The Lutheran Hour
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"Why, Indeed?"
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Text: Matthew 9:11-12
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. To a guilty world the Savior came; into a sinful world He was born. The Son of God became one of us and gave His life as the ransom price which would save us from our sins. Now, a living Lord comes to each of us and says, “Repent, believe, and live forgiven.”
With my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, I have to say that 75 years of sermons on The Lutheran Hour have done a pretty good job. As I look around, it’s mighty difficult to discover a first-class, A-1, Grade A, government-inspected sinner. This discovery first came to me when I was watching some children. Their mother asked, “Who walked in with muddy shoes?” Three children looked back at her, and with completely innocent faces, replied, “Not me.” They were innocent. Another time I saw a dad ask his two boys, “Who was in my tool chest and left my saw out in the rain to rust?” Would you be surprised to hear that his question was answered by a duet: “I didn’t do it.” The saw must have put itself out in the yard to rust.
Sound familiar? How about when you ask, “Who ate the last piece of pie that I had saved for later?” “I didn’t” will be the reply. Inquire as to who was the last person to drive the car, leaving the gas tank empty, and you will find everyone is insulted that you might think that they would do such a thing. And when it’s 95-degrees outside, and the air conditioner is working overtime, you want to know, “Who left the door open?”; the only answer your question will receive is a great and profound silence. The truth is, we live in a day and age where nobody is guilty of anything. Search high and low, and you will discover that everybody is innocent of all wrongdoing. People’s refusal to admit that they have done anything wrong can really get out of hand. Let me tell you what I mean.
Not so long ago, a California man sued two Las Vegas hotels because they allowed him to gamble away more than a million dollars while he was drunk. Can you imagine? The man wasn’t responsible for going into a place that exists solely for the purpose of separating him from his money. He wasn’t responsible for drinking like a fish. He wasn’t responsible for gambling. He wasn’t responsible for any of it. I would love to say he is unique. He isn’t. We live in a world where everybody is innocent. How about if I shared the story of a baseball coach who had suffered through a winless season? That’s a terrible experience. What made it worse is that after the season ended the man was sued for a few thousand dollars by the father of one of the boys he had coached. The dad said bad coaching had cost his son a trip to a tournament in Florida. It wasn’t bad playing by the team, or his son, that had been the problem. They were innocent. It was the coach who was at fault.
Ours is an age where none of us are guilty of anything. There’s the 270 pound, 5-foot-ten-inch maintenance worker who sued four fast food chains for having jeopardized his health with greasy, salty foods. He wasn’t at fault for eating the stuff. They were the guilty ones. How about the woman who sued the theme park in Orlando, Florida, because the park’s annual Halloween haunted house was too scary and caused her emotional distress. She’s not at fault for going to the fright-fest, the park is. Nobody is guilty of anything. A jury gave a New York City woman 14 million dollars after she was struck by a subway train. That’s tragic. It’s even more tragic that she got the money. The lady was trying to commit suicide and was voluntarily lying on the tracks waiting for a train to come, when she was hit. She’s not wrong… the train company is.
Nobody is guilty of anything. Consider the plight of a man who lost two toes to frostbite in the woods of Maine. He threatened to sue the police who had, eventually, arrested him. Why? Well, you see this man is a convicted sex offender. To avoid arrest, he had run into the woods. He spent three days in the woods. But why does he want to sue the police? Well, if those police had done their job right, they would have caught him that first night, and he never would have gotten frostbite. He’s not at fault for breaking the law, or fleeing the law, or having common sense. Somebody else is responsible. Yes, I know that’s extreme, but here’s one that isn’t. Recently, some parents threatened a teacher with a lawsuit because their poor, little teenager wasn’t going to graduate from high school. Failing grades, you know. No matter their child had plagiarized a test, skipped classes, failed to turn in assignments, didn’t go to a make-up session which might have raised her grade. No matter the teacher had sent home notes telling the parents what was happening; that the teacher had met with them; that the school administrators had met with them. No matter. The child was innocent. It was the teacher’s fault. The teacher hadn’t given the student a chance. So the parents promised to sue, if their kid didn’t graduate. (http://www.power-of-attorneys.com/stupid_lawsuit_collection .asp?)
