July 10, 2022 Trinity 4 The Sunday of Mercy
Trinity 4
Luke 6:36-42
July 10, 2022
“How to Treat Your Fellow Man”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Scripture I’ll be expounding today is the Gospel reading, Luke 6:36-42, so you may want it in front of you. Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not.”
In Pride and Prejudice, the novel by Jane Austen, the word prejudice in the title is for the character Elizabeth Bennet who is always pre-judging people. That’s what prejudice is—judging and specifically judging before one has the ability to make an accurate judgment. So Elizabeth judges one man good who turns out quite bad and another bad who turns out quite good. In contrast to Elizabeth is her older sister, Jane, who is always refusing to judge ill of others, is merciful and forgiving, puts the best construction on others, and explains everything in the kindest way.
That makes for a great novel but pre-judging is no real laughing matter. It’s a sin. In fact, later in the novel when Elizabeth is confronted with her sin and prejudice and the hurt it has caused, she says, “Till this moment I never knew myself.” She didn’t know her sinfulness and her prejudice.
So we also should see and know ourselves in Jesus’ words this morning. Judge not, He says. Be merciful, He says. Use good and generous measure, He says. Be kind, He says. It’s a sin to judge others as we’re told in the 8th commandment, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” Part of that false testimony is judging them and speaking ill of them. Depending on which translation of the Small Catechism you memorized in Confirmation, you probably remember one of two phrases in the explanation of this commandment, either “put the best construction on everything” from the older 1941 version or “explain everything in the kindest way” from the 1986 version. If you don’t know at all what I’m talking about, you can find it on p. 321 in the hymnal, very bottom right. Page 321, bottom right…”defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Those are very helpful phrases that we should remember. Put the best construction on everything. Explain everything in the kindest way.
Have you been guilty of pre-judging others as Elizabeth does? I know you have because everyone who grows up in our society today is taught very well how to do it. We have not put ourselves in the shoes of our fellow man nor explained everything in the kindest way nor put the best construction on everything. Instead, we’ve judged. We’ve been merciless and unforgiving and downright rude. Without hardly knowing people at all, we’ve declared, “He’s an idiot,” and “she’s in love with herself,” and “he’s a narcissist,” and “she’s so stupid and I hate her,” and “he’s a moron” and “she’s a lib,” and “he’s a redneck,” and we’ve declared of whole groups of people, “They’re all a bunch of idiots.”
Are we guilty of prejudice? Is Jesus talking to us? Be merciful, He says.
Now like every other commandment God gives, such as “don’t steal” and “don’t murder” and “don’t covet,” this commandment also is impossible for us to keep on our own. We cannot keep God’s commands even when we want to. God Himself must keep the commandments for us and that’s why God sent Jesus to this earth. That’s what Jesus is doing. Showing us God’s will and love and keeping the commandments in our stead so that we might be forgiven and given His righteousness.
This commandment is the same. We only learn this commandment from God Himself. So Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as Your Father is merciful.” God is the very picture of mercy. He’s good to you even when you’re not good and even when you don’t deserve it at all. You feel that, don’t you? Does God only give you health and sun and rain and food when you’re good? No, He’s good to all of you people even though you don’t deserve it at all. Even though you very often treat Him like garbage.
By the way, the title of the sermon today is “how to treat your fellow man” but you should know that Jesus is mostly talking about how to treat your fellow man who’s your enemy, who you don’t particularly care for. If we were to back up just a few verses before this, Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…If you love those who love you, what benefit is that? Even sinners love those who love them…love your enemies and do good.” And then the next verse is ours today, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
So it’s not how you treat your family and friends, but specifically how you treat your enemies and those who don’t like you. So take notice how God treats those who don’t like Him. Does He only give rain and sunshine to people who like Him? There are many people in the world who say they are atheists—they hate God, they make fun of God, they commit the unforgiveable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit—and yet they still eat and drink and have good times and enjoy nature. What gives with that?
