This prayer was meaningful to the tax collector ”standing afar off”, i.e. very far from the presence of the pious Pharisee.  It was meaningful to God, too, of course.

And the prayer was meaningful to several of the Nazis in Nuremberg in 1946 as the American military chaplain, Henry Gerecke, evangelized the prisoners.  More than once the words were heard, “God, be merciful to me!”

When I say to religious people, “You´ve got to come to the same place before God and make the same humble prayer”, my words don´t have the same bearing as did mr. Gerecke´s words on those defendants.

Modern people may sympathize with the parable in Luke 18, but kind sympathy and kind feelings are not the same as the sinner´s brokenness before God.  This is indeed the problem within and without the church.

In the Greek original in Luke 18:13 it says, “God, make atonement (or propitiation) for me, the sinner!”  I´m not sure  if the word “propitiation” makes sense to many today.  If you look up in the dictionary I don´t know if it is then more understandable.

It is in my language.  It means to enjoy peace with God because of Christ´s sacrifice for our sins.  Or as the apostle puts it, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Rom. 5:1).

It means that our hostility towards God has ended, the war is over as we  submit to the gospel of the cross.  The tax collector did that.  And that´s what the American chaplain saw sinners do in Nuremberg.  His argument was, that no crime is so vile that it´s beyond God´s mercy and forgiveness. 

April 15, 2014 – jn