Nobody’s guilty of anything. Sin? Forget it. We’re not sinners. We’re victims. We’re not transgressors, we’re perfect people who can’t help ourselves. Genetics has told us we’re helplessly programmed to do what we do. Psychology and science have taught us that we’re not responsible for our sad and sorry actions. Guilt, forget about it. There are psychological and sociological causes which made us into the wrecks and wretches that we are. That’s why the word sin isn’t used in conversation anymore. That’s why pastors don’t pound on their pulpits and plead with their parishioners anymore. Sin is something for those who lived a long time ago, like 1960 or ’70. Guilt is only for backward people in third-world nations and folks who aren’t nearly as enlightened and sophisticated as we are. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean we’re sinners; it doesn’t mean we’re bad. We’re only human and nobody is guilty of anything.
Maybe that’s why it seems that we’ve developed into a nation of double talkers, where truth and virtue are only for losers. Sin, like our cereal has become sugar-coated. Lying is stretching the truth. Cheating is bending the rules. Lusting is healthy admiration. Hatred is dislike. Gossiping is harmless talk. Envying is appreciating the good things of life. Murder is nothing more than a mistake. Drug abuse is an unfortunate misdirection; gluttony is a lack of willpower, and a person with a temper is only being, well, they’re being temperamental. Deviates are practicing God-given alternate lifestyles, and children who are disobedient to parents, bless their little hearts, are merely being strong willed.
Nobody does anything wrong anymore. “I’m OK, really, I am.” At least that’s what we try to tell ourselves. We repeat those words again and again in the hope that we may, eventually, actually come to believe them. But if we really are OK, why is it so many people spend their days and squander their fortunes searching and seeking that something which will satisfy them and give them calm and contentment, hope and happiness? If we’re OK, why is it that so many families are self-destructing? If we’re OK, why is child pornography big business? If we’re OK, why are abortion clinics still running full steam? If we’re OK, why are millions of school children being drugged to keep them calm? If we’re OK, why do the elderly languish, unvisited, in the nursing homes? If we’re OK, why do the world’s nations continue in conflict?
The answer is a simple one. On our own, we’re not OK. Left to our own devices, we’re not all right. That’s the truth of it. You may not want to hear it; you may not like to listen to it. But your refusal to hear doesn’t change things. We’re not OK. Now, before you turn me off completely, let me ask you to do just one thing. I want you to look inside yourself, way down deep. Look past the façade your coworkers see; look past the side of yourself you show to your spouse. Look into that part of yourself that only you and God knows is there. What do you see? Be honest. Is it pretty in there? I already know the answer. If it were pretty, you wouldn’t have to keep it hidden, would you? If it were beautiful, you would have no problem showing yourself completely, honestly to all those around you. But you don’t do that. You know they would be shocked and surprised, hurt and horrified at what you’ve shown them.
I don’t know what is inside you. I’m not a prophet. For each of us, that darkness, that evil, that… sinful side, is different. In some of us there is a rage; others know an insatiable hunger. Some are afraid, others are disloyal, some battle lust or laziness. The dark differences between us are as numerous as the sins that humanity can commit. No, I’m not saying your darkness is on the surface. I’m saying it’s there. I know it’s there and because it’s there, you’re afraid you will never know true peace and contentment. You’re unhappy and you can’t help it. You are a sinner out of harmony with the Lord and the perfect life He wanted to give you. You are in rebellion against your God and there’s not a thing you can do about it. You’ve tried. I know you have, but, left to ourselves, the darkness remains.
Nor is there great consolation in knowing we’re not alone. The Bible is populated with people who had their own darkness. Read through Scripture. Every person there, even the great heroes of faith had their darkness. Abraham lost his priorities; David fell victim to lust; Elijah lost confidence; Moses overrode God’s instructions. The difference between them and some of us is not that they were better than we are. They weren’t; some were worse. The difference is they knew they weren’t OK. They realized they were sinners. They admitted their helplessness. And, by the power of the Holy Spirit they learned that God wants to build a bridge over the chasm that separates us from Him. By God’s grace, they were led to say, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” And to such repentant hearts, God is merciful.
Let me give an example from the New Testament. There was in the Galilean town of Capernaum, a tax collector by the name of Matthew. Now, I don’t want you to think of Matthew as being a respected representative of the Roman Internal Revenue Service. Matthew didn’t deal with income tax. He was probably a customs agent stationed along a major highway. His job was to tax everyone who traveled along that road. He could tax you for using the road; he could tax you for the goods you carried; he could tax you for the servants who helped you with your product; he could tax you for the donkey that carried your goods; for the feed you gave your donkey. He could tax you for just about anything he wanted. Tax collectors like Matthew kind of made up the rules as they went along.
