Luke closes the central section of his gospel with the startling, but (at first glance) straightforward parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. There is, of course, considerable debate over whether all of this parable contains the exact words of Jesus. For example, verses 10-13 seem to reflect both genuine concerns of Jesus and accurate Lukan theology; in the opening and closing verses of this parable, the gospel writer clearly is setting the table.

In order to delineate this parable in the genre of an "example" story, Luke takes care to set the stage for its presentation by referring to "some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt" (v.9). But the characters in this story, both the Pharisee and the tax collector, are actually caricatures…