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.