“The Publican standing afar off:” Perhaps in the outward court of the temple, conscious to himself that he was not worthy to approach the Holy of holies; so conscious and so weighed down with a sense of his own unworthiness, that he would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, which he knew was GOD’s throne. Poor heart! what did he feel at this time! none but returning Publicans, like himself, can tell. Methinks I see him standing afar off, pensive, oppressed, and even overwhelmed with sorrow; sometimes he attempts to look up; but then, thinks he, the heavens are unclean in GOD’s sight, and the very angels are charged with folly; how then shall such a wretch as I dare to lift up my guilty head! And to shew that his heart was full of holy self-resentment, and that he sorrowed after a godly sort, he smote upon his breast; the word in the original implies, that he _struck hard_ upon his breast: he will lay the blame upon none but his own wicked heart. He will not, like unhumbled _Adam_, tacitly lay the fault of his vileness upon GOD, and say, The passions which thou gavest me, they deceived me, and I sinned: he is too penitent thus to reproach his Maker; he smites upon his breast, his treacherous, ungrateful, desperately wicked breast; a breast now ready to burst: and at length, out of the abundance of his heart, I doubt not, with many tears, he at last cries out, “GOD be merciful to me a sinner.” Not, GOD be merciful to yonder proud Pharisee: he found enough in himself to vent his resentment against, without looking abroad upon others. Not, GOD be merciful to me a saint; for he knew “all his righteousnesses were but filthy rags.” Not, GOD be merciful to such or such a one; but, GOD be merciful to me, even to me a sinner, a sinner by birth, a sinner in thought, word, and deed; a sinner as to my person, a sinner as to all my performances; a sinner in whom is no health, in whom dwelleth no good thing; a sinner, poor, miserable, blind and naked, from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; a self-accused, self-condemned sinner. What think you? would this Publican have been offended if any minister had told him that he deserved to be damned? would he have been angry, if any one had told him, that by nature he was half a devil and half a beast? No: he would have confessed a thousand hells to have been his due, and that he was an earthly, devilish sinner. He felt now what a dreadful thing it was to depart from the living GOD: he felt that he was inexcusable every way; that he could in nowise, upon account of any thing in himself, be justified in the sight of GOD; and therefore lays himself at the feet of sovereign mercy, “GOD be merciful to me a sinner.” Here is no confidence in the flesh, no plea fetched from fasting, paying tithes, or the performance of any other duty; here is no boasting that he was not an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer. Perhaps he had been guilty of all these crimes, at least he knew he would have been guilty of all these, had he been left to follow the devices and desires of his own heart; and therefore, with a broken and contrite spirit, he cries out, “GOD be merciful to me a sinner.”
This man came up to the temple to pray, and he prayed indeed. And a broken and contrite heart GOD will not despise. “I tell you,” says our LORD, I who lay in the bosom of the Father from all eternity; I who am GOD, and therefore know all things; I who can neither deceive, nor be deceived, whose judgment is according to right; I tell you, whatever you may think of it, or think of me for telling you so, “this man,” this Publican, this despised, sinful, but broken-hearted man, “went down to his house justified (acquitted, and looked upon as righteous in the sight of GOD) rather than the other.”
Let Pharisees take heed that they do not pervert this text: for when it is said, “This man went down to his house justified rather than the other,” our LORD does not mean that both were justified, and that the Publican had rather more justification than the Pharisee: but it implies, either that the Publican was actually justified, but the Pharisee was not; or, that the Publican was in a better way to receive justification, than the Pharisee; according to our LORD’s saying, “The Publicans and Harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before you.” That the Pharisee was not justified is certain, for “GOD resisteth the proud;” and that the Publican was at this time actually justified (and perhaps went home with a sense of it in his heart) we have great reason to infer from the latter part of the text, “For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”