Pharisee and the Publican

Although religious conversion always bears fruit in a person’s life, that fruit is sometimes not visible to the casual observer. In the case of the French artist James Tissot (1836-1902), however, the evidence of his conversion 125 years ago is still plain for all to see.

According to his own account, Tissot, at around age 48, saw a vision during Mass in the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris. Until that time his paintings had focused primarily on high-society life in Paris and London. After his mystical experience, Tissot’s work changed markedly. His next painting, “Inward Voices,” depicts his vision: an impoverished couple sit on the rubble of a building in ruins; beside them sits Jesus—scourged, bleeding and wearing a crown of thorns, yet present to comfort them. Tissot’s religious experience at St. Sulpice resulted in a lifelong directional shift in his artistic work.

Four years later, after his vision, Tissot undertook an artistic project that led him to study archeology and the Bible, and he traveled three times to the Middle East, where he filled sketchbooks with images of the people and places he observed. Drawing upon his photos, sketches and nearly 100 finished drawings, Tissot created a suite of 350 watercolors, entitled “The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” commonly known as “The Life of Christ,” a chronology from Jesus’ birth to the Ascension. It took the artist 10 years to make these vivid, detailed and emotive images. Some are miniature masterpieces; only the major episodes in Jesus’ life are larger in size than a standard sheet of paper. The narrative work includes portraits and landscapes, aerial views and close-ups, intimate moments and vast crowd scenes.

Tissot thought the culture of the Middle East had not changed much since the time of Jesus and so worked diligently to capture the similarity on paper before modernity could erase it. But this “mistake” accounts for some of the admirable documentary detail of his work: the patterns of rugs, tiles, lattices, textiles, capitals and costumes; and the precise rituals and pageantry, including the segregated society of men and women. Jesus walks through narrow passageways; sits in dark, moonlit rooms; strides down stone streets; and when not on the sea, traverses a pink, gold or blue landscape with oases of palms and olive trees that is starkly beautiful—its rock piles casting gray and mauve shadows. At times one also sees the Jerusalem of Tissot’s day—its red-and-white striped buildings bleached white in the gleaming sun.

Tissot’s people are dynamic and lifelike. Tissot’s cast of characters extends beyond the leading roles to include townspeople whom viewers can recognize throughout the series.

To believers, Tissot’s images reveal something more: signs of a vibrant Christian imagination. He did more than represent the land where Jesus walked. Tissot saw himself as a spiritual pilgrim. He reflected on each image and seems to have placed himself in the scenes as the various characters, much as St. Ignatius Loyola recommends in the Spiritual Exercises: as a prodigal son, a child of Jerusalem, a Roman soldier, a mother with a sick child, a condemned thief, a woman at the empty tomb and a convinced follower. Tissot’s visionary images can also help viewers to do the same.

This painting is opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. The image measures 9 7/8 x 6 1/2 in. (25.1 x 16.5 cm) and it is housed in The Brooklyn Museum.

The referenced scripture is Luke 18:9-14. The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (also called the publican) is a surprising story full of plot twists and rich spiritual truths.

The Pharisees were often thought to be  self-righteous hypocrites and tax collectors as the model of righteous.

But in Jesus’ day it was reversed. It was the Pharisees who were the models of righteousness and the tax collectors who epitomized sinners. When Jesus told this parable it was a shock to his audience.

Luke tells us up front: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable.” This parable is about pride and humility.

Now, the audience is likely expecting the Pharisee to be the prime example of what we would look like. After all, no one expected the low-life tax collector who betrayed his own people for money to be the prime example to follow.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Luke 18:10-12

The Pharisees considered themselves worthy of God’s grace based off their religious performance. They thought they earned the right to demean others and make demands. And this prayer shows this self-righteous attitude. 

In Luke 18:11 he’s demeaning others so that he can elevate himself. Even going so far to point out a particular person around him, the tax collector. He thinks he’s better than them. 

In the next verse he reports all the wonderful things he does. He fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all he gets. He’s showing off, bragging. 

The Old Testament Law only required a fast once a year. But the Pharisees fasted twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. But really this is just a ploy to attract attention to themselves. These were the days the market convened and many people came to town. They were just showing off. And the Pharisee in this parable is proud of his religious piousness.

His entire prayer centers around how great he is and how terrible everyone else is, especially the tax collector.

If you count it up he uses the pronoun “I” five times in this prayer. His prayer is all about himself.

When the Romans invaded they set up a tax collecting system that leveraged Jews to collect taxes on their own people. The deal was you sent Rome their tax and then you were allowed to keep an additional amount you chose to collect. This lead to tax collectors getting rich by effectively stealing from their own people. To say they were hated is too mild. 

But Jesus flips the script. Look at the tax collectors prayer: “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Luke 18:13

His prayer is a stark contrast from the Pharisee’s prayer. He stands at a distance and refuses to assume the normal posture of prayer of looking to heaven, as the Pharisee did. The tax collector recognizes his unworthiness and is like a child who knows he’s in trouble and refuses to look his parents in the eyes. 

While the Pharisee used his prayer to beat down others, the tax collector beats his own chest, further showing that he understands his own sinfulness. 

And when the tax collector prays he doesn’t pray to himself, he prays to God. It’s a simple prayer in which he recognizes his only hope is for God to save him. 

The Pharisee used his prayer to elevate himself as the righteous. The tax collector used his prayer to elevate himself as the sinner. 

A Summary of the two prayers this way: “He did not boast of his own righteousness but pled with God for mercy acknowledging his sin. He used God as the standard of righteousness and confessed that he fell short. He knew that his only hope was God’s mercy. The Pharisee felt no need and voiced no petition, whereas the publican felt nothing but need and voiced only petition.”

In the last verse of this parable Jesus tells us what the application is: “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:14

Ironically both men got what they prayed for. The tax collector humbly asked for mercy, and he received it. The Pharisee asked for nothing because he thought that he already had it all, and he received nothing. 

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector shows us whose prayers God respects. It’s not those who appear righteous and exalt themselves, but rather those who humble themselves because they see how sinful they really are.