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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Each time we hear God’s Word, we hear God’s Word in the context of our own understanding of things, whether that understanding is right or wrong, having been properly formed by the Holy Spirit working through God’s Word or having been improperly formed by others’ or our own human ideas being placed over God’s Word. In today’s Gospel Reading, there were some present at that very time, when Jesus just had been speaking about interpreting the present time (Luke 12:54-56), who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate hand mingled with their sacrifices. In answering them, and presumably already knowing in Himself what their answer would be, Jesus asked if they thought that those Galileans, or the men from Jerusalem whom the tower of Siloam fell on and killed, were worse sinners than all the other Galileans or people living in Jerusalem because they suffered and died in those ways. Jesus’s statements in that portion of the Gospel Reading and in the related parable that follows raise for us the question under which we consider the Gospel Reading today: “What do we think about sinners?”
Of course, that question, “What do we think about sinners?”, like Jesus’s statements in the Gospel Reading as a whole, is intended not so much to lead us to think about others in comparison to ourselves, but that question, “What do we think about sinners?”, is intended more to lead us to think about ourselves: what our experiences might suggest about our sinfulness, whether or not we repent, and how we are spared from the destruction we deserve and bear fruit.
As with the people in the Gospel Reading, Jesus already knows in Himself what we are thinking, but we do well to consider what we are thinking. What do we think the relationship is between our experiences and our sinfulness? Do we, like the people in the Gospel Reading, think that, if something we consider bad does not happen to us, then the people to whom something we consider bad happens are worse sinners than we are? Jesus says such is not the case. Do we perhaps think that, if something we consider bad is happening to us, then the people to whom something we consider bad is not happening are not as bad sinners as we are, or maybe that they are better Christians, or maybe that God loves them more? Such is not the case. Generally speaking, whether or not something we consider bad happens to someone else or to ourselves is not for us a reliable indicator of relative sinfulness, relative sanctification, or the love of God.
Such thinking on the basis of others’ or our own human ideas can and does lead us astray. Instead, we should stick to God’s Word, which in this case calls us all to repent. The first man put into the garden of Eden was told that in the day that he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die (Genesis 2:17), but, when the woman took of its fruit and ate and gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate (Genesis 3:6), they did not immediately die, though they knew that they had sinned and tried to cover up their shame and hide from God (Genesis 3:7-8). God mercifully delayed judgment for them, as He mercifully delays judgment for us. Today’s Appointed Verse from 2 Peter said well that the Lord is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9b, c). Likewise we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Ezekiel 33:8-20) that the Lord God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but His pleasure is in the wicked’s turning from their ways and living. So, God mercifully gives us a limited time to repent. And, when, enabled by God we do repent, then God forgives our sin. What we sang in today’s Psalm (Psalm 85, antiphon: v.8) is true for us: the Lord forgave the iniquity of His people and covered all their sin.
The Lord forgives the iniquity of His people and covers all their sin for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. If you consider all that Jesus suffered and how He died on the cross, you might regard Jesus as the worst of all sinners, and in one sense you would be right. For, although as true God in human flesh Jesus had no sin of His own, on the cross He bore the sins of the whole world, including your sins and my sins. For us, Jesus lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and Jesus experienced the judgment that we deserve, in our place. As described in the Old Testament Reading, when we turn from our wickedness, we do not fall by it; rather, as we trust that Jesus’s righteousness is freely given to us out of God’s love, mercy, and grace for His sake, none of the sins that we have committed are remembered against us. God creates such repentance and faith in us and forgives our sins through His Word and Sacraments.
God’s Word and Sacraments are where the suffering Christ meets us suffering Christians (Just, ad loc Luke 13:6-9, p.537). In today’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 10:1-13), St. Paul describes how the Israelites of old were baptized into Moses and ate and drank the same spiritual food and drink from Christ. Similarly but also differently, in Holy Baptism, with water and the Word we are baptized into Christ, into His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). And, in the Sacrament of the Altar, we eat bread that is the Body of Christ given for us, and we drink wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us. The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to life everlasting. Yet, as with the Israelites of old, not all who receive these Means of Grace end up living lives of repentance and faith, so that God ends up being pleased with them. Whether by idolatry, sexual immorality, putting Christ to the test, grumbling, or something else, some are overthrown in the wilderness of today, not enduring with God’s help the temptations or afflictions that He in His wisdom permits.
Notably, in the Gospel Reading Jesus did not explain the wisdom of God that permitted either the mingling of the Galileans’ blood with their sacrifices or the falling of the tower of Siloam on the men of Jerusalem (Lenski, ad loc Luke 13:6, p.725). Nor do we get explanations of God’s thinking behind the specific experiences that others and we ourselves have in our time. Although, we know that for those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose, all things work together for good—certainly the good of conforming us to the image of God’s Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:28-29). We, who heed God’s empowering call to repent and believe, can and do thank and praise God that we do not immediately perish eternally as we deserve but are given time to repent and believe. We can and do thank and praise God even in our suffering (Acts 5:41; Romans 5:3). Such thanks and praise are among the fruits of repentance and faith that we bear in keeping with our vocations (Hebrews 13:15; Luke 3:7-14), as is also fruit of repentance and faith our forgiving one another as we have been forgiven.
“What do we think about sinners?” Depending primarily not on others’ or our own human ideas but depending primarily on God’s Word¸ we do not think of others or ourselves as worse sinners because of what they or we experience. We rightly recognize that in some sense each of us is, as St. Paul described himself (1 Timothy 1:15), the “chief” (KJV) or “foremost” (ESV) of sinners, whom Christ Jesus came into the world to save. While there is time, we live each and every day with repentance and faith, and so we are spared from the destruction we deserve and bear fruit, including thanks and praise of God, now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +