The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Oil on Board 28x40”
The Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke 18:9-14
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Clive Calver was home from his sabbatical today to preach, baptize, and celebrate his 40th wedding anniversary. He continued in Walnut Hill Community Church’s (WHCC’s) series on Luke, with the difficult parables from Luke chapters 16-18: The Persistent Widow, the Shrewd Manager, the 10 Lepers, Lazarus and the Tax Collector... and this parable about the Tax Collector and Pharisee. Clive’s emphasized that from a Jewish cultural lens, these parables were meant to only have one basic meaning, and it is important to remember in Luke that Jesus is carrying two separate conversations: one to the Pharisees and another to the disciples. Clive spent the sermon contrasting the spiritually dead, hypocritical, and self righteous attitude of the pharisee with the persevering faith, obedience, and selfless stewardship of a true disciple of Jesus.
Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector
Luke 18:9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
I was asked to paint this piece today during the morning services as the antithesis of the earlier painting I did in honor of Sam Mathis, a faithful disciple and elder who unexpectedly died a few months ago. Today his widow Jacinta was presented with the original painting of the “Trumpeter” and giclee reproductions for each member of her family as the culminating celebration of the “True Disciple” highlighted in this morning’s texts. The Pharisee painting was to be the total opposite. Although the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector was not the emphasis of the sermon, I chose to paint this particular text in order to include the redemptive element of the tax collector’s posture of humility and dependency on God’s mercy. I tried to paint this familiar scene from the more shocking spiritual lens of what was happening within the two figures: the pharisee’s self righteous posture emanating darkness, spiritually dead but covered by a veneer of beautiful color, while the tax collector is contrite in posture, full of life, covered in humble earth tones, and shimmering with God’s anointing.
