Conversation Points for Luke 18:9-14

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The audience for this parable is “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” Verse 14 opens how widely that audience should be interpreted, anyone who exalts themselves.
• No matter the direction, traveling to the Temple in Jerusalem is always described as “going up.” The Temple was at the highest point of the city.
• The Pharisee’s prayer is self-serving; he gives thanks for himself, not for others. The last line of the prayer shows the Pharisee is aware of the presence of the tax collector, though the tax collector shows no acknowledgement of the Pharisee.

Works Sourced:
Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.