08/23/2026
"Children sit at the feet of Jesus," a lesson before the service led by Rev. Sahar Sadlovsky Gold:
“For the 11th Sunday after Trinity, we reflected on the Gospel lesson according to St. Luke (18: 9–14), which places before us the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
This is a parable that sets up two sharp contrasts: a Pharisee, a religious and devout man, who stands with his head held high, boasting and bragging of his righteousness before God:
“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.”
And in contrast to him, a tax collector, a total heretic who serves the oppressive Roman Empire and profited from extortion and the financial ruin of his own people. That 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!’”
The parable ends with Jesus’ astonishing statement: “I tell you, this [evil] man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” This statement is scandalous. It shakes everything that common sense tells us about the way religion is supposed to work. He who is to judge the living and the dead on the Last Day is telling you how He runs His courtroom. Human righteousness, although good and necessary in this life, can never make you righteous before God. Civil righteousness may make your neighbor love you, but it can never make God love you. This is the fatal flaw in the Pharisee’s thinking. He expects his good works toward his neighbor to earn him the life of the world to come. His trust was in his works, and therefore his works were his god. And while man looks on the outward, God looks on the heart. He sees what people in your life cannot see. Indeed He sees your dirty heart, your hidden motives, your self-interest, your dark secrets; He sees the love you feel for other gods, and your shameful thoughts. Who would want to offer God works stemming from such a heart? Not a person who hopes to be saved. The Pharisee was outwardly righteous, but inwardly puffed up with pride, self-centered, full of evil desires and all uncleanness, a sick man who imagines he is healthy and does not need a physician. Our heart is in the exact same condition: deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.
Dr. Martin Luther’s comment in his Letters of Spiritual Counsel is quite relevant. He wrote:
“Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells in sinners only. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation. For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our works and afflictions? Accordingly you will find peace only in him and only when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from him that just as he has received you, so he has made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours.”
Your good works can never open the gates of heaven for you. But the perfect life, obedience, and death of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, can and has. His righteousness is your new inheritance, given to you in the saving waters of Holy Baptism. The righteousness of God can never be achieved by human effort; it can only be received. And by faith, it is already yours.
