“God have mercy on me, a sinner”

Read Luke 18:9-14

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This is the final passage in Luke’s long section of material mainly unique to this Gospel which began in 9:51 with Jesus setting out on his journey to Jerusalem. Along the way he has had several strained encounters with the Pharisees whose self-righteous religion stood in sharp opposition to the good news of God’s kingdom (11:37-43,53; 12:1; 14:1-3; 15:2; 16:14).

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Jesus had already challenged their desire for honour and prestige, a conversation which ended with the words used to conclude the parable he tells here: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (14; 14:7-11; Mt.23:12). There is no point in being persistent in prayer (18:1-8) if the heart attitude behind our prayers is wrong.

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Legalistic self-righteousness (9) results in boastful and self-centred thoughts and prayers (11-12). But rather than being better than others such people are in fact in the greatest need. True righteousness is given to those who are in “poor in spirit” (Mt.5:3) as seen in this tax-collector’s prayer (13). Mercy and forgiveness are God’s gift to those who know they are sinners with nothing to boast of before God (Ps.51:17).