READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 4:1-15
1 Corinthians 15:1-10
- St. Luke 18:9-14
Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus, the Christ.
Today, we once again hear Christ speak to us, saying,
“He also told this
parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated
others with contempt:”
In God’s Word today, you are to find that your repentance
and your life of Faith in Church, is not to be used as a weapon against your
neighbor. Otherwise, you will find yourself in contempt. Though we have enemies
and though we can see God’s enemies in life, that is for God, not us. Our job
is mercy and atonement found only in Jesus Christ.
As is usual in our current age, we are losing information
even though we are in the Golden Age of information with every library, paper,
and newscast being at the tips of our fingers. One such piece of information
lost is the word contempt, as Jesus used it in the Gospel reading. No one uses
that word to describe anything anymore and the only reason we know it is
because we watch court dramas on TV and the judges always threaten with finding
you in contempt of court.
Used then, all we know about it is that we’re in more trouble,
not necessarily what it means. Its true meaning is interesting and relevant to
what Jesus says today. Being held in contempt of court means you are guilty of
“disrupting court proceedings, interfering with attempts to obtain evidence,
destroying evidence, disobeying a court order, or intimidating
witnesses.”
Punishments can range from fines to years in a state prison,
maybe giving you new insight to Jesus and the Unrighteous Manager going to jail
until you pay the last penny, which we heard a couple weeks ago.
For the Pharisee, he holds the tax collector in contempt,
not of court nor even of the Temple, but of his own gain. For what he prays for
is himself, to himself. He doesn’t need God to do anything for him. God has
already made all things for him and he’s doing just fine. He’s following all
the rules and doing great and has all his churchy things lined up, just like
he’s supposed to. If only these tax collector-sinner types would leave the
congregation, this would be a great church.
The Pharisee wants the walls white-washed. In his temple,
there is no room for the dirt and mud of sinful life. There is no way the
sinner’s life is equal to his, so he must rise up, as his God does. “Arise,
O God, judge the earth”, says Psalm 82:8, “for you shall inherit all the
nations!” And, “yet a little while and the sinner shall be not!” (Ps
37:10)
In this same spirit, Cain rose up against his brother, in
the name of the Lord, and murdered him. Murdered him in the name of justice, in
the name of holiness, in the name of love. God’s justice is punishment for the
sinner, is it not? God’s holiness destroys all unrighteousness, right? And
God’s love purifies the unbeliever, even if it means annihilation.
Repent. Such is the sick and twisted world our sin creates
for us, where we are the right hand of God who has begged God, “Here am I!
Send me! Send Me!” (Isa 6:8), in order to slay our brothers and sisters. We
believe that God’s Kingdom comes to earth and the earth will be cleansed, by
murder, and as long as we add the name of Jesus onto the end, it will have been
justified.
In holding the sinner in contempt, the Pharisee holds God in
contempt. He disrupts the heavenly court proceedings of atonement. He
interferes with the evidence, preferring sins to grace. And he disobeys the
court order of “mercy, rather than sacrifice”.
In attempting to hold Abel in contempt, Cain found himself
up against the Lord Himself. In rising up against his brother, Cain encountered
his Savior. In murdering Abel, Cain took the Blood of God. Cain's spirit is
then passed down, not to pagans, but to those who are super-spiritual and do
not need sacrifice made on their behalf. Cain holds God in contempt and is
ultimately shown mercy.
Our only hope in our lives is to leave it to God. This
person may not worship like me or act like me now, but maybe he will in the
future. Such is the limit of the spirit of the Pharisees, which we possess. The
contempt of man does not create the righteousness of God.
But God’s contempt does.
The contempt of God creates His own righteousness. And you
would think, as the Pharisee, that it will be in the form of punishment and
divine judgement. And it is, just not in the direction we, in our sin, want it
to be.
God’s own righteousness is His own. His own to create and
His own to give out, if, where, and how He chooses. Don’t think you can hold
him to some certain magical formula you have found, that, if you follow the
recipe correctly, and say the words right, God will just have to give you His
righteousness.
Unless you are Jesus, you obeying God’s commands will not
gain you this righteousness because of your sin. Unless you are Jesus, you
holding your fellow men in contempt will not gain you purity or worthiness.
Unless you are Jesus, you will not be able to take the contempt of man and turn
it into the righteousness of God.
And yet here we are and “Herod with his soldiers treated
him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he
sent him back to Pilate” to be crucified (Lk 23:11). “Elijah does come
first”, Jesus says, “to restore all things. And how is it written of the
Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?” (Lk
23:1)
How is it written? Because, “now You have cast off and
rejected; You are full of wrath against your Christ”, saith the Lord in
Psalm 89:38. Of you, the Lord says, “Why do you pass judgment on your
brother? Or you, why do you hold your brother in contempt? For we will all
stand before the judgment seat of God” (Romans 14:10).
And even though we have rejected God from being king over
us, in this way, He still declares, “let your hand be on the man of your
right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself” (Psalm
80:17), “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and
he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him”
(Psalm 22:24)
Jesus is held in contempt, is treated with contempt, and is
crucified in contempt. He rises again from the grave and there is no more
contempt with Him. As Psalm 22 said, He has no contempt, He has no abboration,
only grace, only mercy, only atonement.
We have despised the Lord’s Sabbath (Ex 22:8) and have not
put His holy things first in our lives and hearts, but Jesus regenerates us as
worthy. We hold the Lord’s Table in contempt (Mal. 1:7), but that rejected
Table, that rejected Stone, is the Cornerstone. Though He had created all
things, especially His Church, in the beginning, His Blood repurchases them
such that they become God’s House and the gate of heaven.
“Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain” (Rev 5:12), not
just to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and
blessing, but to receive those things as the Crucified. As the God Who Died for
contemptable sinners in order that they become the Righteousness of God.
In Jesus, we are not held in contempt. The Father has had
enough of contempt (Ps 123:3) and empties it upon the Son. In the contempt of
the Father, Jesus is murdered by sinners. In Christ’s murder, He purchases
Mercy, Atonement, not for Himself but for those in need of it: those who hold
others in contempt, know not what they are doing, and need forgiveness.
There is no contempt in the Lord’s House. For one, the Court
proceedings have been dismissed. The trial is over. Jesus declared guilty;
sinners declared innocent, in Him. There is no more to obstruct. God is no
longer holding court, on Sundays, but holding a feast. Sirach 34:31 says, “Rebuke
not your neighbor at wine, and hold him not in contempt in his celebration:
give him no despiteful words, and press not upon him”
At the Lamb’s High Feast, which is brought forward to you
today there is only mercy and forgiveness. At the Temple at prayer, there was
the same thing, just in a different form. The Pharisee did not believe God’s
goodness extended to all or that it could even redeem all. But Christ has come
for all. He has no desire for the death of the sinner nor the death of the
self-righteous man.
He wants us to live. Jesus wants you turned from your wicked
ways of despising Him, in order that you are baptized alive towards God. Dead
in sin is the only way to approach God. Eyes covered in the Blood is the only
way to see God and to see your fellow man.
Our justice, holiness, and love is Christ alone. His Blood
and Body cry out for us, on our behalf, proclaiming innocence. In Him, we judge
ourselves and find no guilt. In Him we find mercy and atonement for our sin and
also His Church. In Him, the not-guilty festival is already ready.
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