Rev. Charles Lehmann + 4th Sunday after Trinity + Luke 6:36-42
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
There is a lot of talk in today's Gospel reading about specks and logs.
When the Lord talks about the log, he's talking about us. When He talks about
the speck, He's talking about everyone else. We are blind. We are blind
because a log is in our eye. Not a stick. Not a branch. Not a few grains of
sawdust. A log. A log that's sticking out so far that if we're not careful,
we're going to knock someone out with it just by turning our head.
Our neighbor is not in nearly the bad situation we're in. It's just a
speck in their eye. A speck, a single grain of dirt or of wood. Even if we
could see it'd take a magnifying glass to find it. It's just a speck. But
we're blind. We can't see the speck. But it is there, and it's causing our
neighbor enormous pain. You know how it is. You've had specks in your eye.
They can be absolute torture. You can go through gallons and gallons of water
in the vain hope to get them out, and sometimes that doesn't even work. Our
neighbor needs our help. They need to get the speck out, but you can never see
what's in your own eye, and we can't see it because of the log. We're blind.
We can't see past the 2x4 that we're stuck with.
That, dear Christian friends, is the tragedy of today's Gospel reading.
The log in our eye has blinded us so much that we can convince ourselves that
we are good because we are so certain that our neighbor is evil. But we must
never think that way. The Apostle Paul put it very well in our epistle reading
last week when he said, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full
acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I
am the foremost.”
Whenever you read in the Scriptures that a saying is “trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance,” the saying is a creed. It is meant for every
Christian to say and to believe. When Paul calls himself the worst of sinners
he is only saying what all Christians should say about themselves.
We know no one's sins better than our own. We can only see the blackness
of our own hearts. We can remember our guilt and our shame. When we are
honest with ourselves, with God, and with our neighbor, we can only say, “God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.” But our honesty is usually the first casualty of
anger. When we are angry we do not say, “God, have mercy upon me a sinner.”
Instead we lash out against the one who has slighted us. In those moments our
guilt and our shame are replaced with self-righteous anger. In those moments
we behave as if we are without sin. We cast not just the first stone, but the
second, the third, and every other stone we can reach.
We throw stones of judgment and accusation in our blindness and in our
anger. Though we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom with a heavenly judge, we
make ourselves the arbiters of what is right in our own eyes. We are willing
to judge everyone except the ourselves. We do this even though we are the only
ones whose sin we really know.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But it's worse, far worse than just that. Though it seems on the surface that
we are acting as if we are sinless when we judge others, the truth is quite
different.
Our Gospel reading today begins with the words, “Be merciful as your Father
in heaven is merciful.” God the eternal Father is the holy and sinless one.
He has nothing to be ashamed of. He has nothing to regret. From the very dawn
of creation He has done nothing but seek good for His creation. Every moment
of every day and even before the beginning of time, God has always desired and
done only that which was for your good and mine.
God alone is the one who can judge justly. He is the one who has no log in
His eye and can see clearly to remove the log in ours. He is the one who if he
wanted to could justly condemn us to eternal suffering in hell. He is the one
who would still be perfectly good if He damned us all.
We all like sheep have gone astray. Each has turned to his own way, but it
has pleased the Father to lay on the Son the iniquity of us all. Though
humanity has done countless evil against God from the very dawn of time, our
Lord does not stay remote and distant from us. He does not shy away from the
wreck that we've made of the world.
God the Father takes sin personally because He sent His Son into our world
to take on our flesh. The Son of God come into a world that is ruined by our
sin. And in Jesus Christ, God has suffered all of the just punishment for your
evil and mine. Sin affects God personally. Every transgression was borne by
Him on the cross. He suffered an eternity of hell in just three hours. Sin
hurt Him.
It is amazing that any of us got up this morning. It is amazing that any
of us will draw another breath after the one that we are drawing now. We
deserve temporal and eternal death. We deserve wrath. We deserve fire and
torment.
But there is no wrath left for you, people loved by God. The Father is
merciful. He judged His innocent Son instead of you. It pleased Him to send
His Son to bear your punishment so that you might have forgiveness and life.
Our sins killed the very Son of God, and yet He and His Father still love
you. God provides for all of your needs of body and life. He gives you work,
family, and feeds you from His own bounty. He causes rain to fall on our
crops, and he provides government to punish evil and reward good. For
generation after generation He has caused His life-giving Word to be preached
in this place.
He has done all of these good things for you because He is not like us. He
is merciful. He is loving. He does not repay our evil with evil. He does not
give us what our sins deserve. He gives us Himself. He gives us His Son dead
on a cross so that by His blood we might have the forgiveness of sins, life,
and salvation.
And so today our Lord comes to us and says, “Be merciful, as your Father in
heaven is merciful.” The logs in our eyes make us blind, but Jesus has removed
those logs. He is merciful when we are not. He has perfectly obeyed His
Father's will and has allowed His holy body to be nailed to the wood of the
cross so that we may have all the good gifts of life and salvation that He has
promised.
With our sins forgiven we may now see. We may see clearly the speck, the
mere speck, that is in our neighbor's eye, and we may respond to it in love.
In love we can say, “My dear brother, I see that there is a speck in your eye.
I once had a log in mine, but Jesus removed it when He died on the cross to
forgive my sins. If He can take care of my log, I'm sure He can also take care
of your speck.”
Our sinful flesh will always struggle. While we are in this life, we will
always have forests of trees sprouting from our eyes. Only by focusing on the
cross can we know the Father's mercy.
On the cross we see the Father's mercy in action. We see God's wrath
poured out on Jesus so that we might be forgiven and receive every good thing.
But on the cross we also see the Lord atoning for our neighbor's sins. On the
cross we see that there is no more wrath left for our neighbor than there is
for us. The Father has loved our neighbor with the same everlasting love with
which He has loved us.
Rejoice, people loved by God, your sins are forgiven, and you are free.
You are free to love your neighbor as the Father has loved them. You are free
to forgive them as the Father has forgiven them. You are free to love, because
the Father has loved you.
On the cross you have received every good gift. The Father has sent His
Son to die for you. What a wonderful Savior He is!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://www.stjohncove.org
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