Freedom from Our Heart’s Desire

A Sermon on John 8:31-36 for Reformation Day, 2019

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you abide in my Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What does it mean to be free? In our American context, the word ‘freedom’ is a term that needs unpacked. Because it is loaded with meaning.  

Freedom for us means making our own decisions. Freedom means nobody else telling us what to do. Freedom means being able to defend ourselves. Freedom means I get to make the choices that make me happy. Now, there are limits on those. I don’t get to go hurt others with my freedoms. But within those boundaries, I can do anything my heart desires.

But that isn’t actually freedom. Following my own unchecked desire may in fact be one of the furthest things from freedom there is. The Greek philosophers called such an act ‘passion,’ and struggled to overcome it. The ancient Chinese called your every wish coming true a curse. And even Scripture warns that the desires of the flesh run contrary to the Spirit of God. Our hearts want things. And we don’t stop to ask if it’s good before getting it. We don’t stop for anything. That’s what we call freedom. But it’s the desire that’s in control, not us. 

If we were in control, we would have thinner waistlines. We could ask for help when we need it. We could be honest about what we thought. But because our heart desires to be served, those things are more difficult. Everything is. Unchecked desires are how addictions begin. It’s how we hurt others by our actions. Even those we love. And the more we give in to what we want, the more out of control we become.

The heart desires to sin. And we each have one. Where that heart controls you, you know better than I. But I have enough being controlled of my own to tell you what it does. St. Paul put it this way in Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” And Paul doesn’t say that in the past tense. It’s not that he used to do these things, and then got better when he came to faith. Paul wrote them in present tense. He was struggling with them even as he wrote the letter. And it describes our lives, our hearts, even today.

Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Listen to how strongly Jesus words this! Our sinful hearts have become our masters. And we obey them, afraid of the consequences. And yet, we are so used to this enslavement, that we respond like the people in the text. What are you talking about, Jesus? I am free. And I’m not enslaved. I’m the master over my sin, not the other way around. This was said by those who believed in Jesus. And our condition is just as bad, even as we believe.

If that’s the case, then what hope do we have? We know the wages of sin is death. We know that in this life, we will always have sin. What is the point of trying to stop our sin? Why bother resisting it? If it’s what we want anyway, why not do it? Because Jesus sets you free.

Jesus takes the shackles of our heart and breaks them open. Jesus contends with your sinful desires and wins. Jesus takes the evil that you don’t want to do away. Just because we have sin, and cannot stop sinning, doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t fight back. He has, and He’s won. The Son has set you free. You are free indeed.

But I don’t feel free. Those fears, those addictions, those sins. They’re still here. Yes, but through Christ, they are no longer your master. You no longer are choiceless when it comes to them. You now have the freedom to say no to your heart’s desire. Granted, that’s no small feat. It is still difficult. But our Lord has given you something to strengthen you. Something that helps you fight against your former master. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

Jesus gives us the means to fight back. Jesus gives us His Word. It’s there for us to hear. To read. To study. To receive. Because it’s in that Word where He reveals what He has already done for you. In that Word, we are given the death and resurrection of Jesus. We see how He took upon Himself your sin, my sin, the sin of the whole world. He took it to the cross, and died with it. Was buried with it. And left that sin dead in the grave when He rose from the dead on the third day.

In that Word, we find forgiveness for every different sin we could imagine. We find that our shame is washed away. As our lesson from Romans says, “[A]ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Our sin has been paid for. Forgiveness is His gift to us. And that gift changes our hearts. That gift gives us something better to desire. That gift puts Jesus in between us and our sin. And He’s going to fight by our side in our daily struggle against the evil inside each one of us. 

We’ve often heard the saying that freedom isn’t free. And that’s true. Jesus paid the highest of prices to secure our freedom. It cost the life of the all powerful and immortal God, creator of heaven and earth. So that makes this freedom we’re given all the more amazing. It’s a freedom far better than following my heart. It’s the freedom to disregard my sinful desires. It’s the freedom to tell myself no. It’s the freedom to leave this house of evil I’m in, and join the Lord in His Word of truth. Because the truth has set us free. Free to read how the Lord rescued other before us. Free to pray the prayers He has given us. Free to hold fast to the all availing sacrifice of His body and His blood on the cross. 

  This is what the Reformation was all about. It wasn’t about Martin Luther. It wasn’t about Germany. Nor was it about the Roman Catholics. They were there, but the Reformation was always about the forgiveness of sins given by Jesus Christ. And the freedom given by His Word proclaimed. That what was fought for. That’s what won the day. Because that Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And that Gospel is for you.

