Luke 18:9-14: Are we humble enough to admit our sins, or do we listen to religion and believe we do not have very many sins to confess?
I’m reminded of these verses:
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1 John 1:8-10, NLT)
Before we begin the exegesis …..
Quick definition of a parable:
Literally, the word parable (parabolē in Greek) combines para– (pronounced pah-rah) and means “alongside” and bolē (pronounced boh-lay) which means “put” or even “throw”). Therefore, a parable puts two or more images or ideas alongside each other to produce a new truth. […] The Shorter Lexicon says that the Greek word parabolē can sometimes be translated as “symbol,” “type,” “figure,” and “illustration,” the latter term being virtually synonymous with parable.
For more information on what a parable is and its purposes, click on this link:
The translation is mine. If you would like to see other translations, click here:
If you don’t read Greek, ignore the left column.
I often quote scholars in print because I learn many things from them. They form a community of teachers I respect (1 Cor. 12:28), though I don’t agree with everything they write. But they do ensure I do not go astray. There is safety in numbers (for me at least).
Now let’s begin.
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Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) |
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| 9 Εἶπεν δὲ καὶ πρός τινας τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐφ’ ἑαυτοῖς ὅτι εἰσὶν δίκαιοι καὶ ἐξουθενοῦντας τοὺς λοιποὺς τὴν παραβολὴν ταύτην· 10 Ἄνθρωποι δύο ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν προσεύξασθαι, ὁ εἷς Φαρισαῖος καὶ ὁ ἕτερος τελώνης. 11 ὁ Φαρισαῖος σταθεὶς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ταῦτα προσηύχετο· ὁ θεός, εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἅρπαγες, ἄδικοι, μοιχοί, ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης· 12 νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ σαββάτου, ἀποδεκατῶ πάντα ὅσα κτῶμαι. 13 ὁ δὲ τελώνης μακρόθεν ἑστὼς οὐκ ἤθελεν οὐδὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐπᾶραι εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἀλλ’ ἔτυπτεν τὸ στῆθος αὐτοῦ λέγων· ὁ θεός, ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ. 14 λέγω ὑμῖν, κατέβη οὗτος δεδικαιωμένος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ παρ’ ἐκεῖνον· ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται, ὁ δὲ ταπεινῶν ἑαυτὸν ὑψωθήσεται. | 9 He began to tell this parable to the ones who convinced themselves that they were righteous and despised the rest of humanity. 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—rapacious, unrighteous, adulterous, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice weekly and pay the tithe of everything I acquire. 13 In contrast, the tax collector stood afar off and did not want even to raise his eyes to heaven and was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, make atonement for me, a sinner.’ 14 I tell you this one (the tax collector), not that one (the Pharisee), went back down to his house justified, because everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted.” |
This parable has a context. Please click here to read more about it.
Now let’s explore the parable verse by verse.
9:
“convinced themselves”: it could be translated as “were confident.” But the basic meaning of the verb is “persuade” or “convince,” so I couldn’t resist translating it that way. Misplaced confidence can be deceptive. Always place your confidence in God and his grace flowing through you. He gave you the ability to do what you do and gave you your gifts.
“righteous”: in the original Jewish context, he was a scrupulous law keeper. Here’s the story from Paul (Saul), the former Pharisee’s, own words: “As to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord … to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3:6-10, ESV). It is possible to be blameless from man’s limited perspective. You can keep the Sabbath, fast twice weekly and not commit adultery. Paul said so. You can keep major portions of the law, like not being greedy or rapacious or adulterous. Outwardly you can appear blameless before a watching humanity. But what about inwardly?
8 Righteousness of the Kingdom
Do I Really Know God? He Is Righteous and Just
“despised”: It is defined as “despise, disdain” (Luke 18:9; Rom. 14:3, 10; 1 Cor. 16:11; Gal. 4:14) “… amount to nothing” (2 Cor. 10:10); “reject with contempt” (Acts 4:11; 1 Thess. 5:20); “treat with contempt (Luke 23:11). Mounce says: “to make light of, set at naught [nothing], despise, treat with contempt and scorn” (p. 1147). In the larger Greek world, it is related to the Greek terms (oudeis, ouden) for “nothing” or “neither … nor.” The ou– prefix means “not” (Liddell and Scott). I presume that the ex– (ek-) prefix means “thrust away” or “out.” Bottom line: it is a term that means to reject or throw people out with contempt. This Pharisee was not in a good place, before God.
10:
“went up”: this means that when a person went to the temple, he ascended because it sat on Mt. Zion.
“Pharisee”:
“tax collector”:
You can learn more about them at his post:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
11:
“prayed”: as noted throughout this commentary series, Christians direct prayer towards the living God; they leaned in toward him and prayed their requests fully expecting an answer. It is not a mere wish to a pagan deity.
Prayer flows out of confidence before God that he will answer because we no longer have an uncondemned heart (1 John 3:19-24); and we know him so intimately that we find out from him what is his will is and then we pray according to it (1 John 5:14-15); we pray with our Spirit-inspired languages (1 Cor. 14:15-16). Pray!
What Is Biblical Intercession?
Luke has noted the hostility of the Pharisees up to now: 5:17; 6:2, 7; 7:39; 11:37-54; 15:2; 16:14). Now we begin a new criticism of their behavior—generally speaking. Jesus is critiquing them as a class of religious leaders, not each and every one individually.
“rapacious”: it could also be translated as “ravenous” and as a noun “robber, swindler.” Here it is the adjective. But the first-century audience would have seen the tax collector as those things. Jesus’s original audience must have chuckled at the word (rapacious) of the Pharisee because they knew that they loved money (Luke 16:14). This Pharisee did not have very deep self-knowledge.
