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Proper 18 Trinity Lutheran Church
7 September 2008 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
Matthew 18:15-20
“If your brother sins against you . . .”
“If you brother sins against you . . .” -- you tell anyone and everyone about it. At the ball game. At the post office. At Round the Bend. At Wal Mart. On the cell phone. Text it. Send an email. “Did you hear what that SOB did to me? You didn’t? Well let me tell you all about it. It’s just shameful.”
No, that’s shameful. Listen to Jesus again. Would you care to listen to Him? Would you? All right. But I warn you. You’re not going to like it. But it needs to be said. So here goes. “If your brother sins against you, go and talk to HIM! Go and talk to Him! And no one else.”
I told you that you wouldn’t like it. Who wants to do that? NO ONE! The old Adam shudders at such words. We want to play the victim card. Use the victim status to make ourselves big. Great. Important. The old Adam loves to puff himself up. I’ve been hurt so now I have every right to tell everyone about it.
No you don’t. You have a divine call from Jesus Himself to do just the opposite. “If you brother sins against you, speak to Him about it. Just him. No one else. Nobody else needs to know.”
Go to the brother sinner who sinned against you. Go ahead. Tell him the sin. But that’s not the most important part. The reason why you go to the sinner is to speak an additional word. What’s that? “I’m here to forgive you for your sin.”
And if your brother sinner receives your forgiveness you’ve won your brother. That’s the goal. That’s precisely why you go to him personally. Because what’s forgiven is forgiven. Relationship restored. A new life together in the freedom of forgiveness.
Now because such mercy talk is so rare, your brother may not get it. The world doesn’t operate that way. The world’s way is the way of chains, locks, and prisons. Tit for tat. Quid pro quo. Forgiveness? Mercy? What? To receive the forgiveness means that you admit that you’ve sinned. After all there can be no forgiveness unless you’ve sinned. So you may have to try numerous times with your brother.
But if you get nowhere all by yourself with your sinner brother who refuses to listen to your forgiveness, then take one or two others with you. They can establish the fact that the sin has taken place. But more importantly, they too can hear your offer to speak the word of forgiveness. “Dear brother you have nothing to fear. I’m here with our friends. We’re all here as beggars. Please receive my forgiveness and all will be set right. We can live together in peace.”
That’s the goal. That’s how you want to win your brother. With forgiveness. You want to treat him the way you would want to be treated. With mercy. With love. Absolution.
Who wouldn’t want that? You brother might not. So if the one on one fails. And the one or two others fails after repeated attempt. Then enlist the entire church. The whole congregation of forgiven sinners. “Tell it to the church,” Jesus says. Let everyone in the congregation have a crack at the brother sinner. Begging him to receive the word of forgiveness. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year.
Who would dare to not listen to such begging? Sadly some. Tragically, some would dare to hold their sin outside of Christ’s forgiveness. And “if he refuses to listen even to the church,” Jesus says, “then treat him the way he wants to be treated – like an unbeliever.”
Don’t want forgiveness? The Lord won’t force it on you. Neither will the church. Want to be bound in your sin, then bound you are. Not only on earth but also in heaven. And believe me, that’s not good.
The opposite of all this is to receive forgiveness from a brother or sister in Christ as from the Lord Himself. This is how the Lord Jesus reigns in the midst of a congregation of sinners. For whatever is forgiven on earth is forgiven in heaven Jesus promises.
So when a brother sins against you, go to him. Tell him the sin. And then in love tell him you’re there to forgive him in Jesus’ Name. Receive such forgiveness from the Lord Himself. For where two or three gather in such a way for confession of sin and the speaking of forgiveness Jesus makes another promise: “there I am in the midst of them.” Yes, indeed, He reigns among those for whom He died with His love and forgiveness.
Happy winning your brother. In Jesus’ Name.
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