WEEK ABOUT THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE

In the Orthodox church calendar Sunday of the publican and the Pharisee (along with the Week of the Prodigal Son, Meatfare and Cheesefare Weeks) is one of the four preparatory weeks for Lent.

This week is dedicated by the Church to the edifying for us remembrance of the publican and the Pharisee.

The Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee

“Two men entered the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other was a publican. The Pharisee, standing up, prayed in himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything that I get. The publican, standing afar off, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven; but, striking his chest, he said: God! be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you that this one went down to his house justified rather than that one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14).

The parable of the publican and the Pharisee speaks of the importance of sincere repentance and figuratively expresses the spiritual truth that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).

"Two people entered the temple to pray." Two people, two sinners, with the only difference being that the Pharisee did not recognize himself as a sinner, but the publican did. Both the publican and the Pharisee prayed to God, but the publican, realizing his sins, prayed repentantly: "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!" The Pharisee, however, came to God with his head held high, boasting of his virtues, puffed up by his righteousness.

In the parable, the Pharisee stands before us as the embodiment of absolute self-satisfaction. After all, he was an executor of the Law, observing all religious rules and traditions, he was educated and well-read; gave a tenth of his estate for the needs of the Temple. Obviously, being a religious person in his own way, he did no obvious evil and, quite possibly, in an everyday sense, was a good person, to whom, perhaps, many treated with great respect.But the complacency of the Pharisee, as it were, dominated the spiritual state in which he was, so dominated that it completely obscured from himself the true picture of what was happening in his soul. Unlimited self-satisfaction so captured him that he completely forgot that all his so-called virtues lose all their value and meaning before the judgment of God. His main mistake was that he thought he had already reached the Goal. He stopped, the flame of longing for the Lord went out. And the road to the Divine heights cannot be mastered by any personal achievements.

But the other is a publican, a tax collector. This profession in the ancient world was surrounded by general contempt. The publican, apparently, does nothing from the law, but, feeling his insignificance, he only beats his chest and prays: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” The humble publican concentrated his spiritual powers on his sinfulness, on his imperfection in the face of God. He understood the futility of justification by external works. He "didn't even dare to raise my eyes to the sky"- so deep was his contrition for his sins.

Here are these two different states - on the one hand, a prayer that begins with thanksgiving: "God! I thank You that I am not like other people.” It is like an invocation of God, but in fact it is the affirmation of one's “I”, for the core of pride, according to St. John of the Ladder, there is a "shameless preaching of their works." After all, the Lord knows the soul of the Pharisee, and he says: "I am not like all the others - robbers, offenders, adulterers - I am not like this publican." The Pharisee seems to believe and love the Lord, as if he is seeking His help, but in fact he humiliates his neighbor and shamelessly exalts himself, he is already approaching the highest degree of pride - the rejection of God.Why does he need God when he has done everything and only boasts before God of his virtues? The self-satisfied Pharisee seriously thinks that he has reached perfection, that he knows everything. Self-satisfaction blinds and forces one to be content with little, makes a person a morally minimalist who is pleased with his easy external successes and thinks about the quantity, not the quality, of his good deeds. Here the Pharisee calls the numbers: "two I fast once, I give a tenth"... God does not need these accounts. He needs our heart. Thinking about the number of good deeds leads to legalism, formalism. The Pharisee fulfills the Law and the law is difficult, for it is not easy to follow all the prescriptions of the Law, even the Old, but it is in vain, for he has no humility.

And there is another approach. This is the approach to God of the one who needs Him to cleanse their sins. That is why the publican prays: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner", - he needs God, he asks, realizing that he has not done anything yet, he does not preach his own, perhaps existing, virtues, but not them, but "puts his sins on his head before God." After his humble prayer, the publican was purer and more righteous before God, although his whole life, in comparison with that of the Pharisees, looked hopelessly lost.

The parable of the publican and the Pharis is a call of Christ to think and eradicate the hypocrisy that lives in each of us.

We can recognize the Pharisee in ourselves, first of all, by attaching excessive importance to ourselves. The Pharisee considers himself better and more worthy than others, his spirit is purer, his views are deeper than those of other people. The Pharisee wants to remake the rest to his liking and cannot adapt himself to another person, to become one step with him. The Pharisee turns a blind eye to his own weaknesses, but is merciless to the weaknesses of others.

The most indisputable a sign of hypocrisy - the desire to receive honor and respect among people for their piety . Therefore, the modern Pharisee does his good deeds in front of witnesses and loves publicity. He prefers to smile on the pages of newspapers and magazines than in real life in a society of unfortunates and losers. He loves to speak in public about eradicating poverty and paying attention to the outcasts of society, but he himself bypasses the homeless for a kilometer and does not give the poor a penny if no one is looking at him. Go and do otherwise, and you will be saved.

Let us remember the words of Christ: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

Meaning of the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee

For a real spiritual life, one must accustom oneself to maintain a balance between the manifestations of internal and external religiosity. It is necessary to observe the Law - the Commandments of God and Church Charters. But this is not enough. One must also possess the humility of a publican.

Good deeds are in vain if they are done not for God, but for the world, for our vanity. In vain is every good deed done for show. ATfaithful followers of Christ are known not by works, but by humility. I can feed someone in the name of God without attributing anything to myself - and in this case I will have true Christian work. And if I do the same, but for some other reasons, for some other purposes - whatever they may be, this will not be Christ's work ...

On the example of the publican and the Pharisee, the Holy Church teaches us that the first condition for virtue is humility and repentance, and the main obstacle is pride.

The Church inspires those preparing for Great Lent, feat and prayer that the fulfillment of what is laid down by the Rule should not be boasted. Both prayer and fasting are holy and saving only when they are not overshadowed by self-admiration and exaltation. Whoever admires and boasts of his deeds does not know or forgets that we, by our own strength, without the help of God, cannot fulfill the entire Law and therefore become right before God, and fulfillment itself is not a merit, but our duty.

In our prayer books, the morning rule begins with the publican's prayer: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Of all the prayers, the holy Church chose her, because the feeling that the publican experienced is exactly the feeling with which one should pray. Therefore, by saying: "God, be merciful to us sinners" and remembering the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, you can tune in to the right prayer work. Publican's Prayer - "God, be merciful to me a sinner" - accepted by the Church as common, relevant always and for each of us.

“Prayer is a mirror of spiritual dispensation, - say St. Fathers of the Church, look into this mirror, see how you pray - and you can say unmistakably what your spiritual dispensation is. In prayer, our good and dark sides, spiritual dying and spiritual growth are most fully revealed.

Prayer is not the pronunciation of words and not the choice of their correct order, not even a method of contemplation. Prayer is leaving oneself alone with God and the beginning of becoming like Him. For this reason, prayer should not be taken lightly. When preparing for Great Lent, it is very important to understand what state of mind is favorable for prayer. The Lord accepts only that prayer that comes from a humble heart, when a person realizes his sinfulness before God.

Humility is not just one of the virtues, but the foundation of all spiritual life. According to Rev. Isaac of Nineveh, ascetics receive a reward not for their labors, but for humility in them.

Humility is necessary, because without it there is no mercy and love. Where there is pride, there will always be condemnation of one's neighbor. When a person is filled with himself, he begins to overflow and tends to fill other people with himself and his opinions.

The Church Fathers compared the three preparatory weeks before Great Lent with the last days before the start of the war, when military weapons are cleaned and put in order. In the old days, part of the preparation for the war were stories about the heroes and exploits of the past, with which the generals addressed the soldiers. In the same way, Christians should read the lives of the saints and stories about their victorious asceticism before Great Lent.

The main weapon of a Christian in Lent is repentance and humility . They are opposed by pride and arrogance - the vices that threw the supreme angel Lucifer from heaven. The struggle with them is harder than any other internal struggle, because in this struggle even virtues can go over to the enemy side. Deeds that are good in themselves suddenly become a source of evil - a person begins to use his virtues to rise above other people or subjugate them to himself.

Features of the week

The Week of the Publican and the Pharisee - in the Orthodox church calendar refers to the Solid Weeks - fasting is canceled even on Wednesday and Friday. In this way, even church rules remind us of the insufficiency of keeping the rules.

From this Sunday, 2 weeks begin, given to us to renew the soul and prepare it for fasting. The liturgical themes of these two weeks call Christians to repentance in the image of the publican, to an honest search in themselves for the same hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

Gospel of Luke, chapter 18
10 Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee, standing up, prayed to himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican:
12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.
13 But the publican, standing afar off, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven; but, striking his chest, he said: God! be merciful to me a sinner!
14 I tell you that this one went down to his house justified rather than that one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Who are the Pharisees, who are the publicans?

It is one thing to know both the written and the oral Law, and another thing to fulfill it in every detail. The scribes succeeded in the first, the Pharisees embodied the second in their lives. The first caused respect and reverence, the second provided the indisputable authority of the standard and role model. And although it was the sacred duty of every Jew to fulfill the Law, only a few saw this as the main work of life and faith. This was the movement of the Pharisees. By their genealogical and social origin, they belonged to the most diverse segments of the population, but they traced their ideological and spiritual prehistory from the famous "Hasidim" who opposed the Hellenization of Judaism since the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (see above). The theological leadership of the Pharisaic movement was carried out by the scribes. For the most part, this movement consisted of ordinary people - merchants and artisans. A combination of various factors: patriotic position, practical piety and a low level in the class hierarchy explain the great popularity of the Pharisees among the Jewish people. They were a kind of standard of righteousness.

