The Lutheran Hour
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"Remember Not the Former Things"
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Text: Isaiah 43:18, 25
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Memorial Day weekend. What a wonderful time to remember; a time to remember the many veterans, both living and dead, who have so faithfully served this nation in the armed services. One of my fondest memories as a young man on Memorial Day, was accompanying my father, himself an army veteran, to numerous cemeteries in order to commemorate the lives of fallen comrades. No matter where we live, what country we claim as our own, there are special times set aside to help us remember significant events, important dates, and important people of the past. For example, for those of you listening in Canada, you’ve just celebrated Victoria Day, a time to remember those who have faithfully governed your nation. But in spite of these remembrance reminders, we sometimes find it very easy to forget.
Not only is it easy to forget national holidays and the big events in life, but also the small things as well. Now that I’m over 40, I find it much easier to forget people’s names; or to send a card to my mother on her birthday; or where I put my car keys; or sometimes even to pay a bill on time. Do you find yourself doing the same type of thing?
We’re all quite adept at forgetting, aren’t we? However, there is one thing that seems almost impossible for us to forget. Do you know what that is? It’s sin!
I find it very difficult to forget the sins that I have committed in the past. It’s not hard at all for me to remember the sins that I have committed against God and other people. There seem to be little “life reminders” popping up all the time that prompt unwelcomed recollections of the careless actions taken, or the caustic words spoken that have caused hurt to other people. But for as simple as it is to recall my own sins, I find it even easier to remember the sins that others have committed against me!
There are many, many dangers in revisiting the sins that other people have committed against us. One is that by nursing grudges against others, we end up only hurting ourselves. Another is that our memories are far from perfect. We recall events in a manner that is oftentimes quite inaccurate. It’s far too easy for us to cast ourselves in a very innocent light, and portray other people as the guilty party. Do you have this problem? Sure! Everyone does, Christian and non-Christian alike. Even Israel, God’s chosen people, had this problem. And perhaps that’s why God is so clearly saying in Isaiah 43 verse 18: “Do not remember the former things!! Stop dwelling on the things that are past.”
What was Israel is remembering? Well, if we look at verses 16 and 17 we’re told that they were remembering their Exodus from Egypt. Now that shouldn’t have been such a bad thing – right? After all, in other parts of the Old Testament God reminds them not to forget what He had done for them – how He had led them out of slavery with an outstretched arm. Why would God now be telling His people to stop remembering the Exodus?
Well, I suspect it’s because they were doing something similar to what was previously described. As they remembered the Exodus, they did so with faulty faculties. They were fooling themselves – making themselves out to be heroes of faith, when in fact they were anything but! Perhaps they had forgotten the hard lessons learned from 40 years of wilderness wandering. God had been good to them during the Exodus – but they had been very, very bad! They had regularly grumbled against God and His servant, Moses. They blamed God and Moses for all that had been done to them – and they had forgotten what God had done for them. In the twenty-first chapter of Numbers we’re told that as a result of Israel’s grumbling God had sent poisonous snakes into their midst.
Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us that in verses 22-24 of our text, (Isaiah 43), we find God giving them a much more accurate rendering of their wilderness wanderings:
“You have not called upon Me; ” God said, “You have been weary of Me; You have not honored Me; You have burdened Me with your sins.” God isn’t speaking about the sins that others had committed against Israel, but rather He’s speaking about the sins that Israel had committed against Him.
In many ways, we are much more like the Israelites than we care to admit. While very good at remembering the sins of others, we forget our own sins. Sometimes we even blame God for the things that have happened to us. The question is, what good can possibly come from it? In truth, very little. The only positive purpose that remembering our sins can serve is to lead us to repentance.
It’s quite easy to criticize and condemn the sins of others – but it is our sins that should concern us. It is our sins that need confessing. And ultimately, it’s not only the sins of others, but our sins that need forgetting.
And that’s why God says, “Stop remembering! Stop looking to your past and instead look to the future.” ” For behold,” He says, ” I will do a new thing. It shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? ”
What is this “new thing” that God is speaking of? It is a new exodus! An eternal exodus. An exodus out of slavery, the slavery of sin! It is a grand and glorious exodus. A new exodus that will provide deliverance on a much greater scale than did the one of old.
I grew up in a small town. The highlight of every summer was the Northland Mardi Gras. For months kids would save their money so that they could afford to ride the rock-o-plane, or eat cotton candy and caramel apples, or try their luck at playing games in order to win one of those stuffed animal. Mardi Gras weekend was absolutely wonderful! But in retrospect, it doesn’t begin to compare with the amusement parks found in America today – places like Six Flags, or Busch Gardens, or Disney World! In much the same way the old Exodus, for as good as it was, simply can’t compare with the new.
This new exodus begins not with the calling of God’s people out of Egypt, but with the calling of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, out of Egypt. You may remember from Christmas, how Joseph and Mary had fled to Egypt in order to escape from King Herod. And how in the Gospel Matthew, we’re told “This was to fulfill what was written,” ‘Out of Egypt have I called My Son.’ “Rather than going through the wilderness and then entering into the Promised Land by crossing the Jordan, as the Israelites had done, Jesus, the true Israel, first crossed the Jordan in His baptism and then went into the wilderness, there to be tempted by Satan.
And rather than being fed on bread from heaven, Jesus Himself would be the living Bread sent from heaven, from which His followers would faithfully eat and never die.
