Responding To Christians Caught In Sin

Text: Galatians 5:25-6:10

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

What is the church’s stance and attitude towards sin?

To be a little more specific, what is your stance towards sin in the life of another Christian?

Should you chase down every single sinning Christian you can find and drop the hammer on them? You know, let them have it, by blasting them with the Ten Commandments and then, as they say, drop your mic and walk away knowing that you have called them out?

On the other hand, perhaps you should turn a blind eye to sinning Christians while pretending the sin does not exist? You know, simply sweep them under the rug with their sin.

Or, maybe you could excuse sin away, by making the person a victim and then blame some oppressive system as the cause of the individual’s sin? In the meantime, leaving the individual in a poor victim status – wallowing in their sin? 

There is a fourth option, though; you could always go to them to help. Yes, instead of staying at a distance, you could go to the sinning person one-on-one to restore them. 

And what about the church’s attitude toward people who are sinning? That is to say; what should your attitude be toward a fellow Christian brother or sister who is caught red-handed in their sin?

Should you laugh and clap your hands with delight because they have been exposed of their sin?

On the other hand, perhaps you could maniacally indulge in the drama that their sin has produced, knowing that you now have something to gossip?

Should you coldly document their sin to accuse, bite, and attack them at some future point?  

Or, maybe could you drop your head and weep for them, saying, “Lord, have mercy on all of us”?

In today’s epistle reading from Galatians, we Christians are admonished by the Apostle Paul to do the latter. Indeed, we are called to ‘go to’ Christian friends and family members when they are caught in sin, and as we go, we are to ‘go’ with ‘gentleness’ and ‘compassion.’ Yes, we are to be gentle and compassionate; we are to have sympathy upon sinners, for we ourselves are sinners too.

But you may be thinking to yourself that this all sounds a little too mushy. It sounds like we might be trying to let people off the hook. And it sounds awfully like that empty ‘love-wins-slogan’ that rolls smoothly off the tongues of celebrities and entertainers these days.

We must keep in mind that the Apostle Paul is not talking about individuals who sin on purpose and work against God’s Word. Paul is not talking about hardened wicked people who have spit in the face of the church, rejected God’s Law, and cursed the name of Christ. You see, as we know from Jesus in Matthew chapter 18, a person who sins is to be confronted with his sin in a loving private conversation. If he repents, he is won over! However, if he fails to acknowledge his sin, well, he needs to be talked to again in private with a witness – a third party person. And if there is still no success with a witness, his sin is to be told to the church publicly. And if he continues in his hardness after the church has been told, he is to be treated with firmness and regarded as a pagan or tax collector. In other words, when people have hardened their heart and have refused to repent of their sins, the attitude of meekness no longer applies. A hardened heart does not need kid gloves, but the hammer and thunder of Mt. Sinai. Pearls are not thrown to swine.

But this is not who Paul is talking about in our epistle reading from Galatians. Paul is talking about another Christian who has sinned not out of an antagonistic hard heart but sinned because of their weakness. Paul is talking about Christians who have fallen into sin due to their weakness or lack of caution. They are caught and ensnared and maybe even trapped in sin without even knowing it. Yes, these weak Christian are not to be treated with harshness, but with gentleness and compassion. We neither slap the pagan label upon them nor treat them like an outsider, but assume that they have been overpowered or ensnared in temptation. 

You see, the world is slippery. The devil is also sly. And we Christians can fall quickly into sin. For this reason, Paul calls you to have sympathy for other Christians. Indeed, a godly Christian has sympathy with sinners and does not delight in digging through their sins. A godly Christian does not press their ear close to the grapevine to gather dirt on someone else to knock them down with condemnation. Christians do not collect sin as a way to enact vengeance upon other Christians, but rather, they go to them to help redeem them from their sin.

You see, if you find joy in hearing about the sins of your fellow Christian brothers and sisters and then you exaggerate their faults, vilify them, and pass the judgment of hell upon them, you are doing the work of Satan. Tragically, more often than not, when we hear the sins of other Christians, we place ourselves right alongside them by not restoring them with gentleness and compassion.

