Life & Work Magazine
Life & Work Magazine


3 mins

A free gift

WE all like stories. Listening to stories is ingrained in us from childhood.

“Tell me a story” is a universal cry from the days when we first learned to string words together. Once a sleep-deprived adult has been beaten into submission, the child will settle down – often with thumb in mouth – filled with anticipation. Any child who isn’t introduced to stories is a deprived bairn.

Jesus was a born storyteller. His stories – parables, we call them – stay in the mind. People who were on the fringe of the crowd as he began one of his tales soon found themselves being addressed at the very core of their being. The stories would start like entertaining wee tales of lambs and lost coins, but they turned into life-changing time bombs that exploded in the minds of the listeners as they made their way home.

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is one of the most fascinating – and most dangerous – stories in the whole of the Bible. Do you want to hear it again? Good. If your thumb is in your mouth, that’s okay by me. We’ve all got our issues.

Luke quietly lets us know that Jesus is telling this story to make those who think they are God’s favourites to think again. He wants to send them homeward tae think again. Here’s what he says: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’’

So: the message is that the Pharisees are the bad guys? Hold on, hold on.

The Pharisees were generally good people. Their main concern was to bring religion up to date, to make it accessible to the punters. The real stick-in-the-muds were the Sadducees, the priestly aristocrats who controlled politics and the temple. They didn’t want change. After all, they were doing fine, thank you.

Ah, so the Pharisees were the good guys? No, it’s not as simple as that. Look again at the Pharisee’s prayer. He’s not really praying to God at all: he’s showing off . He’s off ering God his CV. (One cynic once described an American preacher’s prayer as “the most eloquent prayer ever off ered to a Boston audience”.)

But what about the tax collector’s prayer? He knows he’s a rogue and a cheat. Let Jesus take the story on: And the tax collector, standing afar off , would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Boom!)

Jesus was a born storyteller. His stories – parables, we call them – stay in the mind. People who were on the fringe of the crowd as he began one of his tales soon found themselves being addressed at the very core of their being.

What Jesus is saying is that the love of God is not dependent on your track record. It’s a free gift for those with open hands.

As Jesus tells this story, you can hear a wooden cross being nailed together. This radical Jesus has signed his death warrant. I said at the beginning that this story is fascinating and dangerous.

There’s a story told about a Sunday School teacher who told this story to his class, and then finished with a prayer: “We thank you God that we are not like that Pharisee….” Aaaargh!

This article appears in the July 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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This article appears in the July 2020 Issue of Life and Work