Listen here.
Welcome to Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the
appointed Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten
from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hudson, OH. I hope you are having a restful
Labor Day. Thank you for being with me today.
This coming Sunday is the 14 Sunday after Pentecost. I would
remind you that the Gospel lesson each week sets the theme and tone for the
whole worship service. Our goal is to testify about Jesus our Lord and Savior. We’re
making a bit of a jump this week in the Gospel of Matthew. We’ve been reading
it pretty much picking up where we left off the week before. Well, we just finished
chapter 16 and this week we are reading from Matthew 18. What’s going on?
We have to remember that the Sunday readings do not cover
everything in the Bible. They are meant to testify about Jesus as our Savior,
not to teach us everything in the Scriptures. That being said, we are not just
skipping Matthew 17. Matthew 17 begins with the Transfiguration account, which
we read at the end of the Epiphany season. After that Jesus found his disciples
trying unsuccessfully to cast out a demon from a little boy, we will read Mark’s
account of those events next summer in Mark 9. Finally, Matthew, who, if you
recall was a tax collector, recounts an event when Jesus was tested about
paying taxes and he miraculously provided for himself and Peter’s payment through
catching a fish that had a shekel coin in its mouth.
As we continue to learn Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of
heaven, we turn to some lessons about greatness, temptation, lost sheep, and
reconciliation.
The Reading: Matthew 18:1-20 – I will be reading from the
English Standard Version translation.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 And calling to him
a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, "Truly, I
say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5
"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but
whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be
drowned in the depth of the sea.
7
"Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that
temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8
And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two
feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes
you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life
with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
10
"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that
in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone
astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of
the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to
you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of
these little ones should perish.
15
"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. 16
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every
charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to
listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I
say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be
done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Matt. 18:1-20 ESV)
Comments
There is a lot going on in those twenty verses! Let’s focus
in on two themes – repentance and forgiveness.
First, repentance. To repent means to turn away from our
sin. It is often accompanied by feelings of guilt, sorrow, or regret. Jesus
tells us that we will face temptation to sin – and he takes such temptation
very seriously! He speaks of drowning and cutting off those things that tempt
us to sin.
The drowning has a beautiful parallel in baptism in which
the old sinful nature within us, which tempts us as God’s children and leads us
into sin, is drowned and dies. Luther writes about it this way in the Small
Catechism, “[Baptism in water] indicates that the Old Adam in us should by
daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil
desires, and that a new man [a new person created in the image of Christ]
should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” The
picture of baptism is a constant cycle of drowning the old sinful nature and
living in the forgiveness and newness that Jesus’ salvation gives us.
As for cutting off, Jesus shows us how seriously we ought to
take sin. However, does our hand or foot or eye cause us to sin? No! Sin is in
our heart, the heart which is deceitful above all things. However, if we were
to cut out our heart what would happen? We would die. So we join King David in
Psalm 51 in praying to God, “Create in me a clean heart of God.” He takes our
hearts of stone, hardened by sin, and replaces them with a heart of flesh as he
says in Ezekiel 36:26.
In repentance we seek to die to sin and live in Christ.
This is only possible because of Jesus’ forgiveness. And
forgiveness is tantamount through this whole reading. Jesus came to seek out
and save lost sheep. Those who wander into sin are restored through
forgiveness. So when Jesus speaks of a brother sinning against you, his goal in
the confrontations that take place is forgiveness. He wants us to come to a
point where we can declare his forgiveness to one another.
To be sure, this reading should give us pause to consider
how we handle the offenses others commit against us. While confrontation is
rarely fun, when our goal is to speak forgiveness to someone – not to punish
them, not to vent our own spleens, but to live in Jesus’ forgiveness together –
we will be more comfortable because we can be led by a sense of love.
We all know how it is to fall into temptation. And, thanks
be to God, we know how it is to be forgiven for our sins. Forgiveness will lead
us to repentance, and repentance leads us back to forgiveness. This is true in
our relationship with God, and it is true in our relationship with our brothers
and sisters in Christ, too.
Prayers
Lord Jesus, your took temptation very seriously knowing that
it leads us into sin and away from you. You also seek us out in our sin and
have won forgiveness for us sinners. Thank you for your forgiveness and for
giving us repentance. Help us to resist temptation, to not stumble into
disobedience, and lead us to live in forgiveness with you and with one another.
Help us to constantly point one another and the world to you and to your
salvation. Amen.
Thank you so much for using Devotions for Worship, I pray
that our time together has blessed you and given you something to meditate on –
some reminder of God’s grace to rattle around in your brain – for the rest of
the day.
One of the things we can do to help us meditate on God’s
word is to memorize it. Psalm 119:11.
Memory Verse: Matthew 18:12 - What do you think? If a man
has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the
ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
(Matt. 18:12 ESV)
Would you do me a favor? If you got something out of this
devotional time, would you like and/or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or
wherever you do social media? That would help me get the word out, and
hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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