Matthew’s life was probably a profitable one, but it also had a dark side. Somewhere along the way, Matthew had concluded that profit was more important than being a good neighbor, or a loyal son of his country. He would have been an embarrassment to his parents, shunned by the pillars of the community. Matthew had sold out and that was his darkness. He might have lived out his days in that darkness, except for what happened one extraordinary day. On that day, a man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth stopped by Matthew’s tax table. Only a few minutes before, Jesus had healed a man who had been crippled from birth. More importantly, Jesus had forgiven the man’s sins. Restored in body and soul, the man went home, leaving the entire community astounded at what had just happened.
It’s possible that Matthew heard about Jesus’ miracle. About that, I don’t know. I do know that when Jesus stopped by Matthew’s table, the Savior looked at him and said, “Follow Me.” Matthew did just that. He got up, left his job and followed Jesus. Normal people might wonder, “Why would he do that?” I have to believe it was because Matthew had looked within himself, just like you have, and he had seen the darkness of his sins. In a split second, Matthew was led to conclude that if he was ever going to be forgiven, if that darkness would ever be lifted, it would be because he had followed the Savior. For Matthew, it must have been a time of intense joy. I’ve been told that when somebody narrowly escapes death they see things differently. Colors become more vibrant, simple pleasures become profound, relationships are intensified. That happened to Matthew. He knew that the pathway of his life had been going down a dead end. When Jesus stopped by, offering him another way, Matthew was overjoyed. He invited Jesus to a grand supper. To that supper, Matthew also invited his friends. Oh, yes, Matthew had his friends. “Unsavory characters,” that’s what we would call Matthew’s friends. Prostitutes, other tax collectors, big-time sinners. They came to Matthew’s house and he introduced them to Jesus. You can almost hear Matthew say: “I’d like you to meet Jesus. He’s the one who brings God’s light into the darkness of a sinner’s heart.”
Of course, Matthew probably didn’t say anything that profound, at least not that day. How could he have? Matthew really didn’t know a great deal about Jesus. He did know that Jesus, a respected man, had taken the time to reach out to him. In the years to come, as Matthew followed the Lord, he would find out more, much more. Matthew would see Jesus reach out to others just as He had reached out to him. Matthew would see Jesus, understanding the unique sinful darkness that resided in each person’s heart, reach out to them; He would see Jesus reach out to that pained soul and heal them. It didn’t matter if other influential men and women of the community criticized the Christ, Jesus reached out. He had come to be a physician to those who were sick in their souls. It was unimportant to the Savior how everybody else felt about these poor souls with whom He came into contact. Jesus reached out. Why? Because He loved them. To reach out and save a lost and fallen world was why Jesus had been born.
Jesus reached out. To the lepers who were banished from home and family, Jesus reached out and sent them home, healed. To the woman caught and condemned for her adultery, Jesus reached out and sent her home forgiven. To the hated Samaritan, Jesus reached out. To the physically flawed, Jesus reached out. To little children, Jesus reached out. And to those, like Matthew, like you, who have seen the darkness within them; to people like us, Jesus reached out. He reached out, and He helped, and He healed all those who acknowledged Him as God’s Son and their Savior. He reached out and He healed them. At the end of His ministry, when His life was almost over, Jesus looked at you, right where you are at this very moment. He looked at your darkness, He reached in, and He took that darkness into Himself. That was the only way our darkness could have been destroyed. Jesus, God’s Son, carried our darkness, our sins, through His trials. He carried our darkness, our sins, to His cross. And there, hanging between heaven and earth, as your Substitute, Jesus died. And when Jesus died, so did your darkness.
Today a risen Lord, a death-conquering Christ stops before you and says, “Follow Me.” He who has the power to defeat death also has the ability to give your life new hope. Don’t hesitate. Don’t hide. Don’t lie and say, “I’m not guilty of nothing.” You can’t pull it off. Your friends know you’re guilty, your family knows you’re guilty, you know you’re guilty. God knows you’re guilty. But a risen Lord Jesus can also make guilty souls forgiven and new. Believe it. Trust it. Hold fast to it. The all-knowing Lord has seen into your dark heart; He knows you, and still-He loves you. That is the joy which transforms lives and offers heaven. That is the joy of faith in Jesus, God’s Son, our Savior, the Bringer of life and light to those who know they are sinners. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for June 5, 2005
TOPIC: IS GOD NECESSARY?ANNOUNCER: Is God necessary? That’s today’s question for Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Hi, Mark.
