When it is said
Russian prayer books open the morning prayers with it, said with a bow after the sign of the cross. By the same custom, people coming into a church stop near the door and make three bows. The first goes with this prayer.
The Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee opens the weeks that prepare for Lent. Its hymn says: “Let us avoid the high-flown speech of the Pharisee, and learn the majesty of the Publican’s humble words.”
In Lent it goes with the Prayer of St Ephraim. The Greek book of hours has 12 small bows, each with “O God, be merciful to me, the sinner, and have mercy on me.” In Russian use the 12 bows go with “O God, cleanse me, a sinner.”
At the Divine Liturgy the priest says it three times as he goes out for the Great Entrance, when the Holy Gifts are carried to the altar. A man being made a deacon says it too, bowing three times toward the altar.
Where it comes from
Author known
From Jesus’s parable
Jesus told of two men who went up to the temple to pray. A Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men. A tax collector stood far off and would not even lift his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and said only this. Jesus said it was he who went home justified, made right with God.
Luke 18:9-14, Berean Standard Bible
Who were tax collectors?
Tax collectors gathered taxes and tolls from the Jews for the Romans. Thayer’s Greek lexicon of 1889 says people of many nations detested them, for their trade and for the harshness, greed and cheating with which they plied it. The King James Bible calls them “publicans”, after the Latin word.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (1889) and HELPS Word-studies, telōnēs
One word was enough
St John Climacus was abbot of the monks of Mount Sinai in the 600s. In his book The Ladder he wrote: “Let your prayer be wholly simple. With one word the tax collector and the prodigal son were reconciled with God.” Elsewhere he notes that the tax collector asked only for forgiveness, and was given righteousness.
John Climacus, The Ladder, Steps 25 and 28 (Greek); Kallistos Ware, The Origins of the Jesus Prayer
What the words mean
“Be merciful”: a word of atonement
The tax collector’s word for “be merciful” is hilasthēti. The New Testament uses this verb only one other time, in Hebrews 2:17. There it tells why Christ was made like His brothers in every way: to be a merciful high priest and to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (1889), hilaskomai; Hebrews 2:17, Berean Standard Bible
The root of the Jesus Prayer
The Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”, ends with this man’s cry. The Orthodox Church in America’s handbook The Orthodox Faith calls its “have mercy on me a sinner” the tax collector’s prayer.
Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith: The Jesus Prayer
The Scripture in it
But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ὁ Θεός, ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ.