The First Sunday of the Lenten Triodion we hear the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the story of two men who went to the Temple to pray.
This is a story of a well respected Pharisee and a despised Publican or tax collector. We would think that the Pharisee would be the one who would receive the respect from Jesus but the opposite is true for it was the humility and humbleness of the tax collector that Jesus praises.
The two distinct stereotypes were utilized to show that Jesus did not care about conventional stereotypes but rather looked into the hearts of these men and seeing the boastfulness of the self-righteous Pharisee and appreciated the penitence of the Publican who came to the Temple with a contrite heart beseeching God’s help.
This parable exemplifies the often distorted notion that Christians tend to have simply because they are Christian. Pharisaic pride is one of the most dreadful and infectious diseases of Christianity. We are confronted with a shocking exposure of the wrongs or sinfulness of our Christianity: your sin and my sin. We often have subtly made our Christianity a sign of virtue and wrongly privileged.
The heart of the Publican’s prayer is an intense appeal filled with trust, to the goodness and the tenderness of God. This is a model of penitentiary that we should emulate as we approach the start of Great Lent.
May we offer our own prayers to God as did the Publican, not with boastful words, but with true humility.