Can you picture these two men? Can you see them walking through the temple gate? One pushed his way in expecting everyone to make way for him. The other was well dressed, tax collectors were not poor. People did make way for him because he was a tax collector. Now the two men were opposites in their walks of life and in their approach to God, opposite in their approval by God. Why did Jesus tell this story? Read v.9 again. He was speaking to those who felt they were self sufficient and did not see themselves as needy sinners before God. The Pharisee saw nothing wrong in his life. He saw no need to ask God for anything. He was there to be seen. But it was the tax collector whom God accepted (v.14). Why? Why not the religious Pharisee who said he had done so much? The tax collector took his place before God as a needy sinner. He actually said 'the sinner'. In other words, 'I see myself as the worst of sinners, please be merciful to me'. The word merciful means 'let your anger be removed from me'. His need is forgiveness, but he recognises what he really deserves. His was a brief simple call, but Christ said he went home justified - made righteous in God's sight. This is perhaps the only time Christ used this word in this way. It was Paul's word. He had been a Pharisee. (Was he the one in Christ's story?) But one day he met Christ and saw himself as THE sinner. He called himself the chief of sinners by~ he was justified, made righteous before God, through Christ's death. Have you come to that place? Everyone needs to. |
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