"God, Be Merciful to Me a Sinner" (Luke 18:13-14 and Psalm 51:16-17)

The tax collector prayed, "God, be merciful to me a sinner" and went home justified, or declared righteous (Luke 18:13). How do we explain this when he didn't offer any sacrifices? He offered what God wanted: "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" (Psalm 51:16-17).

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00:00 "God, Be Merciful to Me a Sinner"
18:39 Lesson One: Justification is receiving forgiveness and righteousness.
28:37 Lesson Two: Propitiation turns away the wrath of an offended person.
45:18 Lesson Three: (Part One) God didn’t want physical sacrifices...
50:54 Lesson Three: (Part One) God didn’t want physical sacrifices (Part Two) as much as spiritual ones.

Eight times in the synoptic Gospels it says “tax collectors and sinners,” instead of murderers and sinners, or adulterers and sinners. Why is it written this way, as though being a tax collector is the worst sin imaginable? Because to the Jew, it pretty much was!

—The Romans severely taxed the Jews, and the tax collectors who collected the taxes for Rome were Jews. The Jews hated the Romans and the Jewish tax collectors who worked for them were traitors to their own people.
—Tax collectors were wealthy and it was a wealth made off the backs of their already oppressed Jewish brethren.
—Tax collectors had to collect a certain amount and anything they collected over that amount they were able to keep for themselves. They had Rome’s support, which prevented Jews from resisting them.
—Tax collectors were notoriously dishonest. When they came to be baptized by John they said, “Teacher, what shall we do?” [John] said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” (Luke 3:12-13). John said to stop stealing because that was their major sin.

Three Things to Observe about the Tax Collector

Luke 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

There is so much to learn about the tax collector just from this verse. I don’t want to miss anything so we will break it up one part at a time. First, it says he was standing far off. Let me ask you a trick question that reveals the tax collector’s brokenness: Did he want to approach God? You want to say he did because “[he] went up to the temple to pray” (Luke 18:10), but you also want to say no, because he was standing far off. You can see the struggle: he wanted to have a relationship with God, but he also felt too sinful to approach God.

Second, it doesn’t say the tax collector DID NOT lift up his eyes to heaven. It says he WOULD NOT even lift up his eyes to heaven. He was so aware of his sin that he felt unworthy to even look up to heaven where God dwells.

Third, he hit himself. More than likely he did this because he was angry about his sin, and he knows he is the source of it. He wasn’t blaming anyone or anything other than himself. He hit his heart, because that’s where sin comes from:

Matthew 15:18 What comes out of the mouth proceeds FROM THE HEART, and this defiles a person. 19 For OUT OF THE HEART come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

All this comes out of the heart!

Why Did the Tax Collector Beat His Breast?

The only other place in Scripture we see people beat their breast is at the cross just after Jesus died:

Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last…Luke 23:48 And ALL THE CROWDS THAT HAD ASSEMBLED FOR THIS SPECTACLE, WHEN THEY SAW WHAT HAD TAKEN PLACE, RETURNED HOME BEATING THEIR BREASTS.

We want Scripture to interpret Scripture, which means when we see something in Scripture and want to know what it means, we look elsewhere in Scripture where we see the same thing. If we consider why they were beating their breasts it helps us understand why the tax collector did the same. John MacArthur said:

“There has never been a more horrific event than the cross. Therefore there could never be a place [of] more profound...

Read the rest of the blog post: https://www.scottlapierre.org/god-be-merciful-to-me-a-sinner/