lord"s feet with her tears. Of her he said, "She hath loved much." Here the Pharisee is in opposition to the publican, who had the inner spirit of poverty. Now, one who has the religiosity, not the religion, is apt to rest on the duties which he discharges, on the zeal which he manifests. He trusts in himself as being righteous, and, whenever there is this trust, there creeps around it a feeling of superiority. "I am not as other men are." It engenders the separatist"s haughty spirit. It brings in the sentiment of a caste. The "I" belongs to the religious world, "others" are without. Let us beware lest we rest satisfied with a righteousness like that of the Pharisee, lest we substitute the outward for the inward what we do for what we are. Let us beware of that which always develops with this tendency the habit of comparison of self with others on levels lower than our own, instead of realizing "the vision splendid" of that righteousness which demands the entire self. It is this trust, this self-elevation, this pride of righteousness, which vitiates the sacrifice of many who go up to the temple to pray.

II IT IS THE COMMENDATION OF HUMILITY, IN ITS ESSENTIAL NATURE AND BLESSEDNESS. What is humility? It is not so much a self-consciousness as a God-consciousness; not so much a mean thinking of ourselves as a thrilling, penetrating consciousness of him who is perfect holiness and truth. There is a self-abhorrence, but that follows the seeing of God with the opened inner eye. The Pharisee had no conviction of sin, because he had no discernment of the Eternal. His god was the property of his caste, one on whom he had a claim because of his belonging to the caste and doing what was required by it. The publican felt God at his heart; and the sight awoke the longing to be holy as God is, and the longing to be holy called out the sense of wrongness. Oh, how he had offended! how selfish and grasping and wicked he had been! All else fades into indistinctness; in that temple there are to him but the first cry of the soul which God has appropriated. There is no real prayer until that cry. A genuine earnest pleading is evoked. The beginning of all prayer, Christ reminds us, is the taking of the sinner"s place, and the simple appeal to mercy. And as it is the first, so it is the cry ever pulsing through prayer. It is never wanting from the justified. The pardon has been received. The blood cleanses from all sin; but not the less, all the more, is the knowledge of sin and the need of the ever-renewed application of mercy. This is humility sinful self cast on Divine mercy, and, forgiven much, loving much. There is no measurement with other men, for God is all in all. And this is blessed. The Pharisee returns his pride more deeply written into his nature, its blight and curse; no spring in the heart, no spring in the heart, no visitation of any day-spring from on high. Remaining in his pride, he was truly abased. The publican returns a burden rolled off from his heart, a new elasticity in his step, a new light in his countenance. "The winter is past,... the flowers appear on the earth." He is at peace with God, justified, sanctified, righteous in the communion of the Righteous One. "I, yet not I, for he lives in me." In his humility he was exalted.

Ver. 9-14. The Pharisee and the publican.

The scene indicated by our Lord"s opening sentences is easily realized. We readily picture to our minds the place and the two persons in whom we are interested the haughty Pharisee and the humble-minded publican. We readily imagine their demeanor as they enter, their posture as they pray, their reception as they pass through the courts going and returning. But we ask how and why was it that the Pharisee was rejected and the publican accepted. And in reply we say:

1. In some respects the two men stood on the same ground. Both were free from the taint of idolatry and were worshipping God; both appreciated the privilege of prayer; both came to the same building, and, using the same invocation, each uttered the uppermost thought in his mind.

2. In some aspects the Pharisee seemed to have the advantage.

(1) He had the respect of the public, the good and God-fearing public, of the respectable people of his day;

(2) he had lived the worthiest life in all social and political relations;

(3) he was much the more "religious " of the two, in the sense that his habit of life Was devout and charitable, while that of the publican had been godless and avaricious.

3. The terms of their respective prayers are not decisive of their acceptableness in the sight of God.

(1) A truly humble man might speak to God in the strain, though not in the spirit, of the Pharisee. It is quite right to thank God for being preserved from presumptuous sins and being kept in the path of rectitude and devotion. (see Psa_41:12, Psa_41:13)

(2) A thoroughly formal worshipper might present the petition of the publican. How often, since then, have these or very similar words been used by "penitents" who have been impenitent, by those who have taken the language of humility on their lip while they "have regarded iniquity in their heart"! A modern writer (T. T. Lynch) represents these two men as going up again to the temple; but this time the Pharisee, adopting the publican"s form of words in hope of acceptance, is again rejected; while the publican, giving thanks to God for his reconciliation and renewal, is again accepted"For sometimes tears and sometimes thanks, But only truth can please.

How, then, do we explain the fact that "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other"?

I THE PHARISEE HAD FORMED A RADICALLY FALSE ESTIMATE of his own character, and the publican a true one of his. The Pharisee thought he was everything God wished him to be, and was miserably wrong in his estimate; he was reckoning that God cared chiefly if not exclusively for the outside in religion, that his favour was secured by ceremonies, by proprieties, by punctualities, by utterances of prescribed forms. He failed to understand that this was only the shell and not the kernel, and that the shell of correct behaviour is nothing without the kernel of a reverent and loving spirit. The publican, on the other hand, believed that he was very far from right with God; that he had been living a guilty life, and was condemned of God for so doing; and his thought was true.

II THE PHARISEE"S FALSE ESTIMATE LED HIM INTO SELFFLATTERY; the publican"s true estimate into frank, penitential acknowledgment. Under the cover of gratitude, the one man paid himself handsome compliments, and held on high his great meritoriousness, thus confirming in his own mind the delusion that he was a favourite of Heaven; the other, moved by a deep sense of personal unworthiness, made honest confession of sin, and sought the mercy he knew he needed.

III GOD HATES THE PROUD, AND HONOURS THE HUMBLEHEARTED. Old and New Testaments may be said to be full of this truth. God has said and has repeated, he has most plainly and emphatically declared, that pride is odious and unpardonable in his sight; but that humility shall live before him. (ver. 14; see also Psa_32:5 Psa_138:6 Pro_28:13 Isa_57:15 Mat_5:3 1Pe_5:6 1Jn_1:8, 1Jn_1:9) Here is:

1. A message of solemn warning. It concerns those who are the spiritual descendants of the Pharisee; who are satisfied with their spiritual condition but have no right to be so; who are building the hope of their hearts on things which are external, but in whom the love of God does not dwell. And here is:

2. A message of gracious encouragement. It concerns those who are burdened with a sense of sin and need not remain so. The way of mercy is open to every penitent soul. Jesus Christ is the "Propitiation for the sins of the whole world," and the grace of God in him far more than suffices for every guilty heart. In him we have forgiveness of sins; in him we have peace and hope and joy, even eternal life. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He spake this parable - Not to hypocrites; the Pharisee here mentioned was no hypocrite, no more than an outward adulterer: but he sincerely trusted in himself that he was righteous, and accordingly told God so, in the prayer which none but God heard.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Luke

THREE KINDS OF PRAYING

Luk 18:1 - Luk 18:14.

The two parables in this passage are each prefaced by Luke’s explanation of their purpose. They are also connected by being both concerned with aspects of prayer. But the second was apparently not spoken at the same time as the first, but is put here by Luke as in an appropriate place.

