20th
PENTECOST Sunday
Rev. Norman F. Seeger
Luke 17:1-10
Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to
sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be
thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause
one of these little ones to sin. 3 So
watch yourselves.
“If
your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in
a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
5 The apostles said
to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Suppose one of
you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the
servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my
supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you
may eat and drink’? 9 Would
he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done
everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have
only done our duty.’”
Luke 17:1-10
"LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH…”
1. Faith Will Not Offend, but Will Forgive
2. Faith Fully Serves, yet Deserves Nothing
Dear faithful followers of our Lord
Jesus Christ,
Money seems to be a very
sensitive, relationship-defining issue.
Do you want to borrow a couple eggs, some clothes, or borrow my
car? “No problem.” Do you want to borrow some money? “Let me think about this for a while.” Friends who openly discuss our work or family
& easily ask about our physical health often hesitate to ask about our
financial health or talk about our money because dollars & cents seem to be
too sensitive a subject -- seem to touch too many nerves -- to discuss with even
our closest friends. Money also seems to
sensitively define our relationship with the Lord. Saints who have no trouble with God asking us
to pray at times appear upset when God asks us to pay. Saints who will generously offer the Lord our
time & talents sometimes selfishly draw the line at offering the Lord our treasures.
Money may be a sensitive
topic because envy, greed & a sinful love for money are most evident as
dollars & cents enter the picture.
As Jesus’ parable pictured a dishonest manager slyly misusing his
master’s money trying to make new friends feel obligated to care for him after
he is fired, our Lord ordered us to use worldly wealth as shrewdly as possible
yet always focus our life on our Lord’s eternal blessings. As Jesus’ second parable last Sunday pictured
a rich man whose worldly wealth fulfilled his life’s earthly desires suddenly finding
himself hopelessly suffering in hell after his death, our Lord taught us not to
trust in money but to only rely upon God’s law & gospel promises penned in
the Scriptures to tie us to the one Savior who will lift us into heaven’s
glory.
As my envy, my
selfishness, my misplaced priorities & mismanagement of money are exposed
by his parables, it is not too surprising to hear Jesus talk about our sin &
our faithful service as his saints today.
Facing my failures – as I admit faith trusting our Savior Jesus in my
heart is not always translated into faithfulness serving the Lord Jesus in my
life – we pray with these apostles, “Lord, increase our faith;” we pray
with that father asking Jesus to heal his demon-possessed son, “I do
believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”[MK 9] Encouraging our faith
& faithfulness, Jesus would explain several truths today: First, faith will not offend, but will
forgive. Secondly, faith fully serves
our Lord, yet deserves nothing from our Lord.
Whatever area of our
life we are looking at, our Lord, on the one hand, orders us to “Be
perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect;”[MT 5] yet Jesus here
explains, “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that
person through whom they come.”
Sin is inevitable even in the life of a Christian. Even as Paul explains, “I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. This life I live in the
body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me & gave himself for me,”[GAL 2] Jesus’ loving truth does not
always flow from my lips; Jesus’ unselfishness is not always evident in my
actions because my sinful flesh still falls for Satan’s temptations too easily
& often.
Sin is inevitable in my
life, but is not excusable. I am not
free to sin as I will. Thank God, there
is forgiveness: “If I confess my sins, God is
faithful, God is just; God will forgive my sins because the blood of Jesus
purifies us from all unrighteousness…because Jesus Christ, the Righteous One,
is the atoning sacrifice for my sins, for the sins of the whole world.”[! JN 1; 2]
Acknowledging the fact
sin will still appear in our life, Jesus never says sin is not serious. Quite the opposite. Jesus said of Judas, the disciple who handed
him over to Jewish rulers to be crucified, “The Son of Man will go just as it has been
written about him. But woe to that man
who betrays the Son of Man! It would be
better for him if he had not been born.”[MT 26] So Jesus here
announces, “Sin is bound to come into our world, but woe to that person through
whom sin comes. It would be better for
him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for
him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”
Do I want to be dropped
into deep water with an anchor tied around my neck to keep me from floating to
the surface? Do I want God to drop me
into hell with no hope of floating up into heaven? No, sin is so serious we faithful followers
of Jesus will be careful not to offend other souls – we will be careful not to cause
other individuals to fall away from faith.
Please understand, while our world urges us not to offend people by
preaching or teaching truths they do not want to hear because God’s truths
condemn sinful lifestyles people prefer, God is not telling us not to upset
people with our public preaching nor to hurt someone’s feelings with our
personal advice. Our Lord orders us not
to cause other souls to fall into sin, not to entice or force people to fall away
from God. Ironically, if we listen to
the world asking us not to say anything which upsets other souls – not to
condemn sinners with our Lord’s law – if we silently erase every part of
Scripture earthly souls dislike, God says we will actually offend these souls,
for we would lead them away from the Lord by not preaching sin & grace, not
calling sinners to repentance nor announcing God’s forgiveness.
