Bible Text: St Luke 6:36–42 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
Jesus speaks the words of our Gospel lesson to Christians. He expects us, our lives, to look different from the lives of unbelievers. We sing in the hymn, “We thank You, Christ: new life is ours, New light, new hope, new strength, new pow’rs.” What is this new strength? What are these new pow’rs that God gives to Christians, so we actually look different, act different, are as He says, a city set on a hill, salt and light? There is a very helpful distinction between active and passive power. I exert active power when I tell my kids what to do and they have to obey me. Active power is the cop arresting the drunk driver. Active power is the launching of missiles to take out terrorists. We’re very familiar with active power, a forceful power, and people think it’s the only power there is.
But it’s the passive power Jesus stresses for His Christians. It’s exerted not by taking vengeance but by forgiving. Not by judging, but by minding your own business. Not by striking back, but by turning the other cheek. Not in taking, but in giving.
And that is what marks the Christian. It’s very important that when Jesus describes His Christians he doesn’t just list a bunch of dos and don’ts. Don’t get drunk, don’t fornicate, don’t steal, don’t cuss. And if you check all these moral boxes then you’re living like a Christian. No, Jesus goes much deeper and he talks about the character of the Christian. What type of a person is one who is born again, who is joined to Christ’s death and resurrection, in whom the Spirit lives?
A disciple is not above His master. But every disciple when he is fully trained will be like his master. Our master is Christ. That’s what we sing, “Let none but Christ our Master be.” And look at him. When he was reviled he did not revile in return. When he was mocked and blasphemed and beaten, he exerted no active power. He suffered, he forgave his murderers, he died to save his enemies. That’s our master. He is the Master of passive power. And to be fully trained as His disciple is to so learn from him that it becomes instinctual to forgive those who sin against you, to pray for your enemies, to want the best for the one who slanders you, to be generous and give instead of wanting to take and save and spend only on yourself.
This is not the instinct of our sinful flesh. We all know this from experience. Sometimes God’s word tells us the obvious, what we call “self-evident.” What is your instinct when you hear juicy gossip about someone? It’s to tell other people. It’s to exert active power in cutting someone down. And then what’s your instinct when you find out other people are gossiping about you? To be appalled, righteously offended, bitter that anyone would dare speak bad things about you, to want vengeance, and for them to get their due. Active power. What’s your instinct when someone strikes you? It’s to strike back. Look at little children. I’ll never forget slapping my two-year old daughter’s hand because she was being naughty, and she instinctively hit me back. (Which was a mistake btw– parents actually do have to exercise active power and I did not let her get away with that .) But that’s our sinful flesh. The instinct to get vengeance.
And the new power we have as Christians, is to have a different instinct. And it’s always going to war against the instinct of our flesh.
SO let me just first illustrate this on the macro-scale. There’s an author, a novelist, you may have heard of him, named Salman Rushdie. He wrote in 1988 a book called The Satanic Verses. It pictured the Muslim prophet Muhamad in a very bad light and Muslims condemned it as blasphemy. Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa, a decree, for his execution (and Rushdie was a British citizen). Khomeini promised millions to anyone who would kill him and his publishers. Rushdie had to live in hiding for a time and he still can’t appear in public without a guard. In 2022 he was stabbed 15 times and barely escaped with his life. Why do I tell this story? Because that’s what the religion of the flesh teaches: someone offends you? get vengeance, punish, execute, kill, use active power, and make them pay.
But we worship a crucified Savior. We worship the one who refused to take vengeance. We worship the one who took all the wrath and punishment against sin into Himself. He’s our Master.
It was awesome to read Luther, who preached on this same Gospel some 500 years ago, and see him thanking God that despite all the attacks on him for preaching the Gospel, Lutherans had never turned to violence, never tried to assassinate the pope or his princes, or wage war against their lands. Instead they prayed for him and openly told him that they would grant him his title and his pomp and his power if only he let them preach Christ. That’s the Christian instinct. It simply is. To forgive, to pray for your enemies and persecutors, to want what is best for them, and to insist only on this, that Christ is magnified and His passive power is glorified in our lives and in our speech.
And this isn’t simply on a macro-scale. It’s what you practice in your daily life. That’s what Jesus is saying. You now have two instincts, because you’re sinners and you’re Christians. And you will instinctively get bitter at those who sin against you, you’ll want vengeance, you’ll want to hold onto some grudge and remember what he did or she said, you’ll want to serve your money instead of serving your neighbor with it. But that’s not you. That’s not the Christian. St. Paul says, “If I do what I don’t want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”
The Christian instinct is the greatest power in the world. Because it’s God’s power. The Holy Spirit didn’t just make a new man of you in your Baptism, no, He daily recreates the new man, He slays the old with all its sinful desires and He makes the Christian rise up who trusts in His Savior. And the Holy Spirit does this constantly. He sets before you, in His Word, whether you’re reading it, hearing it, remembering it, He sets before you Jesus, your Master.
And Jesus removes the plank from your eye. He shows you what is so clear when all our judging by our own standards, all our bitterness, all our stinginess is brought out into the light. Whom have we offended? Our neighbor? Sure. But remember what David said to God after his adultery and his murder, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in Your words and blameless in your judgment.” God is offended. God is just to judge, not just the other guy, but you.
And what does He do? What has He done? Has He used His active power to take vengeance on you and punish you? No. He incarnates Himself. He becomes your brother. He takes away all the punishment, by bearing it Himself. He suffers. There’s the passive power that wins the Christian heart. My God died for me. He didn’t punish me and He won’t. He took it all away and offers instead mercy and love and forgiveness.
This is why it is so important that you forgive, that you put down the bitterness and the grudge and the desire for vengeance. Because it’s the daily exercise of your faith. It’s the Holy Spirit’s working. How does He do it? He places you at the feet of your Master and you learn from Him the greatest lesson ever taught. You admit your guilt, you confess your need, and He forgives you, and you learn again there is no bitterness in Him toward you for anything you’ve done or said or been, He’s washed all enmity away by His precious blood. And that is your life. That’s the source of the new light, new hope, new strength, new powers.
And how do I put down the stinginess, the dreaming of money and all that it can do for selfish me? You look at its vanity, how it is passing away, and then you look up at your Master on the cross: you have riches and generosity flowing from your God, He gives you everything He has: His righteousness, victory over death, immortality, status as God’s own child, peace, the sure hope of everlasting life with Him; and besides that the daily joys of this life. That’s the lesson from your Master. And His generosity kills the stinginess and opens your heart to the needs of others.
Be merciful, Jesus says. That’s the character of a Christian. But you can only be merciful because God has first had mercy on you. “As your Father in heaven is merciful.” So every day, let His Word rule your heart, meditate on His mercy, on the passion and crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God.
And the Holy Spirit will show you what it means that rich measure, shaken up, pressed down, overflowing, is put daily into your lap. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.