Trinity 11 August 7, 2016

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14
August 7, 2016

“A Murder Mystery”

Parts of sermon are taken from “Why God Has Regard for You” by Rev. Tausz, September 4, 2011

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

This morning we’re going to do a little murder mystery.  A little case of whodunit.  So I hope you’ll play along with me a little bit as we search for the murderer (or murderers) throughout our Scripture readings this morning.  I hope you’ll stick with me because the surprise ending is definitely the best part of this story.

So our first murderer is quite obvious.  Not really a mystery at all.  He was the first child born into the world.  You know how much moms and dads gush over their first child?  Imagine how much they gushed over the first child ever…in the history of the world.  When Cain was born, his mom gushed, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”  Imagine his first words, his first crawl, his first steps—they were the first that anybody in the world had ever seen.  In one sense, Cain was actually and truly the center of the universe.

Then along came a brother.  Little Abel.  And all of a sudden Cain had to share all the attention with someone else.  Mom and Dad were now busy gushing over the little baby brother.  And Cain now had responsibility.  Something he hadn’t known before.  He had to take care of this little brother.  Be his keeper and protector.

One day the two brothers go to Church to pray and worship God for all His grace and mercy and to receive God’s favor.  They go to Church and sing some good Lutheran hymns from their hymnals, right?  And then it was time for the offering.  Now Cain was the one who worked the fields and Abel did the livestock.  So Cain brings an offering from the fruit of the ground.  Abel brings an offering from the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.  Cain says, “Look at me, God.  I’m the firstborn. Here’s my offering.”  But God doesn’t look.  God only has eyes for Abel and his offering.  Because Abel’s offering was brought in faith.  The only faith that matters.  The faith that believes God’s promise of forgiveness.  So God had regard for Abel’s offering.  But for Cain’s self-righteous offering—God has no regard.

Cain felt the same way you feel when someone you consider to be less worthy than you gets praised and rewarded and you don’t.  Jealousy.  Bitter envy.  It turns us into killers.  Of course, we kill others the more sophisticated and refined way—by going behind their backs with our words and our gossip.  Cain just did it the ol’ fashioned way.  He rose up and murdered his brother.  And when God finally turned his eyes to Cain to ask what this was that he had done, Cain denied it all and said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Yes, that’s exactly what he was supposed to be.  Instead, he is our first murderer.  Not too much of a mystery, right?

Some thousands of years later, Jesus tells us about a different Cain and Abel going up to Church one morning to pray and worship God and to receive His favor.  One of them was a Pharisee.  That would be our Cain.  And the other was a tax collector.  That would be our Abel.  The tax collector believed in God’s promise of forgiveness.  The Pharisee didn’t.  He was self-righteous.

Now Jesus tells this parable very much like it’s a little “murder mystery.”  Very much like it’s a whodunit.  We’re supposed to figure out who’s the bad guy and who’s the good guy.  Now you might think it’s easy.  But it’s not.  You only know the Pharisee is the bad guy because you’ve heard the parable so many times.  If you met the Pharisee in person, you would definitely say that he’s the good guy.  Think of the most religious person you’ve known—someone you really respected—someone who never missed church and never missed an offering and was always at Church to help with this or that—there’s what the Pharisee looked like.  These were the good guys.

And the tax collector?  These were the guys everybody hated.  And you would hate him too.  They were crooked thieves most of the time.  They took more than they were supposed to.  They were in with the Romans.  Think of anyone you’ve ever been angry with because you felt like they “robbed” you.  That’s how you’d feel about the tax collector.

So Jesus tells us that they come up to pray and one of them murders the other.  You would assume it’s the crooked, thieving tax collector that kills the Pharisee, right?  It’s not.  The self-righteous Pharisee prays, “I thank you, God, that I’m so good.  That I’m not like all those other horrible people.  Even like this worthless tax collector here.”  And the thieving, crooked tax collector prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”  So whodunit?  Jesus says that the tax collector went home justified.  God has regard for him.  Looked down on him.  But not the Pharisee.  He’s the murderer.  He’s the one, like us, that talks the big talk about ourselves and has no problem finding everyone else’s sins.  And then killing them with our words and hatred.  He’s the one that murders his brother tax collector with a false prayer.

