To Jesus’ Jewish listeners, this teaching was simply outrageous. In those days, the Pharisees were the good guys, the straight-arrow types. They read the Bible and really tried to put it into practice in their lives. Indeed, the self-description of this Pharisee in verse 12 still puts most of us modern Christians to shame: how many of us deny ourselves anything in order to focus our attention more fully on God? How many of us even approach giving a tenth of our income to help the needy or to further the spread of the gospel?

Moreover, the tax collectors were the worst sort of crooks you can imagine. Instead of bringing more government employees from Rome, the Ancient Romans would hire local people to collect the taxes in a certain district. But the pay was strictly on commission: the tax collector got to keep anything he collected that was over and above what the Romans expected to receive from the district. So, it was no wonder that the tax collectors jacked up the tax rates on their own people to maximize their profits, even while they were cooperating with the hated Romans. Combine the callous indifference of a bureaucrat with the corruption of a mobster and you might get close to their heartless cruelty.

So how could Jesus scandalously condemn the Pharisee and praise the tax collector? Because of the even greater scandal of the gospel: no matter how good we are in the eyes of others, none of us can do anything to save ourselves. None of our good deeds can make us acceptable in the eyes of God. The gospel thus strikes at the heart of all the legalistic religions of the world which are, after all, little more than pitifully useless self-help programs.

Instead, the gospel insists that even the worst sinner, even a selfish sell-out, even a corrupt cheater can be made right in the sight of God simply by turning from his sin and asking God to forgive him, not because he himself is worthy, but because God is gracious.

And so we see the essence of the gospel in the Cross of Christ. Because His tremendous sacrifice shows us what all our sins deserve, it makes a mockery of all our efforts to save ourselves. But because Jesus died on that cross in place of all who simply trust in Him, He can also extend mercy to even the worst sort of sinners, even those like you and me.

So, will we go on in the self-satisfied complacency and pride of the Pharisee? Or will we humble ourselves before Christ our King, confessing our rebellion against Him, accepting His free pardon, and devoting ourselves to His service?

Luke 18:9-14 (NASB)

9 And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.
11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer.
12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13 “But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”