The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is an evocative teaching that complicates as we address it personally.
This week’s gospel has a parable that appears wonderfully straightforward. But it grows more and more complex as we examine it.
We see the insider/outsider dynamic, the reversal of expectations, and the redeeming of the outcast.
As David Lose points out, this doesn’t seem to be a parable of which one is better. Which, if we think about the parable itself, this should make us go “duh!” But that one of the two is righteous and the other is justified.
What happens to our vision of the parable, when we eliminate the idea of better?
[NOTE: This is yet another moment in which the reader and preacher need to be careful not to mischaracterize the Pharisee. Many people of faith wander into broad generalizations and anti-semitism without even noticing it.]
Here are some ways I approach this text:
- Reflection
- Reflection on righteousness
- No In-Between 24 & 25
- Video