Let us pray. Gracious Father, You sent Your Son to buy us out of slavery to sin by His sacrificing His life on our behalf. Set us free from the desires of our hearts. Set us free from our sin. Keep us in Your Word. And make us truly His disciples. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Justice and Vengeance

A Sermon on the Parable of the Unrighteous Judge from Luke 18:1-8 for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, 2019.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. But why would they be losing heart and need to pray? To answer that, we need to go back to the last chapter and read the words of Jesus that our lectionary skipped. I know Luke has had some tough texts the last few weeks. But the section we jumped over is as tough as any of them. and maybe this is why they needed to be told not to lose heart.

And [Jesus] said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 

Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” 

Dang, Jesus, that’s pretty dark. Without warning, the flood wiped out humanity, save the eight people on the ark. Without warning, Sodom was destroyed, save Lot and his daughters. Not even Lot’s wife made it out. Without warning, the last day will arrive. And Jesus makes it very clear, you better be one of those left behind. Because those taken die. We so casually say that Jesus is more important than life or death, but when death is front and center, we really don’t like it so much. This is the context where the disciples were in need of a parable to teach them to pray and not lose heart. Because you don’t usually lose heart when things are going okay. Rather, it’s when things are looking their worst.

In our Old Testament lesson, Jacob has every reason to lose heart. He had just escaped from his father-in-law, Laban, who had cheated Jacob for twenty years. Laban had even chased after him with a small army, and Jacob had escaped. But now he was being set upon by his own brother, Esau. The last time they had seen each other, Esau had vower to kill him if it were the last thing he did. And he had a bigger army than Laban had. Things were looking dark. Life and death hung in the balance. And it was in that moment that Jacob wrestled with the Lord. Because Jacob was about to lose heart.

In our epistle lesson, Paul warns Timothy that he will be facing a new problem. the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Timothy was given the task of proclaiming the Gospel, words greater than life and death. And no one will want to hear. They all have better things to do. More interesting words to listen to. Words that tell those people exactly what they wanted to hear. And then Timothy will have do decide about life and death in another way. If no one will listen, does he do something else to feed his family? Or does he continue, and put them at risk? Timothy would be about to lose heart.

Whether it is the fear of what will happen, as with the disciples. Or the fear of what was happening right now, as with Jacob. Or the fear of how to get past what had already happened, as with Timothy, we have those same fears. We too face losing heart. Maybe not today, for some of us. But for others, we live right in the middle of it. 

So what do we do? How do we get by? What would Jesus have us try in order to get through this? Pray. But pray for what? Because we are quick to pray that the things we fear go away. Yet Esau didn’t go away. The things that threaten us don’t go away. And yeah, those with itching ears went away from Timothy, but that was the problem. What good does it do to pray, if we don’t get what we want? 

But that’s why we need to hear this parable. And listen to what the widow asks for. In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ Justice is making right what was done wrong. You might hear the word justification in Church. It means the same thing. It means making you right when something has gone wrong. That being right is conveniently called righteousness. And we read about that in the Bible quite a bit. 

However, most of the time when we want to be made right, we do it ourselves. We can see something is wrong, and we make sure that everyone knows that it’s not our fault. I didn’t do that. And if I did, I had a reason that was more important than how you feel about it. Self justification is something so ingrained in us, that we we do it from before we can even talk. The child that points to her brother after you just watched her push the plate off her high chair knows exactly what she’s doing. 

The problem with self justification is that while we believe we’re proving that we’re good, it actually shows how awful we really are. We take our sin, the times we hurt others, and say that it’s anyone’s fault but ours. And we get upset when no one buys our story. Self justification is worthless. And that’s why when we’re hurt by someone, we seek justice from outside ourselves. The widow in the parable wants justice. She wants someone else to justify her against her adversary. And the judge, who isn’t right despite his position, gives it to her. Not because he’s interested in making things right for her. Rather, because he wants to stop being pestered about it. 

And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. When we pray for justice, for justification, the Lord is eager to give us exactly that. Because he has taken every wrong and made it right. He has taken every sin, and forgiven them all. Whether they’re the ones we’ve done, or the ones done to us. Jesus Christ has justified us, and given us His righteousness, so that we would not lose heart.

Because the Lord will give justice against our adversaries. The Lord will give vengeance against the wicked. Now, that last sentence isn’t one we’re used to hearing these days. And we might even find that maybe we’d prefer the Lord to have mercy on the wicked instead. After all, if I don’t justify myself, maybe I fall under the category of wicked, and I don’t want the Lord to take vengeance on me. 