ANNOUNCER: Today, I’d like you to respond to something one of our co-workers heard as they tried to share their faith with a neighbor.
KLAUS: OK.
ANNOUNCER: The neighbor said, “Look, I understand why some people might think they need a God, but, as for me, I think God is pretty much unnecessary.” So, to put this into a question, “Is God necessary?” And if He is, how would you have answered that neighbor?
KLAUS: Let me answer it this way. Let’s say you’ve got a pet fish. Let’s call him Larry. Larry the fish. And let’s say Larry lives in a bowl of water on the nightstand. I don’t know whether this is cruel or not to the fish, but it’s a small environment in which Larry is living out his life. Now, imagine, every so often the water has to be added to this mini-aquarium. And every once in a while the water needs to be changed. On a fairly regular basis Larry needs to be fed. From the people I talk to, there are some other rules, common sense rules that need to be followed in order to keep Larry alive. Now, Mark, imagine if you will, that Larry the fish could talk. What would you think if the first words out of his mouth were something like, “A caretaker is entirely unnecessary for me”?
ANNOUNCER: I would think Larry had lost his little mind.
KLAUS: Why is that?
ANNOUNCER: Well, the truth is, everything about that fish is completely and totally dependent upon the good will of his owner, his caretaker.
KLAUS: The caretaker feeds Larry?
ANNOUNCER: Yes.
KLAUS: Sets up a suitable environment?
ANNOUNCER: Not only that, but maintains it.
KLAUS: Protects Larry from all kinds of problems that fish doesn’t even know exist?
ANNOUNCER: The fish has no idea what’s out there beyond the bowl.
KLAUS: So, for a fish to make such a statement would be ridiculous in the extreme.
ANNOUNCER: I would say this would be a very foolish fish. He doesn’t realize that everything is totally dependent upon the care and good will of his owner.
KLAUS: And if the owner should forget about the fish?
ANNOUNCER: It would be all over for Larry.
KLAUS: Now, that is my point. The fish is foolish for not seeing the obvious. People can be just as foolish if they can’t see God’s preserving hand in their lives. Psalm 53 says: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” The main difference between the Bible fool and the one we’re talking about today is that the Bible fool kept his opinions to himself, and didn’t go around sharing them with the neighbors. Martin Luther said it, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures, that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses and still preserves them.”
ANNOUNCER: So, you’re saying God not only got things started, He keeps things going.
KLAUS: Absolutely. We are the beneficiaries of God’s constant grace and goodness. I know things seem to be messed up in the world but imagine what it would be like if God walked away from us, if He removed His grace, even for a second, things would get mighty strange mighty fast.
ANNOUNCER: Could you give us an example of that?
KLAUS: Absolutely. You have somewhere between 10 and 100 trillion cells in your body. What keeps your brain cells doing thinking things and kidney cells doing filtering things and lung cells doing their good-air-in and bad-air-out thing? What keeps our eyeballs seeing, our ears hearing? How is it possible for me to think I’m going to raise my voice, and my vocal cords do that? We take these things for granted and get frustrated with God when it doesn’t work right, but the truth is, most of the time, it does. And that ongoing working is God’s gift. It’s also the way I would answer question #2, about how you would respond to the individual who doesn’t see God around him.
ANNOUNCER: And we haven’t even talked about all the ways God takes care of us. The things we never see; the accidents that never happen; the problems that never occur; the disasters that never materialize because of God watching out for us.
KLAUS: No, we didn’t even touch on those things. But they are just as important. God is real, whether you want Him to be or not.
ANNOUNCER: He’s real and He’s also not neutral or indifferent about our sinfulness. But, on account of Christ, He forgives, and that’s absolutely necessary.
KLAUS: And He keeps loving, whether people thank Him or not. And that is the way it is, until Judgment Day comes. Then it won’t be that way any more.
ANNOUNCER: And what will happen to all those folks who thought God was unnecessary?
KLAUS: They’re going to find themselves in a place where God won’t be protecting them.
ANNOUNCER: In hell.
KLAUS: A place without God’s protection – yes, that would be hell, Mark. But the good news is that God not only created and preserves us. Through Christ, He has also redeemed us and the Holy Spirit is working even now to create and sustain saving faith within us.