Faith-fueled individuals
will carefully “watch ourselves” so as not to offend the smallest faith – just
as Jesus “would not break a bruised reed nor snuff out a smoldering wick.”[MT 12]
We will rather forgive souls who may sin against us. Jesus stresses two points, “If
your brother sins, rebuke him; if he repents, forgive him.” First, we are to point out people’s sins – to
“rebuke
our brothers” – to gently call fellow believers to recognize their
errors & confess their mistakes, asking the Lord to be merciful. Is it easy for someone to show me my
sins? Not necessarily. You may keep quiet because you think I will
be upset by your accusation – I might refuse to repent – or because you know
you are as sinful as I am. It may be
hard to do, but if you do not rebuke me, gently speaking Jesus’ truth, I could
continue to sinfully separate myself from God.
Rebuking a brother --
calling a sinning saint to repentance -- Jesus tells us faithful followers of
Christ to do what sometimes seems even harder than calling for repentance. Jesus tells us, “If your brother repents, forgive
him.” Assure a repenting believer
his sins, which separated him from God, have been redeemed by Jesus’ innocent
death as our God-given Substitute.
Reassure our repenting brother a forgiving Lord God welcomes him back
into his protective presence. Forgiving
a friend who sins against us once is undeniably difficult. Forgiving that same friend a second time – if
he foolishly sins against us again – might appear impossible. But – reflecting in a little way the
innumerable times God graciously forgives sins I repeatedly fall into in my weakness
– Jesus orders, “if your brother sins against you seven times in a day, & seven
times comes back to you & says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
Can I forgive? Will I forgive a repenting brother again
& again without even counting how often he sins against me? Or is our Savior’s assignment for his
faithful followers too overwhelming for us to tackle? With these apostles we would pray, “Lord,
increase our faith,” for only as the Holy Spirit makes us more aware of
Jesus sacrificing his holy life to pay our sin’s eternal death penalty for no
reason other than the fact God graciously loves us – only as the Spirit
increases our understanding & increases our trust in Jesus mercifully erasing
my guilt – only as the Spirit increases my faith will I be willing to forgive my
repenting brother.
Can I forgive? Jesus first reminds us we actually supply no
power as we announce God’s forgiveness for a repenting brother. Faith in Christ is applying God’s power. Is God powerful enough to forgive my
brother’s sins? “Faith as small as a mustard seed,”
Jesus explains, “can order a tree to be uprooted &
planted in the sea…&this tree will obey faith’s order.” Powered by the Spirit, applying Jesus’
conquest of sin & Satan, faith forgives.
Faithful people forgive our repenting brothers forever, “forgive
whatever grievances we may have against one another…forgive as the Lord (first)
forgave us”[COL 3]
As faith in our Savior,
faith hidden in our hearts, flows out on the world around us -- as our faithful
lives imitate our Lord Jesus – as “we love because God first loves us”[1 JN 4] – Jesus warns us against pride,
warns us not to feel as if we earn some special blessing by forgiving our
brothers. Faith fully serves yet
deserves nothing is Jesus’ point as he pictures a servant entering the house
after spending the day plowing a field or tending some sheep. Will this servant sit down at the table
expecting his master to serve him supper?
No, this servant prepares supper for his master. Is this servant then thanked for fixing a meal,
tending a flock or plowing a field? No,
he expects no praise for simply doing what his master ordered.
Do children deserve to
be praised or to be paid for picking up their toys, making their beds or for
other activities that are all part of being a family? No. Do
you expect some special word of praise or some financial reward for simply
accomplishing everything outlined in your position’s job description? No.
When we forgive our repenting brothers, will we expect the Lord to
reward us with some special blessings?
No. If I were to impossibly live
a perfect life in a world where sin inevitably sneaks up on me at various times,
I would simply be following our Lord’s instruction to “Be perfect, as our Father in
heaven is perfect.”[MT 5] I would deserve nothing. I would not be able to boast about my
life. I could not proudly demand God’s
gifts, which is the point Jesus applies from his parable of a faithful,
fully-serving servant: “So
you also, when you faithful
children of God have done everything you
were told to do, you should simply say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only
done our duty.’”
We have only done our
duty… Our duty? Forgiven by God’s grace, freely given faith
in Jesus the Christ that receives an eternal life we could never earn or
deserve, we thankfully follow our Lord & Savior…we watch ourselves so we will
not offend – will not lead other souls into sins separating them from the Lord
– but we will rather rebuke sinning saints & will repeatedly forgive our
repenting brother. “Lord, increase our
faith…increase our faithfulness!”
Amen.