4th Sunday after Trinity + Luke 6:36-42


Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus tells us to be merciful. But we’re not commanded to be merciful as the world is merciful. The world’s mercy has a limit. It’ll only put up with someone’s shortcomings to a point. More often than not when it does bear with someone’s burdensome behavior it’s only on the outside. Inwardly it grouses about the person or situation. That’s all the world’s mercy is: external. People seem gracious and merciful but inwardly they judge and condemn. Unable to put the best construction on situations, too many inspect their neighbor’s eye for specks of dust while they themselves have 2x4s protruding from theirs. This isn’t the type of mercy Jesus commands. He commands us to be merciful, not as the world is merciful, but as our Father in heaven is merciful. His mercy is different from the world’s version of mercy. His is from the heart. It isn’t hypocritical so that God is merciful to us outwardly yet inwardly judges and condemns us. It’s only once we understand the Father’s mercy toward us that we can truly be merciful to our neighbor.

How is He merciful to us? St. Paul writes that Romans 5:8 that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were yet undeserving of mercy, the Father looked with pity upon His fallen creation. While we were still sinners, enemies of God and turned from Him, He loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son to become flesh, take up the form of a servant, and serve us by carrying our sins upon Himself. While we were still sinners, Christ became sin for us and died for our sins to appease God’s wrath against our sins. He atones for the sins of the entire world. For every defiled thought you’ve had, for every hateful, condemning word that’s escaped your lips, for every hypocritical act of yours, full atonement has made. This happened while we were still sinners, unable to atone for a single sin of ours in thought, word, and deed because our very hearts are sinful from birth, unable to yield up even the faintest glimmer of a good, God-pleasing work. The death of Christ avails for all mankind, so that if all were to believe in it and trust Christ’s merits, all would be saved. Such is the love of the Father for sinners, that He would give His Son into death to pay for our sins.

But His mercy continues. Christ earned the forgiveness of sins and a perfect righteousness for all mankind. In mercy, the Father gives us preachers who preach what Christ has done for us, so that all who believe the promise of forgiveness and trust that Christ’s righteousness is their own, they are justified in God’s sight, sins forgiven, covered in Christ’s righteousness. And though we daily and continually sin, the Father daily and richly forgives our many sins here in His holy church. The Father gives us the Holy Ghost so that we might live each day in faith, repenting of our sins and looking to Christ for mercy. Luther once said, “Wherever there is faith in Christ, there sin has in fact been abolished, put to death, and buried. But where there is no faith in Christ, there sin remains. And although there are still remnants of sin in the saints because they do not believe perfectly, nevertheless these remnants are dead; for on account of faith in Christ they are not imputed.[1] Faith clothes us Christ’s righteousness so that God doesn’t count our sins against us, but freely forgives us for Christ’s sake. This is how the Father in heaven is merciful to sinners; first by giving Christ to die in our place, second, by continually forgiving the sins of those who look to Christ in faith, trusting His death for their forgiveness and his righteousness as their own.

Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” How are we to be merciful to our neighbor? To our family? To our spouse? To those around us? Like this. “Judge not. Condemn not. Forgive and give.” We’re not to judge and condemn our neighbor when they sin against us. Jesus is talking about the slights and petty things our families and neighbors do which annoy us. We’re not to sit in judgment over them. We’re to forgive them and bear with them. St. Paul writes in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” If we judged and condemned our families, our brothers in  Christ, and those around us every time they upset and annoyed us with their behavior, we’d soon find ourselves without family, brothers in Christ, or anyone around us. Not only are to refrain from judging and condemning our neighbor, we’re to forgive as God forgives us. Daily. Richly. Without hypocrisy. From the heart. To the sinful flesh this is impossible because the flesh keeps a tally. Once our neighbor has reached the limit then there’s no more mercy. But this isn’t how our heavenly Father deals with us. He doesn’t mark our iniquities but freely pardons them, drowning them in the depths of the sea of His mercy. This is how we are to forgive. Then we’re to give to our neighbor, as they have need and according to our ability and we’re to do it cheerfully, “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

This doesn’t mean that God’s Word doesn’t judge and condemn sin. Jesus isn’t saying that sinful behavior isn’t judged, nor is He saying that we must tolerate impenitent sinful behavior from our neighbor, for elsewhere He says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.” (Matthew 18:15). This text isn’t a license to sin, so that the impenitent can hold Jesus’ words up like a shield against all condemnation and say, “You can’t judge me! Jesus said judge not! You’re a sinner too!” Too many use Christ’s words a shield against repentance and a defense for their sins. But Jesus isn’t talking about willful sins, nor is He teaching that Christians must tolerate aberrant behavior in society. The church must condemn homosexuality, heterosexual adultery, transgenderism, abortion, false doctrine and whatever other sins the world claims are good. Whenever we condemn such sins and others, we’re not condemning them because they violate our personal preference. We condemn them because the Word of God judges them to be sinful. And sin must be condemned so that the sinner might repent and flee to Christ for mercy and be spared from God’s eternal wrath.

But even when this has to be done, when we have to confront our brother who sins against us, or the wicked world, we do as ones who ourselves have receive mercy each day. The only way to remove the speck from our brother’s eye is to first remove the plank from our own. “Then,” Jesus says, “You will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” When we must approach family members, brothers in Christ, and those around us because they sin against us, and this is more than petty slights and annoyances, but when they truly sin against us, we must approach them with knowledge that we ourselves are sinners whom God richly forgives. Otherwise we’re no better than the blind leading the blind. Rather, use a good, generous measure with your neighbor, “for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you,” from your neighbor, perhaps, but certainly from your Father in heaven. Let your forgiveness of others be a visible sign of this: that you daily receive forgiveness from a merciful heavenly Father.

May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.


[1] Luther's works, vol. 26, 286.

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