Jesu Juva

“Forgiveness for Me AND for Thee”

Text: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Luke 17:1-10; 2 Timothy 1:1-14

This is an encore presentation of a sermon from yesteryear because I like it and because I think it would be good for folks who were not in the congregation when I preached it the first time to hear.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Violence. Iniquity. Destruction. Strife and contention. Lawlessness increasing, justice perverted. The wicked are winning.

Is that a description of what we see today? What is happening in our country and world? Maybe so. But that’s what we heard today from the prophet Habakkuk. That’s what he saw. In his own country. Among his own people who should know better. So Habakkuk complained. He had a bone to pick with God. Why aren’t You doing anything, God? Why are You just letting this go on? Why aren’t You saving? Questions many - maybe you - are asking today, as well.

God answers Habakkuk, in verses that (unfortunately) were left out of the reading assigned for today. He didn’t have to answer, God doesn’t owe us any explanations, but He did. And God tells His prophet, It’s okay. I’m sending in the Babylonians.

Wait . . . you’re what? That’s the nuclear option! The Babylonians are evil to the core. They are merciless, cruel, and bordering on the inhuman in how they wage war and treat their foes. Lord, that’s not what I meant! Seriously? You’re not really going to use a nation even worse than Your people to discipline them, are You? I mean, they just need a rap on the knuckles, not be blown up!

But that’s exactly what God is going to do. It will surely come, He tells Habakkuk. It will not delay. The soul of my people is puffed up, it is not right. But do not fear. Trust. Believe. In Me. The righteous shall live by his faith. Faith that trusts and believes in God not only in the good times, but the times when nothing seems to make sense and everything seems to be falling apart. Such times are not the times to turn away from God and seek help elsewhere, but to turn toward Him and trust that He is working good, even if we cannot understand how.

And God did work good. It wasn’t easy, though. The sin and corruption of His people ran deep. So they spent seventy years in exile from their land, living in Babylon. But even that was merciful. They deserved far worse. Then God brought them back. Chastened. Humbled. They rebuilt. And at just the right time, back in their land, God dealt with their sin again, for from them was born the promised Messiah. The same God who used the Babylonians to save them from their wicked ways, now came Himself to save them - and not just them, but the world - from their sins. Then, too, using the wickedness of men - betrayal, hatred, perverted justice, and a cross. A cross which didn’t look good at all! And yet God used to work the greatest good, and exactly what we need.

But Old Testament times and Babylonian hordes are, you know, a little hard for us to relate to, even if Habakkuk’s description of their evil ways sounds eerily familiar to what we see today. So let’s bring it a bit closer to home . . . using the words of Jesus from the Holy Gospel we heard today, when He talked about . . . forgiveness.

Just like in Habakkuk’s day, there is sin in our world, no doubt. You know that. It seems to be getting worse every day. You sin. Others sin against you. And maybe like Habakkuk, you find yourself having a bone to pick with God about that. About why He lets it go on, why He isn’t doing anything about it, why the wicked seem to be winning. Why God? Do something God!

And maybe, like Habakkuk, you don’t like His answer. His two-fold answer, which basically boils down to this: I am doing something about it. I’m sending you in. Wait . . . what? That’s not what I meant!

So first, in the first part of His answer, Jesus says, yes, My child, there is sin in the world, I know it. And temptations to sin are sure to come. But don’t just look at others, and point the finger at others - don’t you be the source of them! For the one who causes My little ones, My believers, to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea. Which sounds a bit like the nuclear option God told Habakkuk about, sending in the Babylonians. For a millstone!? Don’t we just need a rap on the knuckles? Is our sin really that bad? It is.

Then second, and even more than that, when you are sinned against, when you are hurt, when others trample on you and take from you and cheat you, forgive them. Rebuke them, show them their sin, but not to shame them and hurt them back, but to lead them to forgiveness, which you will give. And not just once or twice. Over and over. Seven times in a day, if that’s what it takes. And even more. For seven is just a number. Jesus said seventy times seven in another place (Matthew 18:22). The point being: forgiveness doesn’t keep count. Just forgive them.

Now it was the disciples turn to say: wait . . . what? Let’s get this right. Don’t cause others to sin, and if we do, the millstone around our necks and all that. OK. Got it. But when others sin against us, they don’t get a millstone, we have to forgive them?? Do you know what you’re saying, Jesus? What you’re asking? We can’t be that! We can’t do that! You’re asking the impossible! If you want us to do that, increase our faith!