Dear friends, when our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith fall into sin, we must watch ourselves so that we might not be tempted to sin ourselves. Indeed, it is so easy to hear about sin one moment and in the next to be breaking the Eighth Commandment by assassinating another person’s character.

Lord, have mercy on all of us! Yes, Lord have mercy on you and on me. 

Dear friends, when our brothers and sisters sin, we must first of all cry ourselves, because we have either fallen into the same sin before or can fall in ways that are similar. Indeed, we must always remember what we are sinners. We are always beggars before God. Now, after remembering that we are sinners, we go, by God’s grace, to our sinning brother or sister and point out their sin. We do this so that there might be confession of sin and forgiveness of sins applied in the name of Jesus to our loved one.

Indeed, we go to restore them gently. Restoring them is calling them back, and loving them as a fellow-member of the church. Restoring them is helping them to face reality and not allowing them quietly to slip away from us, or from the truth. You see, if we do not restore our brothers and sisters from sin, that sin will ultimately prove deadly to them and often it can damage the whole congregation as well.

All of this is the nature of the church and what it looks like to be guided by the Holy Spirit. That is to say; we do not excuse sin, we do not diminish sin, and we do not celebrate sin, for that is about the most uncompassionate, rude, and hateful thing a Christian could do to another Christian. How could we leave a fellow Christian abandoned in the ditch of their sin? How could we leave a fellow Christian ensnared in sin? Furthermore, we do not use another Christian’s sin to torpedo their reputation behind their back while chuckling in our self-righteousness.  But rather, we Christians go to the person with the hopes of redemption, restoration, healing, and forgiveness in Christ. We go in the spirit of humility to restore them and possibly bear their burdens with them.  

If you think about it, this is exactly what Christ Jesus has done for you and me. This is love: Christ Jesus did not leave us caught in our sins. He did not excuse our sins, He did not diminish our sins, and He did not celebrate our sins, for if He had, He would not have gone to the cross. And if He had not gone to the cross, we would be left in our sins. And left to our sins we would be left in damnation. But because of His great love for us and His rich mercy, Jesus could not leave us in the ditch of our sins but was compelled to the cross – in love – to do something about it.  

Dear Baptized Saints, while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus came for us and died for us. He could not leave us in the condemnation of our sins. And so, you and I being led by the Holy Spirit through the Word and Sacraments are given holy impulses to walk in this same fashion. That is right; we beat our chest, confess our sin, lament at the sins of those around us, and by sheer grace go to those caught in sin for their restoration – restoration that we all need! Yes, restoration that is freely given to you, to me, and to all.

    

In the name of Jesus: Amen. 

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Are You Good Enough?

Text: Luke 10:23-37

In the name of Jesus: Amen. 

What do you need to do, to get to heaven?  

Let me repeat that one more time. 

What do you need to do, to get to heaven?  

When asked this question, the average person may respond that they need to do religious and good things, like praying and volunteering time and trying to be an overall positive person – definitely doing more good than bad.  And so, by praying, volunteering time, and being a positive person, they qualify themselves for the pearly gates.  

While this definitely sounds like a reasonable response, what typically is not clarified in peoples’ answers is this: to what degree should a person pray, volunteer, and strive to be a positive person.  In other words, what typically is not specified is how much a person should pray, volunteer, and be positive.  

You see, we humans have it figured out that for a person to obtain eternal life – the person has to be good.  And if a person is bad, they do not get to heaven but are disqualified to hell.  But here is the catch; we typically are hesitant to define just how much good and for how long the good needs to be done to qualify oneself for eternal life.  That is right; we are a little gun shy to define how much and how long the goodness must be done for obtaining eternal life.  But rather, we typically like to keep this part vague or we grade everyone on a curve because we like to grade ourselves on a curve.  

And so, as long as we can come up with enough good things in our lives and the lives of those around us, we can conclude that eternal life is within our grasp.  