However, there’s more than one way that the wicked perish. Because when the wicked are brought to repentance and given the forgiveness of their sins, we are no longer wicked. The wickedness in us did in fact perish. But we still, like the widow, ask for vengeance. For even if the whole world should repent and believe, as we pray, there still remains the devil, who wars against us constantly. And the Lord has not delayed in giving us justice over him. 

In fact, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross has already overcome everything that we’re afraid of. The Lord brought Noah and his family through the flood and onto dry ground. The promise made in that water was fulfilled when it came out from Jesus’ side on the cross. The Lord brought Lot and his daughters out of the midst of falling fire and brimstone. The promise made on that day was fulfilled when Jesus endured the fiery wrath of God over all sin, calling out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The Lord brought Jacob through the terrifying reunion with his brother Esau. The promise made on that day was fulfilled when God’s righteous anger was carried out on Christ standing in our place, making peace between us and the Lord. The Lord brought Timothy through those who left the Church to have their itching ears scratched. The promise made of the power of Scripture was fulfilled when the Word made flesh sacrificed everything on our behalf in love. 

The Lord likewise brought the disciples through the night when He was betrayed, falsely accused, brought before Pilate, and crucified. He brought them through the three days when they would lose heart the most. He justified them. He gave them His righteousness. He conquered their adversary. And put an end to the wicked. And whatever you and I are afraid of, Jesus took care of that as well. Afraid of loss? Jesus gives more abundantly than we have. Afraid of death? Jesus overcame death itself, and gives you His life. Everything we fear, Jesus answers. Not with our answers, but with the justice He has earned for us on that tree. That’s what He has us pray for. That’s what He speedily gives. 

Therefore, pray always. Ask for justice and to be made right. Ask for justification and righteousness. Ask continuously. For the Lord is not stingy with these things. And even if He were, He would still give them. But the Lord is eager. The Lord is giving even now. So let us pray.

Gracious Father, Your Son said that we should pray always, and not lose heart. Strength our hearts with the sacrifice of Christ. Give us the justice we need. Not of self justification, but the justification purchased with the precious blood of Jesus. Give us vengeance against our adversaries by bringing them to the same repentance and forgiveness granted to us. And speedily bring about your kingdom. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Suffering Boldly

A Sermon on 2 Timothy 2:1-13, for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, 2019

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Paul introduces his second letter to Timothy by telling him all the difficult things that have befallen Paul since his last letter. He has been arrested and put into prison. He suffered every day. Phygelus and Hermogenes abandoned him. Alexander the coppersmith was openly opposing him. Many of his other friends were elsewhere. Paul only had Luke with him at this point. Confessing Christ was costing Paul everything.

This is the context in which he tells Timothy, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” 

The suffering is real. It’s intense. And it falls on everyone. To follow Christ is to endure hardship and sacrifice. To reach the victory involves a great deal of pain. To receive the fruit of the tree of life means to bear the heat of the day in hard labor. Getting by, even day to day as a Christian, was not for the faint of heart, or the lazy of bones. It was a grueling slog. Made worth it by the promise at the end.

Today, when we hear those words, we have a completely different set of expectations. When we hear Paul tell Timothy to share in suffering, we imagine that when everyone shares the suffering, then no one really suffers at all. When we’re soldiers for Christ, we imagine that all we do is carry a banner, and watch the battle. When we think of working hard, like a farmer, we imagine it’s a difficult as growing dandelions in a yard. And as a result, we don’t always understand why Paul makes this point. Surely the Lord would not ask us to suffer much, if anything, for the sake of His Name, would He?

The problem is that we are afraid to suffer. We fold at even the slightest discomfort. And we imagine that cowardice in the face of such threats are actually us being good. We fear that if speak the Law of God, someone might be offended. If we say that things like abortion, or homosexuality, or divorce, or sexual immorality are wrong, then we can’t bear when they accuse us of hate and bigotry. We are too timid to explain that calling something wrong is far more loving than silently letting them hurt themselves in these sins. We don’t even dare tell people the Jesus loves them, lest we be accused of being too preachy. So we remain silent. And yet we pat ourselves on the back for how faithful we are. 

But it’s not for nothing. We have a lot to lose if we were to speak boldly. We could lose our standing in the community. We could lose our jobs. We could lose our friendship. We could even lose contact with our loved ones. The threats are real. Which is why it is so important that we find a way to justify our timidity, and call it faith. 

But Scripture does not let us do that. The faithful suffer. And it’s in each of our lessons this morning. Naomi suffered the drought in Israel. She suffered it being so bad that she could no longer stay in her home, and left for a land where they worshipped a false god. She suffered when her sons married wives that weren’t good Israelites. She suffered when her husband died. She suffered when her sons died. She suffered when there was no heir for the family to live on by. That was worse than death for her culture. Is it no wonder that when she left to return to her home in Israel, she told her daughters-in-law to return to their fathers’ houses? She could not ask them to continue suffering along side her. Orpah did return. But for Ruth, there was something worth enduring this for. “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The promises of the Lord are greater than the suffering to be endured. 

Likewise the Samaritan that was healed in our Gospel lesson. We don’t usually consider what his life would have been like after Jesus cleansed him from leprosy. In order to be let into the town, he would first need to be examined by a Jewish priest. And when no leprosy was found, he would need to ritually wash. But what priest would see him? What priest would call a Samaritan clean? He would still be outside the town where the lepers live. He might contract the disease again. And yet, He returned to Jesus, thanking him. Because faith in Christ Jesus and His promise was greater than the suffering that was still yet to come. Which is why Jesus tells him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” 

Timothy too would be facing suffering on account of Jesus. The Book of Hebrews ends with news that Timothy had just been released from prison. He too would be locked up, tortured and ridiculed because he publicly confessed Christ. So we too shouldn’t be surprised when the world treats us the same way it treats the Lord. To be a Christian is to suffer. It’s been happening from the very beginning. And it will continue until the very last day.

Wow, way to sell being a Christian, pastor. I’m sure that’ll get people lining up out the door. Why would anyone want to be a Christian, knowing this? Because despite the suffering, we are given more hope than anything the world can offer. “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 

The resurrection of Jesus might be something we hear every week. But there is nothing so important in all of creation than this event. What would you do if when you died, you didn’t stay dead? In fact, you were brought back to life in even better shape than before. Would death scare you any more? Jesus rose from the dead around two thousand years ago, and has promised the same resurrection to you. 

Sure, you have to wait some. But when that resurrection does happen, there will be no more sin left in the world. Your sin also has been taken away. There will be a new heavens and new earth. You will spend eternity with the Lord, who sacrificed everything for your sake. And your loved ones who have died in the faith before and since will be there too. Paul saw the risen Christ with his own eyes. All the apostles did. And proclaiming that resurrection to the world was worth every bit of suffering they had to endure because of it. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” 

Naomi and Ruth died with Christ, and also live with Him, Paul and Timothy endured, and will also reign with Christ. The Samaritan leper clung to our Lord, and our Lord clung back to Him, bringing him up from despair to heaven itself. Because Jesus remains faithful. He keeps His promises. He has made them part of who He is. So that when He says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven,” you believe Him. 

Christ Jesus has given the most powerful promise in the universe to you. He has given it to carry you through the suffering you face. He gives a solid rock for your foundation to stand against the waves of the world. Therefore do not be afraid. Be bold and confess Christ. Endure everything along side of Paul, so “that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus…” so that you may rest assured and confident that no matter what you endure, Christ’s resurrection is His promise to you. And it’s a promise He’s keeping. 

Let us pray. Almighty Father, Your Son endured Good Friday and the cross on our behalf. Give us the hope necessary to endure what the world throws at us. Give us the boldness to speak the good news of Jesus’ forgiveness to the world, even as we receive that promise daily from You. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Increase our Grammar?

A Sermon on Luke 17:1-10 for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, Series C, 2019

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If I were to tell you that today would be all about conditional statements in Greek grammar, you’ve probably already fallen asleep. Not a great start for the sermon for LWML Sunday. So maybe it’s a good thing that in the Gospel lesson Jesus Himself says “Pay attention!” Because a little bit of prep work is going to help us understand what Jesus wants us to hear.

Conditional statements are simply the words “if” and “then” used in a sentence. A simple version is “if it is raining, the ground is wet.” Another way to say it could be to state a possibility. “If it happens to rains tomorrow, then the ground might be wet. But there are more ways to use these. And Jesus is going to use two of them today. The first way is to say what will definitely result if this thing happens. The other is to state something that could have happened, but didn’t. Now, Greek has a way of marking if-then statements to let you know what they are. Unfortunately, it doesn’t add any words we can translate into English to show it. So we don’t know just by looking at the English. The meaning of the words don’t change. But we might emphasize them in a way not intended if we don’t know. And that’s why we’re doing grammar prep work today.

Jesus tells us, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” These are all the kind of if-then statements that tell us what will definitely happen in the future if something ever happens. If your brother ever sins, you will rebuke him. It’s not a suggestion. It’s not extra credit. It’s not a way for you to be a good Christian. It is expected. Since you are a disciple of the Lord, you will rebuke your brother when he sins. 

