NOTES for Luk 18:10-14

Still, what exactly is the self-exaltation Jesus is talking about with regard to the Pharisee? Is it bad to keep the commandments and be a religious person? In itself, obviously not, since even the Savior does not condemn the Pharisee; He only says that the tax collector, who has nothing to say to God except words of repentance, is more righteous before Him than the Pharisee, who is ready to list his religious successes and achievements. But the problem, as one can see, is not religiosity as such, and not even that it allows one to look down on a sinner, but that it, paradoxical as it may sound, can sometimes distract a person from God.

In fact, the very fact that the Pharisee, standing in the Temple before God, thinks and speaks about himself, about the tax collector standing nearby, about his religiosity - in short, about anything at all except God - can be considered a spiritual failure, at least in that particular situation. Of course, one failure does not cancel out the Pharisee's achievements, but on that specific day he spent his time in the Temple without any spiritual benefit. And paradoxically, it was his own religiosity that brought him to this result.

But the tax collector did not spend his time in the Temple without spiritual benefit: he did not evaluate either himself or others. He simply communed with God. That turned out to be enough, because God does not need us to evaluate anyone at all. He Himself knows the worth of each of us. We need only look at Him. And then there will be no one before whom we can "exalt ourselves."

The tax collector and the Pharisee are two sides of a person that coexist peacefully within us. At the same time the Pharisee living in us can be a very worthy person: fasting, prayer, a tithe of everything one has, this is already not so little. Even the Lord says that "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." That is, the Pharisee received his justification, but not as much as the tax collector. This happened because the Pharisee demanded just treatment for himself, while the tax collector hoped for mercy.

In the end, we too need not justice, whose triumph the Pharisee inside us so often wants; we need the mercy for which the tax collector quietly asks. Because according to justice we deserve very little, if anything at all, while by mercy the Kingdom is promised to us.

Publican and Pharisee - two sides of man, those get on peacefully in us. Besides, the Pharisee living in us can be indeed a man of merit: fast, prayer, tithe of all that possesses, - and this is already not bad. Even the Lord says that "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other". That is the Pharisee received his justification, but not as much as the publican. This occurred because the Pharisee asked for a just relation for himself, while the publican hoped for mercy. Ultimately, we also need not the justice, triumph that the Pharisee who is inside us wants very often, we need mercy which the publican quietly asked. Because, very little (if not nothing in general) is given to us by justice, whereas the Kingdom is promised to us by mercy.

Is it bad to fast regularly, pray, and carefully fulfill religious prescriptions? Some, commenting on the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee, say yes, it is bad. It is bad because this distracts from the main thing, from spiritual life as such, from a living relationship with God, and makes a person admire himself. Others object: no, it is not bad; the parable is about something else. It is about the pride that makes one exalt oneself and humiliate the neighbor standing nearby. If there is no pride and self-exaltation, then everything is in order, and one can fulfill all religious duties without becoming like the Pharisee in the Gospel.

With a closer look at the situation, it is not hard to see that both sides are right, each in its own way. The Pharisees really were deeply religious people. How sincere they were, and what stood behind their religiosity, is another question. Most of all, there was here what always hides behind any religiosity: a certain measure of sincerity, an occasional deep and rich spiritual life, and much more often superficiality covered by more or less zealous legalism. In short, everything was as it is with religious people of every age and tradition.

If such a religious person set out on the spiritual path and followed it to the end, he usually outgrew his religiosity so thoroughly that it practically ceased to define his life, only slightly touching its surface, though from the outside, to people whose gaze did not penetrate deeper than that surface, such a person might seem deeply religious.

Jesus, however, condemns in the Pharisee neither his religiosity nor even pride as such; pride is only a consequence. He draws attention to what gives birth to pride, to its spiritual root. That root is a person's gaze fixed on himself, on one or another of his abilities or qualities. This inner gaze, shifted by a person from God to himself, destroys all his spiritual efforts, redirecting them from their true goal and real object to a supposed goal, to an object that is in essence only an illusion, a mirage generated by the effort of a falsely directed human will.

The point is not even that fallen humanity is almost always inclined to overestimate its abilities and qualities, seeing itself as better than it really is. The point is that, if we speak specifically about spiritual life, fallen humanity has no abilities or qualities at all. Righteousness is not a property of a fallen person, but his state, derived from that dynamic of relationship between the person and God without which no righteousness can be spoken of at all. By examining and analyzing himself, a person loses that dynamic.

Even if, in such examination, he perceives something true, that truth turns out to be relative; it is only a static cross section of spiritual dynamics that cannot be grasped while spinning before the psychological mirrors set up in one's own soul, as the Pharisee does in the Savior's parable. This shift of attention from the process of living communion with God to its reflection in one's own soul is what breaks a person's spiritual life and destroys his relationship with God, even though outwardly it may seem that everything is in order. In the religious sense, he really remains as devout as he always was. Now, however, behind that piety there is spiritual emptiness, and this is what Jesus warns about in His parable.

The parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee was told to those "who were confident in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." And really, how can one be righteous while despising other people? One cannot. But one can simply fail to see something in oneself...

The Pharisee thanks God. And who knows what there is more of in this prayer: boasting and pride in his beloved self, or sincere gratitude to God for giving strength to fulfill the commandments, and for the fact that the Pharisee himself was born into a normal family and not into some family of robbers? But in his prayer he condemns not only sin, but also the sinner, as if raising himself up at another's expense. And when we condemn, there becomes one fewer person among those who allow for the possibility that a person can be corrected.

The Lord calls us to leave open the path to repentance and the mercy of God. We do not. Not to mention that through us the Lord can no longer help anyone, neither ourselves nor the people near us.

The tax collector and the Pharisee are two sides of a person that coexist peacefully within us. At the same time, the Pharisee living in us can be a very worthy person: fasting, prayer, a tithe of everything one has. This is already not so little.

Even the Lord says that "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." That is, the Pharisee received his justification, but not to the same extent as the tax collector. This happened because the Pharisee demanded fair treatment for himself, while the tax collector hoped for mercy.

In the end, we too need not justice, whose triumph the Pharisee within us wants so often; we need mercy, for which the tax collector quietly asks. For according to justice we are entitled to very little, if not to nothing at all, while according to mercy the Kingdom has been promised to us.

When we say that God is not like us, this does not simply mean that He is kinder, stronger, wiser than we are. It means that He sees the world differently from the way we see it. When before us there appear at the same time a pious, honest, decent person and a rich tax farmer with many tears and sorrows on his conscience, our sympathies instinctively are not on the side of the "new Russian." The story of the Pharisee and the tax collector is calculated precisely for this reaction: God sees differently; He has different ideas about faith. If one says, "Thank You that everything is fine with me," and another says, "Have mercy on me," then the decisive point turns out not to be piety, not the observance of fasting or other prescriptions. It is simply that one needs praise, and the other needs love. God sees each person's heart; as for us, it is good if we see our own.