Sermon - Trinity IV 2021 - Luke 6:36-42

Parable of the Mote and the Beam, Domenico Fetti, 1619

            From Jesus’ well-known Sermon on the Mount, in which He teaches us a great deal about Christian living, He teaches us to: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” This commandment to be merciful towards others hearkens back to the eighth commandment: “Do not bear false testimony against your neighbor.” Or as Luther positively put it, we are to “defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” 

Why do we do this? We show mercy to others because God shows mercy to us. Today in our sermon we will consider what it means to be merciful, how we’ve failed to be merciful, and how God is merciful towards us.

Jesus says: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned.” Those words of Jesus often get mangled by many people to mean that we are never to distinguish right from wrong or good from evil. But that’s not the case. What Jesus is teaching us here is to not judge and condemn others outside of our vocations. 

Within our vocations we must judge according to the stations God has given us. A judge must judge and condemn criminals. The judge is compelled to do this by God, because if the judge refuses to judge, and criminals go unpunished, then crime and chaos run rampant since there would be no law and order. God gave rulers the sword in order to judge wrong doers and punish them.

A teacher has to judge when a student’s work is correct or incorrect. If the teacher refuses to judge, then the students remain in their ignorance and the teacher fails to teach. Parents have to judge their children when they misbehave, because to spare the rod spoils the child. As a pastor, I have to judge false doctrine and condemn it. I have an obligation to avoid poor worship practices and non-Lutheran hymns. I have to warn you against false doctrine so that you don’t fall into unbelief. I have to call a thing what it is so that ultimately I can point people to the truth, to Jesus.

So there is a right use of condemning and judging, but there is also a wrong use, and that’s what Jesus is teaching us today. He’s teaching us to be merciful, to “forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you… For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

But too often we fill our mouths with judgement. We like to gossip about others, especially we like to talk about the juicy details of others’ sordid affairs. A couple has marital problems, so we tell everyone about it and make the matter worse. Someone gets drunk and does something else stupid, and we tell everyone else about it who wasn’t there. We disagree with someone else’s benign decision or choice, so we criticize them and cast them in the worst light possible. 

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what the other person does, we just don’t like them, so everything they do is bad in our eyes. In particular, we like to do this with people in authority; if we’re a student, it’s our teacher, if we’re a parishioner, it’s our pastor, if we’re an employee, it’s our employer, if we’re a citizen, it’s our ruler. We can’t help but constantly mock, criticize, and ridicule our authorities over the most benign things. It’s shameful the way we talk about others. It’s unbecoming of us Christians. Jesus says very plainly: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” As long as we are under the authority of another, we would be wise to joyfully submit to them and humbly learn from them.

So instead of judging and condemning others, particularly those in authority over us, God calls us to give and forgive. Someone does something stupid, forget about it and help them recover from it. When your neighbor is covered in warts, hide the warts and make them look beautiful. Instead of complaining and criticizing when someone makes a mistake, quietly fix the mistake so others don’t see it. When you feel like criticizing someone else, first pray to God to soften your hard heart, and then don’t criticize but instead find a productive solution. Let us learn to give and forgive instead of judge and condemn and criticize.

The reason it’s so unwise to be unmerciful and judge others so harshly is because we’re often no better than the others we’re condemning. We’re just as blind as the other person, perhaps even more blind! “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” When we foolishly ignore our own blindness and criticize others in their blindness, we’re just going to walk into a pit. We’ll have helped no one, neither ourselves nor the other.

We are all sinners, we all make mistakes, we all mess up. But when we forget that and harshly condemn others, we’re like the man who sees the speck in our brother’s eye, and yet we don’t notice that we’ve a branch impaling us through the head! Instead of being so harsh, let us show mercy. 

Afterall, God who alone is perfect, shows perfect mercy to us. “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” God alone is the judge of all the world; He is perfect and He knows our wicked hearts, yet He shows us mercy. Think about that, God knows our hearts and our thoughts, every wicked vile sin that has passed through our minds which no one else knows about, God knows. Still, He shows us mercy, even knowing we deserve no mercy.

Much less do we deserve God’s mercy which He gives us through Jesus’ sacrifice. God doesn’t merely pass over our faults, as if He forgot about them and pretended they didn’t happen, but God died in order to atone for our faults. Jesus Christ, God, our Messiah, had to be crucified in order for our sins to be forgiven. God’s mercy wasn’t cheap, it cost Him very dearly, His own life! He willingly and joyfully laid down His life to forgive our iniquities. 

Self-sacrificing love in order to cover up our wrongs is what God’s mercy looks like. You know those sins that no one knows about? Those things you’ve done or thought that if they came out in public would destroy your reputation and everyone would hate you? You’d be locked up! Those things that make you feel small and miserable? Those things that make you doubt God or anyone else could ever love you? God knows about them, and He knew about them when He died for you. In God’s mercy, He forgives your sins, no matter how ugly they are.

Jesus is our Bridegroom and He covers up our vile sins. He doesn’t expose us as the wretches we are, but He clothes us in garments richly wrought. He hides all of our warts behind His blinding beauty in order to present us spotless and without blemish. Unlike us, He doesn’t derive perverse pleasure from seeing others embarrassed, but delights in seeing us clothed with His glory. 

God has clothed you with His holiness and righteousness when you were baptized. In those waters He cleansed you of your filth and dressed you in the white robe of His glory! Having purged you of sin, He fills you with His body and blood. Christ Himself enters into our bodies so that we may be filled with His holiness. He doesn’t expose us as the wretches we are, but He covers us up with Himself, even giving us His name, calling us Christians. 

In response to our prayers for mercy from God, He replies with a resounding yes. He shows us mercy for our plethora of embarrassing problems and He covers our ugliness with His holiness. In light of God’s abundant mercy towards us, it’s clear that we must be merciful towards one another. If God will shower us with His mercy, covering up our many sins, then surely we can show mercy to our neighbors with their sins no worse than ours. “Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.”