The Story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector-- A Fresh Look

An essay competition was given to a group of students in a school, and the essays were evaluated by two different evaluators. Their task was to find the best essay. However they couldn’t agree on the best one; each of them picked a different essay as the best. The one who organized the competition wanted to know why they couldn’t agree, so she talked to them separately, and found out that the evaluators used different criteria to evaluate the essay. One focused on the form of the essay, but the other one focused on the content of the essay. 

I mentioned this story to talk about the well-known story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector praying. It is presented as a test. Two people appeared there for a test. They will either pass or fail in the test. Two different people evaluate with two different results. According to one evaluator, the Pharisee passed, but according to the other one, the tax collector passed. Why? They used two different criteria. 

The subject matter of the test was how they live their life. Who was living his life in the right way? One was right, and the other one was wrong. 

The first evaluator used the criteria of doing good deeds that are widely accepted in that society to define the right way of life- such as pray, give tithe, and give charity. The Pharisee scored very high, and the Tax Collector scored very poor. 

The other evaluator used a radically different criteria -- their understanding of life, the foundation upon which they build up their lives. The two examinees had two different understandings of life. The Tax Collector scored high, but the Pharisee scored very poor. 

So how was their understanding of life different?

According to the Pharisee, there are two kinds of people in the world- righteous and unrighteous. The righteous do everything right, but the unrighteous do everything wrong. That is why he compares himself with the tax collector and proves that he is righteous, whereas the tax collector is unrighteous. The job of God is to find out who is right and who is not-- be a good judge. 

According to the tax collector, God alone is righteous, and all people in the world are unrighteous. That is why he prays, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” He does not compare himself with others, for all people belong to the same category. God does not have the role of a judge here, for all people belong to the same group. God merely forgives and accepts those who approach Him seeking forgiveness-- God is gracious. 

God alone is righteous because God alone knows everything. With our limited  knowledge, whatever we do could be wrong. What we see as right could be really wrong. 

With this understanding of life, the tax collector can forgive others and seek forgiveness for his errors. He can keep growing in righteousness. As this understanding spreads, our earth can slowly become more heaven-like. 

However, the understanding of the Pharisee keeps him self-righteous, unable and unwilling to forgive or seek forgiveness. If this understanding persists, our earth continues to become more hell-like.  

In the first view, the evaluator was the same as an examinee, and so he was scored favorably. So it was a case of self-righteousness. In the second, the evaluator is none other than God. Jesus, the storyteller, and the tax collector within the story share the same views. So we may name the first one self-righteousness, and the second one God’s righteousness. The first view claims “I am right”, but the second one claims “God alone is right”. 

Romans 3

After Jesus, I think it was St. Paul who understood the importance of this distinction for the first time, and expounded it in detail in the letter to the Romans. What Jesus said as a story was explained by Paul in the form of an essay. In chapter 3 he speaks about the two different criteria -- following the law, and faith, which is nothing but our understanding of life. He argues that God alone is righteous, and all people are unrighteous- the same thing the tax collector understood. He also speaks about the grace of God, which was revealed through Jesus who willingly chose the cross.  

Romans 3 is a very difficult passage to understand. A satisfactory translation is yet to be made. Because of the complexity of this passage, it has been interpreted in diverse ways. During the Reformation, Martin Luther developed his theory of “salvation by faith alone, not by works” from this. He argued that we gain salvation not by doing good works (as the Pharisee claims in the parable), but by faith. But what exactly is “faith”? Luther interpreted it as trusting God. Later others interpreted it to mean believing certain things, such a Christ died for us. According to one interpretation that became widespread in the evangelical world, God declared death-sentence to humanity, and the Son, Jesus, took upon himself this death-sentence and appeased the anger of God to save humanity. Such crude theories have made Christianity a laughing stock to the rest of the world. 

I have tried to understand this chapter relating it to Jesus’ teachings in the parables. Hence I understand the term faith as our understanding of life. I understand grace as the same attitude of the prodigal son’s father toward him. While the older son wants a judging father, the father was really gracious toward the younger one. Jesus’ death on the cross was not to satisfy the judgment of God but it reveals the grace of God.  

Conclusion

This was at the heart of Jesus’ teaching, but unfortunately it was eventually misunderstood. If this understanding can be regained, it has the power to transform Christianity as well as the world.