Now, without that emphasis, we don’t pay much attention to those words. We all nod our heads, and agree that this is a good thing to do. But we don’t have any intention of rebuking anyone, to our shame. Because while we say yes with our mouths, we have a much more difficult time taking it to heart. If your brother sins, rebuke him. But aren’t we far more likely to say that it isn’t our place to judge? Or that He doesn’t need more negativity in his life? Or ask, who am I to condemn him? Because if I rebuke someone for their sin, they now have permission to rebuke me for my sin. And that’s not okay. 

Or maybe we do this. When someone sins against me, I tell everyone else. His friends, his family, his pastor, his church. But never the one who sinned in the first place. They should know what they did already. And if they don’t, then that’s their own fault for being so terrible. Because they’re so bad, I can justify myself for everything I do against them. I can hold their sin against them forever. 

But again this is not at all what Jesus said. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. The point is to bring everyone who sins to repentance and forgiveness. That’s why Jesus says it with the grammar He does. So that we pay attention! So that we do the bare minimum necessary to be a Christian brother or sister. That starts by rebuking sin. By showing that sin is wrong. This is where the context of “judge not, lest ye be judged” comes in. We don’t show sin by using our sinlessness as an example. Just the opposite. We know it’s sin because we’ve been there too. We are there. And we need repentance and forgiveness just the same as the person who we must rebuke. So that when they turn in repentance, we will forgive them every time. Seven times a day for the same thing if need be. 

Now, if you’re saying to yourself, “That sound really difficult,” well, you’re not alone. The disciples thought such a thing sounded too tough as well. That’s why they ask Jesus to “Increase our faith!” After all, it must take an enormous faith to be that patient, that forgiving, right? No. If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to [a] mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. That’s what Jesus said. But now we need to know about the other kind of if-then statement. The one that states something contrary to fact.

If I wanted to get across the meaning of what Jesus said by adding in words, I’d say: If you had even the smallest amount of faith, you could do impossible things, but you don’t. Jesus is saying that the disciples don’t even have a mustard seed’s worth of faith. Because what’s harder to say, telling this mulberry tree to take up its roots and walk, or forgiving your brother’s sin?

You see, we want the sign. We want the spectacle. But such a thing doesn’t bring anyone to faith. Forgiveness, which is more difficult to give, given on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus, does. Mountains are easier to move than giving your brother who sins forgiveness when he repents. But the Lord has given you, His servant greater authority than the commanding of trees and mountains. Because the sins you loose on earth are loosed in heaven, by the authority Jesus has given to you.

So why did Jesus imply that they didn’t yet have faith at all? His last lesson explains why. “Does [the master] thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” 

Jesus saw that they wanted to use forgiving their brother who sinned as a badge of honor. A way to say, “Look at what I just did.” Aren’t I a great Christian? I forgave someone. Even forgave then seven times. Surely my reward is great. That isn’t great. That’s the baseline standard. That’s expected of all the servants of Christ. This is why we pray “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Christ forgives us, and, as a result, we too forgive others. And when we have forgiven, we unworthy servants have only done our duty as Christ commanded. That’s what faith does, when we have any. 

But is that where our text leaves us? Those are fairly scathing words from Jesus. And, true, we need to hear them. We need to know that we are to rebuke our brother who sins. We need to know to forgive our brother when he repents. And we need to know that this is what faith does. This is how faith serves. Not by throwing trees into oceans, but by proclaiming the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ. 

And yet, beside all those words of Law is the bright and shining Gospel. The good news of what Jesus did for you and me. Because Jesus faced worse than a millstone around the neck, He carried the sins of the world instead. He wasn’t drown in the depths of the sea, he drown in His blood, as He was suffocatingly crucified. All so that no matter how many times you and I turn in repentance, the answer He gives us is, “Yes, I forgive you.” 

His sign was also a tree. The tree of the cross. The tree of life, uprooted from Eden and planted in us. And with that faith placed inside us, Jesus does what no one would ever expect. He invites us, His servants, to sit and eat at His table. Jesus serves us. He wears the servant’s garb, and waits on us. Feeding us His own body and His own blood. And in doing so, He increases our faith! And at the conclusion of His work, He gives us His resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead so that not even death can separate you from the love of God. Death has been conquered. And that goes for both you and your brother, even when he sins against you. The death and resurrection of Christ is for us all. 

Yeah, I know there aren’t very many of you who find working through the grammar all that interesting. But it was worth it. By that exercise, we had the Law hit a little closer to home. Yet that made the Gospel that much more a treasure. Our Lord has high expectations of us. And He has given us His Son to cover it all.

Let us pray. Almighty Father, increase our faith. Forgive our sins on account of the sacrifice of your Son on the cross. And by that forgiveness, grant us that miraculous power to forgive those who trespass against us. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.