Publicans - Luke 18:9-14

The parable of the widow and the unjust judge goes hand in hand with the parable that is coming up next, that of the Pharisee and the Publican. The IM says, “These chapters of Luke… contribute to an important theme introduces in Luke 15- that Jesus Christ came ‘to seek and to save that which was lost.’ Accordingly, they show His compassion for individuals estranged form society and form god. For instance, a widow, one of the most vulnerable members of society, and a publican, one of the despised, serve as positive examples in two of the Savior’s parables recorded only by Luke.” First, let’s recall the difference between a Pharisee and a Publican. Pharisees were the self-professed masters of the Hebraic Law. The IM notes that “Pharisees were generally admired and regarded as very obedient to the law, though Jesus had rebuked them for hypocrisy.”

The Publican was a tax collector for the Romans. In the ancient Roman empire taxes were collected by “contractors” meaning that the Romans would tell these collectors how much they had to pay the Roman government in taxes for the people in their area and then the publican would go and collect the taxes owed from the people. However, the publicans had families to feed too, so the Roman’s allowed for the tax collectors to collect as much as they could and then anything left over from the taxes owed, the publicans could keep. So if the Romans demanded $35 from a family, but the publican convinced the family to give him $50 for taxes, the publican could keep the extra $15 for himself.

It’s easy to see how this practice could get out of hand, because the Romans didn’t care how the publicans got the money and they didn’t care how much they took, as long as they got theirs. It would seem obvious that this line of work might attract the worse type of people, those who would do anything to anyone for money, kind of like an insurance collector for the mob. The publicans quickly became hated by members of society because there probably had been a lot of violence in their history, definitely extortion, threats, and greed. Not only were the publicans generally alright with extorting their own people, they did it at the behest of the Romans, whom all Jews despised. Working against their own people for the enemy, that’s a traitorous offence, so naturally some animosity is human nature. 

There are a couple of points that need to be made about this practice though. First is that Roman taxes had to be collected, and if it wasn’t their own people who did it, then surely the Romans would have sent soldiers in to take anything and everything that they wanted, which would have been infinitely worse. It’s kind of like the vet who puts down a sick dog, someone has to perform that service to fill a loathed public need. So if we had to ask the Jews under Roman rule “would you rather a Jew come to collect taxes from you or do you want a Roman cohort beating down your door to take the money?” The answer should be obvious, clearly they would want one of their own people.

So If they chose to have their own people collect their taxes, then someone has to do it, but who? I’m not sure it if was a family business passed down from generations or if the Romans mandated who did it, but I think that it’s probable that people chose that profession. Their motivations could have been anywhere from “I can get rich quick doing this” to “someone has to do it, I will do it ethically.” There have to be two extremes of the spectrum, just like there is with everything.

Just really quick, this doesn’t specifically have to do with the parable, but while researching publicans, I came across this article entitled “What is a publican in the New Testament?” by Wayne Jackson published on the Christian Courier. Wayne points out that Matthew was a publican before his call to the Apostleship, and asks why Jesus would do that citing two reasons that this would have potentially caused him problems. He points out that associating with a publican in his personal band of chosen associates would have been a turn off to many in the Jewish audience. Second, another man Jesus called as a disciples was Simon the Zealot. He comments, “To combine a Zealot with a publican was an explosive mix. Certainly the arrangement was not one that likely would be incorporated into a narrative that sought credibility with Palestinian Jews. In truth, however, it is a brilliant commentary on the transforming influence of the Prince of Peace. In addition, it constitutes another piece of evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament.”

This statement really hit home for me. A publican who was viewed as a traitor, and probably viewed himself as such, and a zealot, who had embodied the beliefs of the Jewish extremism of Roman overthrow, could live together peacefully for several years in the same cause for Christ. They both would have had many personal beliefs to smooth over with the gospel in order to be able to live peaceably. It’s also a testament to their humility that this dynamic never occurred to me before. They were both preaching the gospel after the Savior’s death, one had a lot of written record of Christ’s ministry, if there had been beef between them, I think at least a hint of it would have been recorded. I mean, there has been no shortage of inter-disciple drama, and it seems that there wasn’t a concerted effort to cover any of that up, so I definitely think that any hostilities between Matthew the Publican and Simon the Zealot would have been made known to us to some extent. This is the testament to the “transforming influence of the Prince of Peace.”