Their numbers have always been small. According to Josephus, at the time of Herod the Great in Palestine, with a population of almost half a million, there were only about 6,000 Pharisees. Throughout the country they united in secret meetings. There were two main duties that were imposed on the members of the Pharisaic assemblies and the observance of which served as a test for applicants before they were accepted after a probationary period: scrupulous fulfillment of the obligation to pay tithing, neglected by the people, and conscientious adherence to the prescriptions of purity. Moreover, they were notable for their charity, through which they hoped to win the favor of God, and for their punctual observance of the rule of three daily hourly prayers and two weekly fasts [cf. the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, Lk. 18, 12 - A.S.], which was supposedly done on behalf of Israel. The task of the Pharisaic movement is most clearly seen in the light of one of the purity prescriptions that all its members had to observe - the obligatory washing of hands before eating (Mark 7, 1-5). Ablutions were not just a hygienic measure; originally it was a ritual obligation imposed only on priests - whenever they ate a priestly share. Being laymen, but imposing on themselves the obligation to observe the priestly prescriptions of purity, the Pharisees thereby showed that they (in accordance with Exodus 19:6) want to present themselves as a people of priests being saved at the end of time.” Their self-names are eloquent: the pious, the righteous, the God-fearing, the poor, and especially the Pharisees. The latter is a Greek (sing. farisai/oj) Hebrew word meaning "separated" and is understood as a synonym for the word "holy." It should be noted that it is in this sense that the word “holy” is used in the Old Testament, where it refers to the sacred sphere (for example, Exodus 19, 23, etc.), and in Jewish literature (in the Tannaitic Midrash) the words parus (“ separated") and qados ("holy") are used interchangeably. In other words, the Pharisees wanted to be that very holy people, that is, separated from the rest of the unclean, pagan, sinful world, the true Israel, the people of priests with whom God made a Covenant (see Ex. 19:6; 22:31; 23:22; Leviticus 19:2). All that is outside the Law, and all who do not know the Law are unclean, cursed (cf. John 7:49).

A clear distinction should be made between the Pharisees and the scribes, which, however, is not already done everywhere in the New Testament. The confusion arose primarily because Matthew's collection of seven woes in ch. 23 everywhere except Art. 26, they are addressed both to the scribes and the Pharisees; in doing so, he obscures the differences between the two groups (which, in his view, is partly justified, since after 70 CE the Pharisees' scribes took over the leadership of the people). Fortunately, the parallel tradition presented by Luke helps to understand here. The same material is compositionally divided by him into two parts, in one of which woe is proclaimed to the scribes (11, 46-52; here 20, 46 ff.), and in the other - to the Pharisees (11, 39-44). At the same time, only in one place, in 11:43, an error crept into Luke's tradition: the vanity attributed here to the Pharisees was in fact characteristic of the scribes, as Luke himself correctly points out elsewhere (20, 46 and par.; Mark 12, 38 ff.). Based on this division of the material in Luke, it should be divided into two parts and the material of Mt. 23: Art. 1-13. 16-22. 29-36 directed against theologians, vv. 23-28 (and probably also v. 15) - against the Pharisees. A similar division can be made in the Sermon on the Mount: Matt. 5:21-48 speaks of the scribes; 6:1-18 speaks of the Pharisees.”

In their piety, the Pharisees were guided by the oral Torah - in Matt. and Mk. “tradition of the elders” or simply “tradition” (Mt. 15:2:6; Mk. 7:9:13) — no less than written (see above). It would be more correct to say that the oral Torah had a more specific and particular, and therefore frequent, application. At the same time, the Pharisees were convinced that when God gave Moses the Law, “He also gave him an oral tradition that explained exactly how the laws should be kept. For example, although the Torah requires an eye for an eye, the Pharisees believed that God could never demand physical retribution. Rather, the person who blinded another had to pay the price of the lost eye to the victim.” In the reverence with which, in the understanding of the Pharisees, the oral Torah (as well as the written one) should be treated, there was a true intuition. The one that inevitably and quickly led to the appearance of its oral tradition in the Christian Church. We call this oral tradition of the Church Holy Tradition with a capital letter. Indeed, after all, Scripture is perceived as the Word of the Living God, that is, the Word addressed to His people always, as the Torah was for the Pharisees - people who undoubtedly believe. At the same time, Scripture cannot provide answers to all questions related to the diversity of life. From this automatically follows the need for some kind of commentary that would specify the meaning of the written Word in connection with this or that current situation. Moreover, such a commentary cannot but be authoritative (otherwise why is it needed?), and its authority is co-natural, equivalent to the authority of the interpreted written text. The Pharisees also believed in what also constituted and, by the way, constitutes in the Orthodox Church the content of Tradition, and not Scripture (more precisely, even in the Orthodox Church this partly became Scripture - the New Testament): in the resurrection of the dead, in the reward of the righteous and the punishment of sinners, in the doctrine of angels, etc. They believed in both the Coming of the Messiah and the gathering of Israel at the end of time.

In political terms, the Pharisees most often represented a passive, and sometimes very active opposition to the ruling regime. For example, during the Hasmonean dynasty (see § 3), they believed that royal power, although national, should not combine political and priestly functions. In Roman times, rejection was already dictated by the fact that the Romans were pagans. The Pharisees for the most part (probably in the same proportion as the whole society) were ideological opponents of Jesus. However, unlike the Sadducees (see below), He turned against them, so to speak, "constructive" criticism, hoping at least for a fruitful dispute, dialogue (cf. Lk. 7, 36) or even sympathy (cf. Lk. 13, 31). There were also cases of direct conversion: Nicodemus (see John 3, 1; 19, 39), apparently, was not the only exception (see Acts 15, 5). It was among the Pharisees that the first Christians could meet at least some, if not understanding, then at least a restrained, wary desire "to do no harm." Thus, Gamaliel, a prominent Pharisaic authority in the Sanhedrin, proclaimed the principle that saved Christians at that moment from persecution: 38 If this enterprise and this business are from men, then it will be destroyed, 39 but if from God, then you cannot destroy it; beware lest you turn out to be enemies of God (Acts 5:38-39). It is also worth remembering that when the Pharisees were faced with the choice of which side to take in the dispute between the Sadducees and Christians, they chose the latter (see Acts 23:6-9). True, with the skillful presentation of the former Pharisee Paul, experienced in the intricacies of the Pharisees-Sadducees.

Publicans

Here it is necessary to emphasize the distinction between tax collectors (gabbaja) and toll collectors or tax collectors (mokesa). Tax collectors, whose duty it was to levy direct taxes (head and land), were in New Testament times government officials who were traditionally drawn from respectable families and had to distribute taxes to taxable residents; at the same time, they were responsible for non-receipt of taxes with their property. Publicans, on the other hand, were subtenants of wealthy tax-farmers (Lk. 19:2, senior publican), who bought the right to collect duties in a given territory at an auction. The custom of renting out tolls was apparently widespread throughout Palestine, both in the areas ruled by kings of the line of Herod and in those that were colonized by the Romans. It is clear why the hatred of the population was directed precisely at the publicans. There is no doubt that the tax collectors also allowed the policemen who guarded and protected them to exceed their powers (Lk. 3, 14). However, the publicans were incomparably more susceptible to the temptation to cheat, since they were under any circumstances to collect the rent plus additional profit. They took advantage of the fact that the population did not know the customs tariffs and shamelessly lined their pockets.” - Jeremias I. S. 131-2.

arch. Sorokin Alexander "Christ and the Church in the New Testament"

Questions to understand the meaning

Did the Pharisee and the publican evaluate themselves objectively?
Does what the Pharisee boast about matter to God? What does God expect from us?
What is wrong with the Pharisee's prayer and his thoughts?
What is the correctness of the publican's prayer?
How does the publican relate to God?
Why will the one who exalts himself be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted?
How could this parable be perceived by Jews listening to Christ? (see cultural-historical comments)

Craig Keener. Cultural-historical commentary

18:11. The Jews considered it their duty to thank God for their righteousness, and not take it for granted. The first listeners of this parable perceived the Pharisee not as a braggart, but as a person grateful to God for his piety. 18:12. The most pious fasted - without water, to the detriment of their health - two days a week (Monday and Thursday), at least during the dry season. ""The Pharisees meticulously paid tithes of everything - in fulfillment of the law (several different tithes ended up making up more than 20 percent of a person's personal income).
18:13. The standing posture with raised arms and gaze to the sky was a typical prayer posture. Hitting one's chest was an expression of mourning or grief, in this case "repentance for sin." The publican's prayer for mercy was not a deliberate act of regeneration, and therefore many of Jesus' contemporaries might consider it ineffective.
18:14. The conclusion that Jesus drew from this parable may have simply shocked His first listeners (see commentary on 18:11); today it is not perceived so sharply, because modern Christians are used to it. On the future change of life roles, cf.: 14:11 and 16:25.

Read the interpretation

Saint Nicholas of Serbia
Saint Theophan the Recluse
Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh

Saint Nicholas of Serbia
If I must boast, I will boast of my weakness.
2 Cor. 11, 30
The common people are accustomed to listening to the pompous and incomprehensible sermons of their proud teachers, scribes and Pharisees. But the goal of the preaching of the Pharisees was not so much to instruct and teach the people, but to show them the huge abyss separating the class of scribes from the people, so that from the depths of their ignorance they would look at them as a heavenly radiance, so that they would consider them prophets, through whose mouths the Lord Himself speaks. Oh, how gloomy and stern God must have seemed to this poor people, seeing such His chosen ones! The world was filled with false sermons that were not backed up by deeds. The world was hungry for truth. And Christ came into the world. In contrast to the arrogant teachings of the scribes, far from the vain Pharisees' aspirations, He began to speak to the people simply and clearly, with the only desire to instruct them. His speech was understandable to the ears and spirit of the common people, like a life-giving balm it fell on the heart, like clean air, refreshed and strengthened the soul. The Lord Jesus Christ touched the most sensitive strings of the soul of the people. He spoke to him in parables, for seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, and they do not understand (Matthew 13:13). The parables were clear and beautiful images that were engraved in the memory of those who heard them forever. The sermons of the scribes divided the people, severely separated them from the upper class, poured fear into their souls, confusing them with their allegories. Christ's sermons united people, brought them closer to God, gave them a taste of the joy of being children of one Father, for Christ was their Friend. The parables of Christ are just as powerful today; they act on human souls like a bolt of lightning. And today the power of God is working in them, opening the eyes of the blind and the hearing of the deaf, and today they comfort, heal and strengthen; All have become friends of Christ, whose enemy the world has become.

