Thursday, January 7

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “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.’  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 18:11-14

Sometimes the English translations and our modern culture prevent us from seeing some of the nuances of the Biblical text.  A brief cultural lesson will help us gain a deeper understanding of this story that Jesus told about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  The typical posture for prayer in our culture is to bow your head, close your eyes, and perhaps even kneel down.  But in Jesus’ day, the typical Jewish posture for prayer was to stand and raise your arms and your eyes up to heaven.  This is the position the Pharisee would have taken as he stood apart from the other “sinners” to offer his self-congratulatory prayer to God.  By contrast, the Tax Collector would not even raise his eyes up to heaven.  His external posture reflected his internal condition.  He was completely humble and contrite before a Holy God. 

This Tax Collector epitomized the contrite heart that David described in Psalm 51; Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge…The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

When this Tax Collector cries out to God for mercy, there is more going on than we might ordinarily suppose.  Luke uses a very unique and significant word for mercy in this story.  The most common word that is translated mercy in the New Testament is the Greek word ‘eleos’ and it means kindness or good will towards another.  But this is not the word that is used in the prayer of this Tax Collector, the word used here is the Greek word ‘Hilasterion’.  This word has to do with atonement, or payment.  In other places in the New Testament this word is translated as propitiation or atoning sacrifice.  It is used to refer specifically to the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  In fact, this is the very same word used in Hebrews 2:17; For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Now why would Luke use such a specific and unusual word for mercy here in this story?  The significance of this word has to do with what this Tax Collector is asking God to do for him.  When he cries out to God for mercy, he is not simply asking God to let him off the hook, ignore his sin, or look the other way.  He knows he is guilty, and he knows that he cannot pay his debt of sin, so he cries out to God for mercy – hilasterion – atonement.  He is actually asking God to make the payment for his sin!

Most people think of the mercy of God (if they think of it at all) in the sense that God simply ignores our sin, like a benevolent old grandfather figure who smiles and pats us on the head and says; “Oh that’s okay honey, I know you have a good heart, just try to do better next time.”  But this is not the God of the Bible!  When you stop to think about it, this kind of a God would not really be worth our worship, because he would not be a just God.  How can a Holy God ignore sin or look the other way?  He cannot and He will not.  When the Bible talks about the mercy of God, it always requires a payment for sin. There is no mercy without sacrifice!  The mercy of God simply means that because of Christ, we do not have to pay because God already has!

There is one more way in which this word, hilasterion, is used in the New Testament.  It is the word used to refer to the “Mercy Seat” on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.  The Mercy Seat is the place between the wings of the two gold cherubim (Exodus 25:17-20, Hebrews 9:5) on the top of the lid of the Ark which held the stone tablets given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  The Ark was held in the Holy of Holies in the Temple and once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial lamb.  The New Testament tells us that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  Do you realize what this means?  Jesus now sits on the Mercy Seat!  He has fulfilled all of the requirements of the law and made the full payment for our sin!   This why the Tax Collector can cry out to God for mercy, and this is how you and I can fall on our knees and say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.  He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.  The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

 - Hebrews 9:11-14 


Jeff Frazier