[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost 07 September 2008 "Whose Duty Is It to Forgive?" Matthew 18:1-20 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

In the Hymn of the Day, just concluded, we sang a phrase that probably didn't get your attention because it doesn't say anything we haven't confessed numerous times. That phrase is: "His rule is over all" [LSB 820.4]. When one considers the Epistle from Romans 13, one might be a bit puzzled how this fits with the Holy Gospel. Paul instructs Christians to submit to the governing authorities because they are ordained by God. Those who resist the authorities resist what God has appointed, words that should be spoken to the anarchists who smashed windows, set trash cans on fire, and attacked delegates to the political convention in St. Paul this past week. But what does it have to do with this Holy Gospel?

In it Jesus speaks about the one who serves as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven; he warns against causing one of the "little ones who believe in me to sin;" he warns against the temptations to sin; he returns to the subject of the little ones and that their holy angels report directly to the Father in heaven; he tells us that God rejoices greatly over sinners who repent; and it concludes with Jesus' instructions about regaining the brother who sins against you. Underneath it all lies forgiveness, and next week's Holy Gospel will continue this thread with the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, so the title of today's sermon might be a bit baffling, "Whose Duty Is It to Forgive?"

It Does Not Belong to the Government

In 1530 Luther preached a sermon at St. Mary's Church in Wittenberg on this chapter, but in it he spent half of the time speaking about the doctrine of the two kingdoms [Luther's House Postils, vol. 3, pp. 130-145]. It seems odd in light of our usual treatment of this chapter, but he draws a particularly important Law/Gospel distinction. Perhaps the Epistle reading about the role of government in our world clarifies it for us.

Paul writes that the government exists to punish evildoers and to reward citizens who do well. The government's job is to reward and punish, to execute justice. To that end, God has placed a sword in the hand of the government, not a prayer book. The government, then, has nothing at all to do with forgiveness. Said Luther:

"God did not put a useless piece of paper into the emperor's hand, but rather the hardest and sharpest sword with which to execute punishment; not a pen, but a sword. God gave the emperor a sword to indicate that civil government is not to forgive but rather to use the edge of the sword to punish crimes. If civil government were to forgive crimes, you and I would lose everything." [Ibid, p. 131]

Yet, it happened in his day that the Church said that the government needed to be merciful. While God might have instituted civil government for that reason, he didn't. For the government to neglect this duty to punish and restrain evil by means of the sword, if necessary, is to go against the commandment of God. What is worse, the proper distinction between the spiritual kingdom and the secular kingdom is blurred or even erased.

What happens in the secular kingdom, what we Lutherans often call the "kingdom of God's left hand," should have nothing whatsoever to do with what happens in the "kingdom of God's right hand." While the Christian lives in both kingdoms, his response must differ according to God's ordaining of things. Only in the Church, the place of the "kingdom of God's right hand," does forgiveness rule as the guiding principle because only the Church has the authority of Christ to forgive sins.

During political campaigns we often see various churches and church leaders lining up behind certain candidates. This should never happen! The Church has no authority in this political kingdom, and while our nation officially says that there is separation of church and state, we often find the lines blurred. When a nationally known church leader sponsors a debate between the two presidential candidates, then the church has begun to blur the distinction. While the Church may indeed have a vested interest in certain questions of a moral nature, the Church must be careful not to give the impression that the Church is telling rulers how they should rule, that they must meet the standards of the Church, as if that were possible in a pluralistic society. The government must be concerned with matters of law and justice, fairness, and what is equitable to all.

What such practices often betray is a desire to use the Church to undergird public morality. Most people wrongly believe that the main business of the Church is morality, but it isn't. The main business of the Church is forgiveness! Our Lutheran Confessions make it clear that morality is the main business of the government, not the Church, and the government must use the sword, if necessary, to enforce it.

