The introductory line to Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is as important to understand as is the parable itself. The Gospel of Luke, the only Gospel in which this parable is found, sets the scene. Following the parable of the unjust judge and the widow, Jesus “also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” Jesus told this parable “to some,” who were standing in front of him. Since the parable contrasts a Pharisee and a tax collector, the original audience probably included some Pharisees along with other people, like Jesus’ own disciples. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that earlier in Luke (16:14 and 17:20) there are Pharisees with Jesus who are challenging his teaching.

In light of centuries of Christian criticism of Judaism and Jewish religious practices and piety— based to a large extent on the presentation of the Pharisees in the Gospels—it is important to stress that the Pharisees were a small group within Second Temple Judaism and were not representative of all Jews. Even more, not all Pharisees are implied by the phrase “some persons” in this passage And most significantly, the tendency to religious self-righteousness and confidence in themselves that “some persons” display is a tendency that bedevils religious persons in every age.

These persons, Luke tells us, “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.” Note that it is not God, but themselves, in whom they trust. The Greek verb that is translated “trust” in this verse is in the middle perfect passive tense and might be translated “were persuaded in themselves”—that is, they were “sure” or “certain” they were righteous people. “Righteous” (dikaioi), in this context, would mean people who were certain of their vindication before God because of their religious piety and their fulfillment of the dictates of the Torah.

Not only are they convinced that they are righteous; these persons “regarded others with contempt.” The word translated here as “others” is even more inclusive than might first appear, since the Greek term means “the rest,” that is, “everyone else.” This is the sort of in-group/out-group mentality that can infect religious people, often members of small groups within a larger religion, who are certain that everyone else is in a state of perpetual error. Francois Bovon, in his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, characterizes this religious mentality as revealing a “fragile arrogance that perpetuates itself only by criticizing others” and maintains itself “by a pretension, more social than psychological, to belonging to a superior class of the population.”

And it is not just a belief that one is right and the others are wrong. The translation of exoutheneō as “have contempt” is spot on, though it could also be rendered as “to scorn” or “to hold someone to be of no account” or even “to hold someone to be nothing.” For instance, in Luke 23:11, “Herod with his soldiers treated [Jesus] with contempt [exouthenēsas] and mocked him.” When we treat people with contempt, we deny their human dignity before God. And this is just the introduction to the parable!

The parable is not about disagreeing on points of religious teaching or practice; it is about becoming humble before God and recognizing the dignity of other human beings, especially those with whom we disagree and whom we are so willing to treat with scorn. Humility is based in respect for “others,” as Pope Francis wrote on Twitter (@Pontifex) on Sept. 21: “Dialogue is born when I am capable of recognizing others as a gift of God and accept they have something to tell me.”

The temptation to consider ourselves more righteous than others afflicts all of us, but it is curable. We need to see these “others” as people just like us, sinners who rely on God’s mercy to be healed. The tax collector cried out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus tells us that this man was justified, or “made righteous,” not by his own certainty but by the judgment of a merciful and loving God.

This article appears in October 17 2016.

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.