“How Serious Is Sin?”
At first it may seem that this section of Matthew’s Gospel is a bit of a patchwork – 20 verses in four paragraphs – touching on different topics that seem to have little to do with each other. Who’s the greatest? Temptations to sin. The Parable of the Lost Sheep. And what to do if your brother sins against you. I have to confess that as I studied this text I also grappled with which direction to take things this morning. What, if anything, connects these thoughts?
And the best I can say is this: In each section here, Jesus teaches us to take seriously the problem of sin.
It’s a lesson we need to learn. We live in a world that thinks about sin less and less. Let alone the secular world – which by and large doesn’t consider sin to be a major problem. For that matter we see churches that barely ever mention the word “sin”. Instead they may talk about “mistakes” or even “poor ways of thinking”.
Moral relativism has destroyed the once universally held concepts of “right and wrong”, and now we have “what’s right for me, and what’s right for you”. For many, no external objective standard determines what is sin anymore, as each person must simply be “true to himself”, whatever that means.
And if sin is even acknowledged on some level, is it really even a big deal? There’s maybe about 2 or three sins left that seem to outrage most everyone – and even those things are becoming more accepted. Sins that most people only whispered about decades ago are today shouted out and paraded about, as our depravity and decadence seem ever more out of control.
But it’s not just the culture or the prevailing moral philosophies out there today that teach us this. It’s not just the mushy churches that have sold out to the culture. Let’s not think that because we go to Messiah Lutheran Church in Keller, that we are somehow above all this, better, smarter, more holy. We have the same problem with minimizing sin. It’s rooted in our own sinful nature. Sure, on paper, Lutherans have a strong teaching about sin – we confess what scripture teaches. Thought, word and deed, and all that. In theory we say all the right things about sin in our catechism and our confessions. But in practice we fall far short of it. If you’d look at our lives, our actions don’t seem as if we consider sin to be all that serious.
Man has been minimizing his own sin since the fall into sin. He has been blaming others since he pointed the finger at Eve, and she at the serpent. He has been denying it since he retorted, “am I my brother’s keeper?” We have been rationalizing sin away, comparing our sins with others who certainly sin more, and sometimes even calling evil good. And in the hypocrisy of legalism, we imagine that if we follow some set of man-made laws that it makes up for our shattering of God’s law, like little Pharisees on our own self-righteous pedestals.
Jesus knocks this all down in Matthew 18. He shows us how serious sin really is.
First he teaches humility. That the greatest in the kingdom is the least. That we would be like – a child. Helpless. Humble. Lowly. Someone who comes with nothing to offer, but only has needs. Greatness in the kingdom consists of such things. Turn, he says, and become like children. This is talk of repentance.
And then a warning – sin is so serious that if you lead another into sin, especially one of these little ones, it would be better for you to get the millstone treatment. A sure and certain death. Sin is that serious.
Then on to temptations – woe to the world, and to the one by whom temptations to sin come! Jesus doesn’t speak woes very often, but here the woe is earned. Sin is such a cancer that the treatment is also severe – cut off whatever causes you to sin, pluck it out – eyes, hands, feet, whatever. Better to be crippled or maimed than to go with all your members into the hellfire. Here again the language is strong – but not literal. As if cutting off sinful parts could make us clean – when even our heart is corrupt. No, the remedy here is the same – repentance – an entire renewal of our being that only Christ can accomplish. Death and rebirth, really.
When we humble ourselves in repentance and faith, we become one of the “little ones” the Lord cherishes. We become the lost sheep that the Lord seeks out. Sin is so serious, lost-ness is so bad, that he forsakes the 99 to go looking for that one. He takes extreme measures. He goes to great lengths. He humbles himself and becomes obedient even unto death, even death on a cross.
There’s the ditch where he finds the lost sheep. A ditch so deep it’s really the grave. Jesus faces death – which is really the wages of sin – physical, spiritual, even eternal death – he takes death, in all of its seriousness and fullness, and takes it all on himself at the cross. He wears the millstone. He is cut off. He suffers the woes we deserve. He is lost so that we are found.
One of our great Lenten hymns, “Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted” says it well:
Ye who think of sin but lightly
nor suppose the evil great
here may view its nature rightly,
here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
see who bears the awful load;
'tis the Word, the Lord's Anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God
Thanks be to God Jesus took sin seriously for us. Thanks be to God that the Father sent his beloved Son. Thanks be to God for the Spirit who convicts us of sin and calls us to faith in Christ, that we would not perish, but have eternal life.
Sin is serious business. But our Lord Jesus Christ is equal to the challenge, and takes care of business for us. In him our sin is covered, atoned for, forgiven.
So then there’s this last section of our reading – which is the sort of “so what” of it all. The implications of all this for life in this Christian community we call the church. We might put it this way: take sin seriously when it comes to your fellow Christians. But be Christlike in your handling of it.
Notice, sin is not ignored between Christian brothers. It’s not something we pretend doesn’t ever happen. It’s still very real and present among us – though some may find that surprising. Jesus forgives sin but he doesn’t eliminate it from our midst. We still struggle with sin daily, and Christians in community will still sin even against one another.
But how do we address it? If your brother sins against you, do you pay him back in kind? No. If your brother sins against you, start gathering your forces and make sure you have a mob with you when you go to get your revenge? No. Post about it in a rant on social media? No. But back to humility. You seek to win the brother back. You seek reconciliation.
If your brother sins against you… and it will happen…. Go to him privately. Sin is serious and it should be addressed – but with care for your brother’s reputation. Show him his sin, with the hope that he will listen – that is, repent – and you will win back your brother.
And yes, sin is so serious that if repentance and forgiveness can’t follow, then what is bound on earth is bound in heaven – and the church on earth treats the sinner as one who is no longer in the church – a “Gentile or a tax collector”. Yes, we still pray for them and encourage them to repent – but we can’t consider someone a Christian who refuses to do so. Sin is just that serious. In fact, the whole point of such a drastic step as excommunication - is for the church, the whole church, to show the unrepentant sinner his sin – to intervene, and speak with one voice, and urge him toward repentance, and life.
So how serious is sin? Deadly. It’s “amputations and millstones” serious. It’s maybe even excommunication serious. But it’s also “let me drop everything and find the lost sheep” serious. For Jesus, it’s lay-down-his-life on the cross serious. And for us who are in Christ, we would follow his lead. May we ever have the courage to reconcile with our brother who has sinned, since Christ has reconciled each of us to the Father by his blood.
In Jesus Name. Amen.
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