The Gospel gives us one of those parables that work wonders, unfolds one of the living and most beautiful pictures, which is so fresh, as if only today the master's hand has put the final touch on it. More than once we have seen it - and every time you read the Gospel, it again appears before your eyes as a work of the greatest Artist, as a masterpiece of the Savior; The more you look at her, the more she surprises and delights. A person must look at this picture all his life, so that, dying, he can say that he has penetrated into it in all its depth. The Jewish temple is empty. Complete silence under its vaults, Cherubim spread their wings over the ark of the covenant. But what disturbs this solemn heavenly peace? Whose hoarse voice tears apart the marvelous harmony of the house of the Lord? Because of whom did the Cherubims frown their faces? Through the crowd, hunched over, a man with a sad face makes his way; he walks as if he considers himself unworthy to tread the earth; picking up the skirts of his clothes and pulling his head into his shoulders, he presses his hands to his body, trying to take up as little space as possible, looks around cautiously so as not to hurt anyone, not to push, bowing low, smiling humbly, greets everyone. So this man, before whom all the people parted and to whom they showed signs of high respect, entered the temple. But what kind of change suddenly happened to him? Now he straightened up, his silk clothes straightened and rustled, the sadly humble expression of his face became bold and commanding, his timid steps became firm and confident. He steps so hard, as if the earth was guilty before him; quickly crossed the temple and stopped in front of the Holy of Holies. Arms on his hips, he raised his head, and it was from his lips that the very creaky voice that broke the silence of the temple was heard. It was a Pharisee who came to the temple to pray to God: Lord, I fast twice a week, I give tithes from my property, I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican. This is how the Pharisee prayed. What am I saying? No, he did not pray - he blasphemed God and people and the holy place on which he stood. I am not like this publican. In the meantime, a man stood at the entrance, increasing the divine silence of the temple with his humility, until the Pharisee entered it. Small and insignificant, like an ant before a giant, stood the publican before the Lord. He was one of those whom the Pharisees despised as sinners, and who, along with the rest of the people, bowed in the street to the hypocritical chosen ones. He bashfully hid in a far corner of the temple, crushed by the feeling of his own sinfulness, and the trembling from the presence of God poured horror and shame into his soul; repentance, the most sincere repentance, permeated his whole being. The only thing he could afford at that moment were the words that he uttered, lowering his head low and hitting his chest: God! have mercy on me a sinner! . Here is a pale copy of this incomparable gospel picture. Here is a parable in which Christ briefly, but beautifully and exhaustively, outlined two types of people inhabiting the world, who are full of not only Jewish, but any human society. This is just one fleeting episode in the lives of both, the moment when they face God face to face outside the daily hustle and bustle of life. On one side stands majestic and powerful, one of those who are called blind leaders of the blind; who love to sit at feasts and sit in synagogues, who, as it were, embody wisdom and strength, which the common man does not dare to approach, for they seem to sting with hellish fire; who are called shepherds of the flock of God, who see the mote in another's eye, but do not notice the beam in their own; the coffins are painted, beautiful and shiny on the outside, but full of filth inside; hypocrites who turn the flock of God into a flock of the dumb, the sons of light into miserable slaves, the house of God into a den of robbers. On the other side are the poor in spirit and the poor in hypocrisy. The people of God, persecuted and oppressed, who can only listen and believe, whose trust is so easily deceived, who is so easily seduced, robbed, enslaved; who walks a thorny path in this world, to pave the way for those in authority and strew their way with roses; who fights without weapons against those who are armed, without knowledge and wisdom against those who possess them; whose life is devoid of pleasures and who finds the only sweetness of life in the hope of God. Some teachers, other students. Some masters, others slaves. Some are deceivers, others are deceived. Some robbers, others robbed. One Pharisee, another publican.

Both made a prayer and left the temple. The publican is comforted by prayer and strengthened by hope, with a light heart and a bright face, on which the words of Christ seem to shine: of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Pharisee - with the same measure of pride and arrogance in relation to God and people, with the same feeling of contempt for everyone, with a gloomy brow on which one could write: "Citizen of hell"! In this parable, Christ embraced the whole world. There is no person on earth who would not recognize himself in one of them. Don't we see both of them every day? In court, on the road, in the villages, in the cities, on the streets, in the church - everywhere they are the only ones. They are born together and die together. They breathe the same air, they are warmed by the same sun, always together, everywhere together - and yet apart, for some are tax collectors, and others are Pharisees. I know more Pharisees than publicans. And, looking at them, I see that even today they do not differ at all from their gospel predecessor, which Jesus Christ portrayed. And today they are doing the same thing. Those, the first, condemned and crucified Christ; modern Pharisees are doing the same thing: they are preparing the Calvary of innocence. Under the guise of humility and modesty, even today they hide the abyss of personal ambitions and vain aspirations. Even today they seduce the gullible world with their cunning, seduce the foolish with their poisonous smiles. And today, with false self-praise, they pour poison into the air, by the way of their existence they break the harmony of the world. They are clever defenders of untruth, outstanding advocates of darkness, successive heirs of Anna and Caiaphas. You will easily recognize them. You do not have to look for them: they are forcibly imposed on you, they themselves climb into your eyes. Wherever you turn, you will see them; they grow like weeds; stand on tiptoe to be seen, squeal to be heard. If only not to remain in the shadows - this is the motto of their life. They impose their friendship on you, shake hands with you, look into your eyes affectionately, from time to time they praise you along with themselves. But their friendship is bitter, and their enmity is terrible; their love is a veil for an evil and poisonous heart, and their hatred knows no bounds. If there were no such people in the world, then there would be no need for Christ to come to earth. If it weren’t for them, the descendants of the Eden serpent, whose craftiness and poisonous envy they let into their blood, the Divine Blood would not have been shed on the earth. But in order to stifle hypocrisy, in order to cleanse this poison from the human heart, in order to set an example of true friendship, in order to make publicans out of the Pharisees, the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Publicans are the sons of light who seek the will of God more than human, who do not expect praise from people, for they know that what is high among people is an abomination before God (Luke 16:15). These people are only in the temple before the face of God - ants, and among the people they are giants, against whom the pharisaical malice is broken. These are the lights of people, the pioneers of human happiness, although people sometimes do not even notice them and do not pay them honors! They do not expect gratitude from the world, for they know that the world with the same mouth praises both good and evil, and the Pharisees and publicans. I tell you that this one is more justified than that one,” Jesus ended His parable with these words. The Pharisee boasted before God of virtues that he did not have, so he left the temple gloomy, for he knew that he did not find praise from God. And he again put on the clothes of hypocrisy, in order to somehow flatter his vanity before people. The publican, who confessed only his infirmities before God, received justification, so now he goes through life, not caring about what they say or think about him: he is justified by God and human judgment does not matter to him. The publican goes freely, for he is sure that God's help is with him. He knows his weaknesses, but he also knows his virtue. He is well aware of human ignorance and the omniscience of God, therefore he does not exalt himself before people, not being able to tell God anything that is unknown to Him. Therefore, the whole prayer of the publican comes down to the words: God! have mercy on me a sinner. He understands that he stands before the Creator, who knows him better than he knows himself. Realizing the greatness of God and his weakness before Him, following the Apostle Paul, he repeats a hundred times: If I must boast, then I will boast of my weakness.

Saint Theophan the Recluse
Thoughts for each day of the year according to church readings from the Word of God
Yesterday the Gospel taught us perseverance in prayer, and now it teaches us humility or a sense of lack of rights to hear. Do not arrogate to yourself the right to hear, but proceed to prayer as unworthy of any attention, and giving yourself the boldness to open your mouth and lift up prayer to God according to the Lord’s one limitless condescension towards us. And the thought does not come to you: I did this and that; give me something. Whatever you do, take it for granted; you had to do everything. If I hadn’t done it, I would have been punished, and what I did, there’s nothing to reward for, you didn’t show anything special. There the Pharisee listed his right to be heard, and walked out of the church with nothing. It's not bad that he did as he said; he ought to have done so, and the bad thing is that he presented that as something special, while having done that, he should not have thought about it. - Deliver us, Lord, from this Pharisaic sin! Words rarely speak like that, but in the feeling of the heart, rarely does anyone not be like that. For why do they pray badly? Because they feel that they are already in order before God.

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh
This parable puts us before the face of human and divine judgment. The Pharisee enters the temple and stands before God. He is sure that he has the right to do this, because his behavior to the smallest detail corresponds to the law that God Himself gave to His people, not to mention the countless rules that the elders of the people and the Pharisees developed on the basis of this law, turning them into a touchstone of piety. The region of God is his own; he belongs to it, he stands up for God - God will stand up for him. The Kingdom of God is the realm of the law, and the one who obeys the law, who stands for it, is unconditionally righteous. The Pharisee is completely at the mercy of the formal Old Testament vision of things; in terms of this covenant, keeping the law can make a person righteous. But the law could not do one thing: it could not give Eternal Life, because Eternal Life consists in knowing God and Jesus Christ sent by Him (see John 17, 3), knowing His knowledge not externally, as was the knowledge of the Pharisee, like the All-Powerful Legislator, but by knowledge based on close personal relationships, common life (You are in Me, and I am in you. John 14, 20). The Pharisee knows everything about how to act, but knows nothing about how to be. In all his righteous life, he never encountered one, he never understood that there could be a relationship of mutual love between God and him. He never looked for her, he never met the God of Isaiah, Who is so holy that all our righteousness is before Him like filthy clothes... He is sure that there is an unchanging, once and for all established, frozen relationship between the Creator and His creation. He did not see in the Holy Scriptures the story of God's love for the world, which God created and loved so much that he gave His Only Begotten Son for its salvation. He lives within the framework of the Covenant, understood by him as a transaction, outside of any personal relationships whatsoever. He sees in God the law, not the Person. He sees no reason to condemn himself; he is righteous, cold, dead.

