Humility is Jesus’s lesson in this parable. The tax collector is the example given of humility before God and men. Humility is a personal quality in which an individual knows his state before God, shows dependence on God, and respects others.
The tax collector did not look up to heaven. He bowed his head because he knew he was unworthy and full of distress at his guilt. Beating the breast was a response of grief and guilt, a form of punishing a sinful heart. The tax collector confessed out loud in the temple for all to hear, including the Pharisee, “I am a sinner”. He asked for God’s mercy.
Jesus Christ’s life provides the best example of what it means to have humility (Matthew 11:28-30; Philippians 2:1-11). Hebrews 2:7-9 states, “You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
