The Pharisee in the parable was no doubt speaking the truth when he claimed to be neither an extortioner nor unjust nor an adulterer.  He kept the Jewish Law and, like St Paul, who was also a Pharisee, was blameless in his personal life.

It was perfectly true that in these and other praiseworthy ways he was not like other men.  In addition he fasted, as did only the strict Jews, twice a week – on Mondays and Thursdays.  He religiously paid a tenth of his income to the Jewish Church, and his contributions to charity were probably considerable.

And yet for all that Our Lord condemned him because of his attitude to God and his attitude to himself.  When he came into the temple to pray, after a brief acknowledgement of God he proceeded to turn his attention to himself.  His thanksgiving – “I thank you that I am not like other people” – was a form of boasting in which he congratulated God on having so worthy an associate.  He would not recognise that the standard he had reached was ultimately due to God, the source of all goodness.  Very different was St Paul’s attitude, “…by the grace of God I am what I am…” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 15:10).

But the Pharisee, being unaware of his dependence on God, felt able to address him with a sense of complete independence.  The same assessment of himself was also reflected in his attitude to his fellow men.  In his opinion the great mass of the people who did not belong to the Pharisees were beneath contempt – “I thank you that I am not like other people….or even like this tax-collector” (NRSV, Luke 18:11).