The Mercy of God 

   “The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner.’” (Luke 18: 13) 

   Every time I consider the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector I am reminded that I, like the tax collector, am a sinner and at the mercy of God.

   It’s quite easy to look at ourselves as the Pharisee in this parable did, confident and prideful of how we live our life for God.  But like the Pharisee, we are looking to ourselves and the good we may do rather than realizing that only by the grace of God can we do any good at all.  Left to ourselves we will let our pride, and the whisperings of Satan, mislead us into arrogance and self-aggrandizement.

   We, like the tax collector, must recognize that regardless of how much good we can do we are still sinners and need the mercy and forgiveness of God.  We must give God the credit for what good we are able to do and ask His help in doing all for the love of Him, not expecting credit and reward in this life, but in the life to come.

   Jesus tells us in the parable that the tax collector went home justified while the Pharisee did not.  In one sense perhaps the Pharisee was not praying to God so much as he was putting himself in the place of God.  Claiming the credit for himself rather than giving all glory to God for whatever good he may have done.