It occurs to me after being a pastor for seven years and having lived for 35 years that it is the case that whenever we have something good to say, it's usually about ourselves and whenever we have something bad to say its usually about somebody else. We are very good at saying what good we've done and we are very good at saying how other people have blown it, are worthless, have failed. What's worse, if you think you don't live like that, then you prove the point! When it comes down to it, you and I are Pharisees. "Lord, I thank you that I'm not like THOSE people. Instead, I'm good like THIS!" Oh, don't get me wrong, once in a while we might compliment another person if they do something that comes a little bit close to our high standards and might be something as good as we have done. The great danger that Jesus would rescue us from in telling us about the Pharisee and the tax collector is that when we are Pharisees, we cannot be justified! You cannot claim the salvation and forgiveness of sins when you stand as one who is better than everyone else around you! Only one guy walked out of the Temple justified, right in God's sight—and it wasn't the guy who lived the good life and despised everyone else. St. Luke records that Jesus told this parable to those who thought they were righteous and looked down on others. That's you and me, brothers and sisters. So let's listen up and learn repentance today!
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector teach us that there are really only two kinds of religion in this world. Cain and Able teach the same thing. In the Cain and Pharisee religion, it's all about what WE do and how we make ourselves look to God. Cain and the Pharisee have taught the religion that everyone loves because it makes ME look good. Here's what I'VE done. Here's what I'VE accomplished. Here's why God should be so thankful I'M one of His followers. Here's why the world should be impressed by all MY good works. What I have done is way better than what THOSE people do. Look at THOSE people! THOSE kind of people. God ought to be impressed with MY good life and people around better learn from me how to be such a great person! Brothers and sisters in Christ, if that's your religion—and you can't deny that it is, out there in your daily life—then repent! Repent and recognize that such a way of thinking leaves no room in your life even for God Himself! Repent and learn to live and believe as Abel and the Tax Collector do. They show us the other kind of religion. The name "Abel" actually means "nothing." Literally, the word "Abel" is the word for "nothing." He came before the Lord and confessed that he was NOTHING. Worth nothing. Had nothing. Did nothing. When Abel came before the Lord all he had was God's promise that He would send a Savior. And Abel's only hope was that there would be a Savior some day. Same with the tax collector. He didn't even look up to heaven. He beat his breast in misery over one person only: himself. He cried out, "Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner! Lord, send a substitute to rescue me from my sins or I am doomed." Only one guy walked out right before God. Not the one who thought he was all that to God. It was the one who was nothing. The guy who was one of THOSE people. He walked out with His sins forgiven because he earned nothing from God but had God's mercy. The Pharisee had no mercy from God, because he had already justified himself by his pride.
Two kinds of religion. That means two kinds of Jesus. In Cain and the Pharisee's religion, Jesus is nothing but a teacher of wisdom and good works. In a religion where the big deal is to show how good you are and how holy and how religious, the only kind of Jesus is the one who pats such people on the back. But actually, in truth, the only Jesus for such believing is the Jesus who will stand in the Last Day in all of His eternal glory and judge those who thought they were better than others. The only Jesus there is for such prideful and self-righteous people is the One who burns to ashes all who behold His face in their sinfulness. Indeed, brothers and sisters, if you think for a moment that you are better than anyone else, more holy, more devoted, more right, more religious, then just make sure that when you stand before your Judge, you can prove it. But the Law will testify against you and your condemnation will be swift and certain! For Abel and the Pharisee there is another kind of Jesus. There is the Son of God who was born of the Virgin and lay in a manger. There is the Son of God who patiently taught His disciples. There is the Son of God who suffered Himself to be captured and abused and nailed to a cross. For Abel and the Tax Collector and every other sinner who acknowledges their wretchedness, there is the Jesus who takes their place on the cross and bleeds and dies for them. For such as have no hope in themselves and whose only confession is that they are worse than everyone, there is the Gospel of St. Paul: that Jesus saves even sinners as bad as a murdering Pharisee! See? If Jesus can save Saul the murdered then there's hope for us! There's hope in that Christ, that Jesus who takes on sin and destroys its power at Calvary and then rises from the dead!