Do we not recognize ourselves in this image, and not only ourselves, but entire groups of people? 06 this is excellently stated in the following lines:
Only we are the chosen ones of the Lord,
The rest is cursed for ages
They have enough space in the underworld,
Why do we need a crowd of them in paradise?
The publican knows that he is unrighteous; both God's law and human judgment testify to this. He breaks God's law and uses it to his advantage. By deceit or impudence, depending on the circumstances, he violates human laws and turns them to his own advantage, and therefore he is hated and despised by other people. And so, having come to the temple, he does not dare to cross its threshold, because the temple is a place of the Presence, and he has no right to enter into the Presence of God, he is afraid of this meeting. He stops and sees a sacred space in front of him, as if emphasizing the immeasurable greatness of God and the infinite distance between him and holiness, God. The temple is as great as the Presence Itself, it is awe-inspiring, it is full of tragedy and condemnation, which brings with it a confrontation between sin and holiness. And then, on the basis of the merciless cruel experience of human life, an immeasurably deep and sincere prayer breaks out from him: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." What does he know about life? He knows that the law, applied in full force, brings suffering; that with the unlimited power of the law there is no place for mercy, this law he uses and abuses to catch his debtors, to drive his victim into a corner; he knows how to contrive and remain right before this law, sending bankrupt debtors to prison; he can always count on the protection of this law, despite the fact that he himself ruthlessly, mercilessly profits and accumulates unrighteous wealth. And at the same time, his life experience taught him something else that defies logic and runs counter to his own ideas. He remembers that both in his own life and in the lives of those like him, heartless and cruel, there were moments when, having the full force of the law on his side, he faced the grief and horror that he brought on an unfortunate family, with the torment of his mother, with the tears of a child; and at the very moment when everything seemed to be in his power, he, stunning his associates, contrary to their ruthless logic, contrary to the law, contrary to common sense and his usual behavior, suddenly stopped and, looking with a sad or even soft smile, said : "Okay, leave them." He probably knows that he himself has been saved more than once from ruin and death, prison and dishonor, thanks to an absurd, unconscious impulse of friendship, generosity or pity, and these actions put an end to the terrible law of the jungle of his world. Something in him had outgrown the limits of stern inflexibility; in a world of evil, the only thing one can hope for is such outbursts of compassion or solidarity. And here he stands at the threshold of the temple, which he cannot enter, because the law reigns there and justice reigns, because every stone here cries out for his condemnation; he stands at the threshold and begs for mercy. He does not ask for justice - that would be a violation of justice. The great ascetic of the seventh century, Saint Isaac the Syrian, wrote: “Never call God just. If He were just, you would have been in hell a long time ago. Rely only on His injustice, in which there is mercy, love and forgiveness. This is the position of the publican, and this is what he learned about life.

We can learn a lot from him. Why don't we humbly and patiently, in a vague or clear consciousness of our sinfulness, stand, like him, on the threshold? Can we claim the right to meet God face to face? Can we, as we are, qualify for a place in His kingdom? If he decides to come to us, as he did in the Incarnation, in the days of His carnal life and throughout human history, as our Savior and Redeemer, let us fall at His feet in amazement and gratitude! In the meantime, we will stand at the door and cry out: “If You, Lord, notice iniquity, who will stand? Lord, take me to Your realm, to the realm of mercy, and not to the realm of truth and retribution!” But we do not allow mercy to manifest, we turn to the law and become Pharisees - not by imitating their harsh, costly fidelity to the law, but by sharing their way of thinking, from which hope and love are withdrawn. The Pharisee, at least, was righteous in terms of the law; we cannot even boast of this, and yet we imagine ourselves worthy to stand before God. If only we would stop at the lintel and, with humility, knock timidly, waiting for an invitation to enter in response, we would hear with amazement and delight that on the other side, too, Someone is knocking: Behold, I stand at the door and knock, says the Lord ( Rev. 3:20). Perhaps we would see that the door is not locked on His side; it is locked from our side, our hearts are sealed; our heart is narrow, we are so afraid to take risks, to reject the law and enter the realm of love, where everything is as fragile and invincible as love itself, as life. God does not stop knocking hopefully, persistently and patiently; He knocks through people, through circumstances, through the quiet, weak voice of our conscience, like a beggar knocking at the gates of a rich man, because, having chosen poverty, He expects our love and mercy to open to Him the depths of the human heart. In order for Him to come and dine with us, it is necessary for us to cast aside our stony hearts and replace them with hearts of flesh (see Ezekiel II, 19); in return, He offers forgiveness and freedom. He Himself is looking for a meeting with us. In the experience of Christianity, this theme of encounter is central; it underlies all salvation history, all human history. It is at the heart of the New Testament gospel. In the Old Testament, to see God was to die; in the New Testament, meeting God means life. The modern Christian world is becoming more and more aware that the whole Gospel can be perceived by thought, experience, life as an unceasingly renewed meeting, in which both salvation and judgment are contained. Long before the events of the New Testament, God's first act of creation is already a meeting that God desired and called into reality; the whole created world rises from non-existence and with a sense of primordial amazement discovers the Creator, the Living God, the Giver of Life, and every other of His creation, the work of His hands. What a marvel! What a miracle! What a joy!.. This is how the process of becoming begins, which will someday lead us to such an overabundance of life, which the apostle Paul describes, saying: God will be all in all, when a person becomes, according to the word of the apostle Peter, partakers of the Divine nature, receives participation in Divine nature. This is the first meeting, the first step on the path that will lead to a final meeting, not just a face-to-face meeting, but to communion, to a common life - to a perfect and wonderful unity, which will be our fullness. And when a person turned away from his Creator, when he found himself alone and orphaned in a world that he himself had betrayed, having betrayed God and renouncing his calling, this mysterious meeting continued, but in a different way. God has sent His prophets, saints, messengers, and judges to remind us of the path that will lead us back to Him and to ourselves. And when everything was prepared, the main meeting took place, the meeting par excellence (the main meeting, meeting in the full sense of the word - French), the greatest Meeting in the Incarnation, when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Word became flesh, the fullness of the Godhead was revealed through matter itself. A comprehensive, cosmic meeting in which both human history and the entire cosmos have potentially found their fulfillment. God became man, He dwelt among us; He could be seen, perceived by the senses, He could be touched. He performed healings. The words that we now read and repeat were spoken by Him and gave life to people - new life, eternal life. And around Him people — men, women, children — met each other, and it was such a meeting that they had never experienced before and had not even dreamed of. They had seen each other before, but in the presence of the Living God they saw in each other what they had not seen before. And this meeting, which is both salvation and judgment, continues from century to century. As at the beginning of everything, we are in the presence of our God. As in the time of Christ, we stand face to face with a God who desired to become a man; as before, from day to day people who recognized in Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God, and through Him who saw the Father, meet each other in a completely new way. This meeting takes place all the time, but our consciousness is so clouded that we pass by its meaning, its boundless possibilities, but also by what it requires of us. A real meeting, in the full sense of the word, is extremely rare. Human paths cross, people collide with each other - how many people pass us in one single day, completely unaware of us? And how many do we look at with an unseeing eye, not giving them a glance, a word, or a smile? And at the same time, each of these people is the Presence, the image of the Living God; and, perhaps, God sent them to us with some kind of message, or vice versa, through us they should have received a message from God - a word, a gesture, a look full of recognition or sympathy and understanding. To run into a person on the street or in life at the behest of a crowd or an accident is not yet a meeting. We must learn to look and see, to look attentively, thoughtfully, peering into the features of the face, its expression, the content of this expression, the content of the eyes. Each of us must learn to see deeply the other, to peer patiently and spare no time to understand who is in front of us; this also applies to entire human groups - social, political, racial, national. We all belong to human societies that have lived in division or hostility for centuries. For hundreds of years, at times, we turned away, did not want to look into each other's eyes, diverged further and further. Then we stopped and looked back to finally look at the one who was our brother, but became a stranger, even an enemy. But we were still too far away and could not see his face, let alone the image of God in him. This is how the Pharisee looked at the publican; this is how nations, classes, churches, individuals look at each other.

We must embark on a real pilgrimage, a long journey. We are already close enough to look into each other's eyes, and thereby penetrate deep into a living heart, understand the soul, evaluate actions in order to draw thoughtful and balanced conclusions from this newly acquired vision about the thoughts, intentions and aspirations of another person who is no less than we, wanted to understand and fulfill the will of God. All this requires a lot of good will. It is easy to see in another what repels us, what makes him a stranger, just as easy as seeing only attractive features in those who share our beliefs. But it's very hard to be fair. We are accustomed to think of justice in terms of rewarding or repaying everyone according to their deserts; but justice goes further and requires much more of us. It begins at the moment when I see between myself and my neighbor (individual or collective) a difference, sometimes insurmountable, and I recognize his full right to be such, accepting as a fact that he does not have to be a simple reflection of me. He is also created by God, like me; he was not made in my image, but in the image of God. He is called to be like God, not me; and if he seems to me too different from God, alien to Him, if he seems to be a disgusting caricature, and not the image of God, does he not have sufficient grounds to see me like that? We are all rather disgusting, but also very pathetic, and we should look at each other with great compassion. But the assertion of this fundamental act of justice involves risk and danger. First, physical danger: to accept those who love us with a possessive love, and not be internally broken, not to make them responsible for this, is difficult enough; but to accept an enemy who denies us and rejects us, who would be glad to wipe us off the face of the earth, is already a very costly act of justice. And, however, it must be done, and this can only be done in love and mercy (let me remind you that the word "mercy" is related to the expression "from a good heart" and has nothing to do with reluctant charity), which found its highest expression after the Last Supper in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the Cross of Christ. Recognizing the other person's right to be himself and not a reflection of me is a fundamental act of justice; only this will allow us to look at a person, not trying to see and recognize ourselves in him, but recognizing him, moreover, or rather, in his depths, to recognize the image of God. But this is more risky than we realize: such a confession may endanger our existence or wholeness.

I'll give you an example. During the Russian Revolution, a young woman was imprisoned. Days in solitary confinement and night interrogations dragged on. On one of these nights, she felt that her strength was running out, that her readiness to persevere began to leave her, and suddenly she felt hatred and anger rising in her heart. She wanted to look into the interrogator's eyes, to challenge him with all the hatred she was capable of, in order to somehow end this nightmare of endless nightly torment, even if for this she would have to pay with her life. She did look, but said nothing, because on the other side of the table she saw a deathly pale, exhausted man, as exhausted as herself, with the same expression of despair and suffering on his face. And suddenly she realized that, in fact, they are not enemies. Yes, they sat on opposite sides of the table, there was an irreconcilable confrontation between them, but at the same time they were victims of the same historical tragedy; the maelstrom of history drew them in and threw one in one direction, another in another; both were not free, both were victims. And at that moment, because she saw in another person the same victim as herself, she realized that this is also a person, and not just an official. He was not an enemy, he was the same unfortunate, inseparable from her prisoner of tragedy, And she smiled at him. It was an act of recognition, an act of supreme justice. But it is not enough just to look in order to see, one must also learn to listen in order to hear. How often in a conversation, when opinions diverge or clash, while the interlocutor tries to convey his views to us and opens his heart, letting us into the recesses, often the sacred recesses of his soul, instead of hearing him, we choose the appropriate material from his words, so that, as soon as he stops (if we have the patience to wait for this moment), to object to him. We mistakenly call this a dialogue: one speaks and the other does not listen. Then the interlocutors switch roles, so that by the end each has spoken out, but no one has listened to the other. Listening is an art that must be learned. We must not hear words and judge by them, and not even expressions - we ourselves use them. We must listen with such intense attention that behind the words, often imperfect, we catch a fleeting glimpse of truth, a thought seeking to express itself, however dimly and approximately; the truth of the heart that strives to bring to our consciousness its treasures and its struggles. But alas! As a rule, we are content with words and give an answer to them. If we dared to do a little more and listen, for example, to the intonation of a voice, we would find that the simplest words are full of anxiety; and then we would have to respond to this anxiety with compassion, love, participation. But it's very dangerous! And we prefer to listen to the words and not respond to the rest, we remain deaf to their spirit, although the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. What to do if we want to learn to see and hear? The first condition has already been stated above: we must recognize and accept the otherness of the other; he is different from me and has a right to be, but I have no right to resent it or expect him to become what I am. But to see it for what it is, I must get close enough to see everything that needs to be seen, but not so close that I can't see the forest through the trees. An example will help us to understand this; when we want to see a sculpture, a statue, we go a little distance. This distance is not the same for everyone, it depends on who sees how, whether we are short-sighted or far-sighted; everyone needs to find that point in space - a kind of middle ground between remoteness and closeness - that will allow him (perhaps only him) to best see both the whole and every significant detail. If the distance is too great, we will see not a sculpture, but a stone block, more and more shapeless as we move away from it. On the contrary, if we get too close, the details will begin to take on excessive importance, and if we get too close, then they will disappear, and we will only see the texture of the stone. But in either case, nothing will remain of the impression that the sculpture was supposed to make on us. Similarly, we must learn to see each other: to step back, to be at such a distance that allows us to free ourselves from ridiculous egocentric reactions, prejudices and all kinds of erroneous judgments resulting from emotional confusion; but also in such proximity, in which personal relationships, responsibility, involvement are felt. This requires an effort of will and genuine self-denial. It is not difficult to establish a harmonious relationship with the statue. It is much more difficult to move some distance from someone we love, or to get closer to someone who is unpleasant to us. To do this, to conquer both fear and greed, we must let go of our self, stop seeing everything as if we are the center of the universe. We must learn to see everything objectively, as facts that we can accept and study, without first asking what effect this person or this event can have on me personally, on my well-being, on my safety, on my very existence. One must be dispassionate enough to be able to look into the depths through the outer layers and despite the evidence, as Christ was able to do - remember the calling of Matthew, the contemptible tax collector. How far is this approach of Christ from our terrible gift to see through clear or translucent layers of light the duality of the twilight of human imperfection or the darkness of the still unenlightened, but so rich in possibilities of inner chaos. Instead of believing everything, hoping for everything, we not only judge by actions, rejecting the concept of the “presumption of innocence”; we question people's motives, we question their very intentions. We must ruthlessly fight our habit of judging everything from your tiny bell tower, “Reject yourself” – this is how Christ defined the first step on the path to the Kingdom. To put it even more sharply, when we notice that instead of seeing and hearing someone, we are absorbed in ourselves, we should turn to this “I” that is blocking our way and exclaim with anger: “Get away from Me, Satan (in Hebrew, “Satan” means “rival”, “enemy”), you are not thinking about what is God! Get out of my way, you're annoying me!" The publican knew that he was bad in the eyes of God and according to human judgment, he instinctively learned to turn away from himself, because there is little joy in contemplating his own ugliness. The Pharisee could look at himself smugly because, at least in his eyes, his personality fully corresponded to the model of righteousness, he considered his life a perfect reflection of the law of God. And therefore, he quite sincerely admired this vision, the contemplation of the perfect realization of Divine wisdom, which he considered himself to be.

Pious reader, do not rush to laugh at him or righteously indignant! Ask yourself, you, a good Christian, a law-abiding citizen, an executive member of our society full of conventions, how far have you gone from it ... To see yourself, your "I" as an "enemy and adversary", as the only thing that stands in God's path, what is required is not only a moment's reflection, but such an understanding is achieved by a courageous and strenuous struggle. “Shed your blood and receive the Spirit,” says one of the ascetics of the desert. This is exactly what God did to us. He brought us into being by his will. He created us in all radiant innocence and purity, and when we betrayed both Him and the whole created world, when we betrayed our calling, turned away from Him and treacherously betrayed creation into the power of the prince of this world, He accepted a new situation, accepted us as such, what we have become, and accepted the world in its distorted state. He became a man, became the crucified Christ, was rejected by people, because he stood for God, and endured the God-forsakenness of the Cross, because he stood for man. So God answered man's challenge; He received us in an act of justice that is infinitely far removed from our notions of retribution. He affirms our right to be ourselves, but knowing how madly we chose death over life, Satan over Him our God, He chose to become a man among men so that we could be deified so that we could be grafted into the living vine, the living olive tree (see Roman Chapter II). In addition, He knew how to listen. In the Gospels we see how Christ listens, how He sees, how He notices and singles out in the crowd a person who needs Him, is needed, or who is ready to answer His call. See how completely He surrenders and plunges into the horror of the Crucifixion, the horror of our death. And at the same time, He is free, sovereign, always remains Himself, despite storms, trials, danger, risk and their cost, and fearlessly makes God's absolute demand: we must live and enter into Eternal Life. So let's not pass by the fact: Christ knows each of us and accepts us as we are, and pays for our deeds in order to open the gates of Eternal Life to us. At the Last Supper He said to His disciples: I have given you an example that you should do the same as I did to you (John 13:15). Isn't that where you should start? Doesn't the Apostle call us: Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you...? Looking at the publican in the presence of God and seeing his own condemnation, the Pharisee could have discovered in the man he so despised his brother. But he missed the meeting with God; and how could he stand in awe, how could he see another, recognize his neighbor in him, see the image of God in him, when he did not see his prototype - God Himself? .. Sometimes, in moments of revelation, in sorrow or in joy, we see and recognize each other; but here we are, like a Pharisee, crossing the threshold, and our ability to see deeply is fading, and when we meet a brother or sister whom we have recently recognized, we again see a stranger and extinguish all their hope. How different the words of the Apostle Paul sound: Great sorrow for me and unceasing torment in my heart: I would like to be excommunicated from Christ for the sake of the salvation of all Israel.

Questions and interpretations prepared
Tatiana Zaitseva

He also said to some who were sure of themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, the following parable: two people entered the temple to pray: one Pharisee, and the other publican. The Pharisee, standing up, prayed in himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything that I get. The publican, standing in the distance, did not even dare to raise his eyes to the sky; but, striking his chest, he said: God! Have mercy on me a sinner! I tell you that this one went down to his house justified rather than that one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.(Luke 18:9-14).

This parable puts us before the face of human and divine judgment. The Pharisee enters the temple and stands before God. He is sure that he has the right to do this, because his behavior to the smallest detail corresponds to the law that God Himself gave to His people, not to mention the countless rules that the elders of the people and the Pharisees developed on the basis of this law, turning them into a touchstone of piety. The region of God is his own; he belongs to it, he stands up for God - God will stand up for him. The Kingdom of God is the realm of the law, and the one who obeys the law, who stands for it, is unconditionally righteous. The Pharisee is completely at the mercy of the formal Old Testament vision of things; in terms of this covenant, keeping the law can make a person righteous. But the law could not do one thing: it could not give Eternal Life, because Eternal Life consists in knowing God and Jesus Christ sent by Him (see John 17, 3), knowing His knowledge not externally, as was the knowledge of the Pharisee, like the All-Powerful Legislator, but knowledge based on close personal relationships, common life ( You are in Me and I am in you. In. 14, 20). The Pharisee knows everything about how act, but knows nothing about how to be. In all his righteous life, he never encountered one, he never understood that there could be a relationship of mutual love between God and him. He never looked for her, he never met the God of Isaiah, who is so holy that before Him all our righteousness is like filthy rags… He is sure that between the Creator and His creation there is an unchanging, once and for all established, frozen relationship. He did not see in the Holy Scriptures the story of God's love for the world, which God created and loved so much that he gave His Only Begotten Son for its salvation. He lives within the framework of the Covenant, understood by him as a transaction, outside of any personal relationships whatsoever. He sees in God the law, not the Person. He sees no reason to condemn himself; he is righteous, cold, dead.
Do we not recognize ourselves in this image, and not only ourselves, but entire groups of people? 06 this is excellently stated in the following lines:

Only we are the chosen ones of the Lord,

The rest is cursed forever

They have enough space in the underworld,

Why do we need a crowd of them in paradise?

The publican knows that he is unrighteous; both God's law and human judgment testify to this. He breaks God's law and uses it to his advantage. By deceit or impudence, depending on the circumstances, he violates human laws and turns them to his own advantage, and therefore he is hated and despised by other people. And so, having come to the temple, he does not dare to cross its threshold, because the temple is a place of the Presence, and he has no right to enter into the Presence of God, he is afraid of this meeting. He stops and sees a sacred space in front of him, as if emphasizing the immeasurable greatness of God and the infinite distance between him and holiness, God. The temple is as great as the Presence Itself, it is awe-inspiring, it is full of tragedy and condemnation, which brings with it a confrontation between sin and holiness. And then, on the basis of the merciless cruel experience of human life, an immeasurably deep and sincere prayer breaks out from him: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." What does he know about life? He knows that the law, applied in full force, brings suffering; that with the unlimited power of the law there is no place for mercy, this law he uses and abuses to catch his debtors, to drive his victim into a corner; he knows how to contrive and remain right before this law, sending bankrupt debtors to prison; he can always count on the protection of this law, despite the fact that he himself ruthlessly, mercilessly profits and accumulates unrighteous wealth.

And at the same time, his life experience taught him something else that defies logic and runs counter to his own ideas. He remembers that both in his own life and in the lives of those like him, heartless and cruel, there were moments when, having the full force of the law on his side, he faced the grief and horror that he brought on an unfortunate family, with the torment of his mother, with the tears of a child; and at the very moment when everything seemed to be in his power, he, stunning his associates, contrary to their ruthless logic, contrary to the law, contrary to common sense and his usual behavior, suddenly stopped and, looking with a sad or even soft smile, said : "Okay, leave them."

He probably knows that he himself has been saved more than once from ruin and death, prison and dishonor, thanks to an absurd, unconscious impulse of friendship, generosity or pity, and these actions put an end to the terrible law of the jungle of his world. Something in him had outgrown the limits of stern inflexibility; in a world of evil, the only thing one can hope for is such outbursts of compassion or solidarity. And here he stands at the threshold of the temple, which he cannot enter, because the law reigns there and justice reigns, because every stone here cries out for his condemnation; he stands at the threshold and begs for mercy. He does not ask for justice - that would be a violation of justice. The great ascetic of the seventh century, Saint Isaac the Syrian, wrote: “Never call God just. If He were just, you would have been in hell a long time ago. Rely only on His injustice, in which there is mercy, love and forgiveness.

This is the position of the publican, and this is what he learned about life. We can learn a lot from him. Why don't we humbly and patiently, in a vague or clear consciousness of our sinfulness, stand, like him, on the threshold? Can we claim the right to meet God face to face? Can we, as we are, qualify for a place in His kingdom? If he decides to come to us, as he did in the Incarnation, in the days of His carnal life and throughout human history, as our Savior and Redeemer, let us fall at His feet in amazement and gratitude! In the meantime, we will stand at the door and cry out: “If you, O Lord, will notice iniquity, who will stand? Lord, take me to Your realm, to the realm of mercy, and not to the realm of truth and retribution!”

But we do not allow mercy to manifest, we turn to the law and become Pharisees - not by imitating their harsh, costly fidelity to the law, but by sharing their way of thinking, from which hope and love are withdrawn. The Pharisee, at least, was righteous in terms of the law; we cannot even boast of this, and yet we imagine ourselves worthy to stand before God. If only we had stopped at the lintel and, with humility, knocked timidly, waiting for an invitation to enter in response, we would have heard with amazement and admiration that on the other side, too, Someone was knocking: Behold, I stand at the door and knock, says the Lord(Rev. 3:20). Perhaps we would see that the door is not locked on His side; it is locked from our side, our hearts are sealed; our heart is narrow, we are so afraid to take risks, to reject the law and enter the realm of love, where everything is as fragile and invincible as love itself, as life. God does not stop knocking hopefully, persistently and patiently; He knocks through people, through circumstances, through the quiet, weak voice of our conscience, like a beggar knocking at the gates of a rich man, because, having chosen poverty, He expects our love and mercy to open to Him the depths of the human heart. In order for Him to come and dine with us, it is necessary for us to cast aside our stony hearts and replace them with hearts of flesh (see Ezekiel II, 19); in return, He offers forgiveness and freedom.

He Himself is looking for a meeting with us. In the experience of Christianity, this theme of encounter is central; it underlies all salvation history, all human history. It is at the heart of the New Testament gospel. In the Old Testament, to see God was to die; in the New Testament, meeting God means life. The modern Christian world is becoming more and more aware that the whole Gospel can be perceived by thought, experience, life as an unceasingly renewed meeting, which contains both salvation and reality; the whole created world rises from non-existence and, with a sense of primordial amazement, discovers the Creator, the Living God, the Giver of life, and every other of His creation, the work of His hands. What a marvel! What a miracle! What joy!.. Thus begins the process of becoming, which someday will lead us to such an overabundance of life, which the apostle Paul describes, saying: God will be all in all when a person becomes, according to the word of the apostle Peter, partakers of the divine nature, will take part in the Divine nature.

This is the first meeting, the first step on the path that will lead to a final meeting, not just a face-to-face meeting, but to communion, to a common life - to a perfect and wonderful unity, which will be our fullness. And when a person turned away from his Creator, when he found himself alone and orphaned in a world that he himself had betrayed, having betrayed God and renouncing his calling, this mysterious meeting continued, but in a different way. God has sent His prophets, saints, messengers, and judges to remind us of the path that will lead us back to Him and to ourselves. And when everything was prepared, the main meeting took place, the meeting par excellence (the main meeting, meeting in the full sense of the word - French), the greatest Meeting in the Incarnation, when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Word became flesh, the fullness of the Godhead was revealed through matter itself. A comprehensive, cosmic meeting in which both human history and the entire cosmos have potentially found their fulfillment. God became man, He dwelt among us; He could be seen, perceived by the senses, He could be touched. He performed healings. The words that we now read and repeat were spoken by Him and gave life to people - new life, eternal life. And around Him people — men, women, children — met each other, and it was such a meeting that they had never experienced before and had not even dreamed of. They had seen each other before, but in the presence of the Living God they saw in each other what they had not seen before. And this meeting, which is both salvation and judgment, continues from century to century. As at the beginning of everything, we are in the presence of our God. As in the time of Christ, we stand face to face with a God who desired to become a man; as before, from day to day people who recognized in Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God, and through Him who saw the Father, meet each other in a completely new way. This meeting takes place all the time, but our consciousness is so clouded that we pass by its meaning, its boundless possibilities, but also by what it requires of us.

A real meeting, in the full sense of the word, is extremely rare. Human paths cross, people collide with each other - how many people pass us in one single day, completely unaware of us? And how many do we look at with an unseeing eye, not giving them a glance, a word, or a smile? And at the same time, each of these people is the Presence, the image of the Living God; and, perhaps, God sent them to us with some kind of message, or vice versa, through us they should have received a message from God - a word, a gesture, a look full of recognition or sympathy and understanding. To run into a person on the street or in life at the behest of a crowd or an accident is not yet a meeting. We must learn to look and see, to look attentively, thoughtfully, peering into the features of the face, its expression, the content of this expression, the content of the eyes. Each of us must learn to see deeply the other, to peer patiently and spare no time to understand who is in front of us; this also applies to entire human groups - social, political, racial, national.

We all belong to human societies that have lived in division or hostility for centuries. For hundreds of years, at times, we turned away, did not want to look into each other's eyes, diverged further and further. Then we stopped and looked back to finally look at the one who was our brother, but became a stranger, even an enemy. But we were still too far away and could not see his face, let alone the image of God in him. This is how the Pharisee looked at the publican; this is how nations, classes, churches, individuals look at each other.

We must embark on a real pilgrimage, a long journey. We are already close enough to look into each other's eyes, and thereby penetrate deep into a living heart, understand the soul, evaluate actions in order to draw thoughtful and balanced conclusions from this newly acquired vision about the thoughts, intentions and aspirations of another person who is no less than we, wanted to understand and fulfill the will of God. All this requires a lot of good will. It is easy to see in another what repels us, what makes him a stranger, just as easy as seeing only attractive features in those who share our beliefs.

But it's very hard to be fair. We are accustomed to think of justice in terms of rewarding or repaying everyone according to their deserts; but justice goes further and requires much more of us. It begins at the moment when I see between myself and my neighbor (individual or collective) a difference, sometimes insurmountable, and I recognize his full right to be such, accepting as a fact that he does not have to be a simple reflection of me. He is also created by God, like me; he was not made in my image, but in the image of God. He is called to be like God, not me; and if he seems to me too different from God, alien to Him, if he seems to be a disgusting caricature, and not the image of God, does he not have sufficient grounds to see me like that? We are all rather disgusting, but also very pathetic, and we should look at each other with great compassion.