So have we solved it?  We’ve got two murderers—Cain and the Pharisee.  And so we’ve got two innocent victims, right?  Abel and the tax collector.  Case closed?  Not so fast.  God never tells us that either one of them was innocent.  Hardly so.  Isn’t that what we like to think, though?  We’re always just the innocent victims?  Everybody else has the problems with jealousy and pride and self-righteousness?  That’s why we always will identify ourselves with the tax collector.  We’re humble like him, right?

Well, we might remember Paul’s very clear words, “There is no one righteous.  No, not one.”  There are no innocent victims.  Abel was probably just as annoying as his older brother.  And just as much a troublemaker.  And I’m sure he murdered his brother a hundred times over with his own jealousy and name-calling and anger.  The tax collector was certainly no innocent victim either.  He probably stole people’s livelihoods with his overcharging on taxes.  Because of him, some families probably weren’t able to eat or buy basic necessities.  He murdered as much as any other sinner.

So the plot thickens.  We’ve got four murderers here.  Not just two.  And we’re not done yet.  All four of them happen to be involved in one big murder.  And they’re not alone.  They have some co-conspirators.  They have some brothers and sisters who have joined in their jealousy.  Who have partaken of their self-righteousness.  Who have shown contempt for other siblings.

Cain and Abel have a brother.  A sister.  Did you know you were related to them?  The Pharisee has a brother.  A sister.  Also a relative of yours.  And mine.  And we, like our brothers, are murderers.  We, too, have prayed, “Thank you, God, for making me—me.  For not making me like those other people that think they’re better than everyone else.  Thank you, God, for not making me like those horrible sinners that obviously aren’t as smart and with it as I am.”  And we, too, have rose up against our brothers and sisters and murdered them with our words of condescension, our words of jealousy and judgment, our words of wrath and hatred.

And all of us are co-conspirators in the biggest murder ever—the murder of God’s own Son Jesus Christ on Good Friday. Cain and Abel and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and you and me—we all put him there on that cross.  It was our sins of jealousy and sins of hatred and sins of contempt that drove Him to His death to pay the ultimate price.  The perfect Son of God who was never jealous or hateful—paid the price for all our jealousy and hatred.

So the mystery, then, is solved, right?  We are all the murderers.  Yes, this is true.  But this murder mystery has quite a surprise ending.  The One who we murdered—He rose from the dead.  And He hasn’t come back for revenge.  He’s come back to forgive and to save.

Yes, Cain and Abel were both murderers.  Both sinners.  But there was a difference.  Abel believed in God’s promise of forgiveness.  Cain didn’t.  Abel believed that the sacrifice and offering which he brought that day was a sign of the very offering that God would give on the cross for the sins of the whole world.  Abel believed.  And God regarded him.

Yes, the Pharisee and tax collector were both murderers.  Both sinners.  But there was a big difference.  The tax collector believed in God’s promise of forgiveness.  The Pharisee believed in himself.  That day both of them were in the Temple.  Both of them saw the lamb being offered on the altar of the Temple.  For the tax collector, this was no empty ritual.  He saw there how God was providing for his salvation.  That’s why he said, “God, make atonement for me, a sinner.”  His words were very specific.  It wasn’t just general mercy that he wanted.  He wanted atonement.  He begged God to take away his sin.  And God did.  And Jesus says, “He went home justified.”  He went home innocent.  At peace with God.  Because the One that he murdered—Jesus Christ—rose from the dead for him.

And He rose for you too.  The One that you and I murdered is here today to forgive your sins.  We are not here today as Cain was or as the Pharisee was…saying, “God, thank you I’m not like other sinners.”  No, we’re here as the tax collector, “God, make atonement for my sins.”  “God, take my sins away.”

And God does.  We are murderers.  And that’s exactly who God’s grace is for.  Bring all your jealousy and hatred and contempt to the One who put it all to death on the cross.  And exchange all that sin for His good and gracious love.  Here at this altar is the atonement for your sins.  His very body and blood.  You are forgiven.  Justified.  And, like the tax collector, you may go home in peace.

Thank you, Lord, that you have made us who we are—forgiven sinners.  Thank you, Lord, that you have shown us what real and true love is—not showing contempt or jealousy—but loving and serving as You have loved us.  Laying down our lives for our friends.

God has regarded you.  He has eyes for you.  Not because your offering is so wonderful or because you are so wonderful.  But because you have faith.  Faith in His promise of forgiveness.  Faith in Jesus.  Just like Abel.  Just like the tax collector.  Go home justified.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.