Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Pharisee and Tax-Collector Sunday
"Abel & the Tax-Collector"

From the Old Testament of the Day: Now Adam knew eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man, the Lord,” And again, she bore his brother, Abel.[Genesis 4.1-2a]

From the Epistle: Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. [1 Corinthians 15.1-2]

From the Holy Gospel: I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. [Luke 18.14a]

                In the beginning, there was Adam, created from the dust of the ground, and then there was Eve, created out of the flesh and bone of Adam, and then, sadly, there was the fall into sin and the expulsion from the Garden called Eden. So, Adam and Eve tilled the ground for a living, as they awaited the promised Redeemer, who would defeat the person and the evil works of the devil.

That quickie-version of the creation account gets us to Genesis, chapter 4. And after watching the animals reproduce, it became the humans’ turn, and Eve conceived and bore Cane, the first human being born of woman, and Eve rejoiced. She said, directly from the Hebrew, “I have gotten a man, the Lord.” Now, often it is the case that Hebrew sentences must have some English material added to them to make a proper English sentence, supposedly conveying the sense of the Hebrew. For example, in Genesis 1.31, where the Hebrew reads, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and behold, very good,” The English translators add the words, “it was,” so the sentence reads, “a behold it was very good.” The translations that let you know that words have been added for sentence clarity are the KJV, NKJV, and NASB, and they do so by putting the added words in italics

Thus, English translations add these words in English that are not found in Hebrew: “with the help of….” I have gotten a man, with the help of the Lord. But, you see, there is no need for such an addition, as the English translation of the Hebrew words makes sense by itself, “I have gotten a man, the Lord.” And if you want English words to clarify, here they are: “I have gotten a man, the promised Redeemer of God to defeat the devil and his wicked works!”  This Cain, named out of the Hebrew word for the verb “to get,” is by Adam and Eve, presumed to be the Messiah, the Christ. Not exactly!

I.

So, they raised their first-born with that exalted view in mind. And, as it is with many sons through human history, Cain was raised to follow his dad as a tiller of the soil, a farmer. Then comes Abel, and he is raised to take care of the animals of the family that were domesticated for human use, especially the sheep, who were raised, not to be eaten, but rather to be sheered for clothing, rope-making, and so forth; thus, Abel was sheep-herder. And of the two, especially in the light of what the Hebrew tells you – that Cain is the promised Messiah, you can imagine how Cain was raised, in view of his supposed exalted and special work.

Now this brings us to the comparison that God makes between the offerings that Cain brought and the offerings that Abel brought. Whereas Cain was raised the child of privilege, Abel is regard by God as the child of faith. So, in the text, both Hebrew and English, there is no indication of the kind of grain and fruit offering that Cain brought, whereas the text indicates that Abel brought the first-fruit, in this case, the first-born and also the healthiest of the herd, the most cherished animals of the herd.

So, God gives us the means of comparison here – ordinary grain and fruit, versus the firstlings  and the fattest of the flock. Cain met the offering plate of God and threw in a ten- or twenty-, while Abel met the offering plate of God with a check measured by his thoughtful evaluation of what God had given to him, the first of which he returns in the check. This is the difference between the two brothers, in God’s eyes, and God accepts the check and rejects the twenty!

Imagine what Cain thinks. It goes beyond sibling jealousy. God is ignoring him, the supposedly chosen one of God, the soon-to-be head of all the earth (none of them knowing how long the patriarchs would live back thing), the Savior of the family, which means the Savior of mankind! And God is honoring the other one, the brat little brother, the sheep-hearder, sheep-pen cleaner of manure. Cain is not just ignored, not just passed by his little brother, Cain is de-throned, cast-aside from his long-assumed purpose to mankind and importance to God. All that Cain knows of himself, his family, mankind itself, and also all he knows of God, is dashed in this rejection of his offering. And in this intense wrath that passes mere jealousy, Cain kills his brother, Abel.

II.

                 In the Holy Gospel, Jesus tells his apostles-in-training a parable, together with its meaning, about the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector in the Temple. Now, both of these characters must be presumed to have dropped their respective offerings off at the door, as was the custom. We’re not given a comparison of offerings, but the Lord shows us the difference in the character, in the faith, of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector.

First of all you should note that both of these men were rich! Pharisees were rich by virtue of their place in Hebrew society. Tax-Collectors were rich by virtue of the authority given them by Rome to gather taxes from the disgruntled Hebrew tax payers and to keep a healthy portion of the gathered taxes as a service charge, sending the rest on to Rome. Both men were rich, and by the fact that they were allowed into the temple area, both men were tithers, according to God’s design. But that is where the comparison ends, for the Pharisee is honored in social circles, while the Tax-Collector is despised.

What Jesus compares in His parable is not the size of the giving, but rather He focuses on the self-understanding of who it is that God accepts and who it is that God rejects. What the Pharisee says of himself is undoubtedly true: He does fast twice a week – twice the recommended sign of humility and trust in God. He does tithe, on the first day of the week, not only a tenth of his income, but rather he tithes a tenth of the status each week of his wealth, of all his assets. For this he is honored by men, and he expects to be honored by God – and he thanks God for giving the insight, the ability, and the will to do these things! What more could He want?

Meanwhile, the tax-collector speaks and acts differently in the Temple area. He stands humbly on the sideline, and in humility he speaks to God a prayer of petition, a prayer of confession – God, be merciful to me, a sinner! And the God who rejects mankind’s expected Messiahs and mankind’s preferred paragons of Godly faith and duty, rejects the Pharisee and embraces the tax-collector: “I tell you, this man when down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one who exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted..”

III.

The Epistle of the Day gives you this challenge, “I would remind you of the gospel I preached to you.” It is the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. That is the Gospel alone by which you stand before God. It is the Gospel by which you are saved. It is the Gospel that stands in stark difference to the presumed godly news of mankind. It is the Gospel that saved Abel, not Cain. It is the Gospel that saved the tax-collector and not the Pharisee. It is the Gospel by which you are saved. It is the Gospel of the forgiveness of sin by which you go down to your house today, justified!