Sermon for The Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2025

Now, of course, all of the sacrifices of the people of God in the Old Testament, all of it points forward to the great and truly one and only sacrifice that avails for sin, namely the sacrifice of our Lord, Christ Jesus, Himself. His innocent death is the punishment for all sins. His body and blood are given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. So, you see, God is hardly the sort of merciful judge who simply writes sin off; far from it! He pays the debt Himself at great—infinitely great—personal cost. He sends His only-begotten Son into the world, and this eternally begotten Son, who is Himself God, is made man so that He can suffer all the pains of hell for the accused, the convicted, for us, and offer Himself as the all-atoning sacrifice for all our sins. That, Beloved, is how your Father is merciful: He lays all your sins and their ultimate consequence on His Son, Christ Jesus, your Lord. 

So how, then, are you to be merciful, as your Father also is merciful? Now, this is critical to understand because it shows you how you must deal with those who have wronged you in some way. After all, it is our inclination—it’s in our fallen nature—to want the scales of justice to, at least, balance, if not tip a bit in our favor. ‘An eye for an eye,’ as the saying goes, or better yet, ‘do unto others before they can do it unto you.’ And so we want retribution, some way of getting back at that person, for whatever wrongs they’ve done to us, or, at least, making sure that they cannot wrong or hurt us again. Yet, we’re supposed to forgive. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven,” Jesus says here. How? If God Himself does not simply write off sin, then how in the world can we? He doesn’t. He, from His throne in heaven, looks to the Cross: there is where the atonement is made, and that is how He is merciful. And so, therefore, if you are to be merciful as your Father is merciful, you must look to the Cross as well. For the sins of those who have wronged you were paid and atoned for there as well.  

Readings:

• Old Testament: Genesis 50:15-21

• Epistle: Romans 8:18-23

• Holy Gospel: Luke 6:36-42

Sermon: