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Jeremiah
15:15-21 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the Epistle lesson just read, especially these
words, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the
wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says
the Lord.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. Our text is clear – God will
seek vengeance upon all sin, every last bit of it, with absolutely no
exceptions. Sin must, and will be paid
for. God’s wrath shall without a doubt
consume all wickedness.
And so dear
friends we ought to be just a touch worried, because we are full of the sin
that God will avenge against. It is
true. St. Paul says we should do things
like “Live in harmony, let our love be genuine, and to never be wise in our own
sight, or repay people evil with evil.”
But we don’t live
in harmony do we? In fact we fight – all
the time – even with those whom we seem to love the most. Our fights aren’t even about important things
most of the time, but instead over piddley little things. And over time, we even seem to forget what we
were fighting about in the first place. We
fight viciously though, don’t we? We
call each other names that we dare not repeat here in this building. We purposely do things to drag each other
through the mud. Instead of harmony, we
live in sinful discord.
Let your love be
genuine Paul says. That means let it be
pure and holy, with no self seeking aspect to it. But you know that is impossible isn’t
it. Whenever you love someone, you
expect them to love and care for you, to do unto you as you do unto them. In other words there is always a self-seeking
aspect to your love. A desire for
reciprocation. Why? Because sin by definition is being focused on
yourself, rather than on others, and you are a sinner.
Paul also says,
Never be wise in your own sight. In
other words don’t be self-absorbed.
Don’t get the “aren’t I high and
mighty attitude.” But, the problem is we
do think that way, every day, all the time.
We are always comparing our selves to other people, and when we do, we
are always inwardly rejoicing that we are “atleast better than that
person.” Or maybe you say to yourself,
“At least I didn’t commit that particular sin,” or “I’m smarter than the
average bear Boo Boo.” That’s
self-righteousness, and that’s sin.
Dear friends we
could go on and on about our sin. It is
enormous. It is all encompassing. It affects every action, decision and thought
that we have. We are completely and
totally sinful. And our text says that
God will exact vengeance upon that sin.
That means hell. That means
death, not just death in this world, but eternal death. That means suffering apart from the good
gifts that God gives to support you in this world. That means sorrow. It means sin, and sinners will get exactly
what they deserve – the punishment prepared before the foundation of the world
for those who reject God and his gifts. For
it is written, says our text, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the
Lord.”
And in fact God
gets his vengeance – the vengeance you’ve earned. But, he doesn’t get it against you. Yes, your sin is punished. It is killed.
It is destroyed forever in the separation from God that is hell – where
there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But it is killed upon Jesus. Yes,
because is baptismal waters your sin became his. He bore it as if it were his own. Jesus became the greatest sinner that the
world has ever seen because he took what was justly yours and made it his
own.
And bearing your
sin, Jesus went to the cross. He
bled. He suffered God’s wrath, he drank
the cup of punishment that you had earned.
He went to your death sentence.
He suffered all that Hell is – he who was God became separated from God
the Father. And there was nothing in
this world, not Satan, not St. Peter is his own sinful self-righteousness, not
doubting Thomas, and no not even sinful you that could stop Jesus from taking
your place is Hell.
He suffered, so
that you might not. He bled so that your
blood-price was paid. He died so that
you might have life to the full. And his
last words declared the miracle that he had accomplished on your behalf – “It
is finished” their sin is paid for. And
he rose, to proclaim publicly that all he had done was true, and that it
counted for even a poor miserable sinner like you.
Yes, dear friends,
you are forgiven. Your guilt is taken
away. Your wrong is made right. You are Holy, you are love filled, you are
righteous – only because Jesus has made you to be. And believing in his Word and his Work, you
now serve others in a joy that knows that you have nothing in yourself, but
that Christ who is outside of you has given you everything. Yes, dear friends, your sins are forgiven, by
the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Amen.
