Sermon for The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, 2026

“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Beloved, that verdict does not stop with him. It falls on you. Your own thanks, veiling your judgment of others, prayed before either man opened his mouth, He hears. Your own smirk, the one you think no one saw, He sees.

Yet hear what going down means before anything else follows. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, no less than the tax collector, no less than the man whose tassels were lengthened beyond what the Law required, who couldn’t see it in himself. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Not the Pharisee’s “grace,” purchased with prayer, fasting, and tithing. Not even the tax collector’s own sorrow, God-pleasing as it was. Grace that went down before either man opened his mouth: the eternal Son, who alone is not like other men, went down—down from heaven, down into flesh, down into the grave—so that everyone who goes down before Him, empty-handed, goes down justified.

So walk now. He hasn’t left your side; He simply turns, and where He goes, you follow: past the steps you never climbed, past the place where the Pharisee prayed to himself, up to this rail, the very gate of heaven itself, where the same verdict that humbles you waits to raise you. For you are watching no longer; the floor is now beneath your own feet.

Here, at this rail, the one who fasts and tithes and quietly compares kneels beside the one who cannot lift his eyes, and neither has anything left to say for himself. And here Christ Jesus, who has been beside you this whole while, gives you His Body, saying, “Take and eat; this is My Body, which is given for you,” and His Blood, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My Blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” You brought no tithe sufficient to purchase what descends from this altar, and none was asked. Rather, beat your breast and pray what the tax collector prayed; receive the answer to that prayer here, and go down from this place: justified.

Readings:

• Old Testament: Genesis 4:1-15

• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:1-10

• Holy Gospel: Luke 18:9-14
  

Sermon:

https://youtu.be/hF3Un_qj8vM