Trinity 11 2020
Genesis 4:1-15
August 23, 2020
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
We have a parallel in our Old Testament reading and the Gospel for today. In each account, two men worshiped God with sacrifices of thanksgiving or prayers. One worshipped in an unworthy way; the other in a manner pleasing to God. This morning, we are going to take some time to think about these differences and what a right sacrifice looks like.
So let’s begin with our Old Testament reading for Genesis 4, the account of Cain and Abel. These are the first two children of Adam and Eve, the first human beings who God created. This was near the beginning of creation, long before the covenant that God made with the people of Israel through Moses. There was no Leviticus yet to detail and describe what a sacrifice should be and how it should all be conducted. There was not even a command to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Even so, Cain and Abel gave offerings to the Lord. Apparently, Cain was a farmer, and Abel a shepherd. Both had honorable work, and there was no difference in the value of their offerings. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground, while Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. Both offered their crops without God's command to worship, but to thank God for His blessings.
And then, in what has caused so many minds to wonder, Scripture tells us, “And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” Cain is angered that Abel receives God’s favor, angered and filled with envy to the point of the murder of his own brother. Here in Genesis, we aren’t told what Cain and Abel were thinking, nor even their attitude, as they brought their offerings, just the results. It is certainly helpful therefore that the author of the Hebrews explains why God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. In Hebrews 11:4 we read, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.” By faith, he was commended as righteous.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the Gospel reading. Here in Luke 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both offered sacrifices of thanksgiving and prayer to God. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men, other lesser men, other sinful men, like the tax collector. He did what he was supposed to, he played the part, fasted and tithed. Not like the tax collector, as least presumably. Tax collectors were considered sell outs, an employee for Rome, the foreign and pagan empire. They were notorious as collecting more than what was due to line their own pocket. For most of the Jews, they were treated as traitors and cheats, thieves. This man too offered a sacrifice of prayer to God, saying only this, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Both the Pharisee and the tax collector made their offerings to God, but Jesus notes the difference, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The tax collector was thus declared righteous by faith.
You see the difference between Cain and Abel, between the Pharisee and the tax collector, is one of misbelief and faith, of being righteous in one’s own eyes and being righteous in God’s eyes, that is the righteousness that comes by faith. This really is the foundational issue of the Christian faith, and is the foundational issue of your salvation, the thing that is of first importance. Either, you trust in your own sacrifices toward God, your own works and efforts and attempts to please Him or ignore Him, or you trust in the works and efforts of God, of God’s sacrifice for you.
This is the Gospel which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. Jesus offered Himself as the sacrifice for the world. By faith, a perfect fear, love and trust in His Father in heaven, He is the Righteous One. His sacrifice is well pleasing to God, accepted by the Father to cover the sins of the whole world. Christ died, was buried, rose on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. Good works do not justify anyone in the eyes of God. Our good works could never be enough to justify us in the eyes of God. Only the blood of Christ on the cross are we justified by faith in his promise. So, justification is by grace, not by works.
The Pharisee in the temple despised the tax collector as Cain despised his brother Abel to the point of killing him because they trusted their own merits and expected to receive more from God than those around them. This is not the attitude for making our offerings to God. Consider a song we sing sometimes, the offertory in Divine Service 1, from Psalm 116, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord. I will take the cup of salvation and will call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.” We can return nothing to God except the vows of praise and thanksgiving, of calling upon His holy name, only those things that the Lord Himself has given. And even this is only acceptable to God in humble faith and trust in His righteousness.
May our faith bear fruit in good works, not for the sake of winning God's favor, or to give back so that we can get more, but to show God's love to others and bring them into the Church of God, the refuge of the redeemed.