Whose Side? – A Sermon on Matthew 18:1-20

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” Now, I want you to imagine how well that’s going to go over. I wish I could say things are getting worse these days with people. But really, nobody has ever liked being told that they did anything wrong. Yet, when has that ever really stopped us? The whole basis of the Old Adam’s existence is wrapped up in the belief that I am right, and you are wrong. Only, we want that to be public, so the whole world can see.

Of course, that starts with our relationship with God Himself. The First Adam’s excuses are ours as well. “I need the knowledge of good and evil, because I can’t trust God to have that alone. I need to have it to find out if God was holding out on me. I need it for my freedom. So eating the fruit was obviously the right thing to do. And God was wrong to tell me otherwise. God might say that what I want to do is wrong. But He doesn’t know the reason why I have to do exactly that. If He would only take the time to understand my reasoning, my justification for it, He would see that I’m actually right.”

This attitude extends to everyone else we encounter as well. “Any reasonable person can see that what I think is right. And if you can’t come to my conclusion, that proves that you are unreasonable. And only stupid people are unreasonable. Therefore, I am proved to be even more right by your disagreement with me.” This is what self justification is. This is what we do constantly, whether we realize it or not. Sometimes we have it so well practiced, that we don’t even need to tell ourselves anything. We just are right. We have our own righteousness, intrinsic to ourselves. And no one can actually challenge that.

So how then do we deal with each other? Badly. Anyone who sees and acknowledges our own personal righteousness. Anyone who agrees that we’re the ones who are right. Those are the smart people. Those are the people whose opinions matter. And then there’s everyone else. in our own minds, there are only ever two sides. Those who are for us, and those who are against us. Is it any wonder that every conflict the world has ever known, both small and large, can be reduced to one side versus the other? We ourselves insist on it, at the personal level.

What then does going to your brother accomplish? For the old Adam in us, it is the opportunity to show off our self righteousness. The chance to have victory over our opponents. The chance to let them know that the god of myself is better than their god that is themselves. I am the greatest in the kingdom of my own making. And to be fair, we’d rather not go just to our brother who sinned against me. We need to rally the support of everyone to be on my side.

However, if anyone were to ever come to me, and say that I have not done right, that I have sinned, well, let me tell you! Nothing could ever be further from the truth.  And that is all that matters to my ego. Even the kindest of us will at least pity those who can’t be on our side. Feel bad for those who will not see things the right way. If only they had made better decisions. If only they could see things in a different light. If only they would be like us. Wouldn’t that be a far better thing for them? This is how we have learned to deal with people. They’re either for us, or against us. And we will love the people on our side. And we will hold in some level of contempt the people on the other side. Anywhere for pity, to outright hatred, wherever our own conscience will allow us to go. Wherever makes us look the most righteous in our own eyes.

This is not the way Jesus would have us deal with one another at all. Matthew 18 is the goto text to find out how we should treat one another. And it starts by becoming like children. Who is in a child’s world? Mom and Dad? Brothers and sisters? Family and friends? All people who should always be on their side. Part of growing from a child to an adult, part of maturity is finding out that not everyone is on your side. It’s a painful lesson. It’s a lesson that destroys a child’s innocence. But it is necessary, right? Necessary for that child to live, and make it to adulthood? To know that there are enemies out there? And yet, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Turn and forget that there is such a thing as your side and the other. Humble yourself to the point where your side no longer matters. Because that is exactly what Jesus did for you. Make no mistake, sin is a big deal. Big enough that losing a hand, a foot, or an eye would be better. Drowning in the sea with a millstone around your neck would be better. Your sin is that big. Leading someone else into sin is that big. Therefore, what Jesus did had to be even bigger.

While we were creating sides between us an God, Jesus refused to let sides stop Him from saving us from our sin. Jesus crossed over that line. He assumed our humanity into His divinity. He was born. He lived. And He claimed for Himself our every sin. Each one of them individually worse than being mutilated. Each one of them individually worse than drowning forever. And Jesus carried them all. God died on a cross on our behalf while we still thought we were enemies. Making Himself childlike, in that He humbled Himself into not having His own side against ours. It was all for you.

While we were like sheep led astray, Jesus came to find us. While we sinned against Him, He came to us in order that a brother might be gained. While we were still enemies, Christ died for us. And there is nothing greater than that.

Secondarily, Jesus also showed us how to treat one another. And today’s Gospel lesson reminds us how we should act. We don’t go to our brother who sinned against us in order to show that he’s on one side, and we’re on the other. But rather that there are no sides. We go as fellow sinners, redeemed by Christ. We go as allies, ready to bring the wounded off the battlefield, and to our Great Physician, who heals both body and soul. We go with the goal of rejoicing in the death and resurrection of Jesus together. That’s how a child would go about it. THat’s how Jesus went about it. And so should we.

Because Jesus died in order to forgive each and every sin. Including the sin of being right. Because our being right doesn’t come from doing the right thing. It doesn’t come from holding the right opinion. It doesn’t come from having the right knowledge. It doesn’t come from anything that we do. And it doesn’t come from choosing the correct side. The only thing that makes us right comes from outside ourselves. The only thing that makes us right in Jesus dying on the cross. That’s it. Nothing else. And that is enough. Because there is nothing bigger than that. And Jesus is giving that to you today. And every day. Forever. Thanks be to God.