Luke 18:1
He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,
Luke 18:2
saying, There was a judge in a certain city who didnt fear God, and didnt respect man.
Luke 18:3
A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, Defend me from my adversary!
Luke 18:4
He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God, nor respect man,
Luke 18:5
yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.
Luke 18:6
And our master said, Listen to what the unrighteous judge said.
Luke 18:7
Will not God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
Luke 18:8
I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
Luke 18:9
He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others.
Luke 18:10
Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.
“One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector” – Notice that he contrasts two types of people that in real life would be commonly the opposite of what they represent in the parable. Tax collectors basically betrayed their own people in favor of Rome, and the Pharisees were the leading religious model of the people. But God sees the intention of the heart.
Luke 18:11
The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.
Luke 18:13
But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner!
Luke 18:14
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
“ . . . he who humbles himself for the sake of the Torah in this world is magnified in the next; and he who makes himself a servant to the [study of the] Torah in this world becomes free in the next.”
Baba Metzia 85b