Pastor Michael Harman
St. Peter Lutheran Church - Newell, IA
vacancies at...
First Evangelical Lutheran - Fonda, IA
Immanuel Lutheran Church - Pomeroy, IA
1 John 3:1a Behold! What manner of love the Father has lavished upon us,
that we should be entitled: children of God!
And so: we are!
September 4, 2011. Matthew 18:1-20
Context is important. Journalists can take a quote and put it in a very
different context to make a politician appear likeable or lousy. A painting
that has a an odd color or texture in the wrong place (out of context) can ruin
a work of art.
Today’s Gospel has a certain context. During August, the lessons recorded
Jesus walking on water, healing a woman’s daughter at a distance, Peter
confessing Jesus as the Christ, and then Jesus telling His disciples not to
tell others. Matthew 17 records the Transfiguration, a healing difficulty, and
a tax question. Matthew 18 is Jesus correcting our confusion about God’s
kingdom. The greatest people in the kingdom of heaven are those who are
totally dependent on the Father for all things, who trust His care, and forgive
others completely just as they are forgiven. It is hard for us to set our
hearts and minds on this greatness, much less be humble.
The disciples came to Jesus with a silly question. “Who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven?” You might have guessed they would at least have
enough humility to add, “Greatest after You, Jesus”. They didn’t. The
disciples felt that the kingdom of heaven must be about power and glory. It
isn’t.
Earthly “kingdoms” are about who has the most power, or, who can order
people around. Think of social situations. The most important person is not
the waitress taking the orders, but the person giving them. It is not the
employee doing the labor, but the boss in charge the work. It’s the coach, not
a player; the cheerleader not the fan; it’s the politician, not the bodyguard:
THESE are seen as the important people. THEY have the power. Of course, we
assume churches and God’s kingdom must work the same way. They don’t.
We assign greatness in our fallen world by influence, authority, and
control; athletic or mental talents, and money; beauty and power. When you
think about these: they’re really gifts from our Heavenly Father. He wants
you to use them to serve your neighbors in various vocations. What is
greatness before God?
Jesus answers their question by placing a toddler in their midst (not a
teenager, but a child under age 3 paidwn vs. nhpios or tekna). Toddlers are
not powerful. They are not more virtuous, moral, or godly than adults. But,
on average, they are more humble. They have to depend on adults for everything.
God uses a toddler as a model of how He chose you in your weakness and
dependence, and then clothed you in the strength of Christ’s perfect
righteousness in Holy Baptism. He named you and claimed you. He gave you the
gift of faith, and He wants you to cherish and nourish that treasure of
forgiveness.
Whoever causes a humble, trusting child of God to turn away from Christ’s
forgiveness and faith is in great danger. Jesus gives a stern warning. Your
actions and lack thereof offend God. It would be better for you to be tortured
to certain death by drowning with a heavy stone tied around your neck than for
you to cause a humble believer to lose faith in Christ. Verses 8 and 9 shows
that applies not just to others, but also to yourself. Your actions and lack
of actions can weaken your own trust in the total forgiveness of Christ’s
cross; which is more important even than parts of your body.
God hates sin. It would be better for you to lose a hand or foot than for
you to lose humble faith in Christ. Christ humbled Himself. His hands and
feet were nailed to the cross: lost to rescue you. His eyes saw your sin, and
He suffered hell in your place so you would not have to suffer in hell.
Jesus talks about guardian angels. The root word “angel” (angellos) means
message. Today, we have ‘instant messaging’ or real-time text-contact with
other people using computers, cell phones, or other devices. You feel you have
something important? IM! You don’t know how your thumb strokes actually
create electronic signals. You don’t know how your Nokia or Samsung or
whatever contacts the cell tower, sends the info packets to the next tower, and
it eventually gets where you want it. You don’t know how those electromagnetic
waves get decoded, then translated into a display. You punch keys; they get
the text.
God has heavenly servants who are far stronger, faster, and smarter than
you. These angels observe you, yet still stand in God’s holy presence. When
you do things to destroy the faith, hope, and trust another person has in
Jesus: God knows by angelic IM. When you fail to act, that is to bring
children to baptism, tell them about Jesus in your home, invite neighbors to
services in God’s House, and other such acts to develop and care for faith:
God knows by IM angels. Angels are not just good-luck charms to protect us
from physical evils, but heavenly servants who work to bring the message of the
cross to people.
God claims you as His sheep Christ is the Good Shepherd Who left the 99
sheep in heaven to search for the strays: for you and for me, too. He wants
all to be saved. This is why Jesus continues here in Matthew 18, and He shows
how this applies to you. He rejoices over repentance of the lost.
When your fellow-baptized, trusting-humble, child-of-God-brother, sins
against y-o-u and causes y-o-u to fear, love, or trust God less: speak with
him or her privately. Your goal is not to soothe your feelings, but to restore
faith. If this goes on for a long time with no progress, take others with you
to solve the situation. This is not a power-play, going for revenge, or
getting your pride back. You must be humble: realizing you could be at fault
and you are seeing things wrong and you are in need the repentance not the
other person. If you go in the spirit of a bruised ego, demanding your own
rights, or with the idea of removing a person you don’t like: then YOU are the
one causing temptation to sin and you are in danger of hell! You may well
remove them from a visible church, but remove yourself from God’s invisible
Kingdom of grace and heaven.
The purpose of Christ’s words in Matthew 18 is not to try to remove
someone. It is about working to regain an unrepentant sinner. It is about you
humbly and lovingly speaking to a brother or sister in Christ. It is about you
depending entirely on Christ’s forgiveness and wanting the other person to have
it.
Only when all hope is lost should we declare them no longer part of a
visible church. Only then should a church use the Office of the Keys (sermon
two weeks ago) to bind or loose the person. Those same
instant-messaging-angels make sure the Father knows; and the pardon or the
guilt is recorded in heaven. (18:18-20).
As a genuine Christian, you humbly confess all you have is from the Father
(as we recite from the Explanation of the First Article of the Apostles Creed).
The greatest gift God has given for you is His one and only Son. He became
flesh and lived a perfect life. While Christ is the example for you to follow
in your daily life, the greatest reason Jesus the Messiah lived was to die. He
took all your wrongs, evils, and sins; and He gave you His perfect
righteousness in the Great Exchange on the cross.
Context IS important. You could take bits and pieces and paraphrases of
Matthew 18 and wind up with all sorts of bad ideas and actions. Or, you can
take this chapter as the Word of God spoken to you as a humble child with a
concern for the lost - and this will be a blessing for you and for those around
you.
Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is being totally dependent on the
Father for all things. We humble children of God, who trust His care, forgive
others just as we are totally forgiven.
May the power of God’s Holy Word work in you today and always to humble
you into godly, genuine greatness in the kingdom of heaven; in the Name of
Christ Jesus. Amen.
This is downloadable from this website:
http://stpeterlutheran-newell-iowa.weebly.com/
and the bulletins and St. Peter calendar
