The Perils of Gratitude

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people being grateful. However, as with most things it’s all too easy to turn gratitude into a competition, complete with a checklist. It’s not hard at all to compare my beliefs and my actions to others and humbly think, “well at least I’m not as bad as….”. Not surprisingly, Jesus has a parable about that.

He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people:thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14 NRSVue

A very common Christian interpretation of this parable is that the Pharisee was a holier than thou sort, self righteous, a typical Pharisee. The tax collector is seen as a marginalized sinner who is repenting, ready to become one of the good guys. The moral of the story is God loves a repentant sinner and not the one who thinks God loves them better than everyone else. Its better to be humble than to think too highly of oneself.

This isn’t wrong, but as with many of Jesus’ parables, there’s more to the story. If we spend some time with the parable, it becomes more nuanced and even complex. ¹

Often stories use stock characters to make a point. They help us understand the story and can serve to quickly get us oriented. If a story started with a cowboy, we have some idea how cowboys act and what they do. Likewise if our main character is an astronaut traveling to Mars, we know it’s science fiction and we have some idea what to expect.

This parable is doing something similar. The problem for us is that Christians tend to interpret the characters differently than Jesus’ first century Jewish audience would have. Christians getting their understanding of these characters from Luke’s gospel see tax collectors primarily as sinners who repent. Pharisees have a mixed portrayal in Luke’s gospel, sometimes they oppose Jesus, sometimes they support him. Jesus and the Pharisees are typically interested in talking with each other. For modern Christians Pharisees have unfortunately becomes a kind of shorthand for religious hypocrites.

First century Jews would have a different reaction. For them Pharisees were sincere, respected religious teachers. We might think of them as we do respected church members, the saints of the church who pray, who know their Bible well, teach Sunday school and who show up without fail for worship. In this parable, Jesus portrays this Pharisee as exemplary because of their fasting and tithing which goes above and beyond what is expected. On the other hand, tax collectors were collaborators with the Empire. They worked for Rome. They often were dishonest and they often overcharged people. They were likely rich and well connected. Most people did not have a good opinion of tax collectors because they had aligned themselves with the occupying Roman Empire and against their family, nation, and religion.

Even when we adjust our thinking about Pharisees, their prayer in this parable remains problematic for modern people. If we read it carefully, it is a prayer of gratitude, “God, I thank you…” and then he lists some people and actions. Here is where the parable starts causing us discomfort.

Is the Pharisee saying that he is better than thieves, rogues, adulterers and tax collectors? Or is he realizing that if his life had been different he could have been a thief, rogue, or adulterer? Does he recognize, If a few hardships had happened in his life, if one or two things had been different, he could have been a thief. He might not have had much choice in the matter if he wanted to survive. In this prayer, he may be acknowledging that because of God’s grace, he is who he is?

He does slip into judgement about “this tax collector”. At the end of his list, he slides into a negative comparison and he singles out an individual, a fellow Jew at prayer. Then he lists what he does do: fasting twice a week, and tithing on all his income. These acts were more than what was expected or required. It seems the Pharisee’s prayer starts with gratitude and thanksgiving, and slides into both negative comparison, (I’m not that guy) and some self -congratulation, (I do more than most).

Before we jump in to criticize the Pharisee, we might want to think about our own prayers and our own ideas about ourselves. This is where the parable starts getting uncomfortable. It’s all too easy to compare ourselves to others. I may have taken a few minor office supplies home, but I’m a good churchgoing person and my business doesn’t overcharge people or cheat people. I may drive home after a drink or two, but I’m careful and I’m a better driver than most. I’m not like those people.

Have we prayed for someone, with sincerity and also with a bit of self righteousness? Please be with poor Jane, she needs to change her behavior (to be more mine). Help John to realize that his attitude needs to be more Christian (like mine). Thank you for our church where the gospel is preached (not like those other shallow, feel good churches). It’s so easy to slip from a sincere prayer made out of concern for another into a comparison between myself and them. And it’s easy to congratulate myself on my behaviors and actions.

While all this is uncomfortably true, it doesn’t mean the Pharisee or you and I are not sincere in our prayers and that we are not doing our best to be grateful and faithful. At least most of us, although there is always someone…. oh wait, see what happened there? A less than perfect prayer life, or actual life doesn’t remove us from our relationship with a loving God. It is reasonable to assume that Jesus’ original audience believed that even with a less than perfect prayer, the Pharisee is justified before God. As characters in a story, Pharisees are good faithful people.

Then we move to the tax collector, who for Jesus’ original audience, does a surprising thing. He repents. He acknowledges his sins. This is not what was expected from a tax collector in a story. Here’s another twist: even a tax collector can be forgiven.

Most English translations of the last verse, verse 14, say something similar to the NRSVue. “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other…”. Here the parable has set another trap for us. We are tempted to judge the Pharisee, for judging the tax collector. A plain reading of the parable, puts us in the same condition as the Pharisee, thinking one person is better than another in the eyes of God. Honestly, in the rest of the gospel, that’s not Jesus’ message. His message is that God’s mercy and grace and love are for everyone.

Amy Jill Levine, looking at the Greek text, offers an alternate translation. “To you I say, descending to his house, this one is justified, alongside that one.”² We have to go a bit into the biblical Greek weeds here. Greek prepositions can have multiple meanings and translators have to make decisions as they translate into English with our less flexible prepositions. The Greek word, para can mean “beside” or “with” or “on account of” or “because of”³ Recall that para is part of the word “parable” means to set something alongside, or beside another.

While it’s not the traditional translation (and perhaps we should ponder why that is so) to say ‘this one is justified, alongside that one” is a legitimate translation.

Levine’s translation shifts the parable from a binary, one is justified and one is not; to both are justified. We are faced, again, with God’s extravagant grace. As Levine writes, “We see that divine grace cannot be limited, for to limit this grace would be to limit the divine”.⁴

The parable ends with verse 14 and the statement that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted”. We heard this in Luke 14:11, the story about places of honor at banquets. And it echoes Mary’s song when the angel visits her, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly..”⁵ It seems God is not interested in hierarchy, or who is best, or wealthiest, or most successful, or most faithful, or most repentant. There are not exalted or humbled, powerful or lowly, there are simply people beloved by God.

As the parable begins it says the parable was told to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt”. We might have assumed that Jesus meant the Pharisees and tax collectors. Earlier in chapter 17 Jesus was speaking to his disciples and he doesn’t seem to stop talking to them, so the likely audience was Jesus’ disciples. And those disciples include us. In the gospels the disciples repeatedly don’t grasp the width and depth of God’s love. They listen to Jesus and understand, and then fall back into their old patterns of exclusion. They forget and then they divide the world into us and them. It’s easy to slide into old patterns of judging others. Jesus judged behaviors and actions, but people always were offered the chance to repent, to change their ways, to be reconciled. The best of us, the most saintly of us, the most exemplary of us, can in the blink of an eye fall back into patterns of judgment. Jesus judged behaviors and actions, but people always were offered the chance to repent, to change their ways, to be reconciled. But people, people were and are never beyond the loving reach of God.

1. This discussion of the parable is indebted to Amy Jill Levine’s book, Short Stories By Jesus, (HarperOne:2014) chapter 6. As well as “The Gospel of Luke” by R. Alan Culpepper in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX, (Abingdon Press: 1995, pages 340-343 and The Gospel of Luke, Joel B. Green, (Eerdmans:1997) pages 644-652. ↩︎
2. Levine, 207. ↩︎
3. Even this list isn’t exhaustive. ↩︎
4. Levine, 210. ↩︎
5. Luke 1:52 ↩︎