Gospel in Art: The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified

The Pharisee and the Publican, Detail at the Ottobeuren Basilica, mid 18th century © Multi-license with GFDL and Creative Commons

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 18 March 2023
Luke 18:9-14

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: 'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get." The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.'

Reflection on the Rococo reserve

How we pray can say a great deal about the kind of person we are. Today's short parable is a story of two men who went to pray in the temple. The prayer of the Pharisee was a prayer of thanksgiving. He thanked God for the way he lived his life, and he recognised that God was the source of all the goodness he experienced. Nothing wrong with that prayer. However, the Pharisee then made one fatal error. In praying, he passed judgement on a fellow worshipper. He thanked God that he wasn't a sinner like the tax collector. His prayer displayed a love of God but lacked a love for his fellow worshipper. The prayer of the tax collector was shorter: a prayer of petition in which he acknowledged that he was a sinner and asked God for mercy. He judged himself and nobody else.

Jesus declares that it was the tax collector's prayer that was acceptable to God and he who went home at rights with God. The parable reminds us that when we come before the Lord in prayer, there can be no room for looking down on others by comparing ourselves favourably with them. But it also works the other way: we should never feel that our prayers are worth less than those of other people. Whatever shape or form our prayers take, we are all the same in the eyes of God.

Our artwork is a detail of painted stucco work at Ottobeuren Basilica, one of the pinnacle churches of German Rococo in Bavaria. We see a lavishly dressed Pharisee who is about to be awarded a blue feather by the devil, who appears behind him. The tax collector is portrayed as being remorseful. Moses' two stone tablets are also depicted. The Pharisee knew the ten commandments well, but not the call to love our neighbour as ourselves.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-18-9-14-2023/