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I need your opinion on some questions: If a person kills someone else, should this person be punished? [expected answer: YES] Good; that means a woman, who kills an armed robber while she tries to defend herself and her child against him, expects the same punishment as a guy, who hijacks a car and kills its passengers, because they refuse to leave the car? [expected answer: NO] These examples might be bold and simple, but they show that it isn’t easy at all to judge. To make a just judgment, one needs to know a lot of things.
In view of these given examples, a judge would actually need to know the exact circumstances of the acts: Was it self defence? Was it a planned crime? What was the mental condition of the offender? Maybe even: What is his or her case history? etc. Having all this information, it could actually happen that two people, who committed the same offence, get a totally different Verdict: The woman for instance could be freed of all charges while the hijacker gets a maximum penalty. Because: Would it be just to punish a mother for defending herself and her child against a violent intruder by killing him? [expected answer: NO] Or: would it be just to absolve a hijacker, who planned his crime, taking in account that he might kill people to get a car that is not his own? [expected answer: NO] Bearing all this in mind, can we agree that it is necessary to be well informed, to be a good and just judge? [expected answer: YES]
And exactly this is the comforting message of today’s Epistle Reading, which is our word for the sermon. It is taken from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4:
“12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
‘God sees everything, meaning: He can judge between GOOD and EVIL; even in view of our most hidden thoughts’. People – even we as Christians – area often tempted to see this as something terrifying: The idea that we are uncovered before God. And the reason for this reaction is the actually same, as it was in Adam’s and Eve’s case: Somehow we know that we have done something wrong, something against His will; and we are afraid that God could use everything he knows, against us. But whoever understands God’s word right, namely through Jesus Christ, who is God’s incarnated word, knows better. Yes, it is true: God’s word penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrows. Meaning: We can’t hide anything from God. He knows about what is good and evil. And he will cast all evil into eternal damnation. But: God’s word is not only active in this way. It is most of all living and life giving; like it was in the beginning, like it is now in Jesus Christ and His Gospel, and like it will be in all eternity. What I want to point out to you about today’s word for the sermon, is this: The fact that God knows and sees even our inmost thoughts and emotions; the fact that he discovers all this by means of his word; the fact the we are therefore laid bare before his eyes – like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – means: He does not only see our mistakes and our sin. He also knows about our weakness, our need of help, our history etc. He is not just looking at what we have done. He doesn’t just stare at the symptoms, but discovers the roots and the reasons of our wrongs. And He does this to penetrate and separate all this evil from what he has created with the intention to live eternally. Like a good surgeon, who cuts away the infected parts of a wound, and treats it with antiseptics, so that it can heal. In Jesus Christ, God tells us that He knows about our inability to trust Him and to follow His good will, but HE also helps us.
The message of today’s bible word is therefore something totally different than the terrible idea of ‘Big Brother is watching you’? It is firstly an invitation to all of us to expose ourselves to God’s active and living word, so that it CAN penetrate us and separate every evil from God’s creation, which He wants to save. It is an invitation to come into His presence to give account. Not only when it might be too late, and when we have to be terrified of His omniscience and the fact that we are uncovered before His eyes. No: He invites us every day to trust in His care and mercy – like Adam and Eve before they fell. They were naked and didn’t care, – like children are not afraid of being uncovered before their parents, because they trust in their love and care. It is an invitation to repent and confess to God, what we have done wrong, where we have failed, and where we are unclean in his eyes – and this includes not only the things that we know about. Sometimes, one is ill not knowing that something severe is going on in ones body. – Because only then, after confessing all our sins an iniquities to God, after giving account, we will also hear the active and living word of His forgiveness, which cleanses and heals us. Secondly: today’s word for the sermon invites us to refrain from judging each other easily, like we so often do, because it reminds us of what it takes to judge justly: It takes more than we mostly are capable off; which is why our Lord says (Mt 7:1): “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” And following Christ’s advice, the Apostle Paul writes (Rom 14:13): “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.” And: “do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.” I am very grateful that it is the Lord, who is going to judge me, because HE knows me the best, and in His love and mercy I trust.AMEN |
