Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity
Romans 8:18-23 + Luke 6:36-42
Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. That’s the summary of the Gospel you heard today, and it really summarizes the whole Christian life of faith and love. Faith in the God who is merciful to us poor sinners; and love for our neighbor, who is a sinner just like us. Faith which is born of hearing God’s word, centered on Christ Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us; and love which is born of faith and seeks to serve our neighbor as Christ has served us.
Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Those are words for all Christians to live by, words for all fathers to live by, and also words for husbands and wives to live by, so Kami and Claudia, the Lord has a marriage blessing for you in this Gospel, too.
The word for “merciful” that Jesus uses in this Gospel means to show sympathy, compassion, and care toward those who are suffering or needy in any way, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. Jesus points out that God the Father is kind to the unthankful and evil.
Where do we see the Father’s compassion and kindness to the unthankful and evil? The very fact that God keeps this world spinning, that He keeps this creation running, in its bondage to corruption, in spite of the fact that all men are born in sin and hostile to Him by nature, is a testimony to God’s mercy. He does not desire the death of the wicked. He does not immediately wipe us out with judgment and condemnation as we come into the world and, in every case, show ourselves to be sinners. It’s not that He overlooks sin or condones sin. He punished it in His Son. He gave His Son into human flesh and gave Him again on the cross, not for good people, but, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” so that all men might know His mercy and compassion, trust in the Son of God who suffered for our sins, and receive the forgiveness of sins as a free gift. In addition to all that, God the Father gives rain and sunshine and crops for all people on earth. He gives medicine for our diseases and beauty to refresh our hearts. These are just a few ways in which Your Father is merciful.
And understand the context of Jesus’ words. He is speaking to His disciples, to His Christians, who have been given the right to become children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. He is speaking to those who have been adopted through Holy Baptism, who have received grace and the forgiveness of their sins and have God for a Father. Everything that follows is spoken to Christians, who have already been justified by faith and made children of God. He’s not saying anything here about how a person comes into God’s kingdom, but about how God’s children are to live within His kingdom, how the good works of Christians will be witnesses to their faith, and also how a lack of good works in those who call themselves Christians will be evidence that their faith is a sham.
Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Or as St. Paul puts it to the Ephesians, Be imitators of God as dear children.
How do we imitate our Father? We just considered several examples. But our Father never lived on earth among sinners as we do. Do you want to see how our Father is merciful? Watch Jesus. Jesus did live on earth among sinners as we do. The very next verse in Ephesians 5 goes on, And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Jesus once said, He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So you want to know how to imitate your Father? Watch Jesus. You can’t know God the Father and you can’t know mercy apart from Him.
Jesus says, Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. One of the most misused and twisted passages of the Bible. One of the only sayings of Jesus the wicked reprobates of this world care to learn. Oh, that sounded judgmental didn’t it? It was supposed to. Because Jesus often sounded judgmental. In other words, He plainly identified sin as sin and He did not hesitate to point out people’s sin and to warn impenitent sinners of the judgment and eternal condemnation they would face for their sins. He gave us His Word so that we might judge all things by it, to distinguish correctly between right and wrong, good and evil.
So in what ways did Jesus not judge, not condemn?
First, as we’ve been noting the last two weeks, He accepted everyone into His company: rich and poor, Pharisee and tax collector, men and women, Jews and Gentiles, without showing any partiality or prejudice. He once told His hearers, Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
Second, He was humble and kind in His dealings with others. He never sought to make Himself look better than anyone, even though He was better than everyone. He was known for His mercy, not for how high and mighty He was.
Third, He refused to offer an opinion about things that didn’t concern Him, that weren’t part of His vocation, like when a man came to Him and demanded of Him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me, and Jesus replied, Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”
And fourth, Jesus’ purpose and motive were constant, even when pointing out sin: the salvation of the sinner was always His goal. As He once cried out to all who would hear, I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. And again, He said, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
There’s your Father in action, in the person of His Son, showing mercy by not judging as the world judges or condemning as the world condemns, but without partiality, in humility, always with sympathy and compassion, so that the sinner might be saved.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven. How does the Father forgive? Watch Jesus. He taught His disciples: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” No matter how much a person had sinned against Jesus and against His Father, He was always ready to forgive those who repented. To the penitent tax collector Zacchaeus, Jesus pronounced forgiveness. To the penitent prostitute whom Simon the Pharisee berated, Jesus pronounced forgiveness. To His disciples who had abandoned Him on the night He was betrayed and to Peter who denied Him three times, He pronounced, “Peace!” And to the crowds in Jerusalem, some of whom had called for His crucifixion, Jesus announced through the Apostle Peter, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”
There’s your Father in action, in the person of His Son, showing mercy by forgiving all who repented of their sins.
Give and it will be given to you. How does the Father give? Watch Jesus. Always giving, never taking. He gave literally everything He had, without receiving payment for it and often without receiving thanks for it, and sometimes even receiving abuse for it. He gave His time. His care. His concern. His counsel and instruction. Healing diseases, providing bread for the hungry, taking up collections for the poor. And, of course, giving His life for the world, giving His blood on the cross for us.
There’s your Father in action, in the person of His Son, showing mercy by giving all He had for those who loved Him and for those who hated Him, freely, gladly, dependably.
Can you be like that? It depends on who your teacher is. If you look within yourself for mercy, you’ll be like the blind leading the blind and falling into a ditch. If you are taught by your own sinful flesh, you’ll constantly be focusing on the faults of others, without ever realizing that your sin is far worse. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
In other words, you can’t help anyone or be of any use to anyone unless you first repent. Recognize your utter sinfulness before God, your corruption that goes down to the core of your being. You don’t know mercy by nature. By nature, you know only how to judge and condemn in the worst way. You don’t know how to forgive or how to give freely or unselfishly. So seek help from Jesus. Seek help from Jesus, not to make you a better person, but to make you a new person, to crucify and put to death your old self, and to raise up a new creation. That begins with the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, as a new person is born. And it continues for the rest of your life as you are continually forgiven and strengthened through Word and Sacrament, guided by the Holy Spirit and molded into the image of Your heavenly Father, which is also the image of Jesus.
Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Christian fathers, learn mercy from Jesus. Learn it for yourselves first, because you know you need it! And then keep learning from Christ to show mercy to your children and to teach mercy to your children. Christian husbands and wives, learn mercy from Jesus, so that you can do the hard work of fulfilling your important vocations in your homes. All of you Christians, learn mercy from Jesus. And learn to put it into practice every day, so that, whenever you speak, whatever you do, everyone around you hears Jesus speaking, sees Jesus doing, and so comes to know our Father in heaven, whose mercies are new every morning. Amen.
