Posted on: 14th May 2026

On the whole, we’re all striving to be better people. And for lots of us, this is instilled in us from really young, the ‘be kind’ messages are pretty pervasive, sometimes its printed on kids clothes! From ‘share your toys’ to ‘give to charity’ to ‘forgive others’. And these aren’t bad things, desiring to be a better person isn’t inherently bad. 

However, it can be so easy to go from ‘I want to be a better person’ to ‘I am better than that person’. Our human nature often draws us to look at others and find ways in which we are better than them; giving more, performing better, making more moral decisions. And this often doesn’t actually make us feel good about ourselves, because suddenly our identity is built on being better than others. Now your goodness isn’t just goodness, its a comparison. 

In Luke 18 we’re shown an example of this through a story that Jesus told. 

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14

Here we see a Pharisee, a member of a Jewish religious group, deeply committed to the upholding of the law of the Torah, praying in the temple. The Pharisee is trapped in this cycle of comparison and prays a prayer that in today’s British society we can’t imagine praying! Exalting himself above others, specifically drawing attention to the man he was sharing the space with. 

The tax collector, who in those days wasn’t just like HMRC, but would have been collecting money on behalf of the occupying forces, the Romans and often keeping a bit for himself. Not just a tax collector, but a thief and a traitor. On the other hand, he stands back, acknowledges his failure and simply asks for the mercy of God. In what I imagine might have been a surprise to those around him, Jesus says the tax collector is the one who goes home justified. He’s not justified because failing is something to be sought, but because he stops trying to justify himself and acknowledges his need for mercy. 

Tom Wright says, Jesus saying ‘This one went home vindicated’, “are among the most comforting words in the whole gospel.” I’m inclined to agree, because we don’t have to keep striving for goodness, but can acknowledge our need for mercy. It is this, not our achievements, that get through to the heart of God. 

So today there are three things we can do as a result of hearing this:

- We can look inward and think about where we consider ourselves as better than others.

- We can examine how we approach God- from a place of our good works, or a place of desperation for his mercy.

- We can make a concerted effort to leave that comparison trap behind, focussing on God and our justification through Jesus.