CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 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.”
Luke 18:10. Went up.—The Temple standing on an elevation. Probably some of Christ’s hearers were now on their way to worship there.
Luke 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.
Luke 18:12. I fast, etc.—His works of supererogation. The Law prescribed only one day of fasting—the great day of Atonement (Leviticus 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.
Luke 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. Luke 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.
Luke 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.— Luke 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 Luke 18:9-14
Luke 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.
Luke 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.
Luke 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.
Luke 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.
Luke 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.
Luke 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 (1 Corinthians 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.
Luke 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.
Luke 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.
Luke 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, Luke 7:29; Luke 7:35, Luke 10:29, Luke 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 (Isaiah 50:8; Isaiah 53:11; Psalms 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.