February 26: The Pharisee & Tax Collector
♫ Music:
WEEK ONE
PREPARING FOR THE LENTEN JOURNEY: SELF-EXAMINATION
February 26 - February 29
Our Lenten Journey begins by focusing on four passages of scripture that deal specifically with the dualities of self-righteousness and repentance. The self righteous spirit says--”God,I thank You that I am not like other people” or “Look! You have killed the fattened calf for this son of yours who devoured your wealth with prostitutes” or “The woman who you gave to me, she was the one who did it.” While we may be slow to verbalize similar self-righteous thoughts that periodically flood our minds, we none-the-less feel pretty smug when comparing ourselves to those whom we’re critiquing. Self-deception insists that we are wiser, more Christlike and in a better place than our brothers and sisters.
In contrast, the repentant spirit cries out--”God, be merciful to me a sinner” or “I am no longer worthy to be called your son” or “I was afraid because I was naked.” These responses indicate that those who carefully examine themselves come to realize their need for the Savior and the marvelous salvation He freely offers. Spirit directed self-examination keeps us honest with ourselves and in tune with God. Christian author, A.W. Tozer concludes, “A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.” This Lent as we examine ourselves let’s ask God to show us under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, those areas of our lives where change is in order.
Day 1 - Wednesday, February 26
ASH WEDNESDAY
Lenten Lesson #1: THE PHARISEE & TAX COLLECTOR
Scripture: Luke 18:10-14
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.” But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Poetry:
To Poems
by Arseny Tarkovsky
Translated by Philip Metres
My poems: fledglings, heirs,
Plaintiffs and executors,
The silent ones, the loud,
The humble and the proud.
As soon as the shovel of time
Threw me onto the potter’s wheel—
Myself without kith or kin—
I grew beneath the hand, a miracle.
Something stretched out my long neck
And hollowed round my soul
And marked on my back
Legends of flowers and leaves.
I stoked the birch in the fire
As Daniel commanded
And blessed my red temper
Until I spoke as a prophet.
I had long been the earth—
Arid, ochre, forlorn since birth—
But you fell on my chest by chance
From beaks of birds, from eyes of grass.
THE PHARISEE & TAX COLLECTOR
Jesus was perpetually warning those around him about the dangers of pride and judgement. Both are especially pernicious in that their seeds are sown along with those of genuine service or the desire for holiness. As it grows, pride wraps itself around whatever armature is present, including our gifts, our knowledge, or our positive activity. These lovely things are ultimately choked and stunted in their growth, as our life’s energy becomes diverted toward the feeding and care of a false self, one with no real shape of its own. Judgement of others is a natural fruit of pride, simply inflected outward, as we will do anything to maintain our fragile sense of holiness, authority, and correctness. The Pharisee in Christ’s story is in a dangerous place, pride has consumed much, covered much, and he no longer seems to be able to see himself apart from a list of those rites he has performed, or those sins from which he has abstained. Real charity, real holiness, and certainly real prayer are not available to him. His prayer mocks gratitude, and invokes God’s name in vain.
Jesus chose the odious tax collector as the inverse of the holy man. For whatever reasons, this man has had all pride cutaway. He offers no commentary on others in his life, no comparison to the Pharisee, no blame, no self-righteousness. He does not ask for God to make him more comfortable, or to fix whatever situation has made his sinfulness especially evident. He does not even ask for the grace to do good, or to accomplish more. He only asks for mercy. His prayer is solely directed toward God, and he seems to know something of the character of God.
Despite the stark contrast in the story and its illustration of two radically opposed orientations of the heart, Jesus subtly reminds his hearers that both men needed justification that day. Both men needed God’s mercy equally and desperately.
Today’s artwork, a Byzantine mosaic, flatly reinforces both the contrast and the equality of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Their gestures are shown moving outward and inward, one to a side, with little pictorial commentary. They are balanced, one to a side, as on a scale. Because of the bisected composition, they are presented as a choice even to the eye. As I scan back and forth, the flat comparison ambivalently elicits questions: With whom do I most identify? Which of the two do I most resemble today?
The mosaic curiously, and hauntingly, presents a third element: a dark interior space between the figures with a curtain that occupies the center of the composition. Perhaps this is way to the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, but its darkness is troubling. It reminds me that being in the presence of God requires a death, and it requires going down into the dark. The tax collector began this journey before he arrived in the temple that day, the illusions that shielded him from the truth of who he was, and who God is, have been torn in two. As such, he is fit to begin his journey into mercy.
Prayer:
Lord,
How long has it been since my only
prayer was for mercy?
Show me the path into the dark,
through loss, so I can meet you
In the morning
In the cool of the garden.
