The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – August 31, 2025Psalm 68; Genesis 4:1-15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-10St. Luke 18:9-14
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
After being cast out of the garden,
Adam knew his wife, Eve. She conceived and bore a son named Cain. She then bore
another son named Abel. Cain was a worker of the fields, like his father, while
Abel tended the flocks. One day, these two sons went to sacrifice to God but
only the sacrifice of Abel was accepted by the Lord. On account of this, Cain’s
face fell and he grew angry.
Our first question of the text should
be, ‘why was Abel’s sacrifice accepted by God but not Cain’s?’ The Letter to
the Hebrews gives us the definitive answer.[1]
Abel offered his sacrifice in faith while Cain did not. This is the bottom
line, the fundamental truth of the differences in their sacrifices.
At the same time, Scripture presents us
with a few more details. Cain offered the fruit of the fields, likely a grain
offering, while Abel offered a sacrifice of the firstborn of his flock. Both
types of sacrifice, gain and the blood of animals, will later be instituted
through Moses, but the greater of these sacrifices is the sacrifice of an
animal. Again, the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.[2]
By this we know that the sacrifice of blood, the shedding of blood for the
forgiveness of sins, is the greater sacrifice. Even Adam and Eve would’ve had
this knowledge. When the Lord gave them the promise of a Savior, the Son of a
virgin who would destroy death and the devil, He then sacrificed an animal and
covered them with clothes of skin. By the shedding of blood, their nakedness
was covered, their sins forgiven.
Our second question of this text should
be, ‘why was Cain angry?’ If the difference was in the orientation of Cain’s
heart, his lack of faith in the sacrifice, by what right is he angry with God? Even
though we know that the sacrifice of blood is greater in the eyes of the Lord
than the sacrifice of grain, both are acceptable sacrifices in the eyes of God.
Therefore, Cain’s anger arises from his perception of an injustice committed by
God. In Cain’s eyes, God is being unfair.
In this, we can sympathize with Cain. Our
thoughts are not the Lord’s thoughts, and our ways are not His ways,[3]
and all too often they seem unfair. We experience this in life when the wicked
prosper but Christians suffer. We experience this in the words of Holy
Scripture when the Lord rewards Abraham for pretending Sarah is his sister, or
when He declares, “Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated.”[4]
We know from the Scriptures that God
cannot be unjust. Any injustice that man perceives in God is the result of a
lack of understanding on man’s part, not a lack in God. He is the very
definition of justice, righteousness, goodness, and love.[5]
Returning to Cain, the conflict arises
not because Cain perceives an injustice in God but because he blames God for
the injustice. Rather than seeking the Lord and His righteousness, Cain becomes embittered toward God. He begins to resent his Creator. Yet even in this state,
we see the mercy of God. He comes to Cain and asks, “Why has your countenance
fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well,
sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”[6]
The Lord is calling Cain to repentance
and guiding him into the way of truth. It is as though God was saying, “Cain, what
reason do you have to be angry? No, I did not accept your sacrifice today
because it wasn’t offered in faith. Learn from this moment. Learn not to trust
in the quality of your sacrifice, nor in your rank as firstborn, nor in the
strength of your arm. Place your trust in Me, the One who is truly Good and
from Whom all good things come. If your trust is in me and not your sacrifice,
then your sacrifices will gladly be accepted. But if not, then satan is waiting
to consume you. Your anger will overcome you, and it will be too late to stay
your hand.”
But these words did not penetrate
Cain’s stony heart. He had hardened himself against the Lord. He had set his
mind on killing Abel. Now, generally, Cain’s plan to kill Abel is described as
an act of envy. Cain was angry at Abel because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by
God. There is truth in this observation. Cain was almost certainly envious of
the attention his brother received from God. But a closer read of the text
reveals something even darker. If Cain’s anger is the result of a perceived
injustice in God, then who is the primary object of his anger? Is it not God?
It would follow that Cain’s murderous plan was not directed at Abel but at God.
He wanted to destroy the object of God’s affection, hurting God for hurting him.