Forgiveness Belongs to the Church

In the kingdom of Christ's right hand, however, things operate much differently. Here the operative word is mercy, forgiveness. The Church of Jesus Christ exists to bring God's mercy to a sinful world. She does not operate according to worldly standards. She operates according to Christ's standards. She does not infringe on the government's duty to see that justice is done, not mercy. The Church cannot allow her agenda to mimic that of the government. The Church is not a cheerleader for the government! The Church has holy duties, not secular ones. The government dare never ask a question such as, "What would Jesus do?" with regard to war and the punishment of criminals. Yet, in fact, there are various religious groups which are doing just that.

Grace and forgiveness are the things the Church is about in her official work. She distributes Christ's forgiveness to repentant sinners through Word and Sacrament. The Church serves in this way, humbling herself like the lowliest child. Worldly ambition has no place in the Church as it does in the world. Sadly, that kind of worldly ambition often infects the Church in many forms. The Church must be about rescuing the lost sheep, of protecting the little ones who believe in Christ, of having forgiveness of sins as her real "business." Proclaiming the Gospel of forgiveness through Word and Sacrament is the only mandate our Lord has given his Church. He did not tell her to involve herself in the affairs of the kingdom of the left hand.

The Church must never lose sight of her divine commission to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments of Christ according to his institution. I realize that some define "the Gospel" so broadly as to include every governmental program imaginable. Many politicians see the Church in this way, as an asset to the government, and in some cases the government has assumed the form of a church, demanding the worship and allegiance of its citizens. One thinks of some of the totalitarian governments of the 20th century or some of the 21st century.

Notice how it works between Christian brothers. One goes to the one who has wronged him and calls him to repentance. If this succeeds, the matter is over, but if not, then more Christians are involved. If this ultimately fails and there is no forgiveness, then the Church speaks by withholding forgiveness from the unrepentant brother. He is finally dealt with by expulsion from the Christian community.

Repentance and forgiveness is how the Church lives. Our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel makes it clear that we hold each other accountable and we forgive each other for the sake of Christ. Because of Christ you are enabled to forgive those who sin against you. It happens because of what Christ has done in his life, suffering, and death. It happens because this is how a Christian lives in relationship to others.

But the government has no such mandate to act like an individual Christian. The government must not confuse its duties with those of the Church. The government must never ask, "What would Jesus do?" Actually, if it did, we would need to say exactly what Jesus said when the religious leaders tried to trap him in such questions:

"Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21, ESV)

"The reason why the Lutheran Reformation knows no Christian state, of which all other confessions dream," wrote Hermann Sasse, "is this, that a Christian state would be a church." Forgiveness does not belong to the government. If it did, then the Gospel would become a new Law. It is the government's sacred duty to enforce the law, to punish evildoers, and to execute those guilty of heinous crimes. It has no business applying mercy and forgiveness to those who break the law. "The state protects not souls but bodies and goods from manifest harm, and constrains men with the sword and physical penalties," says the Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII.10-12.

The Church, however, is the place for sinners. Within her walls has come the mercy and forgiveness of Christ. He has ordained that his forgiveness be administered and distributed to penitent sinners and that those forgiven forgive each other. Here again today God's mercy and forgiveness is poured out for you in Word and Sacrament just as it is every Sunday. It is what God has given his Church to do and to be about.

You are a Christian who is a citizen of both kingdoms. In God's kingdom of grace you simply receive the gifts of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Here you come to have your sins forgiven, and by the grace of God, they are, richly and daily. But in the earthly kingdom, you are active for God by means of your vocations as husbands, wives, parents, children, students, citizens, employers, employees, and whatever other vocation your have. You are, as our Lord said, "in, but not of" the world.

To sum up, the government exists to carry out the law. The Church exists to dispense forgiveness. The two should never meet because disastrous consequences ensue for both if they do. In this political season we do well to keep this especially bright light of the two kingdoms, of Law and Gospel, for the sake of our nation and for the sake of Christ's holy Church.