Jesus here gives the example of two men who are seemingly polar opposites, and yet each of them exists to some extent in each of us – and Jesus encourages us to choose the self-admitted sinner to be more of a model for us than the self-satisfied Pharisee.  Such a preference is countercultural, counterintuitive, and simply far from logical outside of a religious context – but the Gospel is quintessentially religious, calling into question all the values of a material reality which is indeed too often and too profoundly “red in tooth and claw” (Tennyson, “In Memoriam”).

This Gospel reading’s final verse, “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled while the one who humbles himself shall be exalted,” generalizes this taking the road less traveled.  Jesus draws the conclusion for the parable, but that last verse invites us to be dissatisfied with the obvious and logical in every aspect of our lives, especially our religious lives, and to go beyond our past under the direction and in the strength of the Spirit whom Jesus gives us. 

And the Spirit is lovingly imaginative about where it craves to take us, dreaming dreams for our lives that we could never conceive of for ourselves.