When God comes to Cain and asks where
Abel is (another plea and opportunity for Cain to repent of what he has done),
Cain says, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”[7]
In effect, he is saying, “God, don’t you know where Abel is? Isn’t he your
beloved son? Since you accepted his sacrifice, aren’t You supposed to be
watching out for him?” Rather than repenting, Cain is doubling down on blaming
God for the current situation. To Cain, it is God’s injustice that killed Abel.
Now, horrified as we are with Cain’s actions, and you should be, consider the times in your own life when you’ve acted as Cain and not as God. Both God and Cain think themselves justified in their actions but only One of them is right. God comes to Cain seeking the latter’s repentance and a restoration of their relationship. Cain doesn’t even respond to God in the first conversation and proceeds to hurt God by attacking the object of God’s affection. When the Lord again offers the opportunity for repentance, Cain does nothing but passive-aggressively attack the Lord. He shifts all blame onto God. For this, Cain is condemned and cast out of the presence of the Lord.
It is here we also see the connection
to our Gospel text. The Pharisee loudly extols all of his righteous deeds to
God and expects the Lord to reward him. The tax collector humbly begs for God’s
mercy for he knows that he is a poor, miserable sinner. Both believe themselves
righteous but only one returns to his home justified. One finds his
justification in his righteous deeds. The other finds his justification in the
mercy and atonement of the Lord. One believes his righteousness is a work of
his own hands. The other finds righteousness in the shedding of the innocent
blood of the Lamb of God.
According to our thoughts and our ways,
the Pharisee is clearly the one who goes home justified. He has done all of the
righteous things. He prays loudly so that all can hear and see his
righteousness. According to our thoughts and our ways, it would be a great
injustice for the Pharisee to be condemned.
Now the tax collector is a wicked man.
He makes a living by cheating and stealing from his neighbors. Worse yet, from
cheating and stealing from his kindred, from his fellow Judahites, to support
the pagan government of Rome. Yet he comes into the Temple to humbly beg for
the mercy of God, that God would make atonement for his grave sins and save him
from eternal damnation.
The comparison to Cain and Abel is not
to think of Cain as the Pharisee and Abel as the tax collector. Both the
Pharisee and the tax collector are Cain. They are the two roads laid before
Cain. The Pharisee is the sin lying at the door waiting to consume him. The tax
collector is the repentance to which the Lord repeatedly calls Cain – both
before and after the murder of Abel. “There are two ways, one of life and one
of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways.”[8]
Since the fall of our first parents,
sin has been crouching at the door for every one of you. It is waiting for the
opportune time to pounce upon your soul and drag you into the depths. But the
Lord is patient. The Lord is kind. He has descended into the depths of your
flesh to raise you from destruction. There is no depth of sin at which point
Christ cannot reach you, no crevasse of the earth into which the blood of
Christ, which speaks better things than that of Abel, is not able to cover your
sin.
This does require humility. It requires
humility not to trust in yourself or your own evaluation of your sins. Original
sin has corrupted even your conscience. Alone, our conscience cannot be trusted
to rightly discern between sin and righteousness. Our conscience must ever be
formed by and checked against the Word of God. The renewal of your mind which
comes with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, will never be complete on this
side of glory. It requires humility to submit yourself to the Word of God for
His ways are not your ways and His thoughts are not your thoughts. It requires
humility to trust that God is good, and He will provide for you the escape from
your sins. In fact, He has provided the escape from your sins when He humbly
submitted to the death of a criminal. In His goodness, He provides for the
needy. He bears us up and is our salvation. Blessed be the Lord.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
[1]
Hebrews 11:4.
[2]
Hebrews 9:22.
[3]
Isaiah 55:8.
[4]
Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 9:13.
[5]
Psalm 92:15; Deuteronomy 32:4; Romans 3:4.
[6]
Genesis 4:6-7.
[7]
Genesis 4:9.
[8]
The Apostolic Fathers, “Didache 1:1,” 3rd edition, translated
and edited by Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007),
345.
