september 10 2023
September 10th 2023
Old Testament: Ezekiel 33:(1-6) 7-9
Psalm: Psalm 32:1-7
Epistle: Romans 13:1-10
Gospel: Matthew 18:1-20
Sermon Text: Matthew 18:15-18
Sermon Title: “If Your Brother Sins”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
In our Psalm this morning, King David beautifully speaks of the blessedness of having our sins forgiven by the Lord. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered”. (Psalm 32:1) In doing so, he also describes the agony of not (confessing our sins and not) knowing for certain that our sins are forgiven. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand (O Lord) was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer”. (Psalm 32:3-4)
In our Old Testament reading, the Lord speaks to the prophet Ezekiel, making him “a watchmen for the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 33:7a) to warn the wicked of their need for repentance and forgiveness; so that they do not “die in their iniquity”. (Ezekiel 33:9b) Therefore, part of the job of prophets and preachers is to warn of the coming judgment; “to give them warning from the Lord”. (Ezekiel 33:7b) The Lord says, “if you do not warn the wicked to turn from his way … his blood I will require at your hand”. (Ezekiel 33:8b) Of course, in this warning, the ultimate purpose is to bring the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins to bear on the situation.
How terribly tragic then for all who fail to warn or who fail to heed God’s warning of the coming judgment, who fail to see their own need to repent and be forgiven and also to forgive “each other as the Lord has forgiven you”. (Colossians 3:13b) As the Apostle Paul declared, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you”. (Ephesians 4:32)
In the sermon text this morning, which is the Gospel reading, Jesus speaks of several things that we could focus on this morning. First, He mentions the terrible act of “causing one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin” (Mattew 18:6a) Secondly, Jesus pronounces “woe to the one by whom temptation (to sin) comes”; (Matthew 18:7b) saying it would be better to enter heaven “crippled or lame … than to be thrown (able bodied) into the eternal fire”. (Matthew 18:8b) Jesus also speaks of the Father’s love in seeking out the lost sheep, “it is not the will of My Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish”. (Matthew 18:14)
Finally, in light of God’s desire for all to be saved, Jesus teaches what you are to do; “if your brother sins against you”; (Matthew 18:15a) Jesus said, “go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother”. (Matthew 18:15b) For, the Lord told Moses, we are not to “take vengeance or bear a grudge against (our neighbor) … but you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. (Leviticus 19:17-18) As we also just heard in the Epistle reading; the Apostle Paul teaches; “Love does no wrong to a neighbor, love is the fulfilling of the law”. (Romans 13:10)
It is these last six verses that we that we will focus on this morning, but before we begin, I would remind you of a few things I said a couple of weeks ago in talking about the Office of the Keys. First, the goal of any confrontation over sin has the ultimate purpose of applying the Gospel to the situation, of bringing reconciliation, of “gaining your brother (sister)”; (Matthew 18:15b) as Jesus puts it. Or to put it another way, church discipline seeks not the damnation, but the salvation of the sinner”. Second, this doctrine is so important, that it is recorded twice in the Gospel of Matthew and in John 20. (It is also clearly taught in several places in our Lutheran Confessions and the writings of Walther and Chemnitz.)
Thirdly, we learned that many reject this teaching of Jesus; saying it doesn’t work, that all it does is make people mad; even though there is a scriptural example of it working; which I shared from 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Fourth, because of the potential for excommunication, and likely wanting to avoid conflict, many in the church think we should ignore these words of Jesus, our Lord; but that is not walking in love.
These are indeed hard words of Jesus and almost no one wants to see someone under church discipline unless it’s absolutely necessary. But, to ignore or reject the word of God is always a dangerous place to be. Do you really trust in your own wisdom or the wisdom of this world, over what Christ Himself taught in Holy Scripture? Do you really think that Christ would tell us to practice something like this in His church, if it was harmful to us or the church?
For Jesus said, “If you … remember that your brother has something against you … go … be reconciled to your brother”. (Matthew 5:23-24) The Apostle Paul also teaches, “if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness”. (Galatians 6:1a) “Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother”. (2nd Thessalonians 3:15)
Also, as a reminder, (almost) every congregation in our denomination, including ours, has some reference to Matthew 18:15-20 in their church’s constitution, as the way to deal with conflict and sin. If we do not at least attempt to deal with each other in these ways, we are in violation of our own constitution, in addition to violating Scripture.
Now, I want to do a brief overview of the text, and then try to illustrate this doctrine by using a real-life example from another congregation. This example was published in an article a few years ago and is available to anyone who wants to learn more about the particular situation; I will be glad to share the whole article with you.
Jesus said, “If your brother (or sister) sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”. (Matthew 18:15-17)
Jesus’ words are quite clear here; the first step is for the person who believes they have been sinned against (who has a grievance against someone) to go to that person and “tell them their fault, between you and them alone”. (Matthew 18:15a) Jesus says nothing here about complaining to others first, (or gossiping) for this allows no opportunity for reconciliation since the one complaining remains anonymous. If this first step fails, then one or two others can go along with the person as witnesses, as Jesus said.
Luther also wrote in the Large Catechism regarding the 8th Commandment, “Let this (Matthew 18) be your rule, that you should not be quick to spread slander and gossip about your neighbor, but rather to admonish him privately … likewise, if someone should whisper to you about what this or that person has done, teach him that if he personally saw the wrongdoing to go and admonish them personally and otherwise to hold his tongue”. (L. C. page 402, par. 276) This kind of slander is considered a grievous sin and is condemned many places in Holy Scripture.
