God’s Mercy is Found in Christ
Trinity 11| Luke 18:9-14| Pastor James Preus| August 16, 2026
For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3:22b-25a
Last week we learned how God destroyed the temple in Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago. So, it might sound unrelatable that two men went to the temple to pray. There is no temple anymore. But this is perhaps the most relatable parable Jesus ever told, and it applies to all of us directly. For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God someday. And when we go to church to worship God, which is the closest thing to going to the temple to pray that we do today, our soul’s desire is that we go home justified. Indeed, whenever we bow our heads in prayer, we desire that God would declare us righteous.
That is what this parable is about: our greatest need. Our greatest need is that we are justified before God. To be justified means to be declared righteous by God. It is a legal term. It means that God finds no fault in you. If you are declared righteous by God, that is, if you are justified, then you are saved. Then God is pleased with you and everything you do. Then you have peace with God and assurance of everlasting life. But if you are not justified, there is no peace, no comfort, no heavenly assurance. What these two men do at the temple and the result of it is the most important lesson anyone can learn today.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray,” Jesus says. Two men went to the same place to do the same thing, but with very different results. Why? Because one trusted in himself and in his own works, while the other trusted in God alone and in His mercy.
The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men. His thanksgiving was really just a pretense to justify himself before God. He boasted not in the Lord, but in himself and what he had done. “I thank you that I am not like other men.” You see immediately that he compares himself to others. He cannot stand on his own merits, but he must compare his works to others. But the Law does not say, you must be better than others, but, “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) He brags that he is not an extortioner, unjust, adulterer, or like a tax-collector. What things to brag about! Of course you shouldn’t extort money. Of course you should be honest in all your doings. He brags that he is not an adulterer. Why doesn’t he brag that he has never lusted in his heart after a woman? We all know the reputation of tax-collectors: traitors, thieves, and liars. But why doesn’t he pray for the tax-collector’s soul if he is so concerned about the wicked things he does? He goes on, “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” Fasting is indeed good bodily discipline. Jesus Himself fasted. Fasting teaches your flesh that it is not the boss. But bodily discipline is nothing if it is not accompanied by spiritual godliness. Likewise, giving a tenth of your income to God is good and right. Jesus says that tithing should not be neglected while we practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness, which are much greater (Matthew 23:23).
It is not that the Pharisee brags about bad things. It’s that he brags about them! Jesus tells us that when we have done all that is commanded of us, we should say, “We are but unprofitable servants, we have only done what was our duty.” (Luke 17:10) But none of our works are complete. Everyone fails to keep the law at one point or another. So, the Pharisee is bragging about what he has done right, hoping that God will not notice what he has failed to do.
But even these good things the Pharisee brags about are no good, because they come from a proud and conceited heart. Jesus says, “Make the tree good and then its fruit good; A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” (Matthew 12:33; 7:18) But the Pharisee is a bad tree. He doesn’t trust in the Lord. He boasts in himself and not in the Lord. He despises his neighbor, the tax-collector instead of loving him. But he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20). And so, the Pharisee is a rotten tree trying to impress God with his rotten fruit, because in his eyes, his fruit is a lot better than those rotten sinners over there.
And this is not just to pick on the Pharisee. What condemns the Pharisee would condemn all of you if you tried to find righteousness in yourself. No one can find righteousness in himself, because of ourselves we are sinful. St. Paul confesses of himself, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.” (Romans 7:18) And Jesus says, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts…” (Matthew 15:19) And for this reason, even our good works are tainted with sin. Sin is the opposite of righteousness. To present your good works to God as your righteousness is like presenting worm infested apples, or as the Prophet Isaiah says, “A filthy rag.” (Isaiah 64:6)
The tax-collector did not present to God any of his works. Rather, he stood a far off, because he was ashamed of himself, and he beat his breast and said, “God be merciful to me the sinner.” And it is this man whom Jesus says went home justified rather than the Pharisee with all his good works. But why is this? Because the tax-collector did not find his righteousness in himself, but in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. We know this, because the tax-collector used a particular word for “have mercy” in his prayer. He didn’t use the ordinary word used by the blind man or the lepers, who pleaded to Jesus to have mercy and heal them. Rather, he used a word that more precisely translated means, “be propitiated” to me, or “make atonement for me.” To propitiate means to take God’s wrath against sin away. We see this in Romans 3 when Paul says that God put forward Christ Jesus “as a propitiation by his blood.” By shedding His blood for us, Jesus paid the price for our sins, that is, He made atonement for us, and thus propitiated God to us. He took God’s anger away.
So, the tax-collector isn’t “throwing a hail Mary” as they say. Rather, he is making a faithful statement. He knows that he has sinned, that he deserves God’s wrath. But he also knows that Christ has made atonement for his sins. In the temple lambs were sacrificed evening and morning to make atonement for the people. Yet, the blood of lambs and goats can never take away sin. These daily sacrifices directed their faith to the coming Christ, the Lamb of God, who would make atonement for the whole world. And this He has done, as St. John writes in 1 John 2, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (vs. 1-2)
The tax-collector went down to his house justified, because he went down to his house forgiven. To be forgiven is to be justified, as St. Paul clearly teaches in Romans 4, “And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (vss. 5-8) Forgiveness comes from Christ alone, who washed away our sins in his blood.
This is the most comforting message for sinners. The law presses us hard. We lament with Paul, “the good I want to do is not what I do, but the evil I do not want to do, I keep on doing! Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death!” (Romans 7) We confess Psalm 38, “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness…” (vss. 4-5) Does this describe you? Do not lose heart! Because your righteousness is not found in yourself. It is found in Christ. Your justification is not found in what you have done or not done, but in what Christ Jesus has accomplished through His perfect obedience and innocent suffering and death. Now perhaps you’ve had your good days, but would you place your best day, the day you think you’ve done everything right, against God’s judgment? Would you be certain of your salvation? But with Christ as your righteousness, with Him as your guarantor of justification and salvation, even your worst day should not lead you to despair. Your certainty always rests in Jesus’ accomplishment, in the propitiation which He has already made for you.
In the animal kingdom smaller animals will often make themselves look bigger than they are to scare off predators. Frogs puff themselves up; cats raise their hackles. Animals do this for good reason, because they don’t want to be eaten. People do the same thing to trick other people. They boast about their accomplishments, so that others don’t judge them. This is what the Pharisee tired to do to God. But God isn’t a dumb animal looking for a meal or an insecure person easily fooled by boasting. Rather, He is as Psalm 103 describes Him, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion on His children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear Him.” (vss. 8-13)
And so, those who humble themselves before the Lord receive God’s compassion for Jesus’ sake. And those who have faith in what Christ Jesus has done are not afraid to humble themselves before such a merciful God. But the proud, who want to puff themselves up before God and belittle others, God will cast down.
Through the justification of the tax-collector, we learn not to boast in our works, but to trust in God’s mercy, which is always found in Christ Jesus. And our faith always finds Christ where He promises to be, in Baptism, in the Absolution, in the Lord’s Supper, and in the preaching of the Gospel. Only through faith in Christ do we become truly good trees. And though we pay no attention to the fruit we produce, God does glory in His harvest for Jesus’ sake. Having found God’s mercy and our righteousness in Christ, we all may go down to our houses justified and at peace with God. Amen.