Rearranging the Chairs

Gospel: Luke 18: 9-14

The ancient Temple of Jerusalem was a series of concentric circles.  In the middle was the holy of holies where only the high priest could enter.  This represented the presence of God on earth.  Nearest this sacred place was the court of Jewish men.  Behind them was the court of Jewish women, and finally in the very back was the court of the Gentiles.  Each place represented one's proximity to God both physically and spiritually.  It was a very segregated society.

But in this parable of the Pharisee and Publican Jesus does away with all of these circles and reduces them to two.  The Pharisee places himself physically near to God, but his prayer and heart are far from the Lord. By contrast, the Publican places himself physically far from God, but his prayer of repentance places his heart in the very holy of holies itself.  The old categories of class and gender are done away with.  What remains are the two categories of the self-righteous Pharisees and the humble penitents.

Today is a day for us to reflect on which category our prayer and heart are found.  Is our prayer that of the self-righteous Pharisee whose works and status have no real value before God though we boast of them? Or is our prayer that of the tax collector who is ever before God seeking mercy and hoping to extend such mercy to others in his life?  All the other categories of our invention do not matter.  There are only these two in our places of worship.