Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for Trinity 4

Romans 8:18-23  +  Luke 6:36-42

In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus sets before us the lofty goal for every Christian: to be like your Father in heaven. To be merciful as He is merciful. To be compassionate as He is compassionate. To love as He loves. Of course, in setting that goal before us, he also reveals how unloving the flesh is, how uncompassionate we are by nature. By nature, according to your sinful flesh, you don’t care about your neighbor first; you care about yourself first. You don’t think highly of your neighbor; you think highly of yourself and of your neighbor as being less important than you are. You don’t seek your neighbor’s good; you seek your own good. But Jesus exposes that unloving attitude in us, the attitude that lives in our flesh. He rebukes it, shows us the ugliness of our natural self and why we so desperately need the Father’s compassion. And then the Lord helps His believing Christians to walk no longer according to the flesh, but according to the New Man. Compassion reigns in the Father’s house. And so it must reign in the hearts and lives of those who would live in His house.

What does compassion look like in real life? Jesus gives us four examples in today’s text. The first is that world-famous command, “Do not judge.” The unbelievers’ favorite verse in the Bible, because they know that their deeds are evil, and so they console themselves with this verse. The irony is, this verse isn’t spoken to the unbeliever at all. He has no right to it, no right to interpret it, no right to apply it to God’s people. Those words and this entire sermon on the plain (which may or may not be the same as Matthew’s sermon on the mount) were spoken by Jesus to His disciples, to those who would be His followers, who would learn from Him as their Teacher and honor Him as their Lord. If that doesn’t describe you, then Jesus has a very simple word for you: not, “do not judge,” but, “repent or perish!”

But to His disciples He gives the command not to judge. And as His disciples, we know to interpret everything in context and in agreement with the rest of Jesus’ words, with the rest of Holy Scripture, where we learn that our Father certainly judges, and that Christians are to make judgments all the time, discerning between right and wrong, good and evil. And if your brother sins against you, you are supposed to go to him or her in love and point out their sin, with the goal of bringing them to repentance. So what does Jesus mean when He says, “Do not judge”? He means, don’t go around finding fault with your neighbor and pointing out the faults of your neighbor, as if someone had placed you in a position of judgment, as if you were superior to others. It’s what comes naturally to the flesh, to critique others, even (or maybe especially) those who are closest to you, like the members of your own family. “I didn’t like what he said, or the way he said it. I didn’t like what she did, or didn’t do. I didn’t like that look she gave me.” The flesh loves to find fault with others, to assume the worst about others, but it hates to take a hard look in the mirror.

And “do not condemn,” Jesus says. That’s the next step after passing judgment on someone. First you determine their faults. Then you “condemn” them for their faults. You hold them against your neighbor. You tell other people what a bad person your neighbor is. You harm his or her reputation. You may even break ties with the person you have arbitrarily condemned.

Instead of judging and condemning, Jesus says, “Forgive.” Oh, that certainly doesn’t come naturally to the flesh. If you’ve been wronged by someone, then, as far as your flesh is concerned, that person has done injury to the most important person in the world: you. You don’t just let that go. No, you deserve to be treated better. And so you hold it against them, maybe forever. You keep digging up the past, dwelling on the wrongs. That person doesn’t deserve to be forgiven.

And neither did you. The one whom you call God and Father has compassion on sinners. He yearns for their repentance so that He can forgive them and welcome them back into His favor. Children of the heavenly Father will struggle against their flesh to have the same heart of compassion and the same practice of forgiveness toward those who have injured them. But if a person claims to be a Christian yet refuses to be like our heavenly Father, then he’s fooling himself. He is no child of God. So if it wasn’t really a sin in the first place, just let it go. If it was a sin you can chalk it up to the weaknesses and personality faults we all have, then forgive. Let it go. If a serious sin has been committed, then deal with it in love, show the person their fault, and if there is any sign of repentance, then forgive immediately and gladly, as God has forgiven you.

Not only “forgive,” but also “give.” Give freely. Give generously. Except that, whatever you give away—if it’s in the form of something material, at least—is something you won’t have anymore, and your flesh doesn’t like that. Your flesh worries you won’t have enough. Your flesh is greedy and always wants more. “No one deserves to have what I have.” But that’s not how our Father in heaven thinks. He gives freely, because He loves deeply and His compassion abounds toward the needy. And you say, “But, God doesn’t lose anything when He gives something away!” And then you look at His greatest gift, the gift of His Son and all that He lost so that sinners could have life. How can His children refuse to give in true compassion and love?

Do not judge. Do not condemn. Forgive. Give. Those are examples of having compassion toward others and showing compassion as our Father in heaven does, as He has had compassion on us by sending His Son into the world. He could have rightly and justly judged and condemned us, but instead, He passed our judgment and condemnation over to Jesus, forgave us our sins in Holy Baptism, and gives us the gift of eternal life.

But because He knows that we still carry around this judgmental, condemning, unforgiving and stingy flesh, He adds incentives for His children to do as He does. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. Now, that’s generally true among men. People often respond to kindness with kindness, to compassion with compassion. But Jesus isn’t only talking about how other people will react to you if you don’t judge or condemn, if you do forgive and give. He’s telling you what your Father will do for you. If you refrain from passing judgment on others when it’s not your place to do it, then your Father will refrain from passing judgment on you. If you refrain from condemning others, then you won’t be condemned. If you forgive, you’ll be forgiven. And you won’t lose out on anything if you give to your neighbor, because your Father will be just as generous toward you as you are toward others.

Now, the last part of today’s Gospel about the blind leading the blind and removing the beam from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from your brother’s eye—it really summarizes the attitude of compassion God’s children ought to have, and not have.

As we said earlier, the flesh thinks highly of itself and looks down on others. We often think we know better than everyone else, think we’re qualified to lead those around us, show them the right way, show them the truth, and fix their flaws. That’s why we tend to judge condemn, why we fail to forgive and to give. It’s our natural pride and arrogance that dominates our thinking. But the blind can’t lead the blind, can they? First you have to see for yourself in order to lead others. And if you have a beam in your own eye, you’re the last person who should be trying to help your brother remove a little speck from his eye.

In other words, before you look at your neighbor, look at yourself. Look in the mirror. See the flaws, see the ignorance, see the sin, humble yourself, and repent! Become a disciple of Christ, your Teacher, and learn from Him and His humility and His compassion and love, which is the same as the Father’s compassion and love. If you do that, you won’t be able to look at your neighbor anymore as someone who’s beneath you or as someone you would dare to mistreat. If you learn to know your Father in heaven and His Son Jesus Christ, if you learn to imitate your Father’s compassion, then, in repentance, in faith, in humility, you’ll be truly qualified to show others the love and compassion of God the Father, because you yourself will be a little reflection of it in the world. May God grant you His Spirit to that end! Amen.

Sermon for Trinity 1

1 John 4:16-21  +  Luke 16:19-31

You see a rich, healthy man enjoying life. You see a poor man so sickly and poor that he can’t work; he has to beg for his every meal. What does reason tell you about these two men? Reason concludes that God rewards the one whom He considers righteous; He “deals a good hand” to the one He loves. Well, the rich man is prosperous. Therefore, God favors the rich man. Reason concludes that God sends afflictions on the one whom He considers to be wicked; He deals a rough hand to the one He doesn’t love. Well, the poor man is afflicted. Therefore, God considers the poor man to be wicked. That’s the judgment of reason. Poverty and afflictions are a sign of God’s contempt. Riches and prosperity are a sign of God’s favor. That’s how reason reasons.

But reason’s reasoning is superficial and flawed, in several ways. but most of all, reason’s reasoning ignores this important truth: this earthly life is not the main venue for God’s rewards and punishments. What you receive here in this relatively short earthly life may be the exact opposite of what you will receive in the next life—and that life is the one that lasts forever.

That’s the point Jesus was driving home in His parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus. It’s not a simple warning for the rich to share with the poor, or else they’ll go to hell. Far from it! It’s a message to rich and poor. Don’t be deceived by appearances! God’s favor isn’t always visible. Prosperity in this life is not necessarily a sign of God’s favor, and affliction in this life is not necessarily a sign of God’s contempt. Your lot in life here on earth, whether it lasts only a few months or whether it lasts a hundred plus years, is not all you get. It’s the proverbial drop in the bucket compared with the everlasting joys—or punishments—of the next life. Your lot in life here is not a reliable indicator of God’s favor or displeasure.

According to Jesus’ parable, the rich man was dressed in fine clothes and “feasted lavishly every day.” He received good things. Lazarus, on the other hand, spent his earthly life sick, poor and begging, yearning for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. He received bad things.

But death took them both, as death always does, rich and poor, male and female, celebrities and nobodies, kings and peasants. And in this case, their situations were completely reversed. Poor Lazarus wasn’t poor anymore. His soul was at peace and he rested comfortably in God’s presence with all the saints, with all the righteous who had gone before him, most notably, Father Abraham, as Jesus is talking to the Jews, who believed they were all destined to sit at the heavenly table with their Father Abraham. Well, for Lazarus, that was true. He was embraced by Father Abraham. He received his good things at Abraham’s side. The rich man’s soul, on the other hand, was in torment and flame, far removed from God and from Father Abraham. As Lazarus had yearned for the rich man’s crumbs in this life, the rich man yearned for a drop of water from Lazarus in the next life. There in hell he received his bad things.

Now, knowing how things turned out, do you think Lazarus wished he could have gone back and traded places with the rich man? No, not for a second. His life on earth had been hard, but that was over now. He endured the hardships and made it through, and now there would never be any more pain or want to endure. Only the experience of God’s love and the eternal companionship of the saints.

