Don't Give Up Your Kavanah

Luke 18:9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18 is a message about kavanah. Kavanah is the Hebrew word for the sincerity of the heart in worship. Kavanah is what God looks for in those who worship Him. And, to truly understand the parable, you have to first be willing to open your mind to the idea (actually the fact) that Pharisees were not considered to be bad people in Jesus’ day. They were considered to be very obedient, righteous, God-fearing, Bible-studying, live-out-the-Word of God people.

The fact that Pharisees were held in very high esteem is what made this story so powerful. Christians often hear the parable with their thoughts of the characters being “The Hypocrite and the Tax Collector.” But, if Jesus were to tell this story today, he would expect us to picture these two people as Billy Graham and a porn star. Or, as the writer John Crossan said, “The pope and the pimp.”

Jesus speaks of these two people going up to the temple for prayer. In the original language of Hebrew, prayer meant “worship.” You and I will say that we are going to church to worship, but the Jews would have said, “We’re going to synagogue to pray.” Of course worship included prayer; it also included singing of praises and other elements of worship. In fact, when the Bible tells us that Jesus went out into the wilderness to “pray,” it literally means that he went out into the wilderness to “worship.”

Knowing this, we must also recognize that Jesus says they were both going up to the temple to pray, meaning they were both going to the temple to worship. This is a reference to corporate worship, meaning that this was a day when thousands of people were going to the temple to worship God.

The tax collector or publican was a public official for the Roman government. The taxes he collected went to support the pagan worship practices and many lined their own pockets as well. This caused the Jews to look at their Jewish brothers who were working for the Romans as idolaters and traitors. During worship, the tax collector would have been escorted out of temple through the eastern gate as soon as the symbols began to crash during worship. But the Pharisee, being seen as a godly man would have been able to get very close to the altar itself and pray.

The prayers of the two people in the parable are the powerful climax of the story, because the prayer of forgiveness plays a vital role in temple worship during the first century.

Atonement was the ultimate purpose and goal of Temple worship. And the prayer of repentance would have been offered at the climactic and most important moment in the time of worship.

When the worshipers begin to gather, they enter according to their roles, positions, and standing in society. Gentiles would gather outside in the gentile court, Jewish worshipers would gather in the women’s court or in the court of the Israelites. And the priests would be in charge of conducting worship. The first part of worship would take place on a staircase inside the temple with music, liturgy, and possibly a short sermon. For the next element of the worship service the priest moved from the steps to the great altar, and as the people stood in awe of God, observing the musicians and the priests and Levites, the worship reached a climax with the Levitical coir chanting a Psalm with symbols crashing over and over. This is when those considered unclean, including the tax collector in this story, would have been escorted outside the temple.

Then the priest takes the lamb and he is standing with the knife in his hand. All of the music and chanting and the symbols crashing comes to a complete stop and the trumpet is blown. Then the lamb’s throat is cut, the blood is caught and spattered on the altar. There isn’t a sound in the temple. The lamb is slaughtered, its parts placed in a pan and carried to the fire. And the priest would say, “God, keep your promise that you will forgive our sins!” He says this as if he has taken God by the shirt collar and is looking God in the eyes with all of the tenacity of starving man, “GOD! REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE!”

Everyone is standing completely silent as the priest offers repentance on behalf of all the people worshiping in and outside the temple. Then another priest walks past the altar and up the steps to the Holy of Holies; he is standing in front of the altar of incense with his bowl of 21 different kinds of incense mixed together as he looks up and begins to pray, “God, hear your people!”

The people can’t see the priest, but as the priest stands and begins to pray, the people also begin to pray out loud as the way to the Lord has been opened. When the priest is done, he pours the incense on the coals and a cloud of steam and spoke rises up, it fills the temple courts along with the smell of incense and roasting meat, which is a vivid picture symbolizing God’s presence with His people who is able to hear every prayer. Thousands of voices are now lifted up as the people pray for forgiveness.

It is at this moment, when every worshiper is given the opportunity to admit thier wrongs in the presence of God, that the Pharisee, standing alone, close to the alter of God, is reminding God of his own righteousness, while the publican who is not even allowed in the temple, is standing far from the altar, beating his chest and crying for forgiveness.

This parable is the story of the truly righteous who has become self-righteous and the sinner who worships with kavanah. It is not the godly man, but the sinner who has come with the heart of worship.

How many times have we said, “I’m glad I’m not like the Pharisee”? As soon as we make that statement, we, like this good intentioned, godly man, have given up our kavanah.

In His dust,
Johnny