Art Reading Scripture

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Plaque over a Confessional Door at the Stockholm Cathedral, Sweden

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Luke 18:10

Over the doors of the Confessional at the Stockholm Cathedral are two plaques, biblical scenes of exposure and confession of sin. One focuses on the story of King David's sins against Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. The other shows the Gospel parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Cathedral serves as the Church of Sweden's Royal Court and is located beside the Royal Palace. All are welcome to worship and confess there yet its status as the Church of Royalty sets it apart from other churches. The scenes confront those who maybe hold a sense of self worth, righteousness and superiority as to the realities of their own sin as they enter the confessional.

One can imagine that those who attended worship at the Stockholm Cathedral with the King and the Queen came from the elite of society. Success and wealth were often associated with high morals, righteousness, and respectability. People of this class might stare if a person of low standing, a rough sailor, prostitute, or inn keeper, came into this majestic, ornate place. Who knows if the ushers of the Cathedral would even let in such as these. One might walk by on the street outside the Waldorf Astoria, but not just anyone can enter through the doors. Before the doors of the confessional the elite might see the lamentable tax collector and the righteous Pharisee and consider how they would present themselves to the priest.

Jesus told this story as a parable. It may have been composed from observation, like the day he saw the contrasting experience of rich people and a poor widow contributing to the treasury (Luke 21). Indeed, in the background it appears as though someone is confronting Jesus as to this teaching, perhaps on repentance and forgiveness, while others wait to hear his response. The plaque mixes the idea of observation and story telling. Either way it highlights the contrasting class divisions in society, based either on a sense of personal righteousness (Luke 18) or on matters of affluence and poverty (Luke 21).  

One might wonder if a Pharisee, a person, "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous" would even bother with the confessional. Only the tax collector might need it, not a righteous person. Listen to the Pharisee. "I thank you that I am not like other people: ..." To begin with the Pharisee echoed a Psalm of Thanksgiving, (Ps 30, 92, 118, 136, 138), "I will extol you, O LORD, ... It is good to give thanks to the LORD, ... O give thanks to the LORD, ... I give you thanks, O LORD, ...." But rather than recount the works of the LORD as the Psalms do, the Pharisee extoled his own virtues. One commentator writes, "The Pharisee had enough religion to be virtuous, but not enough to be humble." Peter Marty writes about "'virtue signaling.' It's a mostly pejorative term applied to those eager to advertise their own righteousness." The point isn't to expose such people, which is its own form of the same problem, "Thank God, I am not like other people, Pharisees, virtuous upright hypocrites." The point is humility towards oneself and others. The prayer for mercy needed by one and all.

In contrast, people of low social standing like the tax collector whose simple prayer, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," and the widow putting her two coins in the treasury exemplify humility when the coming before God. Edward Roland Sills poem "The Fool's Prayer" retells the parable in the context of a King and a Court Jester. The King, seeking some entertainment, asked the Fool to kneel and make a prayer. The fool, like a prophet exposed the vanity and foolishness of the King's request as he knelt and prayed, "O Lord, be merciful to me a fool." By the end of the prayer the King's knew his own foolishness and failing. The silent, embarrassed court does too. "The room was hushed; in silence rose the King, and sought his gardens cool, and walked apart, and murmured low, "Be merciful to me, a fool!" Jesus ends the parable similarly turning societal norms upside down. "... for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Before the confessional, or in the simplicity of the Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness, Kings and Fools, Pharisees and Tax Collectors, Royalty and those who may not have been welcomed into a Cathedral for the elite, the prayer of humility is the prayer everyone brings. "God be merciful to me, a sinner." "O Lord, be merciful to me a fool."

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer.