Bible Text: Luke 6:36-42 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
Joseph weeps and forgives his brothers. He already had forgiven them. But they’re still afraid he’ll punish them, now that their father Jacob is dead. And so Joseph weeps. He weeps because they are sorry and this sorrow over sin is a beautiful thing. And he weeps because they don’t understand still that they don’t need to be afraid, that he will always forgive them and have mercy on them, because God has had mercy on him. Joseph says, “Who am I to judge? Am I in the place of God?” When Joseph says this, he isn’t saying he can’t judge whether or not what they did was evil. He knows, they know, what they did was evil. They sold him into slavery because they were jealous of him and then lied to their dad and said he was killed by a wild animal. That’s evil. And Joseph says so, “You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Joseph doesn’t judge them. Not in the sense that he doesn’t point out that evil is evil. He does that. Joseph doesn’t judge in the sense that he doesn’t condemn them, doesn’t want their punishment. He only wants good for them. Why? Because God has had mercy on him. Joseph’s entire life is the overflow of God’s mercy. Every evil committed against him, God turns to good. Sold into slavery, falsely accused of adultery and attempted rape, thrown into a dungeon, and God raises him up, not only has mercy on Joseph, but on his brothers and father and the hundreds of thousands of people Joseph provides for in the seven-year famine. That’s our God. And Joseph lives on that mercy, breathes by it, and so he seeks no justice, no eye for an eye. He forgives his brothers and he loves them.
Jesus tells us Christians specifically to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful. It is a command to Christians. You cannot give what you have not first received. You have received mercy from your Father in heaven, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, has been put into your lap. So give it to others. This extends to everyone and everything, to your personal life as well as to your attitude to the unbelievers that surround you and mock you. Your God is kind to the unthankful and evil. He has been kind to you who have sinned against him and ignored him and doubted him. You live by His mercy. So you be kind and merciful to everyone. We may not be angry Christians wanting nothing but the destruction of the enemies of Christ. Remember that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He did not rejoice at their destruction.
Abraham is our example here. He prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah. They were cities filled with evil. The Lord told Abraham He was going to destroy them for their evil, that their sins cried out for vengeance. And Abraham prayed God to have mercy on them. He bartered with God – if there are fifty righteous, will you spare the cities? For the sake of fifty Christians, will you save them? And God says, yes. And then Abraham says, what about 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. And you’d think God would get annoyed at Abraham pleading for mercy for cities full of wicked men. But He doesn’t. He loves it. He’s delighted with Abraham pleading for mercy. Because Abraham is doing what children of God do. He learned it from God. Be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.
So our prayer is not for the destruction of the wicked. The sins of Sodom are all around us. Justice would require fire from heaven. Our country has sacrificed more little children to the altar of secularism and hedonism than all the pagans of the ancients combined and our nation has done to marriage what no nation before us has ever done. The evil cries out to heaven. But we pray for mercy. Because our Father in heaven is merciful. And we are His children. There were not even ten righteous, ten Christians in Sodom. But there are millions of Christians among us, thank God for that, and if we lose our saltiness and if our light becomes darkness, how will the nations learn to know the God of mercy? Our salt is God’s mercy. Our light is Christ who laid down His life for sinners. That mercy must shine, and it can shine only from us who know what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for us and for all the world.
But they say against us, “How can you Christians say that you are merciful, that you don’t judge, when you condemn our lifestyles and say we are doing evil?” We say it only because we love, God forbid we say it for any other reason, out of spite or hate, but only because in repeating God’s judgment, we want all to see God’s mercy. It is not love to leave people under condemnation, and make no mistake, all who embrace their sin and do not repent are under God’s condemnation. To be merciful is to do what the Lord Jesus commanded us, to preach and confess that evil is evil and that He has come to overcome it and He has. He loves sinners. He is merciful to sinners, and that mercy begins when He shows sinners the evil of their ways. Only then will they find the God who takes away sin in Jesus our Lord, takes away all the pain and misery and guilt and punishment, takes it away because He has borne it all Himself.
So do not curse your enemies. Do not speak with venom against the persecutors of the Christian truth. Love them. Pray for their conversion. Show by your confession and by your life that you are thankful to the God of mercy, so that maybe they see that they want what God has given you.
