Trinity 4 July 14, 2019 The Sunday of Mercy & the Log in the Eye
Trinity 4
Luke 6:36-42; Romans 12:14-21
July 14, 2019
“You’re Going to Get What You Don’t Deserve”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If I’m going to sit down and watch a movie purely for entertainment, just to get the mind off of things for a while, then my movie genre of choice is almost always action. Some of you may lean toward comedies. Others towards dramas. Others toward documentaries. But I like a good action movie.
In action movies, the theme is almost always the same. Somebody wronged somebody else. And the hero of the movie is going to make sure that the bad guys get what they deserve. Think all the James Bond movies. He always makes sure the bad guys get what they deserve. Or think any movie that Clint Eastwood has ever been in during his entire career. He always makes sure people get what they deserve.
Now those movies appeal to our inner senses because we like to think, “Yeah! You get what you deserve!” But that’s certainly not the case with a lot of life. Today in the Scriptures we’re going to learn about getting and giving what you don’t deserve. God doesn’t operate by our action movie rules. We don’t get what we deserve from God. We get what we don’t deserve—His mercy and grace. And secondly, as Christians, we don’t give others what they deserve. We don’t overcome evil with more evil. We don’t judge and condemn. Rather, we show mercy and forgive and overcome evil with good.
Joseph’s brothers know about getting what they deserve. They thought their lives were like a big action movie—they were waiting for the big climax when their brother Joseph would finally, like a good Clint Eastwood, finally give them what they really deserve. You remember the big scene when Joseph finally told his brothers that it was him? The big reveal? They had sold Joseph into slavery years ago and figured he was long dead. But here he was in the flesh, standing in front of them, ruler over all Egypt. And they thought sure they’d get what they deserve now. But instead Joseph cries and hugs them and forgives them.
So that was it, right? Everything was over? They trusted Joseph that he had really and truly forgiven them, right? No, not at all. They thought Joseph truly was Clint Eastwood or James Bond, just waiting for the right time to stick it to the bad guys and finish ‘em off once and for all. So when their Dad, Jacob, dies, the brothers think, “Aha, this is it! Now’s the time Joseph will finally give us what we deserve for selling him into slavery.” But “No,” Joseph says, “I’m going to give you guys everything you don’t deserve. God is good. I will take care of you.”
We tend to think just like those brothers. We think God is just waiting for the right time to finally give us what we really deserve. Or maybe something really rough has already happened to you and you’ve thought, “Aha, God is giving me what I deserve. I knew it would be coming.” But we seem to have forgotten a big moment. You know that big moment when Jesus, like Joseph, revealed His true self to His brothers on the cross and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”? When He said, “It is finished?”
Why do you think God is going to change His mind and stick it to you like a good Clint Eastwood? God’s not going to do that. He has already taken what you deserve and given it to His Son Jesus Christ on the cross. God has shown His love for you. There’s no second half of the movie where God changes His mind and says, “I didn’t mean it. You’re going to get what you deserve after all.” No. God invites you here to His altar week after week after week to tell you again that He forgives you all your sin and He will continue to give you what you don’t deserve.
Now I should clarify with all of you that this doesn’t mean God won’t ever let anything bad happen to you. Joseph was sold into slavery. His brothers endured a famine. Bad things happen. But as Joseph says, God intends them for our good. So especially if you’re trapped in a sin that you aren’t sorry for and you don’t repent of—God may very well send something your way to wake you up and bring you to repentance. So if you screw around God may let you get what you deserve in order to open your eyes. But we’re talking big picture here today—in the big picture God doesn’t give us what we deserve at all. Instead He gives us what we don’t deserve—He gives mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life in heaven.
Now in the Gospel reading today Jesus turns the attention toward us though. You and I have this nasty, evil, sinful habit of thinking other people should get what they deserve. Why do we do this? We know that God doesn’t give us what we really deserve. We know we’re no better than anyone else. So why is it that we think others should always get payback? That’s why we like those action movies. Because we think we’re the hero. We don’t deserve anything but good but everyone else deserves our vengeance. That’s not a good trait in us. In fact, it’s evil and Jesus calls us out on it.
How many times have you seen something bad happen to someone you know and you say, “Hmph, serves ‘em right.” But what did they do to you? Probably nothing at all. You were probably just jealous of them. The neighbor with the better house. The friend with the better grades. The coworker with the better salary. Most of the time it’s plain ol’ dirty envy. And so we say, “I sure hope they get what they deserve for being more successful than me!”
Jesus calls us the hypocrites that we really are. We want so-and-so to get what they deserve for that speck in their eye, but we sure don’t want what we deserve for this giant tree branch growing out of our eyes. “Judge not!” He says. Don’t be a hypocrite. Are you not aware of the mercy that Your Father in heaven has shown to you? Are you not aware that if God gave you and me what we really deserve that we’d be toast?
Now let me ask you a question. Does it ever work to overcome evil with more evil? Despite all the action movies we’ve seen where Clint Eastwood or James Bond or Batman gives people what they deserve and defeats evil with more evil and killing and anger and vengeance—does evil ever actually overcome evil? No, it doesn’t. It only multiplies the guilt and shame. You won’t win if you fight evil with evil. You certainly won’t feel better. And you might just send your neighbor to hell with your unchecked vengeance. And yourself to hell right along with him.
Now God has a much better way of dealing with evil. Of overcoming evil. He says to overcome evil with good. He says to give people what they don’t deserve.
Jesus says, “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.” If you’re going to judge, the only reason you should be judging is because you love your neighbor and you want the best for them. And if you’re going to judge, the only way you can every judge rightly is if you quit being a hypocrite and take that tree branch out of your own eye. You need to be here every Sunday confessing your sin and praying to God every morning confessing your sins if you don’t want to just be an envious hypocrite.
As Paul says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves (yikes, so much for the Avenger movies), but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” If there really needs to be a recompense, a repayment, a vengeance—God will take care of it. Not you and me.
For us, we learn to give our friends and neighbors what they don’t deserve. We should love others as Joseph loved His brothers. Even if our own siblings sell us to be slaves in Egypt and leave us for dead—we should overcome their evil with good. We should forgive them and love them and speak kindly to them.
We should be merciful and loving as Jesus our Savior. Even if the very people we try to help put us on a cross and spit at us and make fun of us and torture us—we should overcome evil with good. We should, as the Epistle says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” We should, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.”
Is it easy to repay good for evil? To overcome evil with good? No, it’s not. It’s easier to watch action movies and pretend that everybody else will get what they deserve. But the real hero of the action movie is Jesus. Who doesn’t lay down the law—but lays down His life. The real hero is Jesus who overcomes evil with good. Who blesses and forgives those who persecute Him.
Be a real hero, friends in Christ! Be a real hero who gives others what they don’t deserve. Give them forgiveness. Mercy. Grace. Love. Blessing. You don’t deserve it. They don’t deserve it either. Doesn’t matter. That’s how God, the real hero, works. Be good to those around you. Be like Joseph to his brothers—who “comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”
In Jesus’ name. Amen.