Jonathan Puls, MFA, MA
Associate Dean of Operations
School of Fine Arts and Communication
Associate Professor of Art History and Painting
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican
Unknown Artist
Early 6th century
Mosaic
North wall, upper level in the Basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo
Ravenna, Italy
This mosaic of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is one of thirteen mosaic scenes midway along the upper band of the north wall of the nave of the Basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy. The mosaic depicts the miracles and parables of Christ which complement thirteen scenes on the south wall representing the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. On the right, the Pharisee turns to face us directly, holding his hands up in a bold display of his piety. On the left, the publican bows his head in shame, profoundly conscious of his unworthiness and need for God’s mercy. Flanking the curtained doorway to the temple, these two figures pose the question, “Who will enter into the presence of the Lord?” - the proud Pharisee certain of his virtue and worthiness or the humble publican who recognizes his complete insufficiency and looks to the Lord to provide it. But more significantly, it asks viewers to consider whom they will depend on to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, themselves or the merciful grace of God.
The Basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, was erected by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great as his palace chapel as an Arian church during the first quarter of the 6th century. The 26 mosaic scenes of the Ministry and Passion of Christ represent one of the earliest monumental treatments of New Testament subjects. The church was re-consecrated by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 561 AD and given the name "Sanctus Martinus in Coelo Aureo," meaning Saint Martin in Golden Heaven. According to legend, Pope Gregory the Great ordered the mosaics be darkened because their golden glory distracted people from their worship. In 856 AD it was given the name Sant Apollinare Nuovo when relics of Saint Apollinaris were transferred from the Basilica of Sant Apollinare in the nearby port of Classe to protect them from the frequent raids of pirates. It is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
About the Artist:
Unknown Artist
About the Music:
“Kyrie” from the album Garmarna: Hildegard von Bingen
The Lyrics:
Kyrie eleison
Christe eleison
Translation:
Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
About the Lyricist:
The Kyrie Eleison, a transliteration from the Greek for “Lord, have mercy,” is one of the oldest and most common prayers of Christianity. Traced as far back as the Psalms, the phrase is also said several times by those crying out to Jesus for healing in the Gospels, as well as by the despised tax collector in the parable in Luke, who cries out "Lord have mercy on me, a sinner." The prayer is simultaneously a petition and a prayer of thanksgiving; an acknowledgment of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will continue to do. Musical settings of the prayer have been sung in churches throughout history and around the world, in styles ranging from Gregorian chant to folk. Throughout this Project we will explore several different musical arrangements of the Kyrie Eleison.
About the Composer:
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, and polymath proficient in philosophy, musical composition, herbology, medieval literature, cosmology, medicine, biology, theology, and natural history. She has been considered by many in Europe to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. She wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the manuscript of her first work, Scivias. The work consists of her 26 visions that are prophetic, and apocalyptic in form and in their treatment of such topics as the church, the relationship between God and humanity, and redemption. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the Middle Ages and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. One of her works, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. She refused to be defined by the patriarchal hierarchy of the church and, although she abided by its governance, pushed the established boundaries for women almost past their limits. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Hildegard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen
About the Performer:
Garmarna is a Swedish folk-rock band that largely features songs of traditional Scandinavian ballads. Garmarna was founded in 1990 by Stefan Brisland-Ferner, Gotte Ringqvist, and Rickard Westman who were inspired by traditional Swedish music. After years of playing together, Jens Hoglin and Emma Hardelin, also joined the band. In 1998, Garmarna did a series of concerts in churches in the North of Sweden presenting their interpretation of the medieval works of Hildegard of Bingen together with actress Felicia Konrad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmarna
About the Poet:
Arseny Tarkovsky (1907–1989) was one of the leading Russian poets to emerge from the Soviet era, though during most of his life-time he was known for translations of Asian poetry. His son was filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. In 1921 Tarkovsky and his friends published a poem, which contained an acrostic about Lenin. They were all arrested and sent to the Ukraine for execution, but Tarkovsky managed to escape. During World War II he volunteered as a war correspondent and was wounded in action in 1943. He eventually underwent six gradual amputations of his leg. His first collection of poetry, Before Snow, was published in 1962.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/arseny-tarkovsky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arseny_Tarkovsky
About the Devotion Writer:
Jonathan Puls
Associate Dean of Operations
School of Fine Arts and Communication
Associate Professor of Art History and Painting
Biola University
Jonathan Puls is a painter who serves both in faculty and administrative roles at Biola. He has a passion for teaching the integrated history and process of drawing and painting as an extension of his own painting practice. Puls also loves supporting creative work in all the arts at Biola and in the larger community. He, his wife, and his two daughters are constantly engaged in various visual art, music, and theater projects.