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This is a parable that is familiar to all of us. Oh, with what trenchant and biting satire He gave them this! But He didn’t do it to hurt them; He did it to help them. He said that two men went up to the temple to pray—a Pharisee and a publican. You could not get any two as far apart as those two men were. The Pharisee was at the top of the religious ladder. The publican was at the bottom. His parable wasn’t about publicans and sinners—publicans were right down there with the sinners. The Pharisee was at the top, supposedly the most acceptable one to God. He went into the temple to pray, he had access to the temple, he brought the appointed sacrifice. As he stood and prayed, his priest was yonder in the Holy Place putting incense on the altar. This old Pharisee had it made.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican [Luke 18:11].

Isn’t that an awful way to begin a prayer! And that is the way many of us do. You say, “I don’t do that.” Yes, you do. I hear prayers like that. Oh, we don’t say it exactly that way. We are fundamental—we have learned to say it better than that. We have our own way of putting it, “Lord, I thank You I can give You my time and my service.” How I hear that! What a compliment that is for the Lord! Friend, we don’t get anywhere in prayer when we pray like that. God doesn’t need our service.

The Pharisee said, “I thank thee, that I am not as other men”; then he began to enumerate what he wasn’t. “I’m not an extortioner”—evidently there was somebody around who was an extortioner. “I am not unjust. I am not an adulterer.” Then he spied that publican way outside, and said, “And, believe me, Lord, I’m not like that publican. I’m not like that sinner out there.”

Our Lord said he “prayed thus with himself.” In other words, he was doing a Hamlet soliloquy. Hamlet, you know, goes off and stands talking to himself—and Hamlet is “off,” by the way; he is a mental case. Hamlet says, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” And this old Pharisee is out there talking to himself—he thinks he is talking to God, but his prayer never got out of the rafters. All he did was have a pep talk; he patted himself on the back and went out proud as a peacock. God never heard that prayer.

The old publican—oh, he was a rascal. He was a sinner; he was as low as they come. He had sold his nation down the river when he had become a tax collector. When he became a tax gatherer, he denied his nation. When he denied his nation, as a Jew, he denied his religion. He turned his back on God. He took a one-way street, never to come back to God. Why did he do it? It was lucrative. He said, “There’s money down this way.” He became rich as a publican. But it did not satisfy his heart. Read the story of Levi; read the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19—a publican’s heart was empty. This poor publican in his misery and desperation, knowing that he had no access to the mercy seat in the temple, cried out to God.

“God be merciful to me a sinner” does not adequately express it. Let me give it to you in the language that he used. He would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but he smote on his breast, and said, “O God, I’m a poor publican. I have no access to that mercy seat yonder in the Holy of Holies. Oh, if you could only make a mercy seat for me! I want to come.”

Our Lord said that man was heard. Do you know why he was heard? Because Jesus Christ right there and then was on the way to the cross to make a mercy seat for him. John writes: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Propitiation means “mercy seat.” Christ is the mercy seat for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The publican’s prayer has been answered. Actually, today you don’t have to ask God to be merciful. He is merciful. Many people say, “We have to beg Him to be merciful.” My friend, what do you want Him to do? He gave His Son to die for you. He says to the worst sinner you know, “You can come. There is a mercy seat for you.” I have to admit to you that I had to come to that mercy seat. And if you are God’s child, you have come to that mercy seat where He died yonder on the cross for your sins and my sins. The penalty has been paid. The holy God is able to hold His arms outstretched. You don’t have to beg Him; you don’t have to promise Him anything because He knows your weakness; you do not have to join something; you do not even have to be somebody. You can be like a poor publican. You can come and trust Him, and He will save you. God is merciful.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted [Luke 18:14].

McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 4:328-329