In verse 18, Jesus again teaches the doctrine of the Office of the Keys (which we heard a couple of weeks ago in Matthew 16) saying, “Truly, I say to you. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”. (Matthew 18:18) Again a reminder, “to loose means to forgive sins and to bind means to withhold forgiveness”. (Apology, Article XI, page 210, par. 176)
Now to the article; the real-life example that I mentioned earlier. He begins with a brief explanation of the doctrine taught in Matthew 18. He then expresses the reason he thinks some may take issue with this teaching; particularly the (fear) possibility that this process could easily be abused by “malicious members of the congregation”. (or pastors) He acknowledges that these excuses may be understandable, but believes they are also sinfully misguided; showing a lack of trust in Christ and His Word of reconciliation. He concludes the introduction by saying, “If we followed these (words of Jesus), it would lead to more peace in the congregation, not less”.
This man and his family had a painful experience at their congregation. You see, he and his wife are parents of two young boys with developmental disabilities and it is a struggle for them not only to get ready for the Divine Service but also during the service, for his children are as he put it; “more noisy and restless than the average boys their age”. Yet they continued to come to church each week (at Jesus’ invitation) because they are “sinners, and each week Christ delivers the forgiveness of sins … the Gospel is right here for us every Sunday” in the Divine Service.
However, not everybody in the congregation thought it was good that they were there, for you see one Friday afternoon this couple received a letter in the mail; a letter with no signature, no return address, in other words, anonymous. He describes the letter as malicious accusing him and his wife of (among other things) being bad parents and disturbing the pastor and the rest of the congregation by their children’s outbursts. The letter essentially told them to “go away and stop bothering everyone”.
Now, if the person(s) who wrote the letter had done as Jesus taught and gone to them privately, they could have had a conversation about the disturbances during the service. The writer of the letter perhaps would have learned more about the difficulties of raising children with disabilities. They would have learned that this couple had already talked to the pastor and those sitting near them in church and found that they did not consider their children a distraction.
Also, the family could have learned, what exactly was bothering this person the most and perhaps been able to make adjustments in dealing with their children during the church service. And what if this conversation didn’t accomplish anything? Then, the troubled person could still go and approach this family with one or two others from the congregation as witnesses. If that still didn’t work, then they could have brought it before the church and the pastor, where they could determine if others were in fact bothered by this family and if so, maybe they could explain their concerns in a more constructive way than the writer of the letter.
Likewise, if the letter had not been anonymous, this couple could have taken the initiative and gone privately to the person who wrote this letter, told them their offense and sought ways to bring reconciliation to the situation. They could have spoken of the blessings that all who attend the Divine Service receive, even those with developmental disabilities, through the Word and Sacraments.
Sadly, none of these conversations were possible because the person(s) remained anonymous, even when later on the letter became public knowledge. Reconciliation or “gaining the brother”; which is the goal here in Matthew 18; was rendered impossible in this situation. Reconciliation did not and could not happen in this case because Jesus’ Word was not followed/ignored. Again, sadly, this is quite common in our churches, for when Matthew 18 is not practiced; it often leads to further conflict and even unforgiveness/holding grudges towards others. (Which we will talk more about next Sunday)
I would remind you again of the purposes of following Matthew 18 (or church discipline). Admittedly, putting this doctrine into practice can be quite difficult, but it helps to remember that when one is calling someone to repent of their sins and turn back to Christ, they are actually showing love to that person. According to the Small Catechism, church discipline or excommunication, is not intended to punish the sinner, (as many wrongly think) but rather (first) to lead him or her to repentance and faith, as the Apostle Peter proclaimed, “Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”. (Acts 3:19-20)
The second purpose is to prevent him or her from leading others into sin. As Paul taught, “as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear”. (1st Timothy 5:20) As we heard earlier in our text for today, “whoever cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea … woe to the one by whom temptations (to sin) come”. (Matthew 18:6-7) To tempt such a little one with faith in Christ to sin is, as one commentary stated, to invite the dread vengeance of Almighty God”. (Martin Franzmann, Matthew Commentary, page 153)
This is how Christ our Lord has commanded the church to regain a brother or sister who is unrepentant; “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven”. (Matthew 18:18-19)
Therefore, in the church, we should honor and cherish this gift (Office of the Keys) that Christ has given to us, “presenting His Law and Gospel to anyone caught in the grip of sin” (Lutheran Study Bible, page 1622) so that they would repent, be forgiven by God, reconciled to others, and be welcomed back. Again, there are times when it is the kindest and most loving thing to say to someone, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”. (Luke 13:3, 5)
As much as is possible, “so far as it depends on you”. (Romans 12:18a) we are to continue to pray for and bear witness to the unrepentant as we are given opportunities. If and when repentance occurs, for again, that is the goal; the Apostle Paul instructs us how to deal with the repentant sinner; “turn to forgive, lest they be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow”. (2nd Corinthians 2:7b) Then we can all truly rejoice with “the angels of God over the (one) sinner who repents”. (Luke 15:10)
We will continue in this chapter next Sunday, speaking about the need to forgive and not hold grudges against those who have wronged us, in Jesus’ parable of “The Unforgiving Servant”.
The peace of God …