The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus to himself God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-gatherer.
The two men in this parable walk into the same temple to do the same thing, and one of them never really arrives. The Pharisee stands apart and prays. Every line of his prayer shows who he is talking to.
Luke describes even the posture with care. He does not use the same word for the Pharisee's standing that he uses a moment later for the tax collector.
There is a delicate difference between the two forms of the word we translate "standing" in each case. With the Pharisee the form implies a stand taken, a putting himself in position. It is what a man does when he stands up to make a speech to a crowd. With the tax collector it is the ordinary word for standing as opposed to sitting.
The direction of the prayer matters as much as the posture. Some translations render the phrase as praying "to himself."
He prays with himself, or toward himself. That shows how little he is truly in God's presence, even while he speaks to Him. We never hear what he actually asks for. What he asks does not matter, if indeed he asks anything at all.
Strip out the self-description and nothing is left. The temple is the one place where you would expect a person to be honest.
If men are real anywhere, surely it is in the presence of God... But what have we here? A man parading his merits in the Divine presence!... Not one word of thanksgiving or worship for what God is in His gracious attitude towards men. Every word was about himself and his own imagined perfections. What a spectacle is here! Here is a man in the presence of the Giver of all good, yet he asks for no favour. He stands before the Judge of the living and the dead, the Searcher of all hearts, yet he admits no sin. He asks nothing and confesses nothing.
One writer counts the pronouns and finds the same result:
We are told that he "prayed with himself," so he calls all the resources of self to his aid. His prayer is full of self — self-exaltation, self-love, self-righteousness. He says, "I thank you" — "I am not like other men" — "I fast" — "I give" — "I get." All through his prayer "I" stands most prominent. Self, whatever form it may take, can never rise above self.
The man is not lying, and Jesus never says he is.
Well, was it not true? Why, yes, the Lord never says one word about its not being true — it was all true. Why should he not say it? He does not claim perfection, nor that what he had done was done without God's help. He thanks God for it... He was not only a moral man but a religious man.
The fault lies somewhere other than in the facts he lists.
He was not violent and corrupt like the rest of men, nor even like the tax collector — of whom he cannot speak without a tinge of contempt: "this tax collector." He laid no false claims, and he did not leave God out. But he trusted his own righteousness as the ground of his acceptance, and he made nothing of anyone else's. He never saw his own sins in God's sight.
"Not like other men" is a verdict reached by looking sideways instead of upward. That method fails no matter who uses it.
How fatal is the mistake of measuring ourselves by anyone else — and we have all done it. "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." Those words show the utter blindness of the religious Pharisee in the parable. They also breed that same blindness everywhere. Who does not know somebody to compare himself with, and come off better or worse? It is all false ground to take, and the surest way to be deceived.
He does begin with thanks. The problem is the object of that thanks.
What marks a pharisaic spirit is not the failure to thank God for our blessings. Its essence is this: instead of saying, "I thank you for what you are," it says, "I thank you for what I am." The Pharisee thinks of the grace given to him, and it puffs him up. He does not think of the grace which gives, and which forgives.
His religion, not his lack of it, is what ruins him:
He is religious, but such religion is the most damning thing about him. The evil is not only his sins, but his religion. Nothing blinds him and other men more. Nothing dishonours God more.
- Position — He "took a stand" and prayed toward himself. Facing God in a building is not the same as being in His presence.
- Content — No request, no confession, no adoration. Remove self from this prayer and nothing remains.
- Accuracy — Every claim he makes is true. Truthful facts about yourself are still not a ground of acceptance with God.
- Comparison — "Not like other men" measures sideways. Anyone can find someone to look good beside, which is why it blinds everyone who tries it.
- Direction — He thanks God for what he is, not for what God is. That single reversal turns religion into the very thing that keeps a man from God.
I fast twice in the week, I tithe everything I gain.
The Pharisee has already told God what he is not. Now he turns to what he does, and lists two religious achievements. Does a real, costly, truthful record of devotion count for anything before God?
Both practices had a known place in Jewish life. One writer names the fast days, using the Talmud, a record of later Jewish teaching.
"Twice a week" means on Mondays and Thursdays, according to the Talmud. The Old Testament commands a fast only for the Day of Atonement.
Another writer weighs the two boasts against what the law actually required:
That is only the negative side. On the positive side, it is enough for him to say, "I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get" — all my profit. In either case he went well beyond the law.
Notice which item he mentions first. One writer weighs that order against the law of Moses.
The Pharisee tries to approach God in all the excellence of his religious character. He puts his fasting twice a week before the payment of tithes. The law of Moses never commanded that fasting; it did command the tithes. The word of God, applied directly to the soul, judges and humbles a person, while traditional observance feeds spiritual pride.
It would be easy to dismiss him as a fraud. One writer refuses to. His record may well have been accurate, and that is what makes the parable so searching.
There is not a hint that he was insincere in this self-admiration. He believed in himself far too thoroughly, and his conduct may have been everything he claims here. On the outside he was correct in his morals. In his religious ceremonies he went beyond what the law required. That is what he thought was enough for God — enough to give him the unique place above others that he claimed. The law he trusted in would have told him otherwise. But when did anyone keeping the law for righteousness ever measure himself by the law?
Count the pronouns in his prayer and a pattern appears.
We are told that he "prayed with himself." So he calls every resource of self to his aid, and his prayer is full of self — self-exaltation, self-love, self-righteousness. He says, "I thank you" — "I am not as other men" — "I fast" — "I give" — "I get." All through his prayer "I" stands out most. Self, whatever form it takes, can never rise above self. He thanks God that he is better than others. How is it that he is better than other men? Is it not that his fasting and giving have achieved this? Then why thank God?… This is the delusion of Pharisaism. It is the cultivation of self, but claiming to do it by God's help. It is not salvation. It is not the cleansing of a guilty conscience. It is only the outward trimming of a corrupt tree that cannot bring forth good fruit.
His words are shaped like thanksgiving. Notice what the thanksgiving is for.
The essence of the Pharisee's prayer, if it can be called prayer, is not a confession of sin, or even an expression of need. It is a thanksgiving — and not for what God had done and been for him, but for what he himself was… At the end he displays his own habits of fasting and his religious exactness. He made no false claims, and he did not shut God out. But he trusted his own righteousness as the ground of acceptance, and he made nothing of anyone else's. He never saw his own sins in the sight of God.
He reaches his verdict on himself by setting his record beside other people. One writer treats that method itself as the trap.
How fatal is the mistake of measuring ourselves by anyone else — and we have all done it. The words "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector" show the total blindness of the religious Pharisee in the parable. They are also a fruitful cause of blindness everywhere. Who does not know someone they can compare themselves with, and come off better — or worse? It is all false ground to stand on, and the surest way to be deceived by the enemy of God and of our souls.
- Record. He fasted twice a week and tithed everything he gained — a real record, and in both cases more than the law asked of him.
- Order. He named the custom before the commandment. Tradition feeds pride; God's word reaching the conscience humbles.
- Sincere. Nothing in the parable suggests he was lying. It exposes sincere self-admiration, not hypocrisy.
- Self. Every clause of his prayer circles back to "I," so his thanksgiving is for what he himself was, not for what God had done.
- Ground. He trusted his own righteousness for acceptance and never saw his sins before God. Measuring yourself against others is false ground.