But the assertion of this fundamental act of justice involves risk and danger. First, physical danger: to accept those who love us with a possessive love, and not be internally broken, not to make them responsible for this, is difficult enough; but to accept an enemy who denies us and rejects us, who would be glad to wipe us off the face of the earth, is already a very costly act of justice. And, however, it must be done, and this can only be done in love and mercy (let me remind you that the word "mercy" is related to the expression "from a good heart" and has nothing to do with reluctant charity), which found its highest expression after the Last Supper in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the Cross of Christ. Recognizing the other person's right to be himself and not a reflection of me is a fundamental act of justice; only this will allow us to look at a person, not trying to see and recognize ourselves in him, but recognizing him, moreover, or rather, in his depths, to recognize the image of God. But this is more risky than we realize: such a confession may endanger our existence or wholeness. I'll give you an example. During the Russian Revolution, a young woman was imprisoned. Days in solitary confinement and night interrogations dragged on. On one of these nights, she felt that her strength was running out, that her readiness to persevere began to leave her, and suddenly she felt hatred and anger rising in her heart. She wanted to look into the interrogator's eyes, to challenge him with all the hatred she was capable of, in order to somehow end this nightmare of endless nightly torment, even if for this she would have to pay with her life. She did look, but said nothing, because on the other side of the table she saw a deathly pale, exhausted man, as exhausted as herself, with the same expression of despair and suffering on his face. And suddenly she realized that, in fact, they are not enemies. Yes, they sat on opposite sides of the table, there was an irreconcilable confrontation between them, but at the same time they were victims of the same historical tragedy; the maelstrom of history drew them in and threw one in one direction, another in another; both were not free, both were victims. And at that moment, because she saw in another person the same victim as herself, she realized that this is also a person, and not just an official. He was not an enemy, he was the same unfortunate, inseparable from her prisoner of tragedy, And she smiled at him. It was an act of recognition, an act of supreme justice.

But it is not enough just to look in order to see, one must also learn to listen in order to hear. How often in a conversation, when opinions diverge or clash, while the interlocutor tries to convey his views to us and opens his heart, letting us into the recesses, often the sacred recesses of his soul, instead of hearing him, we choose the appropriate material from his words, so that, as soon as he stops (if we have the patience to wait for this moment), to object to him. We mistakenly call this a dialogue: one speaks and the other does not listen. Then the interlocutors switch roles, so that by the end each has spoken out, but no one has listened to the other.

Listening is an art that must be learned. We must not hear words and judge by them, and not even expressions - we ourselves use them. We must listen with such intense attention that behind the words, often imperfect, we catch a fleeting glimpse of truth, a thought seeking to express itself, however dimly and approximately; the truth of the heart that strives to bring to our consciousness its treasures and its struggles. But alas! As a rule, we are content with words and give an answer to them. If we dared to do a little more and listen, for example, to the intonation of a voice, we would find that the simplest words are full of anxiety; and then we would have to respond to this anxiety with compassion, love, participation. But it's very dangerous! And we prefer to listen to the words and not respond to the rest, we remain deaf to their spirit, although the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

What to do if we want to learn to see and hear? The first condition has already been stated above: we must recognize and accept the otherness of the other; he is different from me and has a right to be, but I have no right to resent it or expect him to become what I am. But to see it for what it is, I must get close enough to see everything that needs to be seen, but not so close that I can't see the forest through the trees. An example will help us to understand this; when we want to see a sculpture, a statue, we go a little distance. This distance is not the same for everyone, it depends on who sees how, whether we are short-sighted or far-sighted; everyone needs to find that point in space - a kind of middle ground between remoteness and closeness - that will allow him (perhaps only him) to best see both the whole and every significant detail. If the distance is too great, we will see not a sculpture, but a stone block, more and more shapeless as we move away from it. On the contrary, if we get too close, the details will begin to take on excessive importance, and if we get too close, then they will disappear, and we will only see the texture of the stone. But in either case, nothing will remain of the impression that the sculpture was supposed to make on us.

Similarly, we must learn to see each other: to step back, to be at such a distance that allows us to free ourselves from ridiculous egocentric reactions, prejudices and all kinds of erroneous judgments resulting from emotional confusion; but also in such proximity, in which personal relationships, responsibility, involvement are felt. This requires an effort of will and genuine self-denial. It is not difficult to establish a harmonious relationship with the statue. It is much more difficult to move some distance from someone we love, or to get closer to someone who is unpleasant to us. To do this, to conquer both fear and greed, we must let go of our self, stop seeing everything as if we are the center of the universe. We must learn to see everything objectively, as facts that we can accept and study, without first asking what effect this person or this event can have on me personally, on my well-being, on my safety, on my very existence. One must be dispassionate enough to be able to look into the depths through the outer layers and despite the evidence, as Christ was able to do - remember the calling of Matthew, the contemptible tax collector. How far is this approach of Christ from our terrible gift to see through clear or translucent layers of light the duality of the twilight of human imperfection or the darkness of the still unenlightened, but so rich in possibilities of inner chaos. Instead of believe in everything, hope for everything, we not only judge by actions, rejecting the concept of "presumption of innocence"; we question people's motives, we question their very intentions.

We must ruthlessly fight our habit of judging everything from your tiny bell tower, “Reject yourself” – this is how Christ defined the first step on the path to the Kingdom. To put it even more sharply, when we notice that instead of seeing and hearing someone, we are absorbed in ourselves, we should turn to this “I” that is blocking our way and exclaim with anger: “Get away from Me, Satan (in Hebrew, “Satan” means “rival”, “enemy”), you are not thinking about what is God! Get out of my way, you're annoying me!" The publican knew that he was bad in the eyes of God and according to human judgment, he instinctively learned to turn away from himself, because there is little joy in contemplating his own ugliness. The Pharisee could look at himself smugly because, at least in his eyes, his personality fully corresponded to the model of righteousness, he considered his life a perfect reflection of the law of God. And therefore, he quite sincerely admired this vision, the contemplation of the perfect realization of Divine wisdom, which he considered himself to be. Pious reader, do not rush to laugh at him or righteously indignant! Ask yourself, you, a good Christian, a law-abiding citizen, an executive member of our society full of conventions, how far have you gone from it ... To see yourself, your "I" as an "enemy and adversary", as the only thing that stands in God's path, what is required is not only a moment's reflection, but such an understanding is achieved by a courageous and strenuous struggle. “Shed your blood and receive the Spirit,” says one of the ascetics of the desert. This is exactly what God did to us. He brought us into being by his will. He created us in all radiant innocence and purity, and when we betrayed both Him and the whole created world, when we betrayed our calling, turned away from Him and treacherously betrayed creation into the power of the prince of this world, He accepted a new situation, accepted us as such, what we have become, and accepted the world in its distorted state. He became a man, became the crucified Christ, was rejected by people, because he stood for God, and endured the God-forsakenness of the Cross, because he stood for man. So God answered man's challenge; He received us in an act of justice that is infinitely far removed from our notions of retribution. He asserts our right to be ourselves, but knowing how madly we have chosen instead of life, Satan instead of Him, our God, He decided to become a man among people so that we could be deified, to graft us into the living vine, the living olive tree (see ch. Roman Chapter II).

In addition, He knew how to listen. In the Gospels we see how Christ listens, how He sees, how He notices and singles out in the crowd a person who needs Him, is needed, or who is ready to answer His call. See how completely He surrenders and plunges into the horror of the Crucifixion, the horror of our death. And at the same time, He is free, sovereign, always remains Himself, despite storms, trials, danger, risk and their cost, and fearlessly makes God's absolute demand: we must live and enter into Eternal Life.

So let's not pass by the fact: Christ knows each of us and accepts us as we are, and pays for our deeds in order to open the gates of Eternal Life to us. At the Last Supper He said to His disciples: I gave you an example for you to do as I did for you.(John 13:15). Isn't that where you should start? Doesn't the Apostle call us: Accept each other as Christ accepted you..?

Looking at the publican in the presence of God and seeing his own condemnation, the Pharisee could have discovered in the man he so despised his brother. But he missed the meeting with God; and how could he stand in reverence, how could he see another, recognize in him his neighbor, see the image of God in him, when he did not see his prototype - God Himself? ..

Sometimes, in moments of revelation, in sorrow or in joy, we see and recognize each other; but here we are, like a Pharisee, crossing the threshold, and our ability to see deeply is fading, and when we meet a brother or sister whom we have recently recognized, we again see a stranger and extinguish all their hope. How different are the words of the apostle Paul: Great sorrow for me and unceasing torment to my heart: I would like to be excommunicated from Christ for the salvation of all Israel.

Blzh. Theophylact of Bulgaria.
INTERPRETATION ON THE PARABLE ABOUT THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE.

        "He also said to some who were sure of themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, the following parable: two people went into the temple to pray: one Pharisee, and the other publican. The Pharisee, standing up, prayed in himself like this: God! thank you You, that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get. but, striking his chest, he said: God, be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you that this one went to his house justified more than that one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted "(Luke .18:9-14).
        The Lord does not cease to destroy the passion of arrogance with the strongest arguments. Since it confuses the minds of people more than all passions, the Lord teaches about it often and much. So now He heals the worst kind of her. For there are many branches of self-love. From him are born: conceit, boasting, vanity and the most pernicious arrogance of all. Arrogance is the rejection of God. For when someone attributes perfection not to God, but to himself, what else does he do but deny God and rebel against Him? This ungodly passion, against which the Lord takes arms, like an enemy against an enemy, the Lord promises to heal with a real parable. For He speaks it to those who were sure of themselves and did not ascribe everything to God, and therefore they despised others, and shows that righteousness, even if it deserved admiration in other respects and brought a person closer to God Himself, but if he allowed himself to arrogance, overthrows a person to the lowest degree and likens him to a demon, sometimes taking on the appearance of being equal to God.
        The opening words of the Pharisee are like those of a grateful man, for he says: "Thank You, God!" But his subsequent speech is filled with decided madness. For he did not say: I thank You that You removed me from iniquity, from robbery, but how? That I am not like "is". He attributed perfection to himself and his own strength. And to condemn others, how is it characteristic of a person who knows that everything that is, he has from God? For if he were sure that he, by grace, had other people's goods, then without a doubt he would not humiliate others, imagining in his mind that he, in relation to his own strength, was equally naked, but by grace clothed with a gift. Therefore, the Pharisee, as attributing perfect deeds to his own strength, is arrogant, and from here he came to condemning others.
        The Lord denotes arrogance and lack of humility in the Pharisee and the word "becoming" . For the humble-wise man has a humble-wise appearance, but the Pharisee showed vainglory even in outward behavior. True, it was also said about the publican "standing" , but see what is added next: "didn't even dare to raise my eyes to the sky" . Therefore, his standing together was worship, while the Pharisee's eyes and heart were raised to heaven.
        Look at the order that appears in the prayer of the Pharisee. First he said what he is not, and then he listed what he is. Having said, I am not like other people, he also exhibits various virtues: "I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get." For one must not only turn away from evil, but also do good (Ps. 33:15) . And first you must move away from evil, and then proceed to virtue, just as if you want to draw clean water from a muddy source, you must first clean out the dirt, and then you can already draw clean water.
        Also note that the Pharisee did not say in the singular: I am not a robber, I am not an adulterer, like others. He did not even allow mere words to attach a reproachful name solely to his face, but he used these names in the plural, about others. Saying, I am not like the others, he countered this: "I fast twice a week" i.e. two days a week. The speech of the Pharisee could have a deep meaning. In spite of the passion of adultery, he boasts of fasting. For lust is born from sensual satiety. So he, depressing the body with fasting, was very far from such passions. And the Pharisees truly fasted on the second day of the week and on the fifth. The Pharisee contrasted the name of robbers and offenders with the fact that he gives a tenth of everything that he acquires. Robbery, he says, and insulting me are so disgusting that I give away even my own. According to some, the Law commands tithing generally and forever, but those who study it more deeply find that it prescribes a threefold kind of tithe. You can find out more about this in Deuteronomy. (Ch. 12 and 14) if you pay attention. This is how the Pharisee behaved.
        But the publican behaved quite the opposite. He stood far away and was very far from the Pharisee, not only in terms of the distance of the place, but also in clothing, in words, and in contrition of heart. He was ashamed to raise his eyes to heaven, considering them unworthy of the contemplation of heavenly objects, since they loved to look at the blessings of the earth and use them. He struck his chest, as if striking his heart for crafty advice and awakening it from sleep to consciousness, and said nothing else but this: "God! be merciful to me a sinner."
        For all this the publican went more justified than the Pharisee. For everyone who is arrogant in heart is unclean before the Lord, and God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).
        Some may wonder why the Pharisee, although he spoke a few words with arrogance, was nevertheless condemned, and Job spoke a lot of great things about himself, yet received a crown? This is because the Pharisee began to talk empty words to praise himself, when no one forced him, and condemned others when no benefit prompted him to do so. And Job was forced to calculate his perfections by the fact that his friends hampered him, leaned on him harder than misfortune itself, they said that he was suffering for sins, and calculated his good deeds for the glory of God and so that people would not weaken along the path of virtue. For if people came to the conclusion that the deeds that Job did were sinful deeds and he suffers for them, then they would begin to move away from doing these very deeds, and thus, instead of hospitable people, they would become inhospitable, instead of merciful and truthful - merciless and offenders. For such were the works of Job.
        So, Job counts his good works so that many will not suffer harm. These were the reasons for Job. Not to mention the fact that in his very words, apparently eloquent, perfect humility of wisdom shines through. For “If I were,” he says, “as in the former months, as in those days when God kept me” (Job 29:2) . You see, he lays everything on God and does not condemn others, but rather he himself suffers condemnation from friends.
        And the Pharisee, who is all to himself, and not to God, and unnecessarily condemns others, is justly condemned. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, being condemned by God, but he who humbles himself, through condemnation, will be exalted, being justified by God. So it is said:

Great Lent is a completely unique period in the church year. Every day, every service is filled with a special meaning. The most important place is occupied by the gospel readings on Sundays of fasting and preparatory weeks. We asked various people to read these gospel passages and tell how they understand them and what they personally endure. The gospel of the first preparatory week - the parable of the publican and the Pharisee - was read together with "Thomas" by Tatyana Kasatkina, Doctor of Philology, Head of the Department of Literary Theory of the IMLI. Gorky RAS.

“...two people entered the temple to pray: one is a Pharisee, and the other is a publican. The Pharisee, standing up, prayed in himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything that I get. The publican, standing afar off, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven; but, striking his chest, he said: God! be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you that this one went to his house justified more than that one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).

Characters

First of all, we need to understand who is a publican and who is a Pharisee.

The publican, if we look for matches in our time, is most similar to the current collector: he was a person who bought the debts and tax obligations of the population from the state and then collected these debts from the population with interest, using bandit methods.

And a Pharisee is approximately the current active parishioner: a person who regularly visits the temple, prays according to the charter, convinced that faith is the center of human life and should live according to the laws and regulations determined by the Holy Scriptures.

I believe that if we remember this, the parable will already seem much more ambiguous to us than when we read it with blurred eyes, when we remember not the original meaning of the words, but only those meanings that the words developed already on the basis this parable.

They say that this parable is about pride and the humiliation of the proud. Perhaps she talks about this too - but not only about this. And, perhaps, she talks about it differently (and not the way) as we think.

What is the Pharisee asking for?

It's amazing - but he does not ask for anything! His prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving, not a prayer of need; he appears to be praying the most perfect of prayers. And he does not ascribe to himself the merit of his virtues and his perfect life - he attributes the merit of the fact that he fulfills everything commanded entirely to God. He feels like a favorite of God, created differently than other people, mired in sins and not keeping the law. The Pharisee, on the other hand, fulfills even more than the law and regulations require: he fasts more than what is commanded and gives more than the law requires, according to which tithes were taken only from crops and livestock (and not from everything acquired). Pharisee here is like thing, who completely and even with a small excess filled its boundaries, occupied the limits laid down for it, fully realized. A thing with which its Creator, as it were, has nothing more to do.

What is the publican asking for?

The publican asks the Lord for reconciliation (such target the meaning of the verb used here is ʻιλάσκομαι: to propitiate in order to restore peace). That is - he does not ask for anything specific - he only asks to get in touch with God again. About how that certainty of him, which he created with his sins and which hangs over him like a lid of a coffin, shielding him from heaven, would be removed - and it would be revealed to him again. field of opportunity.

The Pharisee gives thanks for the fact that he is perfect, that is, completed - the publican asks for the opportunity to begin.

Interpretation in context

But let's not be deceived - any(even the most correct and well-formed) certainty binds a person to a tomb - which is what Jesus says when he compares the Pharisees in another place with painted, beautiful tombs, inside of which there are only bones and dust (Matt. 23, 27).

Let us note that in this way the remote parts of the Gospel reveal the true meaning of each other.

But even more help to reveal the meaning of each other gospel episodes close to each other - at first glance, disparate and even causing us dissatisfaction with the discontinuity of the plot. I believe that in a number of cases, the smoothness of the plot was sacrificed precisely to semantic concretions and correspondences. As in the case of the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. For immediately after this parable in Luke follows an episode about babies being brought to Jesus - and the words that only by accepting the Kingdom of God as children can we enter it (Lk. 18:17).

Let the children come to Me. Carl Bloch. Date unknown

Why is it necessary to be like children?

The Holy Fathers, who were mostly monks and rarely saw children, interpreted this episode in the sense that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, childish gentleness, humility and meekness are needed. We, as laymen, can only wonder how these properties can be attributed to children. In any case, children have them as rarely as adults. In order to understand exactly what is said here, it is necessary to single out a property that is indelibly inherent in children, constituting the property of "childishness". There is only one such property, ability to grow. Adult differs from a child in that he already increased. Thus, those who have not lost the ability to grow enter the kingdom of heaven. To the kingdom of heaven ingrown. And those who lose this ability become beautiful coffins of themselves long before their apparent death. The Lord is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living (Luke 20:38) – and He has nothing to do with painted tombs.

In this regard, the final words of the parable also become clear: “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” He who exalted himself turned out to be higher than all - and therefore he does not need to grow any more. He will stop growing, because he already looks down on everyone. When everything is below you, this is an obstacle in development.

Humiliating himself, seeing around those who are higher - opens a space for growth and in himself - a desire for growth. Because it is very interesting to see what is there, at the level of those who are higher. Because when someone is higher, it is an incentive to develop.

"Pharisee" means "separated"

The word "Pharisee" comes from a Hebrew verb meaning "to separate", "to separate". And our Pharisee feels himself to be a completed thing also in the sense that he is "not like other people." Meanwhile, Christianity teaches us that our every step towards God is at the same time our step towards each person, that our growth towards God is at the same time growth towards merging with everyone. By receiving the blood of Christ in communion, we not only allow the blood of God to flow in our veins, but we also give scope to flow in our veins the blood of all who take communion. They “grow” into the Kingdom of God, “increasing” in many directions at once, discovering God in each neighbor and opening themselves to God in each neighbor. Therefore, in Christianity there are only two commandments - about love for God and about love for your neighbor - and these, as we see, are also the commandments of growth. To love your neighbor as yourself means (at least in one of the senses) to see in him not an individual, but also yourself. “Grow up” to communion with him. So the fingers of the hand can suddenly become aware of their involvement in one palm.

What should we take away from this parable?

I think it would be wrong to say after reading: "Thank you, Lord, that I am not like that Pharisee." We just have to understand that the goal of the publican is open up a new field of opportunity- may well be achieved by the means of the Pharisee - that is, the implementation of all laws and regulations - if we see them as a means, not an end. A means of reaching a new level - a new degree of intimacy and love with people and God.