Jesu Juva
St. Matthew 18:15-20
September 6, 2020
Proper 18A
Dear saints of our Savior~
Do you know what your three wishes would be? If you happened to come across the proverbial genie in a bottle, do you have your three wishes ready to go? I’d like to think that one of my wishes would flow from the words of Jesus we heard this morning—that Christians everywhere would take to heart one simple verse and do what Jesus says. If we committed ourselves to live out these two sentences from the Savior, the world would be a different place. Your home and this church would be different places. Your relationships would be transformed.
Jesus said: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
Matthew chapter 18 is all about life in the church—about our life together as brothers and sisters in Christ. And Jesus makes two things perfectly clear about our life together in the church: 1. Sin happens, and 2. Confronting that sin can and should be an act of love.
Jesus’ words for today are so important that we’ll take them a phrase at a time. Jesus said, “If your brother sins . . .” “Brother” here doesn’t mean male sibling. With the word “brother” Jesus is referring to a Christian brother—a baptized brother or sister in the faith—a fellow Christian—fellow church members—someone you might share a pew with or kneel next to at the Communion rail. There are, of course, a lot of people who don’t fall into this category of “brother”—people without faith in Christ who may or may not sin against you. They are not “brothers.” Jesus’ words here don’t necessarily apply to them when they sin against us.
When Jesus says, “If your brother sins,” it shows that even brothers and sisters in Christ can and do sin against one another. Clearly, Jesus anticipated it. Jesus expected it. When you walk through the doors of the church, you are not entering a sin-free zone. You don’t have to be in this or any church for long to realize that God’s baptized children are both saints . . . and sinners. Even here among people who share a common faith in the crucified and risen Christ—among people who will dwell together in heaven for all eternity—sin happens. Jesus tells us how to deal with it.
Let’s break it down again. Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you . . .” With those two words—against you—Jesus indicates at what point you are to become involved in confronting a brother’s sin. Only if your brother sins against you do you get involved. Assuming, of course, that no one is in imminent danger, you are to say nothing to anyone. Even if you see it with your own two eyes, you are to say nothing to anyone. If you, for instance, witness a fellow member get pulled over for speeding as you drive home today, don’t slow down and give a shameful stare as you drive by. Don’t call me up or anyone else to pass along the news. For you see, the speedy sinner didn’t sin against you or me. It’s none of our business. The “governing authorities” (which we heard about in today’s epistle), they will prescribe an appropriate punishment for the wrongdoer. Case closed.
Let’s take it from the top. Jesus said, “If your brother (a fellow Christian) sins against you (and only if he sins against you), go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” If your brother sins against you, then GO—GO to your brother! When you’ve been sinned against, that’s when YOU take action. You begin the process of reconciliation. We’re not to sit around stewing, waiting for an apology. We’re not to tell everyone at the beauty shop or the coffee shop or (God forbid) on social media about the way that no-good so-and-so sinned against you. No, Jesus says, you go to your brother. At this point what happened between you is a private matter. Now, as you might guess, this is the point where the entire process often seems to run aground. Because it’s so much easier to stay put and stay hurt and to nurse a grudge than it is to confront the sinner. But Jesus says, “Go.”
Why go to your brother? Because, Jesus says, “if he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” We are to go with the goal of winning back that brother—with the goal of restoring the broken relationship. We’re not to go with the goal of chewing him out or lecturing him or poking our finger in his face. Instead, we go to make him aware of his sin and the hurt he has caused in the hope that he will confess his sin and repent. Confronting sin in this way—humbly, honestly, directly, with the goal of reconciliation—this is always an act of love.
Confronting sin in this way is a great and precious work in the eyes of God. What a mark of Christian faith and maturity to go to the one who has sinned against you—not plotting how to get revenge—but how to gain back your brother. “Blessed are the peace-makers,” Jesus said, “for they will be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). How wonderfully different life would be if we all took these words of Jesus to heart.
There are no guarantees, however, as Jesus makes clear. This approach isn’t always successful. If you can’t make headway one-on-one, then, Jesus says, take along two or three others. If that doesn’t work, then and only then we are to tell it to the church. And then the whole church confronts the sinner, always aiming for repentance and reconciliation. And if that doesn’t work, the sinner is excommunicated—not as punishment, but as a last resort to bring about repentance and reconciliation. Confronting sin in this way—according to Jesus’ words—is always an act of love—tough love.
Jesus knows how difficult this is; after all, Jesus knows what it’s like to be sinned against. We sin against Him every day. Jesus knows what it takes to restore what is irreparably broken. For Jesus to win you back—for Jesus to make things right between you and the Father—it required that He come to us—as one of us, a true man, born of the Virgin Mary. It required His broken, bleeding body, dying on a cross. It took nails and thorns and spear—spitting, mocking and beating. That’s what Jesus endured to win you back from the hell you have earned by your sins. That’s what Jesus did to gain you as His brother and His sister—to earn the forgiveness of all your sins.
Jesus says that we should go to those who sin against us. And you know that’s exactly what Jesus does with sinners like us. Jesus doesn’t sit around waiting for sinners to apologize to Him. No, He takes the initiative. He comes to us in the Divine Service—here where two or three are gathered in His name. He confronts our sin in His holy Law. He receives our repentance. He comes to you to win you back—to re-gain you as His brother or sister. He leaves ninety-nine sheep behind to search for—to seek and save—the one that went astray. “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name,” He says, “there am I in the midst of them.”
Here is Jesus in the midst of us—speaking absolution, washing in baptism, feeding with His own body and blood for forgiveness of sins. Here Jesus deals with you in the very way that He would have you deal with others who sin against you—with patience and with love and with the deep desire to forgive you, and to restore what is broken. Because confronting sin is an act of love. And the ultimate act of love was when Jesus confronted your sin on Good Friday and took it all away.
As you leave here today think about a brother or sister who has sinned against you—someone with whom the bonds of love are so badly broken that it would seem to require a genie in a bottle to make things right again. But remember, you’ve got something far more powerful at your disposal for making things right again. You have the words and promises of Jesus. With Him all things are possible—including difficult things like confronting sin—things like repentance and restoration and love—even where love is lost. Has your brother or sister sinned against you? You know what to do. And Jesus has promised that when you go, He Himself goes with you.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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