Full of mercy, not hypocrisy

Sermon for Trinity 4

Romans 8:18-23  +  Luke 6:36-42

“Do not judge!” Jesus says. Amen. Most people would like the sermon to end there, right? That’s what many people seem to believe the Bible’s only message to be. “Do not judge!” And if you ever judge anyone for anything, you’re nothing but a hypocrite, because Jesus told you not to judge! Even some who call themselves Christians use this as an excuse to avoid calling sin a sin, as Dolly Parton recently did about the sin of homosexuality, hiding like a coward behind this saying of Jesus, “Jesus said not to judge, so I don’t judge.” But you know better. That little saying of Jesus wasn’t spoken as an absolute prohibition from making any judgment at any time. It wasn’t intended to keep us from calling sin a sin. No, it goes together with Jesus’ words that come right before it: Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. It’s part of the broader teaching in today’s Gospel as Jesus teaches His disciples to be merciful people, not hypocritical people.

Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Notice the phrase, “your Father”? Jesus is talking to the children of God here, to His disciples, to Christians. And when I say Christians, I’m including the faithful Jews of His day who were trusting in God’s promise to save them from sin and death through the promised Christ. He is talking to those who are already in a covenant relationship with God—through circumcision for the Jews of His day, or for us, who are in a covenant relationship with God through the New Testament form of circumcision, which is Holy Baptism. He’s talking to the Jews of His day who were practicing their religion, and to Christians of our day who are practicing ours.

If that’s not you, then the rest of Jesus’ words aren’t meant for you either.

For those who are still outside of Christ, He has no teaching about judging or condemning or forgiving or giving. No teaching about beams in your eyes or specks in your brother’s eyes. None. For that matter, His Ten Commandments aren’t intended for them, either. No, for those who are outside of Christ, God has one message: “You are already lost and condemned in your current state. And there’s not a single thing you can do to change that. No command you can obey. No instruction you can follow. Already you have despised the true God in your thoughts, words, and actions. Already you have selfishly failed to love your neighbor as God commands. You don’t know God at all, and you have no part with Him.”

But, as we saw in last week’s Gospel, God wants to have a part with the lost; He wants them to be found, to know Him and believe in Him; He is willing to be their God. He has gone WAY out of His way to make atonement for their sins and to purchase entrance into His kingdom for them and to have His Gospel preached to them, as He had it preached to us when we were all lost. So after telling them the truth about their sins and their lostness, He also calls out to them in His Word to repent and believe in Christ and to be baptized in His name so that they do come into a covenant relationship with Him, where He is their God and they are His people.

So if anyone ever tries to throw Jesus’ words in your face, “Do not judge! You’re not supposed to judge!”, you can answer, “Oh, I see you want to talk about the Son of God and mankind’s only Savior, Jesus Christ, and His instructions for His holy, blood-bought Christians. Are you one of His disciples, too?” If they say, “No,” then insist on talking first about Jesus’ message to unbelievers: “God’s judgment is coming, and there is no one righteous before God. So repent and believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, so that you will not perish eternally in the judgment that God Himself will render!” If they have no desire for that, then don’t waste your time arguing about the commands Jesus gives to His own disciples. People who don’t want to live in God’s house have no business throwing the rules of the house in the face of the people of the house. Talk about hypocrisy!

But to you who are members of the house, disciples of Christ, children of the heavenly Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, baptized into His family and into a covenant of grace and forgiveness of sins, then Jesus does have something to teach you here in today’s Gospel, as you learn the rules of the house and how to become imitators of God.

It begins and ends with mercy. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Mercy is pity for the wretched. Mercy is charity toward the needy. Mercy stands above someone who has been knocked down, whether by their own fault or by someone else’s, and instead of ignoring that person, instead of despising that person, instead of trampling that person deeper into the dust, mercy feels bad for the injured person and seeks to help. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

And here are some examples of that: 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—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be placed into your lap. For with the same measure you use it will be measured back to you.

