And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
This verse introduces a parable — a short story with a deeper spiritual point — that Jesus is about to tell. Luke, who recorded this account, tells us exactly who the intended audience was: people who were 'confident of their own righteousness' and who 'looked down on everybody else.' In Jesus's day, Pharisees were a highly respected religious group known for their meticulous observance of Jewish law — they were the ones most people assumed were closest to God. Tax collectors, by contrast, were despised: Jewish men who worked for the Roman occupiers, collecting taxes from their own people and often skimming extra profit for themselves. Jesus is setting up a story that will completely reverse his audience's assumptions about who God actually listens to.
God, I want to be the good one in this story before it even starts — and that impulse is exactly what you're naming. Show me the contempt I've dressed up as discernment. Make me someone who sees other people the way you see me: as someone who desperately needs grace. Amen.
Jesus doesn't always tell us who a parable is aimed at. Here, Luke does — and it's a little uncomfortable to read. The people who most needed this story were the ones who felt most certain they didn't need it. That's the trap of self-righteousness: it feels exactly like righteousness. It comes with a clean conscience, a full spiritual résumé, and a quiet internal scoreboard that tracks where you stand relative to everyone around you. Notice what Jesus targets before the story even begins — not just pride, but contempt. 'Looked down on everybody else.' It is entirely possible to be genuinely faithful and quietly superior at the same time. To read scripture daily, live generously, show up consistently, and still carry an invisible ranking system for the people in your life. The parable hasn't started yet, and already the real question is on the table: who do you quietly look down on? The honesty of your answer might reveal more about the state of your soul than any spiritual habit you maintain.
Who were the Pharisees and tax collectors in Jesus's day, and who might their closest equivalents be in your own culture or community — the people automatically assumed to be righteous, and the people automatically written off?
What are the signs — in yourself or in others — that someone has crossed from having genuine moral convictions into being self-righteous? Where exactly does one become the other?
The verse says these people were confident in their righteousness and 'looked down on everybody else.' Is there a group of people — a lifestyle, a political tribe, a type of person — that you find yourself quietly holding in contempt? What might that reveal?
How does quiet contempt — even when it never becomes outwardly cruel — damage the way you actually relate to the people around you, especially those who are very different from you?
What is one concrete, specific way you could practice genuine humility this week — not as a spiritual exercise or a performance, but as something real and slightly uncomfortable?
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Luke 18:11
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Isaiah 58:3
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 16:15
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Proverbs 16:2
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Romans 14:10
He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.
Proverbs 11:12
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves , but in God which raiseth the dead:
2 Corinthians 1:9
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luke 15:7
He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves and were confident that they were righteous [posing outwardly as upright and in right standing with God], and who viewed others with contempt:
AMP
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
ESV
And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
NASB
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
NIV
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
NKJV
Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else:
NLT
He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people:
MSG