And knowing how things turned out, do you think the rich man in hell was able to look back at his wonderful life on earth and bask in the happy memories of good times past? A lot of people want to believe it will be that way. But no. The rich man realized too late that he had squandered his earthly life, and it was not worth it in the end. Hell is a worse punishment and torture than anyone on earth imagines it to be. We may speak metaphorically of people who are “going through hell” right now. But let me assure you, hell itself is still unimaginably worse, because for as much as it may seem like our present troubles have no end in sight, there will most certainly be an end to them. Not so with the torments of hell.

The rich man learned from Abraham that there was no possibility of him receiving any help from anyone or of eventually being able to cross over from Hades to Paradise. As the writer to the Hebrews says, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Or as Abraham put it, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us. So his thoughts turned to his brothers, who were still alive on earth. What could be done for them? How could they avoid this place of torment? Maybe sending Lazarus back to them from the dead? No, says Abraham. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.’ And he said, “No, father Abraham. But if someone were to go to them from the dead, they would repent.” But he said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead.”

Listen to Moses and the prophets, the Bible, the Word of God. That’s what the rich man’s brothers needed. That’s what you need. That’s what everyone still alive on this earth needs. To hear the Law of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and to let it have its effect. Moses is the one who reveals how sin entered the world through Adam, and that all men born of Adam are born in sin and subject to sin’s curse, which includes all manner of sickness, suffering, poverty, and finally death, all of which is not necessarily a direct punishment from God, but the general curse under which all sinners live in this cursed world. So the poverty and sickness of Lazarus wasn’t a good indicator at all of whether or not God accepted him.

As for the riches of the rich man, here’s what Moses had to say: You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God. God does give wealth to some people. But He also requires those people to hear His voice and to obey His commandments, and that, the rich man never found time to do. He was too busy enjoying his life to care about God, or to care about that beggar at his gates, even enough to send him the crumbs that fell from his table.

So hear Moses and the prophets as they reveal your sin. And then hear Moses and the prophets as they call you to repent and look to God for mercy, not because you deserve it, but because of Christ alone. As the Psalm says, O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. That redemption is wrapped up in Christ, the Redeemer. Abraham knew that, one of the richest men alive at his time. In his case, God’s favor was visible in this life. But Abraham was righteous in God’s sight, not because of his goodness, not because of his obedience, but through faith alone in God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of the coming Christ. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And then, as a true believer in that merciful and forgiving God, Abraham’s life, though not perfect by any means, reflected the righteousness that was his by faith, and God did choose to reveal His favor toward Abraham in external, visible ways, as a testimony to the world that Abraham’s God was the true God.

Whether you’re rich or poor, prosperous or afflicted, it’s this same message of sin, repentance, and God’s forgiveness through Christ that you all need to hear and believe, because what you’re suffering here, or the life you’re enjoying here on earth, will soon be over. And the good things here and the bad things here won’t matter at all anymore. The real reckoning will be revealed in the next life.

So for now, if you’re impoverished or sick or otherwise miserable in this life, don’t automatically take it as a sign of God’s disfavor. Hear the Word of God! Repent and believe in Christ Jesus! Receive His Sacraments! And then take heart! Don’t despair! Don’t give up! Don’t imagine that God is displeased with you because of how difficult things are, or that you’re alone in your suffering. Lazarus appeared to have been abandoned by God, but in reality, God was there with him, ready to bear him home to Abraham’s bosom at just the right time. To endure hardship for Christ’s sake, without giving into despair, is a blessed thing, a precious good work that has God’s own seal of approval. It’s what Jesus did, after all. And you have God’s promise to help you persevere until the end, to enable you to bear the cross with patience, until the suffering is passed and the comfort of the next life is revealed.

Or, maybe you don’t suffer much, relatively speaking. Or maybe it’s just that you’re not suffering right now, but feast lavishly every day, like the rich man did, or as I daresay most Americans do, including most of us here. What will you do with this time when you have all you need and more? You could focus on enjoying life, like the rich man did, and maintaining this lifestyle, while ignoring both God and man. But then you would end up like the rich man in the parable, regretting it all in the end.

No, if you have a moment of comfort, a moment of peace, a moment of prosperity, a moment of leisure where you’re not scrambling just to survive, use it. Use this time wisely. Use it to hear God’s Word, His Law and His Gospel. Walk in the new obedience of the children of God. Walk with the Holy Spirit and set aside your sinful desires and your self-centered goals, and devote your life—every moment—to God’s service within your own vocation. Turn your gaze outward. Turn toward your neighbor in need, and especially your brother in Christ, who sits at your gate, yearning for just a little help, for even the leftovers of the prosperity with which you have been entrusted.

Rich or poor, carefree or weighted down with cares, train your reason to submit to God’s Word and don’t assume God’s favor or disfavor based on how much or how little you suffer in this life. God’s approval comes for Christ’s sake alone and through faith alone in Him. And His favor toward those who believe and His displeasure with those who disbelieve, while it may not be visible in this life, will most surely be visible in the next. Amen.