Do not judge. Again, this isn’t a blanket prohibition from ever deciding if something is right or wrong, or from ever stating that something is sinful that God calls sinful. Christians are to do that every day. No, it means, don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong, to jump into other people’s business, if it’s none of your business. Don’t pretend to know other people’s thoughts or motives, as if you could see into their hearts. Don’t assume the worst of your neighbor’s words or actions or silence, but assume the best. Don’t mercilessly make yourself the judge of other people, sitting up there on your high horse. Would you want other people to sit in judgment of you, if it isn’t their place and if they don’t have all the facts? Would you want your heavenly Father to judge you according to the strictness of His holy Law, mercilessly pointing out your every flaw, your every errant thought, your every inexact word? I don’t think so. So you shouldn’t do that to others. The fact is, God does not mercilessly judge you, but mercifully shows you your sins and then calls you to repentance and faith in Christ, so that you may be forgiven. So be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

Do not condemn. If you are not to judge, you certainly are not to condemn. It’s one thing to state the truth, for example, about homosexuality, that it is sinful and rebellion against God. It’s another thing to go around angrily or arrogantly condemning people, yelling at people, making fun of people who are sinning, condemning people without mercy, as if our greatest desire were to see them burn in hell. That kind of condemnation must be avoided by God’s people. Because it’s not how we have been treated by our Father in heaven. He could rightfully condemn every single one of us. He could be condescending toward us, He could write us off as incorrigible and hopeless. Instead, He shows us mercy, each and every day. His desire is not to condemn us, but to forgive us our sins when we repent of them. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

So, that means, forgive. Forgiving is the opposite of condemning. Again, this isn’t a blanket command to forgive everyone all the time. There are times when God Himself does not forgive, when a person remains impenitent. But where there is repentance, God gives forgiveness, freely. He doesn’t keep holding a person’s sins against him. In His mercy, He absolves. He forgives, for Jesus’ sake. He intentionally overlooks our flaws. He smiles a fatherly smile on the penitent, and He expects His children to do the same, in mercy.

And also to give, free of charge, to the one in need. Be generous, not just on the outside, but from the heart. Be merciful toward the one who needs something you have that you’re able to give away. Again, that’s what your Father in heaven does. It’s what Jesus did here on earth. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

To all these commands, Jesus attaches promises of great rewards. You will not be judged. You will not be condemned. You will be forgiven. And to you it will be given in the same measure that you give. Those are incentives God offers, because He knows that we carry around our Old Man, who fights against us to keep us from obeying God’s commands. These incentives to obedience, these promises of rewards from God, are just another part of God’s mercy to us as He helps us and coaxes us along, by His Holy Spirit, to be more like Him.

Jesus concludes His instruction in the Gospel with some short parables, starting with the insanity of a blind man trying to lead a blind man. In order to be of use in guiding someone else, you yourself have to be able to see. So make sure you know the teachings of God’s holy Word. Make sure you know what’s right and wrong, and also what’s wise. And make sure you’re not living in the very sin you’re trying to lead your brother away from. Take care of your own eyesight first, before daring to lead your brother down the right path.

A disciple is not above his teacher, doesn’t go beyond his teacher. He doesn’t condemn more than his teacher does, or less. He doesn’t forgive less, or more. He doesn’t get to suffer less, either. At best, a student becomes like his teacher. So study the life of your Teacher, Jesus, to see how He helped others, how and when He condemned sin and how and when He forgave it. He didn’t go around pointing out everything that was wrong in society, even though He is the Judge of all. He didn’t condemn sinners nearly as often as He could have. And He freely gave forgiveness where there was even a hint of repentance and faith. And He freely gave, not money, but of His time, of His attention, of His compassion, of His teaching, and of His healing. If you’re a disciple of Jesus, then learn to be like Jesus.

Finally, we have the parable about the foolishness of trying to remove the speck from your brother’s eye while you have a large beam in your own eye. Before you ever go to help your brother in Christ fix a sin in his or her life, always begin by examining yourself, to make sure you’re not guilty of an even greater sin. The Pharisees criticized their brothers for the tiniest thing, for taking a few too many steps on the Sabbath Day, for not fasting properly, or for picking grains of wheat to eat as people were walking. But they missed the bigger things they themselves were guilty of, especially the grievous sin of having hearts that were merciless.

It really does begin and end with that. God’s mercy went out and sought you and found you and brought you into His house, like a shepherd finding a lost sheep. Like a woman finding a lost coin. Now He teaches you in the Gospel how to show mercy to others as you yourself have received mercy from Him, that you may be a person who is full of mercy, not hypocrisy. May God grant us all His Holy Spirit to mold us more and more into the merciful image of our Brother Jesus, and of our merciful Father in heaven. Amen.