Two religions. Two different Jesuses. Two different ways of worshiping. The religion of Cain and the Pharisee teach us to worship God by coming together as people who know they're great and religious people and who come to cheer about how great God is all the time. What they really mean is that God is great because He has kept them from being like all THOSE people. This sort of false religion is all about what I have done: my fasting, my praying, my giving and tithing. Is that your worship? To come and let God know how blessed He is to have you around? Do you like to come to church, like the Pharisee and look around a breathe a prayer of relief that you aren't like all those people? Beware! Such worship is no worship of the Lord! Such worship will be answered for on the Last Day! But true worship, the worship which Abel and the Tax Collector teach us is that of sinners who come to receive whatever crumbs the Lord will give. True worship is not about coming to church to give God something. It's about coming to church to receive the forgiveness of sins. To worship is not to compare ourselves to others and thank God we're better! True worship is to come and confess that we are nothing, or worse than nothing, that we despise God and we truly despise others and we are poor, miserable sinners because of it. And that true worship comes to receive the only thing that the Lord has for it: the forgiveness of sins. True worship is all about what the Lord has for you. The forgiveness of sins. Water and word in Baptism. Body and blood in the Supper. Absolution and the Gospel from the pulpit. It's all about what the Lord has for you: and He rescues each and every one of us, as He did St. Paul, from our Pharisaical way of life.
Two religions. Two different Jesuses. Two different ways of worshiping. Two ways of relating to our neighbor. For Cain and the Pharisee, the neighbor is someone to kill and get out of the way. Rather than learn from Abel how to worship, Cain kills him and then asks foolishly, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Rather than learn from the tax collector how to come before God and pray, the Pharisee uses him as the bad example in his own self-righteous prayer! How about you, dear Christian? Is your neighbor just someone to put up with? To be tolerated? To get rid of if not by murder then by wicked words and spiteful actions? Someone to compare yourself to so you look good? Repent! Learn that in the religion of Abel and the Tax collector the neighbor can only be someone to serve. To help out. To bless and benefit. If you are indeed the lowest of the low, there is nothing to do but serve those who are better than you. Here we have the example of Christ who although He is the ruler of the Universe came as a servant to do for others and ultimately to give His life for the world as if He were the worst of all and therefore should serve everyone else! In the religion of Abel and the tax collector, neighbors are for loving, for serving, for helping, for blessing and caring for. Not because such love and service of our neighbor impresses God but because God is already pleased with us in Christ and our neighbor needs us not for showing us "religion" but showing us love and service.
Cain and the Pharisee. Abel and the Tax Collector. Two different religions. Two different Jesuses. Two different ways of worshiping. Two different reasons for having neighbors. Recall that Christ is telling this parable to those who thought they were righteous and despised others. Jesus concludes the parable by saying, "Whoever exalts himself will be brought down and whoever humbles himself will be lifted up." Jesus humbled Himself to come in the flesh as a servant. He is lifted up on the cross for the sins of the world. Now you and I, who have exalted ourselves over others, are brought low with Christ into the grave in the waters of Baptism and raised up with Him to the heavenly places. We are brought low in repentance and the confession of our sins but raised up by the absolution which bespeaks us righteous. We are brought low as we kneel at the altar in repentance and are raised up, filled with the body and blood of Jesus which give us forgiveness, life and salvation. Let us learn to live as Christians, counting ourselves as nothing, but being everything in Christ, making our neighbors into everything for their sake and blessing. And know then on the Day of Judgment that you are in Christ and that you will not stand condemned with Cain and the Pharisees of this world. Rather because of what Jesus has done and given to you, you are numbered with Abel and the Tax Collector who had nothing in themselves but sin but who now in Christ are filled to overflowing with all of the Lord's holy and saving and everlasting gifts! And so like the Tax Collector you go away from this temple today justified in Christ. Amen.