If we love our enemies, we should love one another much more, our own family, our own brothers and sisters in Christ. If we fail to love one another and have mercy on one another, then how will the world look at us and see our Father’s mercy? We sin against one another in this church, in our families, at our jobs. That will not stop. We are sinners. Your sister in Christ will speak out of turn. Your brother in Christ will raise his voice or say a cutting word. There will be gossip and there will be false judgment. And if we hold people’s sin against them and refuse to forgive, if we are bitter, then we have lost sight of our Father’s mercy and everything is lost.
Because the same measure we apply to others will be measured back to us. You don’t want uncompromising justice for yourself. You don’t want an eye for an eye. You don’t want it from other people and you certainly don’t want it from God. Have you never spoken out of turn? Have you never gossiped or spoken poorly – not just of your enemy, but of your friends! Of your own wife, husband, sister, brother, children? Has your eye never wandered in lust or has your temper never flared? Or have you never been lazy or sullen or mean or selfish? If you haven’t, then you can stand in judgment of the rest of us, but you are too good for the Christian Church, we are not worthy of you, you don’t belong here. We are all sinners. Repentant, sorry for our sin, wanting to do better. But we are all sinners. And we need to apply a different measure to ourselves.
That is the measure of Christ Jesus our Lord. What could you say to Him if He demanded an account for everything you’ve done and said and thought, and everything you’ve not done and not said and not thought, that you should have? What a horrible thought! But He demanded no account from you. He demanded instead an account from Himself. All the false judgments, all the slander, all the abuse and scorn landed on Him. Was that justice? When the innocent Son of God suffered your punishment? When the only innocent Man who had ever lived laid down His life for you? No, that was mercy. And that is the measure your Father in heaven has measured out to you. It is nothing but grace and mercy overflowing to you. You are a sinner, who deserve to be cast from His presence. What does He do to you? He embraces you. He tells you to draw near with a true heart and then He forgives you your sin. He washes you clean and calls you His own child and gives you His name and everlasting life with Him. He gives you the body that was pierced for you and the blood shed for you, seals to you His goodwill and His mercy.
Your Father in heaven is merciful. It is not that He becomes merciful once you’ve repented, once you’ve said you’re sorry. He is the Father of the prodigal son. Before you come home, He has already seen you and is running to meet you to embrace and kiss you. God the Father almighty exists as merciful, now, toward all the earth, because His Son has already made peace by the blood of His cross. Realize that you have not been able to out-sin Him, know that His mercy has had no bottom, no top, He has never said that finally you’ve gone too far, that this time your doubt, your lust, your gossip, your sin was too much and there is no mercy left for you. You repent and He has already forgiven. You beg and He has already given. He is mercy. He has always forgiven you, always welcomed you as His child, and He cannot do otherwise.
This is your God, and it is from Him that you live and move and have your being. The mercy that overflows from Him is also too much to be contained in you and so it must flow to others. This is why Joseph forgave his brothers who treated him so cruelly. This is why Abraham begged God to spare the Sodomites. You live by God’s mercy and it animates your very soul. You must hate sin and evil, but you must love and pity and have mercy on all who commit that sin against you.
Your fellow Christians will love you for it. They will be built up by it. There is nothing that wins a Christian’s heart like mercy. When you see forgiveness, meekness, generosity in another Christian, it is like looking at God. Because it is God working through you to will and to do. So you never have to think that you will somehow lose out if you forgive and love and do good to those who sin against you, or give of your money to help the church or those in need. You cannot lose. You can only gain. God gave of Himself, and He gained you. You give of what He has given you and you gain your brother.
That’s how it works in the Church. In the world it is different. In the world you will have sorrow, Jesus says. They will hate you not simply because of your confession, but because of your love and prayers and forgiveness. The more you love them, the more they will despise you. The abortion doctor doesn’t want your prayers. The unrepentant sodomite is quite content with his life, thank you very much. The bitter, thankless, ungrateful friend doesn’t want your pity or your prayers. But give it. You have no choice, a good tree bears good fruit, you are children of your Father. Be merciful, love, pray for your enemies, help them if you can, stay true not only to the confession of the true God but to the mercy that He is, and He will continue to work His wonders. When you receive His mercy and His mercy shines through you, men will see your good works and will glorify your Father who is heaven. So do not weary of doing good. In due season, you will reap if you do not lose hope. You cannot give what you have not received. So receive the riches of God daily by reading His Word and especially every Lord’s Day in His body and blood given for you. Receive mercy full and free, and be merciful as your Father also is merciful.
In the name of Jesus.