Similar to the Matthew/Simon dynamic, in the parable there is a Pharisee/Publican dynamic. Both men go to the temple to pray, and both stood apart from the group. The IM quotes President Howard W. Hunter as teaching, “The Pharisee stood apart because he believed he was better than other men, who he considered as common.” This is similar to the Zoramites in the Book of Mormon who built the rameumptum, so that they could be seen by everyone when they pray. Before we consider the prayer of the Pharisee, the IM asks “how many times in these verses did the Pharisee refer to himself, and how many times did he refer to God?” So as we go through it, I will count (S1) as in the first reference to himself, and then (G1) as in the first reference to God, and let’s see what the totals are at the end.

The Pharisee prayed, “God (G1), I think thee (G2), that I (S1) am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I (S2) fast twice in the week, I (S3) give tithes of all that I (S4) possess.” He mentions God twice in the beginning and that’s it, but mentions himself 4 times. And let’s just mention here that this prayer was exceptionally short, of the 1 ½ verses that this prayer takes up, he mentions himself more than anything else. And really I should count all the things that he says he’s not, and if we did that then the count would be ridiculous. The IM asks, “What does this reveal about the focus of his prayer?” It seems like he’s not speaking with God, but he just came there to tell God how great he is. Clearly he doesn’t understand the scriptures then because he should know that God knows everything and if the Pharisee really is as great as he believes he is, then God would already know it.

The publican is also standing off to the side and “would not life up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”  President Hunter says, “he felt himself unworthy. The Pharisee thought of no one other than himself and regarded everyone else a sinner, whereas the publican thought of everyone else as righteous as compared with himself, a sinner. The Pharisee asked nothing of God, but relied upon his own self-righteousness. The publican appealed to God for mercy and forgiveness of his sins.” I just want to point out that contrasting the two men’s different attitudes is the whole point of this parable, but it’s so important to remember that comparison is the thief of joy, we are not meant to compare ourselves to others. We are not supposed to think at any point, “thank goodness I’m not as bad as that person,” because we all have improvements to make. But we also aren’t supposed to think at any point, “I’m worse than that person and therefore am unworthy.” I learned very poigniant lesson several years ago when I was going through this same thought process. I thought, “I’m not good enough for that blessing,” and “I don’t deserve that.” The Holy Ghost came back swift and strong saying, “just do what you are supposed to do, you are not in charge of what you deserve, I am.” This was a powerful moment for me, and ever since then I have been able to simply focus on myself and my own progress. Truly comparison is destructive to spiritual progress. It’s great to admire someone and use them as an example for what you want to do, but ultimately, they are not perfect and we should be focusing on our relationship with the Savior.

Jesus ends the parable teaching, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exaleth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” I think this comes back to the “cast the bean out of your own eye, then you will see clearly how to cast out the speck in your brother’s eye.” It’s honestly a gift that no one can be perfect in this life, if it were possible there would be so much more people convinced that they made it to perfection. The Pharisee isn’t perfect, even if he was devoted and did all the right things for all the right reasons, there still would be issues there, because that’s the nature of this life. But his belief that it is important whether or not he is more righteous than anyone else is his fatal flaw. His closeness to God doesn’t depend on his ranking compared to everyone else around him, but where he is in his heart.

Let’s take the top brain surgeon in the world. That person doesn’t know everything , but they know a lot, what they are able to learn is limited because they already know so much. Likewise, someone who believes they know everything is not able to be taught further because they aren’t open to it. A student hungry for knowledge understands what they lack and is open to learning new things, and when the teacher is God, who knows all, then we are all in a position to be taught. President Hunter concludes, “In other words, the Lord said he was absolved, forgiven, or vindicated… Humility is an attribute of godliness posses by true Saints. It is easy to understand why a proud man fails. He is content to rely upon himself only… The proud man shuts himself off from God, and when he does he no longer lives in the light… History bears record that those who have exalted themselves have been abased, but the humble have been exalted. On every busy street there are Pharisees and publicans. It may be that one of them bears our name."