A problem arises, though, when we read our Gospel reading from the Gospel of Luke and our epistle from Galatians.  That is to say; we hear especially from the Gospel of Luke that for a person to inherit eternal life that they must love the Lord God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength and to love their neighbor as themselves.  Indeed, eternal life is possible when you set God above everything else and let go of all your thoughts, words, works, knowledge, and insights.  Yes, if you commit to God’s will in all that you have in body and soul and flesh and spirit, in all that you are, with all of your strength and all of your health and all of your senses, you will obtain eternal life.  

Keep in mind that this is easier said, than done.  This is not a partial calling to love God and neighbor with a half-hearted attitude.  Obtaining eternal life is something that one does with everything – everything that a person has!  

What this looks like is this: to obtain eternal life, love should spread throughout your whole body and your whole being, into every part of you.  From head to foot, inside and outside, all that you do should be captivated by love.  No hate, no resentment, no grumbling, no apathy, and no frowning are allowed. If you are to inherit eternal life by what you do, you are to love and have delight in God completely, never annoyed to go to church and never annoyed read your Bible and never rushed to study the catechism.  And with your neighbor; you should not see anything indecent in your neighbor.  You should always put the best construction on your neighbor, never giving into gossip.  Your mouths should not speak any evil, and your hands and feet need to be innocent too, only going the way of goodness.  In short, all of your thoughts must be clean.  All of your deeds must be kind.  All of your words must be pure and uplifting.  Even your ears must filter out the negative and only hear the best construction about your neighbor.  And get this, you should desire to die a thousand times over than anger God with just one sin.[1]   

So, how are you doing?  Have you done enough?  Have you loved enough?  Have you given enough?  Has love permeated your whole being completely?  

You see, if you think that you have done enough to inherit eternal life you are actually living a lie.  If you think you have done enough that you have somehow racked up enough brownie points before God then you are severely deceived.  You see, when we look at the 10 Commandments we not only see what we should do, but we quickly learn of our weakness – we learn that we do not do what we ought to do before God and our neighbor.  We learn what love looks like and we learn that we fail to love God and our neighbor properly.  

And so, we are very much in the same boat as the Priest and the Levite who we read about in today’s parable from the Gospel of Luke.  The Priest and Levite saw a poor half-dead fellow on the side of the road and did nothing for him because they had neither love for God nor for their neighbor. Tragically, they understood the man on the edge of the road was in trouble, but walked by without love.  

Truth be told, though, we are probably much closer to that poor man on the side of the road than the Priest and Levite.  You see, when God’s 10 Commandments do their work on us, they reveal to us that we do not love the way that we ought to, like the Priest and Levite.  However, the Law does something more.  It shows us just how dark and depraved our sinful nature runs through us.  The Law helps us see that we have been beaten up by our sin and left half-dead in the ditch of life.  Indeed, the Law shows us that we are not where we ought to be.  The Law shows us our sins, reveals our sickness, and makes us aware of our misery.  And so, the Law helps us understand that we cannot do anything to inherit eternal life.  In fact, the Law helps us realize that the only thing we have earned is damnation.  

Dear friends, God’s good and true Law has no power to help us out of the ditch of our sin.  God’s Law cannot restore us or heal us.  The Law only diagnoses our problem.  And that is why we need something more; that is why we need a Good Samaritan.  That is why we need a good neighbor to come to our rescue.

Consider the parable again.  The Good Samaritan came and had compassion on half-dead man.  He came to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.  He then set him on his animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he paid the innkeeper to look after the wounded man.  

My friends, this is our Jesus, and this is our Gospel!  

Like the Samaritan, Jesus came down to you your lost and dying condition so that He might pour the oil and wine of the Sacraments upon you!  Indeed, Jesus placed you not on an animal to carry you to an Inn, but He set your sins upon Himself to give you forgiveness, life, and salvation.  And like the Samaritan who brought the man to an inn, Jesus has brought you to the Church and given His Word to be that medicine of forgiveness that is continuously delivered to you, restoring you unto salvation. 