Maybe you feel that way. For forgiveness . . . that’s just not the way the world works. If you point out someone else’s sin against you, that’s just an invitation to get screamed at (or these days, shot at!) and be told to shut up, sit down, and mind your own business. And to forgive, that’s just an opportunity for others to continue to walk on you and take advantage of you. But if we, as Christians, won’t do those things, those who aren’t Christians won’t do those things, and the sin and wickedness in the world just continues to grow, with more necks being fitted for millstones. Jesus didn’t say it would be easy.

Maybe the disciples had Habakkuk in mind when they said to Jesus, Increase our faith! Since, as we heard, the righteous shall live by his faith. But faith is so hard. To trust, to believe, when it doesn’t seem to be working, when nothing seems to make sense, and everything seems to be falling apart. At such times, don’t turn away from God and look to take vengeance yourself, or harbor that grudge, or make them pay for what they did to you. Turn instead toward the Lord, who is working good, in the world, in the church, in you, even if you cannot understand how.

For He has given you the faith you need. For really what matters is not the size and strength of your faith, but the size and strength of the one your faith is in. If your faith is in yourself and what you are able to do, then no amount of faith will be enough. But if your faith is in Jesus, then even faith as small as a mustard seed is more than enough.

For there is nothing Jesus is not able to do. In fact, far greater than a flying mulberry tree, Jesus took all of your sin, and mine, and of His people from Habakkuk’s day, and all the sin of all this horrible, no good, very bad world and hung it around His own neck, a weight bigger than the biggest millstone, and He was cast into the sea of God’s wrath against it. Taking it all and atoning for it with His own blood and death. And it is atoned for - His resurrection showing that. That there is no longer any sin, any death, any condemnation that could hold Him in the depths of the grave. He won. Life won.

And that victory and life He now gives to you. For He’s the Master who came and served His servants. Quite the opposite of God using an even wickeder Babylon to discipline His wicked people - is God using His perfect Son to serve us with the forgiveness and life we need. We may think, like Habakkuk: Oh, they just needed a rap on the knuckles. But nope, God knew they needed even more. And today, maybe we think: Oh, we just need a little more faith, a little more grace, a spiritual boost. But nope, God knows we need a lot more than that! Much more. And so He gives even more. He gives us Himself. He comes and serves us. First on the cross, and now giving us the fruits of the cross in the Body and Blood of His Son. The Master serving the servants. It’s not the way the world works! But why would God do that? The world isn’t working very well! So He does better, and what we need. Forgiving us, feeding us, washing us, absolving us, mercying us.

And while that really doesn’t make much sense, and it’s hard to wrap our minds around a God who would do that, for people like us, thank God He does. So that you can forgive. You can help others stuck in their sin. That’s how God’s dealing with sin today. Sending His Son for you, and sending you for them.

Do not fear. No, it’s not easy. But the righteous live by faith. Faith not that I know everything and how this is going to turn out, but that Jesus knows. And faith that, as Paul later wrote to the Romans (1:17), that it is not the Law but the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation, for saving. Or in other words, you are never so weak as when you exercise your power and hold someone’s sins against them, and you are never so strong as when you exercise God’s power and forgive them, and let God and His Gospel do the rest.

Maybe that shocks you and doesn’t quite make sense. That’s okay. Habakkuk felt the same way! But it did work out, perfectly, according to God’s plan. It is not for us to know and understand everything; it is for us to trust and believe.

And when you do, and when you forgive, you may feel like you’re doing something heroic. It might seem that way. But, Jesus goes on to say, don’t expect a standing ovation from heaven! Rather, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ You see, we don’t earn or deserve anything by what we do, even something as hard as forgiving! It is, start to finish, all gift, all grace, from God to you. From the one who took the millstone with your name on it and hung it around His own neck. And instead, drowned you in the gracious water of baptism, to raise you with Himself to a new life. A forgiving life. A trusting life. The life you now get to live. A life of freedom, knowing the outcome isn’t up to you - God already has that worked out. And if He can use the Babylonians, He can use you and me, too, to accomplish His good and gracious ways.

For as Paul told Timothy and the congregations he was serving, God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed . . . The world isn’t going to like the Gospel you speak and live, it isn’t going to like God’s kind of love, it isn’t going to thank you for pointing out their sin. What’s new? But in Habakkuk’s day and in our day and all the days before, in between, and yet to come, our loving and merciful God and Saviour is working to save each and every soul. Through His cross. Through His forgiveness given by you. Not the way we’d do it! But it is not for us to know how and understand everything; it is for us to trust and believe. And the empty tomb the evidence you can. The righteous live by faith. For faith receives that new and resurrected life. And then lives that new and resurrected life. A life to live now. A life to live forever.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.