Christ Lutheran Church Cleveland, Ohio by: Rev. Dean Kavouras August 23, 2009
11th Sunday After Trinity I tell you, this man went back to his house justified rather than the other, because anyone who exalts himself, will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:14 There are two things we can’t do. We cannot humble ourselves as Jesus directs us to do in the parable, nor can we exalt ourselves before God. However, what is impossible for man is entirely possible with God. Not only possible, but the heavenly Father has most certainly Called us by the Gospel, justified us by His grace, promised to be with us and bless us every day of our lives, and has in every other possible way exalted us with His Son! In the parable Jesus teaches us not to be like the Pharisee who went to the Temple to brag instead of pray; who went to church to collect the honor he thought God owed him for a job well done, rather than to have his sins blotted out. The Pharisee boasted about the many sins of commission he didn’t commit, and the sins of omission he didn’t omit, but this isn’t the way forward Dear Christians, at least not where our Lord is concerned. While we should not be like the Pharisee we should be like the tax-collector, and in one way we already are. Tax collectors were not nice people and neither are we, in spite of the performance we’ve learned to put on for others. They were unjust, extortioners and adulterers and so are we. We’ve all gotten dishonest gain, we’ve all taken what isn’t ours to have, we’ve all “robbed God of tithes and offerings;” (Malachi 3:8) and we are adulterers, whether by thought, word or deed makes no difference. These sins condemn us, and the only way we can ever be justified is by faith in the One who carried them to the altar of the cross, and there atoned for them. It wasn’t the tax-collector’s sin that the Lord wants us to imitate, but rather his humility; the fact that he was so cognizant of his unworthiness that he wouldn’t even lift up his eyes, but could only beat on his breast and pray within: O God, be merciful to me The Sinner. He wasn’t posturing or feigning humility to gain something as people sometimes do. Rather he was a man who had been awakened by the Word of God, believed it with all his heart and acted upon it. Is it possible that the tax collector in the parable was Zacchaeus whom we meet in the very next chapter of St. Luke’s gospel? A man so anxious to lay his eyes on the Messiah that he climbed up a sycamore tree just to get a look at Him as He entered the city of Jericho, where the New Joshua would make walls of human pride fall down, and bring salvation to Zacchaeus house. Jesus wants us to be humble in this way but the deck is stacked against us. The devil wants us to be proud like he was and uses his influence to puff us up with conceit. The world is in on the conspiracy too. It tells us that if we confess its creeds, and buy its products we will be beautiful, strong, rich and accomplished and that the world will worship at our feet. And sinful flesh, which exists in a deep spiritual coma, gladly believes all these lies and lives in order to gain the endless praise and glory of others. No, we cannot humble ourselves, but we need not fear either because God’s Word can, and the Holy Spirit has richly provided it for us. In today’s Old Testament reading Daniel humbled himself before God. He confessed his own sins, and speaking in his priestly Office, confessed the sins of the nation as well. Where did he learn to pray with such clarity, confidence and humility? From the Word of God. Daniel was intimately familiar with the Holy Scriptures and in the great Confessional Prayer recorded in chapter nine of his book he quotes both Moses and Jeremiah. He acknowledges that the extreme degradation and humiliation his nation was suffering was the very thing these sacred writers had predicted would happen if Israel ever strayed from the LORD. Like the tax-collector, and like St. Paul who calls himself “the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle,” Daniel claimed no righteousness of his own, but humbly confessed his sins, begged for God’s mercy and relied only on it. He was a true theologian of the cross, six centuries before the Savior was ever born. As we can’t humble ourselves before God except by divine grace, nor is it possible for us to exalt ourselves before Him, but Jesus can. Thirty years after the Lord died and had been raised again St. Paul was still proclaiming His death and resurrection as the message of highest importance. That’s because in the divine economy His death means our life; His humiliation our exaltation; and His resurrection our glorification. In Christ we have everything but without Him nothing! Twenty centuries later nothing has changed, we still have only one message to preach: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures. By God’s mercy we have heard the message, believed it, been justified by it and have built our hope, confidence and comfort on it. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. We Confess it in our creed, view it in ecclesiastical art, surround ourselves by it with church architecture, and preach in the church’s liturgy, prayers, hymns and sermons. Not only do we preach the Gospel, but we also exalt the means of grace by which the blessings of Calvary are transmitted to us. Shortly after we were born, we were given new and spiritual birth in holy baptism. By it our sins were forgiven, and in it God made durable promises to us, to be our Guide and Protector all the days of our lives, and our Bright Morning Star for all eternity as well. In time we were taught to know and understand the Scriptures, and to rely on them as the only norm for Christian faith and life. Such knowledge lifts us up high above the anemic wisdom of man, which only leads to self-righteousness, despair and death. In Holy Communion Jesus gives us His flesh and blood for the ongoing remission of ours sins, and to comfort and fortify us as members of the church militant, who are always at war with sin, death and the devil. And so by our Lord’s life, death and resurrection, and by His Church, Gospel and Sacraments God has done for us what we cannot, need not and dare not do for ourselves. He justified us, sanctified us, and raised us up far above our enemies. He has exalted us with a divine name, and a divine future, and now as His exalted people we give Him all praise, honor, and glory, with all humility and thanksgiving. Amen. -- Rev. Dean Kavouras, Pastor Christ Lutheran Church - Cleveland 216-570-5569 [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_ _attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author, as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? 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