Scripture Notes: Attitude (Luke 18)

Jesus was and is very concerned about our attitudes toward ourselves, toward other people, and toward God. One of His parables zooms in on this issue, and Luke tells us that He speaks to those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous” and therefore “despised others” (Luke 18:9). Two men, Jesus says, go up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Pharisees were some of the leading Jews of Jesus’ day. As strict followers of the Law, they insisted that the Jewish people maintain their separation from Gentiles by adhering firmly to practices set down by God but also to traditions developed by human beings over the centuries. Tax collectors, on the other hand, received the wrath of the Jewish people. Although they were Jews themselves, these men collaborated with the Romans, enforcing tax laws and receiving tax payments, more often than not with a little (or a lot) extra for themselves. They were thoroughly despised.

Yet here Jesus turns His audience’s expectations upside down. The Pharisee who goes up to pray, He explains, actually prays to himself. He talks to God, or at least seems to, but all he does is tell God how good he is. He is not like other people who do all kinds of horrible things. He fasts and gives tithes. He follows all the rules. He is a good guy and, therefore, should merit God’s favor. 

The tax collector, though, stands at the very back. He knows full well that he is not worthy to approach God. He keeps his eyes down and beats his breast as a sign of repentance. “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” he prays (Luke 18:13). This man is a realist. He has a firm grasp of his sin. He knows exactly who he is before God, and it is not pretty. 

Jesus sets these two distinct attitudes in sharp relief, and He makes no secret about which of the two men go home justified before God. The tax collector, for all his corruption, has made a clean breast of it before his Lord. The Pharisee, in his pride, has merely puffed himself up, meriting not God’s approval but rather His displeasure. Jesus concludes with a pithy little precept that serves as explanation, warning, and invitation: “for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).