Luke 18:9 - Meaning and Application

This parable is introduced by its purpose. We are told in Luke 18:9 who Jesus aimed it at and why he told it. He meant it to expose people who trusted in themselves as righteous and looked down on others. They had a high opinion of their own goodness, they were sure of their standing with God, and they despised everyone else.

Jesus shows how foolish this is and how it shuts people out from God’s favor. It is called a parable, though it is really a picture of two very different hearts and prayers. One person proudly justifies himself, while the other humbly admits his need. What Jesus describes is something seen every day.

Both men go to the same place and at the same time to pray, the temple, which was built on a hill (Luke 18:10). It was not the regular hour for public prayer, but they came for personal devotion. In that time, the temple was not only the place of worship, but also a way of worship, and God had promised to hear prayer offered rightly there. Christ is our true temple now, and we must look to him in every approach to God.

The Pharisee, a religious leader proud of his strictness, and the publican, a tax collector, both came to pray. Among the worshipers in the visible church, there has always been a mixture of good and bad, just as Cain and Abel brought offerings to the same altar. The Pharisee could not think himself above prayer, and the publican could not think himself shut out from it. But they came with very different minds.

The Pharisee likely came because it was a public place, where many would see him and praise his devotion. Christ had already said that the Pharisees did all their works to be seen by people, and that fits here. Hypocrites keep up religious habits mainly to protect or gain their reputation. Many are seen in the temple now, but may not be found at Christ’s right hand on the last day.

The publican came because the temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all people (Isaiah 56:7). The Pharisee came as a matter of show, the publican came with a real request. God sees the spirit and purpose with which we come to worship, and he judges us by that.

The Pharisee’s speech is called a prayer, but it hardly deserves the name, because it is full of self. He stood and prayed “with himself” (Luke 18:11, Luke 18:12), that is, he was absorbed in himself, or he placed himself in a conspicuous spot to be noticed. Everything in him pointed to self, not to God’s glory.

What he said shows that he trusted in himself as righteous. Many things he said about himself may have been true. He was not guilty of gross public sins. He was not an extortioner, not a cheat, not harsh toward those under his care, and not an adulterer. He fasted twice a week, and he gave tithes of all he possessed. All of that was outwardly commendable.

But that was not enough, and that is why he was not accepted. His thanks to God sounds more like a formal opening than real gratitude. He does not say, as Paul later did, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Instead, his “God, I thank you” becomes a polished way to begin boasting about himself.

He also makes a show of his goodness and lingers over it with pleasure. It seems as if he went to the temple only to tell God how good he was. He speaks like the hypocrites in Isaiah 58:3, who ask why God has not noticed their fasting. He is also trusting in his goodness as a righteousness, as if he had earned something from God and made him his debtor.

Most telling of all, there is no real prayer in what he says. He went up to the temple to pray, but he forgot why he came. He was so full of himself that he seemed to think he needed nothing, not even God’s grace.

He also despised other people. He thought badly of everyone except himself. When he says, “I thank you that I am not like other men,” he speaks as if he were better than all others. It is right to thank God that we are not as some who are openly wicked and vile, but to speak as if only we are good and everyone else is worthless is to judge too broadly.

He especially looked down on the publican, the tax collector he had likely met in the temple courts. Because the man was a publican, he unjustly assumed he was also dishonest, oppressive, and sinful in every way.

If the Pharisee really knew the publican’s faults, what business did he have to bring them up? Could he not pray, which was all the Pharisees did, without insulting his neighbor? Was that part of his “God, I thank you”? Did he take as much pleasure in the publican’s sin as in his own supposed goodness? Nothing could show more clearly that he lacked humility and love, and that he was ruled by pride and hatred.

Here the publican’s way of speaking to God is the very opposite of the Pharisee’s. He was as full of humility and shame as the Pharisee was full of pride and show. He was full of sorrow for sin and desire for God, while the Pharisee was full of confidence in himself, his own righteousness, and his own ability to stand before God.

He showed his humility not only in what he said, but in how he acted. His posture in prayer showed deep seriousness and the right clothing for a broken, repentant, and obedient heart. He stood far off. The Pharisee stood as near the front as he could, but the publican kept his distance because he felt unworthy to come near to God. He may also have wanted to avoid offending the Pharisee, who was looking down on him, and not disturb his prayer.

By standing back, he admitted that God would be right to keep him at a distance and send him away from Himself forever. He also admitted that it was a great mercy that God allowed him to come near at all. He would not even lift his eyes to heaven, much less his hands, which was the usual posture in prayer. In his heart he was still reaching up to God, but shame and sorrow kept his eyes down. His sins had become like a heavy load over his head, so he could not look up (Psalm 40:12). His downcast eyes showed the low place his mind had taken because of sin.

He also beat on his breast, showing a holy anger at himself for his sin. As if he were saying, “I would strike this wicked heart of mine, the poisoned spring from which all my sins flow, if I could reach it.” David’s heart struck him in repentance after his sin (2 Samuel 24:10). Sinner, what have you done? Then the heart strikes back in sorrow: “What a miserable man I am!” Ephraim is also pictured striking his thigh in grief (Jeremiah 31:19). Deep mourners are described as beating on their breasts (Nahum 2:7).

He showed his repentance in what he said as well. His prayer was short. Fear and shame kept him from saying much, and sighs and groans seemed to take the place of many words. But what he said was enough: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” We should thank God that this prayer is written down for us as a prayer He answered, and that we know this man went home justified, that is, counted right with God. So shall we, if we pray it as he did, through Jesus Christ: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner. O God of endless mercy, be merciful to me, because if you are not, I am completely lost and forever miserable. Be merciful to me, because I have been cruel to myself.”

He admits that he is a sinner by nature and by practice, guilty before God. “I am vile,” he says in effect, “what can I answer you?” The Pharisee will not admit that he is a sinner. No one among his neighbors can accuse him, and he sees no reason to accuse himself. In his own eyes he is clean and free from sin. But the publican gives himself only one name, sinner, a convicted man standing at God’s bar.

He depends on nothing but God’s mercy, and that alone. The Pharisee had argued from the merit of his fasting and tithing, but the poor publican gives up all thought of merit. He flies to mercy as his place of safety and takes hold of the altar’s horn. Justice condemns him, and nothing can save him but mercy. Mercy alone.

He also asks earnestly for the gift of that mercy. “O God, be merciful, be kind to me, forgive my sins, be reconciled to me, bring me back into your favor, receive me graciously, love me freely.” He comes as a beggar asking for alms, almost dying of hunger. He likely repeated this prayer with fresh feeling and may have added more words of the same kind, confessing his sins and naming the mercies he needed. Still, this was the heart of it: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

We now come to the publican’s acceptance with God. We have seen how differently these two men prayed; now we see how they fared. Some would have praised the Pharisee, welcomed him home with approval, and mocked the publican as a weak, whining man. But our Lord Jesus, who knows every heart, every desire, and every hidden thing, tells us that this poor, penitent, broken-hearted publican went home justified rather than the other. The Pharisee thought that if one of them must be accepted, it would certainly be him and not the publican. Christ says, with full certainty and deep seriousness, that it was the publican rather than the Pharisee.

The proud Pharisee went away rejected by God. His thanksgivings were not accepted, but were hateful to God. He was not justified, his sins were not forgiven, and he was not freed from condemnation. He was not accepted as righteous in God’s sight, because he already thought himself righteous in his own sight. But the publican, by his humble approach to heaven, received forgiveness of his sins. The one the Pharisee would not have counted fit to sit with the dogs of his flock, God welcomed into the company of His children.

The reason is this: God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Proud people lift themselves up, and in that way they challenge God, so He will certainly bring them low. In God’s words to Job, this is one proof that He is God, that He looks on every proud person and humbles him (Job 40:12). Humble people bring themselves low before God, and therefore they will be lifted up. God has honor ready for those who receive it as a gift, not for those who demand it as something owed to them.

They will be lifted up into God’s love and close fellowship with Him. They will be lifted up into peace within themselves, and at last lifted as high as heaven. See how the punishment fits the sin: “He who exalts himself will be humbled.” See how the reward fits the duty: “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” We also see God’s grace at work, bringing good out of evil. The publican had been a great sinner, and from the greatness of his sin came the greatness of his repentance. Out of the eater came food. On the other hand, we see Satan’s evil skill in bringing evil out of good. It was good that the Pharisee was not an extortioner or unjust, but the devil turned that into pride, and that pride ruined him.