Luke 18:9-14 - Pharisee & Tax collector praying, by Jeremy Stephens (adapted from John Teter)

Some Basic Rules: enjoy each other, be honest, be open to growing, be curious

Introduction

• Do you ever feel as if you have to put on a face (pretend) to be someone you are not? Maybe an identity that you don't want? [smart, confident, holy, got it all together]
• When we put on a "face" how does it affect us and the way we treat others?

Interpreting the Text

Read the text together

• Describe Tax-collectors and Pharisees.
• What words would you use to describe the Pharisee?
• How would his prayer make you feel?
• Do you know people like the Pharisees? What are they like? Have you ever been a Pharisee? (they put on faces, for people to see and to hide from God.)
• Why is the Tax-collector unwilling to even look up to heaven?
• Why might he be beating his breast?
• Have you ever felt like that, unable to look up to heaven due to shame?
• What do you make of his 7 word prayer?
• What is the main point Jesus is trying to make?

• What faces do you hide behind?
• How do you treat others when you have your face on?
• Do you make of Jesus' offer of forgiveness?

Background Info - use only if it helps

18:9-10. Pharisees were the most pious people in regular Palestinian Jewish society; tax gatherers were the most despicable, often considered traitors to their people. 18:11. Jewish people considered it pious to thank God for one's righteousness, rather than taking credit for it oneself. The first hearers of this parable would not think of the Pharisee as boastful, but rather as grateful to God for his piety. 18:13. Beating one's breast was a sign of great mourning or grief, in this case, in repentance for sin. The tax gatherer's prayer for mercy involves no deliberate act of restitution, and hence many of Jesus' contemporaries would judge it invalid.²