For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Lk 18:9-14
The parable is not a simile, nor a comparison, but an example which presents a behavior to be imitated or to be avoided. Cf. 12:16-21; 14: 28-32; 16: 1-8; 18:9-14.
v. 9 - He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
Jesus criticizes those who are secure in their justice (5:32; 15:7) and who want to show it off (16:15; 10:29). The parable is an appeal to humility (v. 14).
v. 12 - I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.
The Pharisee truly fulfills the practices of piety of his sect (5:33; 11:42) and he finds in them the security of his justice; but he expects nothing from God.
v. 13 - But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.
What the publican says is true: he is a sinner. But this sincere confession opens him to God and to his grace.
v. 14 - I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
That justice which the Pharisee pretends to have acquired through his works, is a gift which only God can give (Phil 3:9).
This sentence (for everyone who exalts himself….) which we also find in 14:11 was probably put here by Luke in order to show that this parable is an invitation to humility.
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