The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

 The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – August 31, 2025

Psalm 68; Genesis 4:1-15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-10

St. 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.

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[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,” 3^rd edition, translated and edited by Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 345. 

Misericordias Domini (Easter 2)

 Misericordias Domini – May 4, 2025

Psalm 33; Ezekiel 34:11-16; 1 Peter 2:21b-25

St. John 10:7-18

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In St. Peter’s first letter to the Church, the Holy Spirit admonishes us this morning to follow Christ. He then explains in what respects we should follow Him and concludes with why it is that we should follow Christ.

The admonition to follow Christ is quite simple and direct: “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.”[1] We might be accustomed to thinking of Christ’s perfect life as an example for the Christian life, but the Holy Spirit would have us here consider His perfect suffering and death as an example, too. Christ declared, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”[2] The cross of which He speaks is often taken to be the daily burden of sin or any of the various types of suffering endured each day by man. While that may or may not be the intention of Christ’s own words, the Holy Spirit calls these words to mind in the context of greater suffering: suffering the sins of others, persecution, and death.

Our Lord’s suffering could be said to begin with the knowledge that one of His beloved disciples would betray Him. A man who had been with Christ from the beginning would betray Him with a kiss, and for what? Thirty pieces of silver and the approval of man. Then, the events of that night really begin when Christ speaks of His betrayal. He knows what Judas plans to do and is pleading for Judas’s soul. But the son of perdition had already given his soul to satan that the Christ would be betrayed into the hands of the priests and Romans. Imagine the sorrow of Christ as His heart breaks that one of His beloved would betray Him, sorrow that is redoubled as the betrayal is completed with a kiss, a sign of affection poisoned by sin.

Christ says to Judas, “Friend, why have you come?”[3] Then, to the murderous crowd, He says, “I have told you that I am [the One whom you seek]. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way.”[4] He said this to spare those whom He loved from the fate He was about to endure. Yes, they would one day meet similar deaths, but their time had not yet come. He must first show them the way into the grave, that they would also see His victory over it. They needed to see both the way into the grave and the way out of it, that they would follow Him.

So then, in what respects are we called to follow Christ? Our text outlines five ways in which we are to follow Christ. First, He committed no sin. If only we could follow Christ completely and perfectly in this way! Yet the frailty of our flesh does not excuse us from following in His footsteps. A child might try to follow his father’s footsteps in the snow, but his short legs won’t allow him to perfectly conform to his father’s gait. His little feet will make a mess of his father’s tracks.

Yet in the same way, we too should follow Christ in being disgusted by sin and fleeing from it with all we have. We should look to His steps and set our wills to following in them. When we stumble and fall, for the footsteps are too great for us, we cry to our heavenly Father to forgive our sin, lift us back onto our feet, and continue in His train.

Second, no deceit was found in His mouth. If our actions should conform to the steps of Christ, then so too should our thoughts and words. The Holy Spirit has much to say about the evil that is produced by the tongue. “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”[5] How easy it is to let a sinful word pass our lips or a wicked thought capture our minds!

Perhaps worse still is keeping silence when speaking is required. When called to confess, repent, or forgive, if you should keep your tongue in your mouth then the flame of the tongue begins to burn within you, setting your body and soul aflame. Yet look to Christ who spoke the Law to hardened hearts, the Gospel to the repentant, and even kept His silence when words no longer touched the hearts of His persecutors. No deceit was found in His mouth because from it issued the pure Word of God.

Third, when Christ was reviled, He did not revile in return. Christ did not curse His persecutors and executioners from the cross but rather prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[6] This prayer was certainly answered in the case of the repentant thief on the cross and perhaps also in the centurion who confessed that “certainly this Man is the Son of God.”[7]

We are to follow Christ in restraining our hearts against those who persecute us and those who sin against us. Cry out to God that justice be done? Absolutely. Pray that the wicked be destroyed, as Psalm 55 says, “Destroy, O Lord, and divide the tongues [of the enemy], For I have seen violence and strife in the city;” or Psalm 58, “Break the teeth [of the wicked] in their mouth, O God! Let them flow away as water which run continually…The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.”[8]

Yet even in these harsh psalms, we pray for the purpose that God’s will would be done and that we would be spared the sins of wicked men. The cry for God’s justice to be meted out on the wicked is so that God’s will would be kept pure and holy and that the righteous would be saved. It is not a prayer for personal vengeance. These are not prayers for personal retribution. They are prayers for justice and righteousness.

No Christian is called to be a punching bag, absorbing the kicks and punches of the wicked. Turning the other cheek is not a commandment to enable abuse. Rather, when the persecution, wickedness, and sins of others come against you, look to the God of all mercy, grace, and justice for relief. He will judge the unrighteous. He will protect the righteous. He is our strength and shield, not we ourselves.

The fourth and fifth respects in which we are to follow Christ are related to the third. He did not return reviling with reviling, nor did He return threats with threats. Rather, He committed Himself to the one who judges righteously. “‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”[9] When persecution and sin comes against you, the first thought is to protect your own heart, lest you too be swallow by the wrath of others and join them in their iniquity. God has said, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”[10] The Lord hears the cries of the faithful and will preserve the righteous. He will judge the wicked to the glory of His own name. We are to walk in the footsteps of Christ by having faith, trusting in the Lord’s righteousness to deal with us (and the wicked) according to His Word.

The admonition to follow Christ’s example in His perfect life but especially in His perfect suffering and death begs the question, why? As good evangelical Christians, we know that Christ proclaimed, “It is finished!” from the cross. Your salvation is finished, complete, made whole, by Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Why, then, does the Holy Spirit speak to us through St. Peter and speak so boldly about our duty to follow Christ’s steps?

It is precisely because He is the Good Shepherd. He leads His flock from the front. He guards and protects the sheep. He knows you by name. He also leads you to still waters and away from dangers. The footsteps of Christ show the way of salvation. Where Christ, our Shepherd is, that is where we want to go. If our desire is to be with Christ, to be in His flock and to go where He is leading us, then naturally, we ought to follow His steps.

We were once like sheep going astray, that is, we were once sheep without a shepherd, lost in the confusion of our sin; turned inward, staring at our navels, thinking we knew the path within ourselves. Yet even while we were in our sins, the Father sent His Son to gather the wayward sheep to Himself. He came to die that we would have life. If Christ has said, “I know My own, and My own know Me,” then it is we, who know Christ, who have been called to follow Him.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] 1 Peter 2:21.

[2] St. Matthew 16:24; St. Mark 8:34; St. Luke 9:23.

[3] St. Matthew 26:50.

[4] St. John 18:8.

[5] James 3:6.

[6] St. Luke 23:34.

[7] Cf. St. Matthew 27:54.

[8] Psalm 55:9; 58:6-7, 10.

[9] Romans 12:19.

[10] Romans 9:13; cf. Malachi 1:2-3.