The lesson of today’s story from Jesus is obvious. Don’t be proud in our prayer before God but humble as we pray. We are called to admit the truth about our lives, about the choices we’ve made, about the words we’ve said, or some action I committed, or the constant habit that I feel I always must be right and so I tend to question or disagree with everyone who doesn’t see things my way. To know our limitations and our gifts and to admit where I fall short is fundamental to our prayer before God. We pray with honesty and come before God as we are.
The parable presents a common trait of the Gospel
writers who present Pharisees in a negative light, knowing how Jesus confronted
them. They seem to be the constant bane
of Jesus in his call for integrity. Yet,
in fact they were likely closer to Jesus’ own teaching than distant from it.
Our Lord did not criticize the basic content of their teaching but rather how
they themselves did not live up to what they taught yet presented themselves in
a way that would appear otherwise in their display of hypocrisy.
So, the scene is powerful in its right context. When Jesus states, “the two men went up to
the Temple to pray,” he refers to what the folks of his time would
understand. This was no private visit to
a Church; the two of them alone, one in front and the other in the back.
The Temple was a busy, noisy, crowded space so those
who prayed did so in full view and earshot of others. One would not pray silently but out loud so
others could hear. The Pharisee is
boasting of his perfection and certainly some could hear well what he was
claiming. As Jesus states, he “spoke this prayer to himself.” As such, it was more to draw attention to
himself than to bring honor to God by his spoken thankfulness: Thanks that I’m
not like the rest of humanity! So, in essence as comical as it sounds, he was
praying to himself.
The population generally looked to these gate keepers
for both example and leadership. They dressed in a certain rich and beautiful
robes and clean manner; they carried with them, attached to their outer
garments, symbols of the Jewish faith – maybe we could say a kind of religious
habit.
Yet, in the laws of diet and cleanliness, Sabbath
regulations, and other burdensome legalities, and the near slavish following of
it, they exaggerated the importance of such man-made laws to the detriment of
the sacred law of love, humility, and charity which God asked of his people in
the original Covenant. The Pharisees
suffered from too much emphasis on external appearance which created a kind of
spiritual blindness to the deep relationship of love that God was seeking. So,
we hear of their self-aggrandizement, their superior righteous attitude, and
self-righteous judgment of others.
As he boasts his prayer before God, while adjusting
his halo properly, he claims that all his righteous success was of his own
making. Yet, we know that in humility we
admit that all good in our life is gift from God above. Virtue is God’s
business as we respond with an open heart to his grace within us.
By contrast an equally unpopular figure appears, a tax
collector. Generally despised by the
population for their greedy way of collecting taxes and the Roman occupiers
they represented. Now, unlike the
Pharisee, here’s one guy who couldn’t possibly recognize his sin. Yet, to all who heard this story for the
first time, he became, like the Good Samaritan, the one who got it right! As he
spoke in his way, “Lord, have mercy on me,” others may have heard. He names no one else; he doesn’t even call
out his specific sin but recognizes that the choices he has made and the
direction of his life is not of God.
His prayer was simple, deeply sincere, humble and
truthful. His only desire, as he “stood
off at a distance” from the Pharisee who stood and proudly proclaimed his
goodness, the tax collector “would not even raise his eyes to heaven.” He prayed from his heart: “O God be merciful
to me a sinner.” It wasn’t what he had
done right, but how he prayed that mattered.
To be justified means to be in right relationship with
God; to be in proper Covenant order and goodness before God. True humility is the key here it seems. Like
the tax collector we are taught how to pray with honesty and humility. “God,
this is who I am, with all my faults, sins, and blemishes. I haven’t been what you call me to be so I
ask in all humility for your mercy, that I can start again.”
The tax collector didn’t grovel or think of himself as
worthless. Yet, he was realistic and
honest about his own sinfulness and accepted responsibility for his less than
virtuous behaviour. This is true
conversion and a prayer that is heard and answered by God.
What an ideal application for the sacrament of
Reconciliation. When we go to confession
we stand before God not as the Pharisee but as the tax collector. Honestly admitting our sin, out loud but
heard only by the priest, we know that this truthful assessment of my life
choices will receive God’s mercy like the leper, like the tax collector and we
move forward with new hope.
So this leaves us with rich lessons on prayer over the
last several Sundays: pray with faith,
no matter how small. Pray with gratitude in your heart for blessings
received. Pray with persistence and
don’t give up. Pray with humility and
realism before the loving God of mercy and redemption. So Faith, Gratitude, Persistence and Humility.
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