I. The wearisome widow and the unrighteous judge.

The similarities and dissimilarities between this parable and that in Luk 11:5 - Luk 11:8 are equally instructive. Both take a very unlovely character as open to the influence of persistent entreaty; both strongly underscore the unworthiness and selfishness of the motive for yielding. Both expect the hearers to use common-sense enough to take the sleepy friend and the worried judge as contrasts to, not parables, of Him to whom Christians pray. But the judge is a much worse man than the owner of the loaves, and his denial of the justice which it was his office to dispense is a crime; the widow’s need is greater than the man’s, and the judge’s cynical soliloquy, in its unabashed avowal of caring for neither God nor man, and being guided only by regard to comfort, touches a deep depth of selfishness. The worse he was, the more emphatic is the exhortation to persistence. If the continual dropping of the widow’s plea could wear away such a stone as that, its like could wear away anything. Yes, and suppose that the judge were as righteous and as full of love and wish to help as this judge was of their opposites; suppose that instead of the cry being a weariness it was a delight; suppose, in short, that, to go back to Luk 11:1 - Luk 11:54, we ‘call on Him as Father who, without respect of persons, judgeth’: then our ‘continual coming’ will surely not be less effectual than hers was.

But we must note the spiritual experience supposed by the parable to belong to the Christian life. That forlorn figure of the widow, with all its suggestions of helplessness and oppression, is Christ’s picture of His Church left on earth without Him. And though of course it is a very incomplete representation, it is a true presentation of one side and aspect of the devout life on earth. ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation,’ and the truer His servants are to Him, and the more their hearts are with Christ in God, the more they will feel out of touch with the world, and the more it will instinctively be their ‘adversary.’ If the widow does not feel the world’s enmity, it will generally be because she is not a ‘widow indeed.’

And another notable fact of Christian experience underlies the parable; namely that the Church’s cry for protection from the adversary is often apparently unheard. In Luk 11:1 - Luk 11:54 the prayer was for supply of necessities, here it is for the specific blessing of protection from the adversary. Whether that is referred to the needs of the Church or of the individual, it is true that usually the help sought is long delayed. It is not only ‘souls under the altar’ that have to cry ‘How long, O Lord, dost Thou not avenge?’ One thinks of years of persecution for whole communities, or of long, weary days of harassment and suffering for individuals, of multitudes of prayers and groans sent up into a heaven that, for all the answers sent down, might as well be empty, and one feels it hard to hold by the faith that ‘verily, there is a God that’ heareth.

We have all had times when our faith has staggered, and we have found no answer to our heart’s question: ‘Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?’ Many of us have felt what Mary and Martha felt when ‘Jesus abode still two days in the place where He was’ after He had received their message, in which they had been so sure of His coming at once when He heard that ‘he whom Thou lovest is sick,’ that they did not ask Him to come. The delays of God’s help are a constant feature in His providence, and, as Jesus says here, they are but too likely to take the life out of faith.

But over against these we have to place Jesus’ triumphant assurance here: ‘He will avenge them speedily.’ Yes, the longest delay may yet be ‘right early,’ for heaven’s clock does not beat at the same rate as our little chronometers. God is ‘the God of patience,’ and He has waited for millenniums for the establishment of His kingdom on earth; His ‘own elect’ may learn long-suffering from Him, and need to take to heart the old exhortation, ‘If the vision tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, and will not tarry.’ Yes, God’s delays are not delays, but are for our profit that we may always pray and not faint, and may keep alight the flame of the sure hope that the Son of man cometh, and that in His coming all adversaries shall be destroyed, and the widow, no longer a widow, but the bride, go in to the feast and forget her foes, and ‘the days of her mourning be ended.’

II. The Pharisee and the publican.

Luke’s label on this parable tells us that it was spoken to a group of the very people who were personated in it by the Pharisee. One can fancy their faces as they listened, and how they would love the speaker! Their two characteristics are self-righteousness and depreciation of every one else, which is the natural result of such trust in self. The self-adulation was absolute, the contempt was all-embracing, for the Revised Version rightly renders ‘set all others at nought.’ That may sound exaggerated, but the way to judge of moral characteristics is to take them in their fullest development and to see what they lead to then. The two pictures heighten each other. The one needs many strokes to bring out the features, the other needs but one. Self-righteousness takes many shapes, penitence has but one emotion to express, one cry to utter.

Every word in the Pharisee’s prayer is reeking with self-complacency. Even the expression ‘prayed with himself’ is significant, for it suggests that the prayer was less addressed to God than to himself, and also that his words could scarcely be spoken in the hearing of others, both because of their arrogant self-praise and of their insolent calumnies of ‘all the rest.’ It was not prayer to God, but soliloquy in his own praise, and it was in equal parts adulation of himself and slander of other men. So it never went higher than the inner roof of the temple court, and was, in a very fatal sense, ‘to himself.’

God is complimented with being named formally at first, and in the first two words, ‘I thank thee,’ but that is only formal introduction, and in all the rest of his prayer there is not a trace of praying. Such a self-satisfied gentleman had no need to ask for anything, so he brought no petitions. He uses the conventional language of thanksgiving, but his real meaning is to praise himself to God, not to thank God for himself. God is named once. All the rest is I, I, I. He had no longing for communion, no aspiration, no emotion.

His conception of righteousness was mean and shallow. And as St. Bernard notes, he was not so much thankful for being righteous as for being alone in his goodness. No doubt he was warranted in disclaiming gross sins, but he was glad to be free from them, not because they were sins, but because they were vulgar. He had no right to fling mud either on ‘all the rest’ or on ‘this publican,’ and if he had been really praying or giving thanks he would have had enough to think of in God and himself without casting sidelong and depreciatory glances at his neighbours. He who truly prays ‘sees no man any more,’ or if he does, sees men only as subjects for intercession, not for contempt. The Pharisee’s notion of righteousness was primarily negative, as consisting in abstinence from flagrant sins, and, in so far as it was positive, it dealt entirely with ceremonial acts. Such a starved and surface conception of righteousness is essential to self-righteousness, for no man who sees the law of duty in its depth and inwardness can flatter himself that he has kept it. To fast twice a week and to give tithes of all that one acquired were acts of supererogation, and are proudly recounted as if God should feel much indebted to the doer for paying Him more than was required. The Pharisee makes no petitions. He states his claims, and tacitly expects that God will meet them.

Few words are needed to paint the publican; for his estimate of himself is simple and one, and what he wants from God is one thing, and one only. His attitude expresses his emotions, for he does not venture to go near the shining example of all respectability and righteousness, nor to lift his eyes to heaven. Like the penitent psalmist, his iniquities have taken hold on him, so that he is ‘not able to look up.’ Keen consciousness of sin, true sorrow for sin, earnest desire to shake off the burden of sin, lowly trust in God’s pardoning mercy, are all crowded into his brief petition. The arrow thus feathered goes straight up to the throne; the Pharisee’s prayer cannot rise above his own lips.

Jesus does not leave His hearers to apply the ‘parable,’ but drives its application home to them, since He knew how keen a thrust was needed to pierce the triple breastplate of self-righteousness. The publican was ‘justified’; that is, accounted as righteous. In the judgment of heaven, which is the judgment of truth, sin forsaken is sin passed away. The Pharisee condensed his contempt into ‘this publican’; Jesus takes up the ‘this’ and turns it into a distinction, when He says, ‘this man went down to his house justified.’ God’s condemnation of the Pharisee and acceptance of the publican are no anomalous aberration of divine justice, for it is a universal law, which has abundant exemplifications, that he that exalteth himself is likely to be humbled, and he that humbles himself to be exalted. Daily life does not always yield examples thereof, but in the inner life and as concerns our relations to God, that law is absolutely and always true.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

righteous

(See Scofield "Rom 10:3").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pharisee and the Publican.

The Pharisee:

v. 9. And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted themselves that they were righteous and despised others:

v. 10. Two men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican.

v. 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not I other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

v. 12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

During the last journey of Jesus, representatives of the Pharisees were present almost continually. It is probable that some of these had given some evidence of their imagined superiority again, or there were other that had their way of thinking and acting They trusted in themselves that they were righteous; they firmly believed themselves to be perfect; they felt only the deepest contempt for the others whom they supposed to be in a class far beneath them, below the consideration of all decent people. They were representatives of the self-righteous, self-sufficient people, with both inherent and carefully educated Pharisaic tendencies. The parable of Jesus was intended to open the eyes of this pitifully blind class. Two men went up into the Temple to pray. The third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day were observed by the Jews as the hours of prayer, Dan 6:10. If possible, they went up into the Temple for that special prayer, or turned toward the Temple in making it. The chief places of prayer were the halls, or porches, or the inner courts, where there was little or no distraction or disturbance. The first of these two men was a Pharisee, a member of the strictest sect among the Jews. He stood, he made it his object to be as prominent and conspicuous as possible, for he felt his self-importance and intended to convey to others this same impression. He prayed to himself, literally: his words were more in the nature of congratulation and praise of himself than a communication to God. What he said was the firm conviction of his own heart. He proudly enumerated his supposed virtues, thanking God, incidentally, that he was not like other people. The poor man did not know, in the arrogance of his pride, that he might do whatever he chose, "yea, if he sweat blood and had himself burned with fire, it would still before God an abomination and the greatest of sins. " The Pharisee boasted that he had done no harm to others; he was no extortioner, no robber that openly took his neighbor’s property; he was no unjust person, he paid his debts and gave to every man his due; he was no adulterer, he had never openly lived in sins of the flesh; he was not on a level with the publican, whose many transgressions were proverbial. But he also had positive virtues; he observed all the ordinances of religion, both those commanded by God and those enjoined by the elders. Only one day in the year had been set aside by God as a day of fasting for the entire people, the great Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees of the stricter kind added voluntary fasts on Mondays and Thursdays; the latter, because on that day Moses was said to have. ascended on Mount Sinai; the former, because they believed he had come down on that day from the mountain. This Pharisee was also very strict about giving tithes, the tenth part of all that he possessed, down to the smallest vegetable in the garden, Mat 23:23. The Pharisee is a type of all self-righteous people of all times, of every person that has pleasure and delight in himself, in his own wonderful being and doing, that boasts before God of his civic honesty and blameless reputation, of some outward, glittering virtues, and despises others.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The design and scope of our Saviour in this parable is, to reprove and condemn the Pharisees, and in them all other self-justiciaries, who having an high opinion of, and trusting in, their own righteousness, despised others as vile persons, whose religion is not accompanied with ostentation, and who pretend not to such extraordinary degrees of sanctity as themselves.

And the parable further shows, that an humble, self-condemned sinner, who though he has been wicked, is now sensible of it, and with shame and sorrow confesses it before God, is more acceptable than he that vaunts of his virtue, and rests in the outward duties of religion: his pride and exaltation of himself shall abases him, while the other’s humility shall exalt him.

This is the general scope of the parable; the particular observations from it are these: 1. The Pharisee and the publican both pray, they both pray together in the place of prayer, the holy temple, and they both pray, with and within themselves. Where the duty and action is the same, there may be a vast difference in the purpose and intention: Does an humble saint pray? So may a haughty hypocrite: Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican.

Observe, 2. The Pharisee’s prayer, He stood and prayed with himself, God, I thank thee, etc.

Where note, his gesture, He stood and prayed. Standing and kneeling are praying gestures, but sitting is a rude indecency, except in case of necessity. "In prayer," says pious bishop Hall, "I will either stand as a servant to my Master, or kneel as a subject to my prince."

Note farther, it is said, He prayed; but here is not one petition, but thanksgiving! God, I thank thee, etc.

Whence learn, that thanksgiving is a part of prayer. Hannah’s prayer, as it is called, 1Sa 2:1-10 is a canticle, or song of praise. We then pray best when we praise God most.

Again, see the Pharisee’s pride in this his prayer: this proud beggar shows not his wounds, but his worth, not his rags, but his robes, not his misery, but his bravery; he brings God Almighty in a reckoning of his services: I fast twice a week, I give alms of all that I possess, and thanks God more that others were bad, than that himself was good. Had the Pharisee with an humble mind thanked God for his restraining grace, that though he was not so good as he should be, that yet he was not so vile and bad as some others, this had been no fault; but when he comes before God with a proud and scornful mind, inwardly pleased that others were so bad, and so much worse than himself; giving thinks rather for others’ badness, than his own goodness: this is a wickedness incident to none but devilish dispositions.

Learn hence, that whatsoever shows of goodness an hyocrite may make, yet he is inwardly glad of, and takes a secret delight in, others’ badness; God, I thank thee that I am not as this publican; which was a kind of triumph, and proud insultation over the poor publican; he would seem to thank God that he was not so bad as the publican, when indeed he was glad that the publican was not so good as himself.

Observe, 3. The publican’s behavior, in an humble sight and sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness, he stood afar off, probably in the court of the Gentiles, where all sorts of sinners might come; acknowledging thereby that he was unworthy to come near the holy majesty of God; not presuming to lift up his eyes to heaven, that place of perfect holiness and purity; but, like a true self-condemned penitent, smote upon his breast, and in bitter remorse of soul said, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Hence learn, that a truly humble temper of mind well becomes us in all our approaches and addresses to God, and is more acceptable to him than all pompous performances whatsoever.

For observe lastly, the publican being thus condemned of himself, departs justified by God: He went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee; the Pharisee justified himself, but the publican was justified by God.

Thence learn, that a penitent sinner, who is indeed poor in spirit, is far more esteemed of God, that he that makes long prayers, fasts often, tithes all his substance, and prides himself in all this. Without humility all is vain-glory and hypocrisy; and the seeming most sanctified person that has it not, is like a painted sepulchre, beautiful without, but full of rottenness within.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. He spake this parable, etc. The persons described in this verse are so much like the Pharisees that we can hardly believe that they were not. Rabbi Simeon, one of them, said, that if there were only thirty religious men in the world like Abraham, he and his son would be two of them; if only two, he and his son would be those; and if only one, that would be himself.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Jesus begins to tell another parable to some other people who were persuaded that they themselves were righteous. (See: Parables)

Then he

"Then Jesus"

to some

"to some people"

who were persuaded in themselves that they were righteous

"who had convinced themselves that they were righteous" or "who thought they were righteous"

despised

strongly disliked or hated

into the temple

"into the temple courtyard"

translationWords

parable

righteous

temple

pray

Pharisee

tax

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

9–14. THE DUTY OF HUMBLE PRAYER. THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX-GATHERER

9. τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐφ’ ἑαυτοῖς. See Luk 16:15; Php 3:4; 2Co 1:9. The Jewish words ‘Jashar,’ ‘the upright man,’ and ‘Tsaddik,’ ‘just,’ expressed their highest moral ideal; but they made their uprightness and justice consist so much in attention to the ceremonial minutiae of the Levitic Law, and rigid externalism so engrossed their thoughts, that they had lost sight of those loftier and truer ideals of charity which the Prophets had continually set before them. This fetish-worship of the letter, this scrupulosity about trifles, tended only to self-confidence and pride. It had long been denounced in Scripture. “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness,” Pro 30:12; “which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day,” Isa 65:5. This is the sort of ‘faith’ which the Son of Man shall find on the earth,—men’s faith in themselves!

