Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, after James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

The parable from the Gospel is reported in Luke 18:9-14. It is said to be "Addressed to some who were confident of being righteous and who despised others."

The Parable

This parable presents a Pharisee scrupulously respecting the precepts, which is positive, but conscious of his righteousness, he makes a point of making it known to God by distinguishing himself from other men who are "thieves, unjust, and adulterers" and from a tax collector (publican) who was no better.

The term "Pharisee" means "separated" because, according to Flavius Josephus, it was "a sect of the Jews who believed themselves to be more pious than others, and considered their way of interpreting the laws more exact." One sees that the Pharisee in the parable deserves his name because he insists that he be separated from the rest of sinful humanity.

Many commentators find here only an excess of self-confidence and tend to excuse this overly human reflex to focus on the repentance of the tax collector who begs for forgiveness for his sinful life. This leniency is reinforced by the fact that Jesus does not explicitly condemn the Pharisee; he only says that the tax collector alone was justified in the eyes of God.

What Maria Valtorta's Work Says

The parable reported by Maria Valtorta (EMV 523.7/9) on the contrary portrays a hypocritical Pharisee, greedy and crafty, who "was good only in words and outwardly, but inwardly, he was a worker of Satan and did his works through pride and hardness of heart, and God hated him for that reason."

Is this accusatory portrait consistent with the evangelical parable?

Self-satisfaction

One can be satisfied in many ways, and not all are condemnable: St. Paul denounces reprehensible behaviors repeatedly in his letters and praises those who are blameless. He often puts himself forward and even says, "imitate me." He thus sets himself as a model and in contrast to the guilty. What then is the difference with the Pharisee of the parable? It is that Paul shows evangelizing zeal and not disdainful self-satisfaction. He wants to lead men not to admire him, but to follow Jesus. He specifies: "imitate me as I also imitate Christ." It is not his perfection that he asks to imitate, but to share the choice he made.

Maria Valtorta described the gifts of God in her, and not just any gifts:

"(Jesus) came down into me with the Father and the Spirit, each carrying their gifts to little Maria," but she adds: "who would have to face trials ever greater and ever more difficult."

She did not glorify herself like the Pharisee of the parable, but celebrated the magnificence of God who called her to follow Him:

"I do not take pride in so many graces; I simply celebrate the kindness of the Lord in me because it seems fitting to pay Him a tribute of gratitude."

Thus, one can celebrate God's choice on us, one can "separate" oneself from the paths of perdition, but always by situating oneself as the creature, not as the Creator. The Pharisee in the parable idolizes his perfection, which neither Paul nor Maria Valtorta do. He judges and condemns, functions that belong only to God. That is why Jesus does not justify him and, in Maria Valtorta's account, draws this incriminating portrait to show what is hidden behind appearances. Teaching is indeed the purpose of parables.

The Pharisee

The prototype of the Pharisee described by Maria Valtorta summarizes numerous denunciations of Jesus in the Gospel:

• The taste for appearances in the exercise of religion: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be seen by them; otherwise, you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:1).
• The love of money: "Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they derided Jesus. He said to them: ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God’" (Luke 16:14-15).
• The inhumanity of those (here the scribes) who devour widows' houses and who make a show of large sums of money at the Temple: "They devour widows' houses and for show make long prayers; therefore they will receive greater condemnation" (Mark 12:38-44).

If these attitudes, so well summarized by the Pharisee in the parable, are "hated by God" it is because they are a barrier to Salvation: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces; for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in" (Matthew 23:13).

Jesus justifies the practice of the precepts followed by the Pharisee of the parable and taught by them, but denounces their hypocritical way of living them:

"Jesus said: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. So practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do, for they preach but do not practice’" (Matthew 23:2-3).

This chapter 23 of Matthew, so virulent, ends with the same conclusion as Luke’s parable, proving their connection:

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12). "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

Of the two formulations, that of Matthew (himself a converted publican) seems closest to Maria Valtorta's because Jesus speaks in the future tense:

"He who exalts himself will always, sooner or later, be humbled. If not here, then in the other life. He who humbles himself will be exalted especially up there in Heaven where the deeds of men are seen in their true reality" (EMV 523.9).

It is therefore Phariseeism that is declared unacceptable before God because it is incompatible with His Law that reserves judgment to God and bans pride, the supreme fault of Lucifer.

The Tax Collector

The other, the different one, is not necessarily bad, as we learn from the faith of the centurion, the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the episode of the Canaanite woman. We cannot unite with the Lord as long as we do not become aware of our sins "in thought, word, deed, or omission." This is what the tax collector does but the Pharisee does not.

Tax collectors, collectors of taxes on behalf of the Roman authority, were not angels. The Gospels even assimilate them to pagans (Matthew 18:17). But many passages portray them as eager for the word of Jesus:

"Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus to listen to him" (Luke 15:1).

Along with prostitutes, he even describes them as superior to the Pharisees because they did the will of God:

"Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21:31).

Indeed, recognizing their sins, they humbled themselves before God by accepting the Baptism of John, which the self-righteous Pharisees refused (Luke 7:29-30). This is a key to understanding this parable. Unlike the Pharisee of the parable, unjustified according to the Gospel and hated by God in Maria Valtorta’s account, God is mercy: "The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth" (Psalm 144 (Hebrew 145):18). The Gospel names only two tax collectors explicitly: Levi Matthew (Levi) and Zacchaeus.

1. Matthew, under his public sinner appearance, had such a good heart that he immediately got up to follow Jesus (Matthew 9:9).
2. The other is Zacchaeus. He is present when Jesus tells this parable (EMV 523.9) and his journey closely resembles the tax collector in Maria Valtorta’s detailed account. Jesus goes to his house and the crowd is upset, but Zacchaeus shows true repentance ignored by Phariseeism: "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold" (Luke 19:8).

Points in Debate

There has been a warning against a "pharisianophobic" reading of this parable, which often leads the reader to judge that the hated Pharisee is the other, the one who does not think like him, does not believe like him, and does not live as saintly as he does. A pastoral warning of great relevance given how widespread this reflex is. The commentator also recalls that not all Pharisees in the Gospel are detestable. It is therefore Phariseeism that Jesus fights against, and not the Pharisee. Being convinced of being righteous leads to believing oneself superior, glorifying oneself by attributing the merits to oneself, and judging then despising the different. This is the danger of pride, which "separates" from God.

For Further Reading

• Search in the Valtorta Index.
• Discuss on the Maria Valtorta Forum.

person who, among the Romans, was responsible for collecting taxes and duties for the State. The legal rate of each tax being hidden, the publicans could raise the amount without any means of control. (Ex: Matthew the evangelist, before following Jesus as an apostle).

The Gospel as it was revealed to me (Maria Valtorta).