TITLE: “The God of mercy”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read.  Our theme is the mercy of God.

Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.  Mercy is not giving someone what they deserve.  It means that you know exactly what this person has done.  You know what they deserve, if things were right and fair.  You know.  Yet you choose instead to show mercy to them.  You forgive them.  You pay the debt yourself.  You don’t give them what they deserve.

So when Jesus says Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful, He is first of all giving us the Law.  Do this.  Be merciful.  Law.  Jesus knows perfectly well that you are not merciful.  You are full of judgment and hatred toward your fellow human beings.   How many times have you sat in the pew right where you sit now and sat in so-called righteous judgment over your fellow Christians next to you?  “Well, at least I’m not like them.”  How many times have each one of us looked at other people secretly with contempt, knowing that we are really better Christians than those ones who don’t do as much, or don’t come to church as much, or who’s life is a mess, or who have created some kind of scandal, or whatever it may be.

What Jesus is really getting at in our text is the Eight Commandment.  You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor.  Luther reminds us what this means: We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest possible way. 

That’s easy to say, but terribly hard to put into practice.  Be merciful.  Don’t give into your evil desires!  Don’t sit in judgment over others.  Many people believe that they are not really that bad of sinners.  I mean, I haven’t really hurt anyone, so what’s the harm.  Looking at this commandment and what it means reminds us all that we are all unkind and even cruel toward the people we claim to love the most.  When it comes to mercy, we are most often unmerciful and just plain cruel at times toward our own family.  How often have you lashed out at your spouse or one of your children?  How often have you kept score with your siblings or held a grudge toward a relative or friend, knowing that sooner or later you would get them back?  Every time you take it out on your spouse because you know they’ll take it, you forget this word mercy.

This is what Joseph’s brothers feared when their father, Isaac, died.  In our Old Testament reading we hear of how Joseph’s brothers believed that once Isaac was dead, they would get their just desserts.  They had sold Joseph into slavery, lied about him and had treated him worse than their worst enemy.  Yet Joseph showed them mercy.  Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?  But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

This is what Jesus is talking about when he says “judge not lest you be judged.”  What he is saying is that none of us stand in the place of God.  It is not my job to stand as judge, jury and executioner over my fellow Christians.  That is God’s place.  My job, if you will, is to defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.  My place in life is to cover up the sins of my family and friends, and even my enemies.  My place as a Christian is to remember that we are all poor miserable sinners, and I am simply being a liar by claiming to be better than anyone else.

Now this is often misunderstood.  Judge not unless you wish to be judged.  Many take that to mean that we may never condemn sin or say anything is right or wrong.  Well, they’re living together before marriage.  It’s not what I think is right, but who am I to judge?  Gossip is wrong, but I’ve certainly gossiped before.  How can I condemn someone for that?

The problem with this view is that it confuses what Jesus is saying.  What Jesus is condemning is a double standard.  You can’t hold others to a higher standard than you yourself hold up.  And what is the standard by which we are all judged?  The standard is God’s holy law, not our own petty rules.  And God’s holy Law does not bend.  We all stand condemned before God’s Law, which we all break time and time again.

So what is Jesus talking about when He says be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful?  The point of this text, my friends, is that the Father in heaven is merciful.  We judge each other on the basis of our limited vision.  I look and see what I don’t like in someone else, and so I condemn him or her for it.  But our Father in heaven knows all and sees all.  There is nothing hidden from his sight.  There is no sin that goes unnoticed, no misdeed that is lost.  He knows all your faults and shortcomings, down to the very end.

But He is merciful.  He doesn’t give you what you deserve.  He doesn’t give you death.  Instead, He gives you the very opposite.  He gives you life.  Now this life that the Father gives by mercy isn’t just any life.  It is eternal life.  It is His life, rich and full of blessing.  When you receive the body and blood of His Son in the Sacrament, you receive mercy in the flesh. 

He gives you mercy.  He doesn’t judge you.  He doesn’t condemn you.  He forgives you.  He gives you Himself.  He gives you the good measure of His grace and mercy that has no end.

Now what does this mean for you in the real world?  It means everything.  It means that this is a place where you receive the one thing in the world you need more than anything else: mercy.  Here your troubles are not glossed over or held up as a spectacle.  No, here in this place our heavenly Father gives you this great gift of mercy, so that your sins are washed away forever.

Now perhaps this seems ho-hum to you.  We’ve heard this before, pastor.  Why don’t you get to something more useful?  Well, my friends, mercy never runs out of date.  Just like love, mercy knows no boundaries, and it will give you the peace of God that we all long for.  This is why we may sing with the Psalmist:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom / shall I fear?*

The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I / be afraid?

So come to the Lord’s Table, and receive the very mercy of God in the flesh of His Son Jesus Christ.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.