Perhaps one of the problems with the Pharisees was their overly simplistic approach to their religion. They fasted, they prayed, they gave to good causes and this made them pleasing to God – or so they thought. The state of their heart didn’t appear to matter. As a case in point, the Pharisee in today’s parable clearly sees nothing wrong in thinking that he is unlike other fallen and weak human beings.
Jesus exposes the interior mindset of the self-righteous, which is, in a nutshell, that they secretly believe that they are morally and spiritually superior to others. What caused him to think like this? Surely the practice of faith — fasting, praying, giving alms — is pleasing to God? Indeed, if these acts are done with the right motive and from the right heart. Perhaps the problem with the Pharisee was that he had stopped examining his conscience and this prevented him from receiving the gift of self-knowledge. With self-knowledge he would have laughed at himself and would have been less pompous. He would have realized that it was by God’s grace and blessing that he was protected from the sin and darkness others had fallen into. He would have thanked God but with a different kind of heart — a grateful heart, acutely aware that, but for God’s grace, he would fall too.
It is, in fact, the broken, crushed and self-aware tax collector who is praised, for he adopts the position of the true disciple of Jesus. His prayer is the prayer of all penitents – and that is what we all are, repentant sinners with hearts full of praise, thanks and gratitude to God for his goodness, kindness and mercy.