Sermon - Trinity IV - Luke 6:36-42

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Mercy is at the heart of Christian living. We ought to show mercy to others since our heavenly Father shows such mercy to us. 

 But before we even begin to discuss this mercy, we first need to dispel a common myth regarding mercy and judging. For decades, if not centuries, our gospel lesson has been misunderstood and misapplied. Christ says “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned.” Yet, those important words are used by many today to reprimand and shame those who judge false doctrine or judge that certain people are living in sin. So often I hear preachers who cling to pure doctrine and reject all heresy accused of being loveless crazy men because Christ told us: Judge not! Condemn not! 

But their accusation rests upon a false understanding of Christ’s words. When Jesus says not to judge or condemn, He is most certainly not commanding us to stop condemning false doctrine. Afterall, in many other places in scripture Jesus clearly commands pastors to proclaim pure doctrine and expose false teachings. When pastors fail to do this, woe to them! “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Woe to those who “have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace.” 

The Lord says in Ezekiel, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.” Yes, the prophet Isaiah says that those lazy preachers who fail to rebuke the unrepentant “are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.” 

When I condemn a teaching or practice as false or heretical, or I point out and confront someone living in sin, it’s not that I want to be mean or judgemental. Rather, I have been given a holy obligation by God to condemn false doctrine, call sinners to repentance, and avoid bad practices, so that I may proclaim only pure doctrine and lead sinners to the gospel. 

Not only is it my job as a pastor to do this, but it is yours as well. Christ says to all Christians, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” The apostle Paul instructs us, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” 

I hope that it’s obvious to you that it’s not forbidden to reprove, judge, form an opinion, and condemn false doctrine and manifest ungodly life. In fact, if you were not to do these things you would behave most unkindly. If you see your neighbor headed to hell and you still don’t warn them and show them their great danger, God would blame you! He would require your blood for them. 

The true understanding here of these words is that we’re not to judge hearts or judge according to our own thoughts apart from God’s Word. Rather, even in our judging of false doctrine and manifest sins, we are to be merciful and loving as our heavenly Father is merciful towards us. Therefore, let us consider what this mercy consists of, how we can be merciful, and why we should be merciful.

Look again at v. 36, this is at the heart of why we Christians are merciful. “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Our heavenly Father showed mercy to Adam and Eve when they fell into sin, He showed mercy to the Israelites who worshipped a golden calf, and He shows mercy to us who are so wantonly wicked today. Moses was right, “The Lord God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

It’s repeated over and over again throughout the scriptures, it’s an incessant refrain that God is gracious and merciful. He never treats us like we should be treated, but He always treats us better! All our lives we’ve been the most rebellious, ungrateful, slothful, hateful, grotesque, profane, vulgar children imaginable. God’s righteous and so we do deserve His wrath and punishment, yet God isn’t only righteous, He’s also merciful. So He is slow to anger, and in response to all of our ugly wretched lives, He sends His own Son to be punished on our behalf. God would sooner die Himself than see His beloved children condemned. 

Because of God’s mercy, your sins are forgiven when Christ shed His blood for you. Because of God’s mercy, you will not be punished for your sins, since Christ already was. Because of God’s mercy, you will not be condemned. Because of God’s mercy, you are free from God’s righteous judgement since Christ was judged in your place. All who are Christians know of God’s unfathomable mercy because you know how bad you are and how richly you’re forgiven. 

Because of God’s boundless mercies made new every morning, we Christians cannot help but be merciful to our neighbors! God doesn’t judge us to hell, neither let us mercilessly judge our neighbors’ hearts to hell for the slightest misdeed. God doesn’t condemn us, neither let us condemn unmercifully. God forgives us, let us forgive one another. God gives to us so generously, let us give unto others. 

This is the principle of the unforgiving steward or the Lord’s Prayer. God has so richly forgiven us our massive debt, how could we not forgive others their tiny debts against us? If we don’t show mercy to others, then neither will our heavenly Father show us mercy. “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” If you refuse to forgive your neighbor, then don’t count on God forgiving you. So let us rather repent of judging unmercifully and know how seriously we’ve sinned, and then in our remorse God who is merciful will be gracious and forgive us once again.

But make no mistake, just because you’re commanded to be merciful doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. Rather, when Jesus teaches us to be merciful, He also teaches us to correctly help our neighbor and correctly remove the speck from their eye.

How do we correctly lead, teach, and remove the speck? We first need to open our eyes and see, we first need to be taught, we need to remove the log from our own eyes first. We need to begin with repentance. This is why pastors go to private confession and absolution, this is why I make sure to examine myself very carefully and repent of my own many failures. I go to brother pastors so that they can take the log out my eye so that I may help take the speck out of your eye. 

Likewise, all of us, you included, we need to first recognize our own guilt and remove the log from our eyes. Afterall, “can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?... How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?” So let us first repent, and then let us mercifully go and take the speck out of our brother’s eye. 

It’s not merciful to let the speck remain in your neighbor’s eye. It’s not merciful to let our family or friends or other Christians remain in sin. The merciful thing for us to do is gently and mercifully reprove and rebuke them, so that they may be restored to true faith in Christ Jesus. Afterall, Christ does instruct us to be merciful and see clearly in order to take out the speck that is in our neighbor’s eye. 

Dear Christians, our Father is abundantly merciful with us, certainly far more than we deserve. Let us find our hope and comfort from our sins in our gracious Father’s heart who blots out all of our iniquities. Let us also on the basis of this text be merciful to one another, for through Christ, God’s heart is now our heart.