ἐξουθενοῦντας τοὺς λοιπούς. ‘The rest.’ The word ἐξουθενεῖν (a late Aeolic form, one of a group of words common to St Luke and St Paul) means ‘treat as nothing,’ ‘regard as mere cyphers,’ Rom 14:3; Rom 14:10. The Rabbis invented the most highflown designations for each other, such as ‘Light of Israel,’ ‘Uprooter of Mountains,’ ‘The Glory of the Law,’ ‘The Holy,’ &c.; but they described the vast mass of their fellow-countrymen as “accursed” for not knowing the law (Joh 7:49), and spoke of them as ‘empty cisterns,’ ‘people of the earth,’ &c. See on Luk 5:32, Luk 7:34, &c. This Pharisee regards with perfect self-complacency the assumed ruin and degradation of all the rest of mankind. In one sense the Parable represents the mutual relations of Jew and Gentile.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9-14.] The Pharisee and the Publican. This parable is spoken not to the Pharisees, for our Lord would not in their presence have chosen a Pharisee as an example: nor concerning the Pharisees, for then it would have been no parable—but to the people, and with reference to some among them (then and always) τοὺς πεπ. ὅτι εἰσὶν δίκ., who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised other men.

The parable describes an every day occurrence: the parabolic character is given by the concurrence and grouping of the two, and by the fact that each of these represents psychologically a class of persons.

9.] πρός, to, not concerning: it was concerning them, it is true:—but this word expresses that it was spoken to them. The usage of πρός in ver. 1 is no example for the sense concerning, for it is not there so used of persons, but with a neuter article and infinitive: εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτοὺς παρ. is too general a phrase, to allow of any other interpretation than the ordinary one, where the context will bear it.

πεποιθ. ἐφʼ ἑαυτ., not, ‘were persuaded of themselves,’ as Greswell renders; but as E. V., trusted in themselves: see reff.

10,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9-14. Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. This s no connexion either with the parable which precedes it or with the narrative which follows it. The two parables were evidently spoken on different occasions and addressed to different audiences, the first to the disciples on a specified occasion, the second to the persons described in ver. 9 on some occasion not specified. They are placed in juxtaposition, probably because tradition assigned them to the same portion of Christ’s ministry (Hahn); or possibly because they both (but in very different ways) treat of prayer (Keil). That Lk. brackets the two parables for some reason is shown by the καί. But note the δέ also, and see on 3:9.

The καί is genuine (A.aleph; B D L M Q R X L, Vulg.) although A etc. with several Versions omit.

9. As in ver. 1, this preface to the parable is the Evangelist’s: εἶπεν δέ, δὲ καί, εἶπεν πρός, and εἶπεν παραβολήν are all marks of his style. It is possible to take πρός here as meaning “with a view to,” as in ver. 1, or “against,” as in 20:19. But it is much more likely that it means “unto” after εἶπεν because (1) this construction is specially common in Lk. and (2) we here have persons and not the substantial infinitive after πρός: dixit autem et ad quosdam qui (vulg.). Syr-Sin. has “against.”

τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς ὅτι. They themselves were the foundation on which their confidence was built: 11:22; 2Co 1:9; Heb 2:13; Deu 28:52; 2Sa 22:3; Isa 8:17, Isa 12:2, etc. The Constructions ἔν τινι, ἐπί τινα, and εἴς τινα are less common. Grotius and others render ὅτι “because,” making the righteousness a fact and the ground of their self-confidence; which is incredible. Comp. Pro 30:12; Isa 65:5. The Talmud inveighs against the Pharisaism of those “who implore you to mention some more duties which they might perform.”

ἐξουθενοῦντας. A strong word, common to Lk. and Paul: “utterly despised, treated as of no account,” 23:11; Act 4:11; Rom 14:3, Rom 14:10. Comp. Ps. Son 2:5.

τοὺς λοιπούς. “The rest, all others” (RV.): comp. οἱ λοιποί (ver. 11). The “other” of AV. and most English Versions has been silently altered into “others” by the printers: “other” means “other folk,” but τοὺς λοιπούς means “all other folk.”

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Despised [εξουθενουντας] . Lit., made nothing of. Rev., set at nought. Others [τους λοιπους] . The expression is stronger. Lit., the rest. They threw all others beside themselves into one class. Rev., correctly, all others.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.