Jesus is that perfect neighbor; He did not pass you by on His road to the cross.  But being full of love, He scooped you up unto Himself 

And so, we see that the Law shows you and me our lack of love.  It shows us that we are unable to do anything to inherit eternal life.  However, the Gospel shows you and me our Good Samaritan – Jesus Christ – who did everything for you so that you might inherit eternal life.  Yes, daily the Law shall remind you of your inability to properly love and your failure to acquire eternal life by your reason and strength.  But the Gospel… Yes, the Gospel continually declares to you that you have a Good Samaritan that loved you and out of joy gives you the kingdom!  

That is your hope this day.  You are not left for dead in the ditch of your sin, but rather you have a Good Samaritan.  His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, the only one who has fulfilled the Law and does not pass by sinners.  But rather, He is the one who binds your wounds and grants you life, by loving you from the manger to the cross, and from the cross to the empty tomb.   

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

[1] Partial quote and paraphrase from: Johann Spangenberg, The Christian Year of Grace: The Chief Parts of Scripture Explained in Question and Answer, tr. Matthew Carver (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2014), 298-299.

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Uncomfortable Words

Text: Mark 7:31-37 and Romans 10:9-17

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

They brought a deaf and tongue-tied man to Jesus and asked Jesus to lay His hands on him.  So, fulfilling the request, Jesus put His fingers in the man’s ears and saliva on the man’s tongue, and said, “Be Opened!”  And at the command of Jesus’ word, the man’s ears were immediately opened to hear, and his tongue was immediately freed to speak.  

Now, this amazing miracle should not catch us off-guard for this is not the first time that Jesus – by His spoken Words – did the impossible.  For example, in the fourth chapter of Mark, we read about Jesus rebuking the raging sea, saying, “Peace! Be still!” And that wild sea bowed to the command of Jesus’ Word. 

And who can forget that encounter Jesus had with the man who was demon possessed.  Like the mighty raging sea, and the deafness of the man, these demons too encountered the powerful Word of Jesus and were kicked out of the demon possessed man. 

The point being is this: when Jesus speaks, things happen.  Waves bow down, demons shutter, diseases run, and sickness submits!  That is right; the Word of Christ does stuff!  The Word of Jesus is powerful.

 

And here is a key point for us to take note of: the same Word of Jesus that was spoken to the sick, the demoniacs, and the storms in the New Testament, is the same Word spoken by the prophets in the Old Testament.  Indeed, Jesus is the author of all of the Scriptures, which means that the Word of Christ was not only spoken in the Old Testament and New Testament times, but also spoken today in our time, as Pastors and Christians simply preach, teach, and confess the Bible. 

But if this powerful Word of Christ is accessible in our day and age, why are we Christians in America sometimes so hesitant to proclaim the Word of Jesus and so resistant to hearing it?  Why is it that we have more Bibles now, than ever before in history and are Biblically illiterate?  If Jesus’ powerful Word comes to us in the Bibles and in sermons in churches, why the neglect; why the apathy?      

I believe the answer is quite simple.  We would rather have our ears tickled.  Yes, we would rather have our ears tickled than challenged.  We would rather have our ears entertained than confronted.  We would rather have our ears comforted than dared. 

You see, we all like to hear things that make us happy. We like to hear things that produce satisfaction for us.  We want to hear things that allow our thinking to be reinforced.  We want to remain unchanged. We do not want to be interrogated, and we do not want to be shaped by a word or a message that contradicts us.  So, we either cover our ears in protest, or we run from a challenging message to escape. Sometimes we even attempt to replace a thought-provoking message with something else that tickles and entertains our ears.  In other words, we want to hear things that agree with us – messages that tell us what we already think.  Nobody likes to be wrong, and nobody likes to be judged.   

Now, we can somewhat accomplish this selective hearing when it comes to politics or sports.  We can simply tune out the television or radio programs that disagree with us. However, the reality is that the Word of Christ comes to us contrary to our thinking and contrary to our ambitions, whether we like it or not.  You see, the Word of Christ is not our Word but Christ’s Word and because it is Christ’s Word, it will not always agree with us and it will not always make sense to us.  And it may even rub us the wrong way.       