In fact, some of the worst people who have ever lived on this earth enjoyed many good times. How could God do that? Jesus says, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Now just think of that. Jesus is specifically teaching you that you should be good to everyone regardless of how they treat you. Why? Because that’s what God does. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
But it hits even closer to home. You and I have been God’s enemies. We have cursed Him under our breath. “God ______ it,” we’ve uttered. Lord, have mercy on us. We’ve gone whole days and even weeks without thanking Him for anything or even thinking about Him at all. We’ve come to Church and not listened to anything but let our minds wander off about a whole bunch of nothingness. And then you expect God to be good to you after that?
Yet this is how God treats us men. He is full of mercy and steadfast love. How does He judge you, O sinner? He judges you by the sacrifice and righteousness of Jesus. Since Jesus paid for all your blasphemies on the cross, and since you’ve been baptized into Him and believe in Him and confess Him with your mouth, you are judged righteous and good. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
How does God treat you who have been His enemy? He forgives you. He invites you to His table here to eat and drink with Him and receive the life-giving blood of Jesus. He measures out grace upon grace for you. Like you holding your cup before Him and He keeps pouring and pouring and pouring while your cup overflows. Like a boss who keeps giving you bonus after bonus, raise after raise. You see it there in v. 38, “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”
That whole paragraph, v. 37-38, is how God has treated you and in return how He expects you to treat your fellow man. Judge not. Condemn not. Forgive. And Give. Just as Your Father does to you.
Then v. 39 Jesus gives a caution to us. “Can a blind man lead a blind man?” He asks. Be very careful who you think you are. Are you really the one to sit above everyone else and judge them? Do you know everything about everyone? Or are you, in fact, blind to most things? And yet we would sit here and judge everyone like we see the world perfectly?!
Do you know everything? Do you determine all right and wrong? Do you decide what everyone should be like? How can you see all the specks in the eyes of your fellow men but you don’t see the log protruding from your own eye? We must not forget there’s only one Judge for all of us. He must sit above all of us. And He must remove the logs from our eyes with His Word and forgiveness. Only when we’ve sat under God’s judgement and received His grace and mercy—only then may we ever see clearly to help anyone else.
So let’s come circle then to Jesus’s words again, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” We’ve heard how God has shown mercy to us sinners. Now how are we to treat our fellow man? How are we to be merciful as our Father is merciful?
First, don’t always be judging. Don’t be Elizabeth Bennett who thinks the worst of others. Rather, be her sister Jane who looks for the good in others. So you may practice this and live this and ask for God’s help in this. Whenever you meet anyone, whether someone new or someone you’ve already known, do not be judging. Rather, speak well of them to yourself and to others. Look for the good in them. Look for how God has blessed them. Look at their face and see Jesus who died on the cross for them. He says, “When you do it to the least of these my brothers, you do it to me.”
Secondly, just be kind. Simply be kind. To everyone. Be kind to everyone. By the way, these verses are right around the time where Jesus says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Does it make you feel good when others are kind to you? So learn from them. I know people in this congregation who are exceptionally good at being kind. You all know people like this. Follow their Christian example. Be kind as Jesus was kind. Be kind to waiters and waitresses, to other drivers on the road, to your Mom and Dad. Be kind to your doctor and nurses, to anybody who calls you on the phone, even telemarketers. Be kind to your husband or wife. Be kind to anybody and everybody who is ever waiting in line with you for anything.
Third, put the best construction on everything and explain everything in the kindest way. This is when you take leave of your fellow man. As you’re walking away from them or hanging up the phone with them or driving away from them—put the best construction on everything. Be determined to think well of them. If they’ve been rude, explain it in a kind way. If they’ve done something you know to be wrong, pray for them and forgive them as God has forgiven you. If they don’t share the same opinion with you, then make an allowance for differences. It makes life interesting.
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Those are your words from Jesus today. As your Father has treated you with mercy, forgiveness, and generosity, so you treat your fellow man with all the same.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.