Getting right with God is the beginning of the Christian life. But as supremely important that is, it is only the beginning. As we grow up in our faith – as we surely must if our faith is genuine – we face many trials and challenges, as well as many joys. Discipline is God’s way of pruning us to produce the fruit of our faith. When the Holy Spirit works in our lives to prune us, He generates the fruit of the Spirit. And love is the first in the list of that fruit (Gal 5:22). God is calling each and every one of us to love – to love God and to love our neighbor. How can we participate in growing that fruit? Jesus tells us how in parable – to remember just how much we have been forgiven: those who are forgiven much, love much; but those who have been forgiven little, loves little.
In this short parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus tells us of the stark contrast of the prayer of a self-righteous man and the one of a contrite sinner. But this parable is not about prayer. In very short order, Jesus masterfully gets to the root of our human problem of sin and the solution to that problem. Just as Jesus said later to the real tax collector, Zaccheus, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost”.
What are we to make of Jesus? He goes out of His way to befriend sinners. He offers hope to the lost. He offers to heal the brokenhearted, true friendship for the lonely, and complete forgiveness to the sinner. The devil accuses us of sin to destroy us, just as the Scribes and Pharisees were doing to the woman caught in adultery. But when the contrite sinner stands before Jesus, just as this woman did, Jesus does not condemn – he forgives. But it does come with a price tag…
Jesus is the center of every little thing that happens here. Only Jesus shines like the sun on the mountain. Moses and Elijah speak with him. They are the law and the prophets. They are the Messianic promises rolled together. And when God speaks to Peter, James, and John, he doesn’t say, “Listen to them,” but “Listen to him.” God himself testifies that Jesus is the fulfillment of all things. When Jesus reaches out his healing hand to lift up the disciples, they see no one but Jesus. And that is the point that keeps on coming up in this passage: No one but Jesus … are we ready to listen to him?