  

And so we make sure not to share the Word of Christ because if it makes us uncomfortable, it will surely make our neighbors uncomfortable.  And if they are uncomfortable, they will think that we are weird. 

And as far as hearing the Word of Christ?  If we are not closing our ears to the Word or running away from it, we become clever by trying to tone it down.  In other words, we petition and request that we update the Bible’s language to a more twenty-first-century mindset.  You know what I am talking about.  We want the language softened a bit – to make it less offensive.  For example, instead of the word ‘sin,' we want to use the word ‘mistake’ instead.  And the word ‘hell,’ that makes us squirm, so we replace it with the words, ‘place of the dead.’ And what about the word, ‘suffering?’ That word is replaced with the word, ‘inconvenience.’  These are just a few examples.  The point being is that we end up substituting different words for Biblical Words, to tame the Word of Christ – to tone it down.  We change it to make it more palatable.      

The only problem with this is that when we change Christ’s Word, we are not merely toning it down but we are actually exchanging Christ’s Words for our words.  As a result, we do not end up preaching, teaching, and hearing the Word of Christ, but end up hearing the word of men.  And unlike the Word of Christ, the words of men are not powerful in the way Christ’s Words are powerful.   

Frankly stated, without the Word of Christ, faith is not possible.  And if faith is not possible, there is no salvation.  And if there is no faith and no salvation, there is no church, but just a bunch of people gathered together listening to the ramblings of mankind – words that simply sound religious but are nothing more than empty pious noises. 

. . .

Dear friends, Christ’s powerful Words do not allow our thinking, ideas, and opinions to stand but destroy and scatter everything.  The Word of Christ takes everything captive. It destroys and crucifies whatever is in us that is not of His Word.  He does not allow anything to remain in us, which is all very good, even though it sometimes hurts. 

. . .

Christ’s powerful Words do not leave us utterly destroyed and scattered, though.  There is more! Yes, there is more to the Word of Christ.  The Word of Christ not only destroys, but it also creates.  The Word of Christ creates faith in us! 

Think about this for a moment.  The Lord who spoke the world into existence in the Book of Genesis – created the World through speaking – is the same Lord who spoke healing and faith into that poor-deaf-mute man.  And the same Lord, who spoke faith and healing into the deaf and mute man, is the same Lord (with the same Word) who spoke faith into existence in you! 

You see, we have all been where the deaf man was.  We were deaf to the Word of Christ, and our tongues were tied too.  But someone loved us enough to bring us to Jesus, to place us before Jesus and beg Jesus to heal our deafness and release our tongues.  And so, for many of us, this happened in our Baptisms when our parents picked us up and placed us under the waters of Baptism, where the mighty Word of Christ and the name of our Triune God was spoken over our lives.  And so, as helpless babes, we were given ears to hear and tongues to confess. Nothing would ever be the same again. 

Baptized Saints, this is why we are people of the book.  This is why we are about Christ’s Word! This is why all of our ministries are centered around the Word – the Bible – and never apart from the Word.  You see, whenever the Word of Christ is spoken to you – whether in a sermon, a devotion, a hymn, or straight from the Bible – Jesus Himself is present and speaking His powerful Word to you.  And the very Word of Christ that can open the ears of a deaf man is the same Word that creates and sustains special ears of faith in you, so that you might hear rightly!  Yes, to hear of your sin and to especially hear that for Christ’s sake all of your sins are forgiven, is what the Word does for you.  The Word grants you repentance and creates and sustains faith in you!

And because faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ and not from the words of mankind, we are captive to Christ’s Word.  Yes, as Christians and as a church, we are captive to the Bible, for we know that through the Bible, Christ speaks to us, opening our ears to hear and opening our mouths to confess His praises.   

This is the beauty of the Word of Christ!  Faith comes from hearing.  Through the proclaimed Word we are cleansed.  

 

It is the Word, always the Word of Christ, for you and for me. 

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

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