Trinity 4 – Luke 6 – June 23rd, 2013
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost +
“You have every right to be
angry.” I’m sure you’ve heard that
phrase before, it’s probably been said to you.
You may have even told it to a person – I have. You have every right to be angry, to be
upset. Actually, we don’t, not the way
we can think of it. Anger happens, it’s
the response that we sinful folks have when we are wronged. St.
Paul says, “Be
angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no
opportunity to the devil.” Yep,
we on occasion get angry, get upset – occasionally we will be angry, but we
have no right to stay angry, no right to let anger influence our actions. This is what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel
lesson; He shows us why our anger is something we should avoid and beat down
when it flares up. Let us listen to our
Lord this morning.
Be
merciful, even as your Father is merciful. This is what you are to be – merciful. When you think about it, mercy is as about as
far from anger as you can get. I know
when I am feeling angry, when I am upset, mercy is the farthest thing from my
mind. When I’m angry, I want vengeance,
I want someone to get what they deserve, I want them to suffer humiliations
galore. That’s not what I’m supposed to
do, that’s not who I’m supposed to be. I
am to be a merciful, loving person. The
problem is my Old Adam, my sinful flesh doesn’t crave mercy. It craves power and control and respect, it
wants to teach people a lesson. That’s
not who we are to be. We are to be like
God, God who is merciful – and not just merciful in general, but merciful to
us. God has His way, His way is
forgiveness. That’s how God likes,
that’s how God prefers to handle sin.
That is God’s plan – sin should be forgiven.
But if we refuse God, if we demand
that sin be punished, if that’s how we want to be, God will do things our
way. You want people’s sin to be on
their heads, you want them to suffer for their wrongs – okay. Have it your way – but that’s how it will
work for you as well. God says, “You
don’t like forgiveness, you want judgment and punishment and condemnation to be
the way things work, so be it.” Jesus
warns us of this. Judge not and you will not be judged, condemn not and you will not
be condemned. It’s really
quite simple. How do you want it to
be? Do you want to keep a record of sins
done against you? Hear the Psalmist – If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O
LORD, who could stand? If you
want to demand that vengeance be taken against another for their sins, if you
want to abandon mercy – guess what comes to you. And this makes sense. I remember playing basketball on the play
ground growing up – and most of the time, we wouldn’t foul each other, we’d
pull off, we’re just having fun. But
then, someone fouls, drops the hammer on a guy.
And you know what happens, next time, that guy gets fouled. And soon we’re all knocking each other
around. Same thing here – God wants our
lives to be ones of mercy – but if we want them to be full of judgment and
condemnation – God will play that way too.
And you know what? That’s not
good for us. Growing up, I was
small. I could never give as good as I
got when we started fouling – it was bad for me. Trying to play the judging game is bad for
us. Blame game, condemnation game, bad
for us. Ends up with us in hell.
You see, that’s what we deserve. That’s what it means when we say that we are
sinners. Sinners deserve hell. By rights, sinners ought to be damned. Period.
But see what your merciful God gives you. Christ Jesus goes to the cross and bears the
punishment of sin in your place, takes it all, takes it fully – and in return
He gives you forgiveness – and forgiveness not just for yourself, but
forgiveness for you to give out freely to all who have wronged you. Do you know why – because that person who has
gotten you upset, the person you want to beat with a stick – it’s already
happened. Jesus, the spotless Lamb of
God was already beaten with a stick for them – in fact, He was whipped, had a
crown of thorns put on His head, and crucified.
And so Christ gives us forgiveness, fills us with it so we do not have
to bear any grudge or anger. Any wrong
that has been done you, Christ has made full atonement, born the full
punishment for it already. This is why
He says, “forgive and you will be
forgiven; give and it will be given you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put
into your lap.” This is how
richly He has forgiven you. This is what
Jesus has done for you. And this, on His
forgiveness, is where your focus is to be – and do you know why? Because when you are angry, when you are
upset with someone and want them punished, when you condemn – you are denying
Christ, or at least ignoring Him. You
are saying that the punishment Christ suffered wasn’t enough, not enough for
this person. “Surely, when Christ died
for sinners, He wasn’t dying for this person who offended me.” Yes, He was.
Be merciful, and show the same mercy that you have been given. The mercy you show isn’t your own mercy –
it’s just the mercy that you’ve received from God, and you are simply passing
it on.
You see, this is what Jesus is
doing. He is training us and teaching us
to be like Him. A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully
trained will be like his teacher.
Jesus trains us with His Word, with His forgiveness to be forgivers, to
be people who gladly speak His Word to all, even to those who have wronged
us. He is teaching us to be like
Him. Christ Jesus, who died for you even
as you sinned against Him, is training you to show love and give forgiveness
like He does. And this is hard. It’s not what our sinful nature wants. In fact, this side of heaven we never will be
fully trained. We have to wait until the
last day, until we rise ourselves and share bodily in our Lord’s Resurrection
to be fully trained, to be fully like our Teacher. But we are to strive to be like Him We are to struggle, to work on this, to show
more and more forgiveness.
So Jesus gives us an image to help us,
to keep us in check and move us the way we should go. “Why
do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log
that is in your own eye? How can you say
to your brother, ‘brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when
you do not see the log in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” Tend to yourself and your own sin. That’s what Jesus says here. Quit your yapping and complaining about what
the fellow next to you is doing.
Why? Because your sin is bigger –
because you ought to be able to see your own sin so much more than you can see
your neighbor’s sin. Because your sin is
great. It is big. However much that person has done to you –
you’ve wronged God more. Plain and
simple. That’s what we are to
remember. When someone wrongs you, don’t
think “Oh, I can’t believe what they’ve done. . . how could they. Well, I never.” Yes you have!
In fact, when you are wronged, it should call you to repentance. Oh look, I’m still in the sinful world,
surrounded by sin. Let me check myself
and my own sin - oh yeah, I’m still a sinner, I still have my own problems to
deal with, good night look at the size of this log in my own eye. Try that.
When someone wrongs you, take a good look at yourself, and see your own
sin. When that shoe of “he’s a sinner”
is on the other foot, on your foot, you won’t be so quick to want to bash heads
in.
Instead, you’ll want to look to
Christ. And this is where we give thanks
and rejoice. None of us gets rid of the
logs in our eyes. None of us get it
cleared up enough in this life. But
Christ Jesus has become our brother, the spotless lamb, without blemish or
defect, without any log or speck in His eye – and Jesus comes to us, and He
says, “Brother, I see that log in your eye.
Let me handle that. I see your
sin, and I forgive you and take it from you.”
That’s what forgiveness is. It is
Christ removing our sin. This is what
Christ gives us freely and over and over again.
That’s what He fills us with – and which we give to others. When we have been forgiven, we see our
neighbor’s sin, we see their struggles, we see the problems that they have,
even the things they’ve done to us – and when we dwell, when we live in
Christ’s forgiveness, we see clearly and say, “Let me get that for you brother
– your sin is forgiven by Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s the way we are to be. And it’s a struggle. This is why we daily ask for forgiveness –
Lord, forgive us our trespasses – because we need that forgiveness, we need
that strength over and over again so that we can use it in our lives. And so our Lord comes to us again and again –
He speaks His Word of life to us and makes us whole.
Dear
friends – God has not condemned you.
Instead, He gives you forgiveness, and He spills this forgiveness up and
over and through you into the people in your lives. He calls us here to His house to rejoice in
His forgiveness, to receive it anew, and to give thanks to Him. To God our Father in heaven, all praise and
glory be given for the abundant mercy He shows us through Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amen.
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