Sermon 4th
October 2020 – Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Matthew
21:33-46 – Holding up a mirror
One of the things I
enjoy about the Pentecost Season in the church is that we spend a lot of time
listening to Jesus’ parables. Parables are a special way that Jesus teaches the
people listening to him. Some are hard to unravel. Some make you squirm as you
realise that he is speaking directly to you. Some seem to be able to speak one
way to you and another way to someone else. That’s the beauty of listening to
Jesus’ parables. There is always
something new that you get out of them.
In a sense Jesus uses
the parables like a mirror. He did that last week to the chief priests and
elders with his parable of the 2 sons working in the vineyard. And he does it
today in the parable of the disobedient tenants. Sometimes it is hard to point
out a person’s wrong doing and using this way of helping them to see themselves
in a parable helps them to actually see their wrong doing.
In the Old Testament
God uses the prophet Nathan to do that when King David refuses to accept that
he has done something wrong in committing adultery with Bathsheba. Instead of
accepting his wrongdoing he has Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle so he can
legally marry her. Nathan presents a parable before King David about a wealthy
landowner who steals his neighbours family lamb to present as a meal for his
guests even though he has plenty his own sheep. King David is furious at that
rich landowner not realising that it is himself and he pronounces judgment on
that tyrant. And then Nathan declares to King David – YOU are the man. He used
the parable as a mirror for King David to see his own actions which he could
not see on his own.
It is easy for us to
justify our lives before God by declaring ourselves righteous saying – I
haven’t killed anyone so I’ve never broken the 5th commandment. I haven’t
stolen anything. I haven’t committed adultery. It’s like the man who came to
Jesus one day to ask how to inherit eternal life. Jesus said: You know the
commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall
not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor
your father and mother.’ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I
was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said.
“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus knew his heart and what to present for
him to look at himself like looking in a mirror.
Martin Luther when
writing his Catechisms said that God also uses the Law as a mirror, in
particular the 10 Commandments. He explained what is referred to as the 3 uses
of the law with the purpose of leading us to the Gospel pronouncing the
forgiveness of our sins. He said that the First Use of the Law acts like a curb
or a fence. It is the Law that is enacted by our Governments to protect us. So,
the commandments – you shall not steal – you shall not kill – these govern law
and order. As citizens we Christians follow them. If we break them, even though
God forgives us, we are still punished by law. They are laws that God provides
to give law and order and peaceful communities.
The 2nd Use of the
Law is what is described as the Mirror. These are what we as Christians are to
use to reflect on our lives. Like the young man claiming that he had kept all
the commandments since he was a child, he was urged by Jesus to look again with
Christlike eyes. So when Jesus was asked what is the Greatest Commandment he
answered – love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength
– and love your neighbour as yourself. So as we reflect on the commandments and
try to justify ourselves by saying – I haven’t killed anyone so I haven’t
broken the 5th commandment, St John says in his First Letter (3:15) to look
again: Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer. Or if we say that we
love God but John again tells us to look again - If anyone says, "I love
God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. Jesus
says, anyone who looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery in their
heart. So the law here is to act like a mirror to remind us of our need for
Jesus.
Like King David we
often try to avoid our guilt. We are very good at making excuses or justifying
why we did what we did. The problem with that is we then avoid hearing the
comforting word of God’s forgiveness. That is God’s desire for you. Jesus says
– God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the
world through him. God wants to love us – to forgive us – to wrap his loving
arms around us to let us know of his
grace for us. We hear Jesus weep when we keep trying to deal with our
guilt by our own means like King David and the Pharisees did: "Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I
have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, and you were not willing.
And we hear how heavy
that guilt weighs upon us in King David’s Psalm 32: Blessed is the one whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against
them and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all
day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up
my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you
forgave the guilt of my sin. So the purpose of the 2nd Use of the Law is to
drive us to Jesus Christ and his grace and forgiveness. We call that
Justification
And once we have been
comforted by the Gospel the Law takes on a new role in the life of the
Christian – we call that Sanctification. Knowing that we have been saved by
Grace. Knowing that the Law can no longer condemn us because of Christ – we are
now free to explore the gift of God’s commandments to see how to live blessed
lives. The reason I don’t commit murder is not because I’m afraid of the
punishment of jail. The reason I don’t commit murder is not because I’m afraid
of God’s judgment. Rather I don’t commit murder because I love God with all my
heart and because I love my neighbour.
And that’s what Jesus
is trying to teach through the parables. And it did the trick as Matthew points
out: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized
that he was speaking about them. Now they are invited to repent and discover
the freeing Gospel – but they unfortunately don’t: They wanted to arrest him.
St Paul knows all too
well our human tendency to avoid accusations of wrong doing: If anyone else has
reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth
day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born
of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;
as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I
have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard
everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord.
Even though,
according to Paul’s own words, when it came to righteousness under the law he
was blameless – he lacked knowing the grace of God because he had no need for
it. But when he came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord he found a different
blessing from the law – not blamelessness but forgiveness – as did King David. Not
having a righteousness of his own that comes from the law, but one that comes
through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
If we try hard enough
we can always find a good excuse or a reason for why we did something we
shouldn’t have. God wants us to come to him not so he can condemn us and make
us feel guilty but so he can free us from the guilt and burden that King David
experienced when his bones were crushed by the weight of his sin. Maybe we have
to face an earthly punishment when we confess but what a freeing gift it is
knowing that God does not condemn us. Imagine how free the woman caught in
adultery felt when Jesus said that all her accusers were gone and that he did
not condemn her either but to go and not let sin enslave her any more. Or the
woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and dried them with her hair while
righteous Simon the Pharisee ignored the needs of Jesus: And Jesus says to
Simon: “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t
offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her
tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from
the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the
courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare
perfume. I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has
shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little
love.” And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Let us not be afraid
to come to Jesus and bring all our baggage with us. God sent his son into the
world, not to condemn the world but to save the world through him. Go in peace
– your faith has save you.
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