October 24, 2010 Joel 2:23-32 Luke 18:9-14

“Holier than Thou”

Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

After listening to news clips from many of the political debates over the past weeks, watching the
millions of political ads that have flooded over us for what seems to be forever, and being told by the
spin doctors that what we’ve heard isn’t actually what we’ve heard, I’ve decided that the Pharisee who
stood in the Temple square and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people,” wasn’t
actually praying. He was campaigning for office of Chief Priest. What’s more, when I compare him
to much of what I hear and read today, I’m not sure that I wouldn’t vote for him if I could.
I don’t think I’d vote for the tax collector in the corner, however, the guy who prayed, “God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!” He sounds good here, but his actions are questionable. He may have been
justified in the eyes of Jesus, but he wouldn’t have been justified in my eyes. I wouldn’t vote for him
until he started giving back the taxes he’d stolen. Too many in the public eye repent just to be
forgiven, repent without changing how they live or what they do.
Tax collectors, as you know, made their living collecting the tax required by the Roman government
and then keeping anything more than that amount which they could collect for themselves. Since you
or I wouldn’t know if the government really did require us to pay $1000 or $1250, the tax collectors
made out nicely, though their fellow Jews hated them. Not only was the tax collector a political
traitor, a Jew working for a foreign government collecting taxes from his own people and thereby
participating in, and perpetuating a cruel and corrupt system, the tax collector was also religiously
unclean. So, unless he made a complete and total about face as Zacchaeus did, and started giving that
money back, I wouldn’t trust him.
Don’t you think the Pharisee would have a much better chance at getting your vote than the corrupt
tax collector? I know that Pharisees have gotten a bad name, but look at this guy’s qualifications. 1.
He fasted twice a week. Jewish law prescribed only one absolutely obligatory fast – that on the day of
Atonement. Those who wished to gain special merit fasted also on Mondays and Thursdays. It wasn’t
this guy’s fault that these just happened to be market days when Jerusalem was full of country people.
Nor was it his fault that those who fasted whitened their faces and appeared in disheveled clothes. If
people couldn’t help noticing the piety of the one who was fasting, that was still a much better role
model than the thieves and crooks that were probably as prevalent then as they are today, don’t you
think? In some ways, after all, the Pharisees were always on the campaign trail, just as modern day
politicians.
2. This Pharisee also gave a tenth of all his income to the Temple. Unlike some modern day officials,
he didn’t get elected to lower his own taxes or his friends’ taxes. He paid more than required. The
Law commanded that the Levites, meaning the Temple, the Levites were to receive a tithe (10%) of all
a man produced (Numbers 18:21; Deuteronomy 14:22). This Pharisee tithed on everything; his
investments, gifts people had given to him, all the things for which there was no obligation to tithe.
In other words, the Pharisee was a patriot and an upright man. He probably was the chairman both of
the forefathers’ day society and the temple charity fund.1 Fred Craddock claims that, “He is the
faithful, dependable, tithing type who pay the salaries of ministers so they can preach on the parable of

1 1. Buttrick, George Arthur, “The Gospel According to St. Luke,” The Interpreter’s
Bible, Vol. 8, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1952, p. 309.
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the Pharisee and the publican!”2 He’s the one for whom I’d vote in any election, because he was the
upright, even model citizen.
There was a slight problem, however. The Pharisee was praying to the people, and not to God. He
was more concerned about what the people around him were saying about him, than he was with what
God thought about him. Last, but not least, he thought he was better than everyone else around him. I
admit that those character flaws do force me to reconsider my vote.
The Pharisee seemed to regard God as a corporation in which he’d earned a considerable block of
stock. His “prayer” told God that he was waiting to be named to the board of directors, or at the very
least, to be recommended for some high honor within the company. The Pharisee was good, and he
knew it, and he let everyone else know it too.
Even with these flaws, however, this isn’t to say that I wouldn’t vote for someone like this Pharisee
because I probably would. Nowhere does Jesus say the Pharisee is dishonest. Nowhere does Jesus
say that he was wrong to fast, or wrong to tithe. Nowhere does Jesus say that the Pharisee was some
terrible character. We’ve heard so many sermons on this parable, heard so many preachers condemn
the Pharisee here that we probably are saying, “God, I thank you that I am not like the Pharisee. I’m
glad that I’m humble. I’m glad that I recognize that I need God. I’m glad that I know that, like the
tax collector, I’m a sinner.”
But can we honestly say that we’re not the Pharisee who fails to recognize his own sinfulness? That’s
the question Jesus raises in this parable. Do we recognize our own pride, and the ways in which we’re
no different from the Pharisee? Do we in our own hearts thank God that were not like the tax collector
who lives next door, or down the street from us, or that we’re not like that Pharisee?
When I was in North Dakota, many of the people there had very little good to say about the Native
Americans, especially those who continued to live on the Reservations that are scattered throughout
that state. I was told any number of times about the danger of driving across the Reservation at night.
It sometimes sounded like we were living a hundred years ago and the Indians were hiding in ambush
along side the Trail, covered with their war paint, waiting for the wagon train to pass through so they
could scalp any who dared come into their territory.
I heard all kinds of “lazy Indian” stories. “They don’t want to work. They only want to collect their
welfare checks,” I was told. “They get their government payments and then they go out and buy new
cars, or wine. They live in shacks, and just don’t care about anything. They don’t care about keeping
up their homes. They don’t care about keeping up their cars. They don’t care about their families.”
Throughout these accounts, the underlying message was, “Boy am I glad I’m not like them. They’re
terrible, but I’m good. They’re worthless, but I’m deserving.” In other words, people were saying,
“God, I thank you that I’m not like that tax collector Indian over there.”
These were good, honest, hardworking people who said this to me. They were people who wouldn’t
have seen themselves as anything like the Pharisee in the parable. They never would have come right
out and said that they thanked God that they weren’t like the Native Americans. They just saw the
differences between themselves and the Native Americans and tended to approve of themselves rather
than those who were different. I’m afraid that’s a pretty human tendency. Maybe we all see ourselves
much more like the tax collector than the Pharisee, because we all see ourselves as good, and someone

2 2. Craddock, Fred B., Luke: Interpretation; A Bible Commentary for Teaching and
Preaching, John Knox Press, Louisville, KY 1990, p. 211.
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else as bad.
It’s so dangerous to point fingers. “That person is lazy. That person is dishonest. That group is not
too smart. That group all has rhythm. That group is tight with their money. That group all works
hard. Those people with AIDS deserve what they’ve got.” As soon as we start pointing fingers, we
become more like the Pharisee and less like the tax collector who realized his own sin, the tax
collector who was justified by God.
To be justified by God does not mean to be righteous, to be made morally right, or just. To be
justified means to be accepted by heaven’s grace. Justification is done by God. It’s a gift from God.
Justification isn’t something we earn, or a reward for our good behavior. “The Pharisee had
everything in his favor except the thing; the publican nothing in his favor except the thing. The
Pharisee’s center of the world was himself, the publican’s was God, [at least on this occasion]. The
danger is that our world will be just as self-centered in its graspings and its cult of success as was the
world of the Pharisee.”3
Jesus didn’t justify the tax collector’s way of life, but hated it. Jesus didn’t condemn the Pharisee’s
charities and honor, but would have approved them had they been rooted in true motive. But the tax
collector had a soul open toward God, while the Pharisee was locked in on himself. The Pharisee
thought he had earned God’s respect. That’s what the Law taught. He was, after all, such a
respectable man, and quick to tell you so – even to tell God so. It was this prideful self-reliance that
so effectively kept God out of his life.
The tax collector knew he had nothing with which to earn God’s favor. He humbled himself before
God and confessed his need for mercy. God heard his prayer and met his need.
We don’t need to become tax collectors, despised by friends and family, to be justified by God. We
only need to recognize that like the tax collector, we are sinners, no better than anyone else. As Paul
said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. [We] are now justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by
his blood, effective through faith.” [Rom. 3:23-25a]
Whether we’re rich or poor, black or white, lazy or hardworking, young or old, male or female,
Republican, Democrat, or Independent, we’re all the same. Whether people around us would consider
us morally upright and just, or of scandalous character, whether we ourselves think we’re worthless or
really pretty good people, whether we’re proud of the lives we’re living or deeply ashamed, in the
sight of God, we’re all equal. We’re all sinners in need of God’s grace.
The only difference between the tax collector and the Pharisee was that the tax collector realized his sinfulness
and the Pharisee didn’t. But then I’m sure people told the tax collector how terrible he was while they
probably praised the Pharisee for being so good. Do we need to be reminded again and again that we’re no
good? That’s not it at all. We don’t need to hear that we’re not good. Rather, it’s important for us to hear the
words of Paul again in order to realize that “all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And
once we’ve confessed that we’re sinners, then we can again ask God to justify us through the grace that comes
through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

3 3. Buttrick, George Arthur, p. 309.

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