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“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are” (Luke 18:10-11).
About 100 years ago a particularly bad boy in a Sunday school in a city in Canada suddenly came to his teacher afterward and asked, “Are there any prayers in the Bible?” The teacher immediately said, “Yes, there are,” and proceeded to tell him about this prayer of the Pharisee. If you read Luke 18:11-12, you will see that the Pharisee told the Lord all the bad things that he did not do, and all the good things he did. The Pharisee was quite satisfied that he was a good man, and better than most other men.
The Sunday school teacher read the prayer out loud, and then asked the boy whether this prayer would do for him. But the boy, whose name was John, after hearing how the Pharisee prayed, immediately said, “No, that prayer won’t work for me! Everyone knows that I am a bad boy; I can’t tell the Lord that I am a good boy.” We will see tomorrow the other prayer that comes right after the one the Pharisee prayed.
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