Prayer is a very interesting enterprise, one that we see many examples and templates in scripture. Today, the Gospel sets our focus to two prayers we know quite well in the parable of the Pharisee and Tax collector, both of who went to the temple to pray. Their prayers were captured in this manner:
“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:11-12)
And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’(Luke 18:13)
Jesus concludes by saying the tax collector went away justified.
As I reflected, the prayer of Hezekiah came to mind when he was asked to set his house in order for he was to die. He prayed thus “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. (Isaiah 38:3)
The line connecting these three strands of prayer was the realization that” the state of a man’s heart – which is the alter upon which his prayers are presented, matters. Hezekiah presented the tray of a truthful and loyal heart, and the task collector a broken heart. The Pharisee presented the tray of his self-acclaimed righteousness.
In Psalms 51:17 we read: ‘The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit-O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.’
You can stand before God and put in a nice performance, yet walk away unchanged because your heart was never in it. God accepts you first, before what you have to offer. Your religious activities, however well intended, do not replace the state of your heart. That is what God wants.
#sly
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