Two Men Went Up to the Temple: Which One Did God Approve?

Introduction

Two men go up to the temple to pray. One is respected by everyone, the other despised by everyone. And Jesus flips the verdict: it's not the one you'd expect who goes home approved by God. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus wants to create a shock in order to ask us a very simple and very unsettling question: what are you really counting on to be right with God? This pastoral message invites you to look squarely at the two paths Jesus sets before you, and to understand why only one of them truly leads home.

Message Outline

1. The real question of the parable: who is approved by God?

• Jesus addresses "those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else." The word "righteous" comes back at the end: the tax collector went home "justified before God."
• This isn't "righteous" in the sense of "that's not fair" the way children say it in the playground. It's a legal word: does God stamp me valid? Does he declare me right with him?
• Like a citizenship file that has to be in order with the tax administration: if you want to belong to the kingdom of God, you have to be right with him. The whole parable revolves around that.

2. The shock Jesus wants to provoke

• The Pharisee is the spiritual elite: he knows the law by heart, he teaches, he prays, he fasts. A man you'd be proud to host in your home.
• The tax collector is a Jew who collects taxes for the Roman occupier and skims off the top along the way. The equivalent of a collaborator during a war: a traitor, despised, lumped in with prostitutes and drunkards.
• Jesus takes the respected man and the despised man, and says: it's the despised one who is justified. Not because he did better, but because he understood something the other one didn't.

3. Two ways of paying the same debt

• The mistake is thinking the Pharisee relies on his good works while the tax collector has none. Both know there's a bill to pay before God. The difference is how they pay it.
• The Greek word behind "have mercy" in the tax collector's prayer means "be appeased, be made propitious, atone for." In plain terms: "God, I can't pay the bill, do what's needed in my place."
• The Pharisee says: I can pay with my good works. The tax collector says: I can't, help me. That's the only difference, and it decides everything.

4. The real problem: our rebellion, not just our mistakes

• To understand our debt to God, we have to go back to Genesis. Adam and Eve's problem wasn't stealing or lying. It was wanting to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil, without depending on God.
• Our bad actions are only the symptoms of the real problem: our rebellion, our will to be independent from God.
• And here's where it gets tricky: a good deed that isn't submitted to God isn't a good deed for God. It can even express rebellion: "God, I don't need you, I'll pay it myself."

5. Jesus paid the debt in our place

• Jesus tells this parable just before his death. He knew that God the Father had sent him to pay the debt himself, in our place.
• It required someone who was truly man and truly God, a perfect mediator who could satisfy God's justice while also offering his mercy to mankind.
• His death on the cross is the perfect payment we could not make ourselves. And because of him, we are declared righteous before God, right with him.

6. Grace reconciles us with others

• The Pharisee despises the tax collector. That's the logical fruit of a life based on our own works: either we feel superior, or we feel inferior, but we're always comparing.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 says it clearly: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast."
• If our worth no longer comes from what we do but from what God has done for us, there's no more need to judge, no more need to envy. We can help, encourage, and let others taste the beauty of serving Jesus.

7. You already have the passport: now, love

• The Pharisee even boasts about things God never asked for (fasting twice a week, giving 10% of all his income). He invents rules for himself so he can keep comparing.
• We sometimes do the same thing among Christians, between denominations, between spiritual styles: whoever prays better, whoever raises their hands, whoever lowers them. As if God approved of us more or less based on our preferences.
• God has already done everything in Jesus. You read the Bible, you pray, you share your faith not because you're obligated to, but because you need it and because you love him. Grace changes the relationship: from a business transaction, it makes it a love.

Key Takeaways

• The real question isn't "am I a good person?" but "does God declare me righteous before him?"
• Both men in the parable know they have a debt. Only one understands he can't pay it himself.
• Our good works, however precious, cannot settle the debt of sin. It's like paying off a fine with chips and peanuts.
• The real problem isn't our mistakes but our rebellion: our desire to decide on our own, without God, what is good for us.
• Jesus died on the cross to pay a debt he did not owe, in the place of people who could not pay it.
• Grace frees you both from the need to feel superior and from the fear of feeling inferior. It reconciles you with God and with others.

Personal Application

1. Take some quiet time this week and ask yourself honestly: what am I really counting on to be approved by God? What I do, or what Jesus has done?
2. Reread Luke 18:9-14 slowly, and notice whether your usual prayer sounds more like the Pharisee's ("God, thank you that I'm not like…") or the tax collector's ("God, be merciful to me, a sinner").
3. Identify a comparison you often make: with a coworker, a brother or sister in the church, a Christian from another denomination. Make the decision before God to let go of that comparison.
4. Ask yourself the pastor's question: do I read the Bible and pray because I feel obligated to, or because I love it? If it's out of obligation, return to the cross before any other spiritual effort.
5. This week, instead of judging someone you find less engaged than you, look for a concrete way to let them taste the beauty of grace: a word, a message, an act of service, a shared verse.

Verses Cited

• Luke 18:9-14 · The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
• Ephesians 2:8-9 · For it is by grace you have been saved
• Galatians 6:3-4 · Each one should test their own actions
• John 14:6 · I am the way and the truth and the life
• Genesis 3 · The fall and the original problem of rebellion

Further reading

• Which Bible Translation Should You Choose?
• How to Read the Bible When You're Just Starting Out
• How to Meditate on a Bible Verse

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the parable mean that good works are worthless?

No. Jesus isn't saying that what the Pharisee does (fasting, giving, being honest, being faithful to his wife) is bad. He's saying those good works cannot pay the debt of sin. Grace doesn't remove works, it changes their place: they no longer serve to earn God's approval, they become the loving response of someone who is already fully approved in Jesus. You don't pray and serve to earn merit, you pray and serve because you are already loved.

How do I know if I'm more like the Pharisee or the tax collector in my life of faith?

Look at how you compare yourself to others. If you often catch yourself thinking "at least I don't do what he does" or, on the contrary, "I'll never measure up to her," that's a sign you're still relying on your works to place yourself before God. Look at your prayer too: is it a report of what you've done for God, or an acknowledgment of what he's done for you? The tax collector doesn't compare himself to anyone. He looks at God, he looks at his own debt, and he asks for grace. That's the posture that goes home justified.

If God has already done everything in Jesus, why still pray, read the Bible, go to church?

Because you need it and because you love him. It's no longer a bill to be paid, it's a relationship to be lived. No one would want a relationship with someone who's only trying to get something out of it. God doesn't want that kind of relationship with you. He has given you the passport to the kingdom by pure grace, and now he's watching to see whether you act out of love or out of calculation. Praying, reading the Bible, sharing your faith, that's the oxygen of a heart that has understood what it received, not the currency of a heart trying to pay its way.