The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Luke 18:9-14 “Up to the Temple to Pray”
August 31, 2025 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Lord God, heavenly Father, we beseech You so to guide and direct us by Your Holy Spirit, that we may not forget our sins and be filled with pride, but continue in daily repentance and renewal, seeking comfort only in the blessed knowledge that You will be merciful to us, forgive us our sins, and grant us eternal life; through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 161)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 18th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who works through you and when He sees your head down, He raises it to see your forgiveness found in His cross, dear fellow redeemed:
If we were asked, “where can you find and talk to God,” how would we answer this question? It is a fitting question for today and we must take the question into two parts. Where can we find God? Let’s start with that. Well, because of where we live, we easily can turn to creation and say see God, quoting David, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth Psalm 121:1-2). Now as you have heard me say that in creation, we only find God’s law, then we go to the place where we find the Gospel. We find God where His Word is rightly taught, and His sacraments are rightly administered. Knowing where we can find God means we certainly know we can talk to Him where He is found. If He is found in creation, then He is omnipresent and like the Psalmist says, The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth (Psalm 145:18). We are also told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Now while we can read His Word and pray anywhere, we do all of this when we come to church. We go up to the temple to pray like the men in our parable, beating our breasts and being forgiven in the presence of God.
Now we must not take what we have for granted. Jesus is quick to remind us of this as He teaches this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt. What is two extremes in Jesus’ day, we also see the two sides of being very confident in our own works or suffering mightily in despair. The warning Jesus is teaching His people is the warning of pride. This is the chief problem everyone in the world has. As Jesus was telling them that He is the One who they are waiting for, they are adamantly not believing He is the One they need. Some fully believe they are doing what is right, God will accept the works they are doing, and if the rest would just do the things they do, then all will be right in the world. The hope can always be that someone will do the things you do or follow your example. The problem is, you can’t look down on those whom you want to follow you, otherwise you are holding them in contempt.
The ones who were doing the looking down upon should have been the ones to lift those who were struggling. They were leading the very worship that allows the people to find forgiveness and hope. Some of the worship items we do in our worship, we see in this temple worship. The temple which Jesus says is His “Father’s House.” The people knew this was the place where they would see God in hearing the Law and in watching the sacrifices. Jesus wants them to eliminate the distractions. Right before this, He teaches them how to pray without ceasing. As they go to their Father though, they need to understand how they can’t come to Him with the things they have done. There is nothing they can do and there is nothing we can do to appease Him.
While we can’t appease Him, it doesn’t mean He ignores us, in fact, as we heard last week, He does the opposite and calls us. Jesus begins the parable, “Two men went up into the temple to pray.” During the day, there were hours that the people would go up to the temple to pray. They could go up just during prayer hours and they could go up during the morning and evening sacrifice. The people who Jesus is telling this parable to would have been familiar with this. One of the men is a Pharisee and the other is a tax collector. One is regarded as a great leader of the people, and the other is regarded as a traitor. In the people’s minds who hear this parable and even in our minds, we see that these men look to be opposites but they are similar too.
Jesus begins to show the similarities by telling us what the Pharisee prayed for. The Pharisee, knowing He is in the presence of God prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ Now he is going above and beyond. He fasts twice a week instead of only once a year as required. He tithes a tenth of everything instead of a tenth of produce or animals. As the Pharisee goes on with his “prayer” which is him telling God all the things he has done for Him, we might be quick to say we are never like him. With the warning of sinful pride, it doesn’t have to be over what someone else has or does. Jesus is also warning us to keep our prayer life focused. This doesn’t mean there is a danger of making a prayer of the heart over a fixed one. We must understand what we are saying and asking. If we don’t focus on what we say and ask, our prayers will drift into a work. Jesus’ blueprint is a prayer life of mostly asking about spiritual needs, followed by our daily bread, and asking that God would answer according to His will. How good are we trusting His will? A few “no” answers and it certainly looks easier to be like the Pharisee and bargain in the temple of God with the things we have done as our bargaining chip.
It is easy to see though these men are on two sides of the spectrum. There is relief for both sides if they are willing to admit their faults. One side is not willing, even when they are in the temple. They believe they have done enough, and they can wait for the inheritance they have earned. The other side realizes what is happening in the temple. They might be in the temple during an hour of prayer, but at the end of the day, their prayers rise with the evening sacrifice. A sacrifice of blood needed to make atonement in God’s presence. Every day, the people were watching God do a great thing for them that they didn’t deserve by granting them forgiveness.
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Going up into the temple to pray, coming into church on Sunday, and saying your nightly prayers on the foot of your bed reveal a deep trust you need God to give you because on your own you would only despair. The tax collector has gone up knowing and believing what God expects from him, and he has failed. He sees God’s law and with a solemn heart, he prays for God to give him mercy. He looks to the sacrifice on the altar that points to the One to come. He believes it will with the sacrifice of his broken and contrite heart. He hasn’t done any of the things the Pharisee has done, And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteous (Romans 4:5).
“Two men went up into the temple to pray,” and they both have the option to accept the hard truth of their sins and faults. The one who is arrogant can realize that he is no better than anyone else. The one who believes he is the worst can realize there is a saving power that takes away all sin. This saving power is found in the One who came to be the all atoning sacrifice and to be the One who hears and answers all your prayers. He reveals it isn’t in your own actions as He says, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). As sinners one and all, the Savior’s call goes out, pointing out sin to stir in the heart repentance. With the cut to the heart like the tax collector, you come to the church and then hear the gracious Words from your loving God. He does have mercy and remembers your sins no more.
What if you feel you just can’t lift your eyes to heaven? Like the tax collector, you haven’t come here with the things you have done in your life, but with the prayer from a sorrowful heart. And in that sorrow, your Savior Jesus Christ says, you are justified because of His work for you. In His work you see His perfect good works done according to the will of His Father and His perfect prayers, accepting the will of His Father. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). You will go home with joy today, because of the trust you have in the cross of Christ. His merciful sacrifice for you, once and for all. Like David you can sing, “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God” (2 Samuel 22:21-22). This does not contradict as this is what you do through the saving work of your Savior.
As you do work according to God’s will, you know there will be times you fail. You won’t want to go up into the temple to pray because of them. You will instead want to be like St. Paul and say, The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Timothy 1:15). In your label of being the worst of sinners, you label yourself saved by the blood of Christ. This is your label because your prayers are focused and full of trust in what the Lord does for you. He points out your faults because He loves you, because Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death (Psalm 68:20). You see this deliverance at the temple in prayer. It is not found in the works you have accomplished. In the temple with all your brothers and sisters in Christ, your deliverance is found looking back at God’s promise fulfilled in the cross, where you see the gift of your justification. Where you hear the answer to your prayers in the Words, “sinners, your sins are forgiven.” Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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