“unrighteous”: that means a non-law keeper or a law breaker.
“adulterous”: it is not hard to avoid adultery for most people. So he was not boasting all that much.
“this tax collector”: No doubt the Pharisee was pointing at the tax collector, when the religious guy said “this.” The word this drips with contempt. This phrase will be used by Jesus’ taunters while he is on the cross (23:35) (Bock, p. 1463).
12:
He fasts twice weekly, which went above the law, which prescribes once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). Voluntary fasting happened on Monday and Thursday—the days that people believed went up and then returned from Mt. Sinai (Bock, 2, p. 1463).
He gives a tenth of everything he acquired or gained or earned. This law was valid for the Jewish community while the temple was going on. Jesus of course would put these words in the mouth of the Pharisee, but this does not mean he taught tithing for the church after the cross and Pentecost. Acts and the epistles don’t teach it (and neither does Heb. 7, which is twisted out of context). Don’t believe it? Read this post:
Why Tithing Does Not Apply to New Covenant Believers
Does Hebrews 7:1-10 Teach Church Policy of Tithing?
13:
Now we come to the second character in the story. He stood afar off and did not lift his eyes (as the Greek literally reads) because he felt unworthy. He was a Jew, but he probably stood in the court of the Gentiles, the non-Jews or Gentile converts who were not born Jews. Humility is lacking in the church, but on the other hand, those who have been redeemed can approach the throne of grace boldly and confidently (Heb. 4:16), because Jesus ascended into heaven and became the great high priest (as the rest of the epistle to the Hebrews teaches).
“beat his chest”: this was the sign of contrition and repentance, and the verb tense (imperfect) indicates he was doing this while he was praying. There is no self-confidence in him. He knew who he was, a despised tax collector. He could not depend on his scrupulous law keeping. He was not blameless, as Saul (Paul) or this Pharisee was. Very few people liked this tax collector. He was a reject. Do you feel rejected by society? Pray humbly, because God loves you. He does not reject you.
“make atonement”: Garland speculates (after reading another scholar named Bailey) that both the Pharisee and tax collector were praying at either the morning or evening sacrifice, when the atoning sacrifice was done. And at the precise moment of his prayer, the sacrifice was being done. Jesus is, after all, telling the story while the temple rites were still in effect. After his ascension, he will lead his church away from blood sacrifices and towards his own. In fact he initiates the shift during the Last Supper (22:14-22).
Many translations have “be merciful” or “forgive,” but that’s not what this verb says. It first means “propitiate, conciliate” and secondly (in the passive voice) “be propitiated … expiate.” Propitiate means that God’s judicial wrath is turned away or rechanneled to the acceptable sacrifice (animals in the OT and Jesus in the NT). And expiate means “to wipe away” or “expunge.” Propitiation, conciliation and expiation are big theological terms, so I like what BDAG says in its first definition: “to cause to be favorably inclined or disposed, propitiate, conciliate.” The lexicon’s second definition says: “to eliminate impediments that alienate the deity, expiate, wipe out.” The way to eliminate any impediments in the OT was, as noted, animal and other sacrifices, and now in the NT, it is Jesus’s everlasting sacrifice that was accomplished once and for all on the cross. He did not need to be sacrificed over and over, like the high priest had to do every year on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16) and every day when a devout Jew came to offer his sacrifice (Lev. 1-7).
The Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16 from a NT Perspective
“sinner”: BDAG defines the adjective as follows: “pertaining to behavior or activity that does not measure up to standard moral or [religious] expectations (being considered an outsider because of failure to conform to certain standards is a frequent semantic component. Persons engaged in certain occupations, e.g. herding and tanning [and tax collecting] that jeopardized [religious] purity, would be considered by some as ‘sinners,’ a term tantamount to ‘outsider.’” Non-Israelites were especially considered out of bounds [see Acts 10:28].)” “Sinner, with a general focus on wrongdoing as such.” “Irreligious, unobservant people.” “Unobservant” means that he did not care about law keeping or observing the law.
Bible Basics about Sin: Word Studies
Human Sin: Original and Our Committed Sin
Do you fail to conform to certain standards? Maybe you did break the demands of moral and religious law. Pray and repent, and God will accept you.
14:
“went back down”: he left Mt. Zion and went to his house—which would have been huge, if he were a real character and not a fictitious one in a parable.
“justified”: it is related to the words “righteous” in the previous verses. We could translate it as “vindicated,” but this loses the religious sense of the verb. He went away righteous by God’s favor extended to him, and all he had to do was pray, not do public acts of righteousness. This righteousness parallels what Paul said in Phil. 3:6-10, which was quoted in v. 9. It is righteousness built on Christ and faith in him, after the cross and Pentecost.
“exalts … humbled … humbles … exalted”: These two sets of words are the same ones, so it makes a nice echo or repetition of the biblical Greek. But they go in the opposite directions. The one word could be translated as “lifted up high” and the other could be translated as “brought low.” Don’t exalt yourself; let God do that, if such is his will (1 Pet. 5:6).
These verbs are also in the passive voice (be exalted … be humbled”), so in this context they can be considered as divine passives, which is an understated way of saying that God is the one humbling and exalting you. Promotion comes from him.
GrowApp for Luke 18:9-14
A.. Have you ever felt like a rejected outsider because you failed to live up to moral standards? If so, how did you discover that God accepted you?
B.. Read 1 Pet. 5:6. After you humbly repented, how did the Lord lift you up out of your past? What is your story repenting and humbling yourself?
SOURCES
At this link you will find the bibliography at the very bottom.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 