Misunderstood words. . .

Sermon for Trinity 4, preached at Faith Lutheran Church, Hopkinsville, KY, on Sunday, June 28, 2026.

There are a host of misunderstood words of Jesus.  The Gospel for today records one of those words which has been manhandled and distorted until Jesus would not recognize what He said.  “Judge not and you will not be judged.”  These are the words so often exaggerated and misconstrued as to make us reticent about even mentioning sin anymore.  Who are we to judge?  That is, after all, the constant litany of those who wear their sins as badges of honor no one can question or assail.  These words of Jesus have come to mean look the other way and they make sin simply an alternative choice.  It almost makes sin normal.

The reality is that the beating heart of Christianity is the forgiveness of sins.  Indeed, God became man not to pat us on the back or cheer us on as we improve or watch us screw things up but to become the sacrifice for sin that is our atonement for all our sins – sins of thought, word, and deed.  He makes the great exchange, laying down His life for ours and paying the price of our redemption with His own suffering and blood shed once for all.  He does this so that we might be restored to the Father as His own children, washed clean in the waters of baptism, led by the voice of His Word to learn to love what is good and right, and fed here at His table in the bread that is His flesh and the wine that is His blood.  Inside Jesus is this – He has come that we might be forgiven.  Inside all of this – the baptismal font, the Scriptures, and the food of this table is one thing – the forgiveness of our sins.  

Far from encouraging us not to talk about sin, the commandments are all about sins just as Jesus is.  Keeping the commandments is all about noting what is sin and what is not.  Our lives in Christ are not meant to remove sin from our thoughts or vocabulary but precisely point us to sin and to the keeping of God’s will and purpose.  St. Paul insists that he did not even know what sin was until he knew forgiveness in Christ.  But sin is never theoretical.  It is never neutral.  It is never without victims.  It is never for good.  It is never benign.  It is always corruption and it always corrupts the one doing the sin.  

Jesus does not tell us to ignore sin or to fail to rebuke it.  That flies in the face of everything else Jesus has told us to do, specifically how to deal with sinners according to Matthew 18 with its call to go to the sinner, tell him of his sin so to seek his repentance, bring along a witness to this act of love, and tell it to the Church for the sake of his restoration.  So Jesus is not telling us to ignore sin anymore than He is telling us not to keep the commandments and do what is good and right and salutary.  Jesus is telling us how to do this.  He begins by saying this: “Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful to you.”

Now we are onto something.  We are not the self-appointed watchdogs of righteousness nor are we snitches who turn in others in order to make ourselves look better or to advance our cause.  Jesus has not called us to be secret police.  Instead He has sent us forth to be His instruments and the agents of the same mercy, kindness, and love that He came to show us.  

This can only occur because the mercy of God is not in short supply but without limit.  He does not dole out that mercy as a miser who is stingy with something costly but lavish and extravagant even with something that is costly beyond measure.  And that is why we are here.  We are not here to see what God will do about sin but because of what He has done.  Here we are every week coming home again into the arms of the Father to be welcomed as His own even though we sin, to be given a perfect robe of righteousness even though we have soiled the last one, and to feast at His table even though do not deserve a place at the table.  With this same mercy that you know in Christ then judge your brother, sister, husband, wife, parent, child, neighbor, co-worker, or stranger.  Judge them in order for them to be won by the blood that cleanses all our sins.

The servant is not above His master.  Jesus said those words.  Being forgiven, we are to seek out one another not with our agenda but with His.  We call each other to repentance and forgive without limit (not seven times or even seventy times seven but as often as we are asked to forgive).  We all need the same thing.  We need forgiveness.  This is our most compelling need from God.  None of us is without sin and all of us live in constant dependence upon the mercy of God.  We do not judge harshly because we were not.  We do not judge to condemn because we were judged to restore.  We do not judge to curse because we were not cursed but blessed with forgiveness.  We do not manifest this merciful judgment with words alone but with the open heart of love that cares for the other as we would care for ourselves.  That is Christlike and that is the calling of those who would follow Christ.

Jesus goes on to say that the blind cannot lead the blind.  We cannot care for our brother or sister if we are blinded by our own sins, wearing the log in our eye.  This is then the call for us to live constantly within the veil of Christ’s forgiveness and within the home of God’s House.  This is the call not to be blind but to have our eyes opened by His Spirit working through the Word as often as we are gathered around that Word.  We are not in God’s Word because we are curious or even because it is interesting but because we need the Light of Christ, we need to live within the Light of Christ, and we need to be the Light of Christ.  The Light of Christ cannot be darkened by the cover of our sin.  He has called us to set that Light high so that it enlightens the whole world.

When Christians stop judging with mercy, we end up living in the sin that Christ came to take away.  When we fail to call out one another we end up losing the very repentance that His mercy creates.  We distort the Light of Christ and shine darkness where Christ means there to be light.  So for this reason, we are here, week after week, confessing our sins, being absolved, recalling our baptismal identity as His very own children, being renewed in the Spirit of our minds by God’s voice in His Word, and being nourished at His own table.  We are here so that we might be His Light to those still in darkness, a people so profoundly transformed by the forgiveness shown to us that we might forgive one another in His name.

Jesus has not called us to be silent about sin but neither has He called us to be the arrogant voices of the self-righteous.  He has called us to be merciful as we have receive His mercy and to show that mercy to those around us, especially to those caught up in sin and being led astray from God’s hope, His promise, and His life.  There is a promise given to us as well.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Forgiveness cost Jesus everything upon the cross but it was a price He was willing to pay for you and for me.  Now He asks us to let those unaware of what His love has accomplished to know what His love does for them.  It forgives our sins, quiets our conscience, frees us to know and love His commandments, and comforts us with the mercy that none deserve but comes to us without limit.  May God grant us this heart of mercy as we have know it in Christ Jesus our Savior.  Amen.