Rather than taking the city of Jericho by storm, Jesus would humbly enter Jerusalem. The greater exodus would lead Jesus not out of slavery, but into slavery – the slavery of our sin. He would become the captive of those who wanted to put Him to death. But it was through his death that He would lead all of those held captive by sin into eternal life.
Because of this greater deliverance from sin provided by Jesus Christ, we not only have the assurance of dwelling in the eternal Promised Land of heaven, but we also have the comfort of no longer needing to dwell upon our past sins.
Take Saint Peter, for example. He had sinned very grievously against His Lord by betraying Him. And yet, after the resurrection Jesus appeared to Peter, and restored Peter, and reassured Peter that all had been forgiven. Therefore, Peter did not need to dwell upon his past sins. Instead we find Peter, in the letters of the New Testament that bear his name, remembering only Jesus’ death and resurrection which had opened the kingdom of heaven not only to him, but to all believers, and it’s in those epistles that he reminds us to do the same.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ reminds us to stop remembering the sins of the past. But more than just serving as a reminder, the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides the means to actually do so. That means comes through His precious body and blood, given to us in the Lord’s Supper. Remember when, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus celebrated the Passover just as all of those Israelite people had done so many times before. But this Passover was different because Jesus Himself would be the lamb who would be killed in order to provide eternal deliverance. It was on that Passover that Jesus celebrated that He took bread and broke it and gave it to His disciples, and said, “Take, eat. This is My body, given for you.” And then He took the cup and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take drink, this is the blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of all of your sins. Do this in remembrance of Me.” Every time we partake of this precious meal, we remember Jesus. But more importantly, we actually receive His forgiveness for our sins. The Lord’s Supper assures us that, in fact, Jesus has taken all of our sins, as well as the sins of others in the entire world, upon Himself. And therefore, when we approach His table, we’re to leave those sins with Him. After communion, as we leave the table, we are to remember only Christ’s grace and mercy and forgiveness.
We are not to look back on our sins, but only to look to Christ and to our future! It is the assurance of living in the Redeemer’s presence.
The prophet Isaiah makes frequent mention of the Redeemer. In Isaiah chapter 44 verse 6 we’re told that the Redeemer is the first and the last – and there are no other gods beside Him. In Isaiah 44 verse 24, Isaiah refers to the Redeemer who formed you, and who created all things. In Isaiah 47 verse 4 He’s called the Lord of Sabaoth – the commander of the Lord’s armies. And in Isaiah 54 verse 8 the Redeemer is referred to as the compassionate God. But here in Isaiah 43, He is the Redeemer who forgets sins! It’s not that God has lost His memory – it’s not that He can’t remember – rather, He purposefully chooses not to remember. In one translation of this passage we are told that God chooses not to record our sins! And the Redeemer keeps no record of wrongs.
Why does the Holy One do this? Is it because His people have served Him so well and so faithfully, and therefore deserve His forgiveness? No. God keeps no record of our sins; doesn’t dwell upon our sins; doesn’t bring our sins up again and use them against us for one reason – and that reason is clearly given in Isaiah 43 verse 25: “For My own sake” He says.
Forgiveness is not an occasion. It’s not a one-time event or a feeling that God has. Forgiveness is a description of who God is. He is a merciful God, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love! Because God loves you, He cannot help but forgive you. And because He forgives you, He will also forget every sin that you have committed against Him or against anyone else. What a wonderful promise, a great promise, to remember.
As I think back upon Memorial Day services long since past. I fondly remember many of the details of those services, not the least of which was the reading of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. We’re all familiar with this wonderful speech; it was a short and simple speech originally given among the graves of men who had worn the blue and the gray. One of the most memorable lines reads as follows: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” On the one hand, Lincoln was wrong – we have remembered what he said there. On the other, he was right – we haven’t forgotten what they did there. Nor have we forgotten what our other veterans have done in so many other places. Nor will we forget what the men and women of our armed services today are doing now for the sake of our nation. But these memorable words of an unforgettable president can also be applied to Jesus Christ. In fact, they are even more applicable to what He has done. We simply cannot forget what He did on the cross. We can’t forget the empty tomb on that Easter Sunday. We can’t forget that with His resurrection we have the assurance of eternal life. We are assured that our sins, and the sins of the whole world, have been forgiven; that death has been swallowed up in the victory of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.
Though we may at times remember our sins – what we have done, or what others have done to us – we simply must not forget what He has done for us on the cross Every time we look at His cross, we are looking upon the assurance of His salvation.
Nor can we forget what He said in His Gospel; and the promises found therein. Not the least of which is the promise of the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power not to dwell upon the sins of the past, as well as granting us the comfort of knowing that we will one day dwell with Jesus in heaven.
I pray that this Memorial Day we will make memories by attending the services at those cemeteries, listening to the sound of Taps being played on trumpets, and the 21-gun salutes. As we stand by the graves of loved ones long since gone, as we honor their memory, may they serve as a reminder of the sting of death and the power of sin. And as we peer upon the gravestones with memorable words engraved in the granite, may we be comforted, not simply by those words, but more importantly by the Word of God given by Jesus Christ, recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and engraved upon our hearts in Holy Baptism. It is His Word, and the Gospel promise found therein, that remind us that there is something much more powerful than death. It is the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is the resurrection and the life, and everyone who believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live! Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions and Answers) for May 28, 2006
TOPIC: – Does God Exist if Love Does Not? – Part 2ANNOUNCER: And now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to a listener’s question. I’m Mark Eischer and we’re picking up where we left off last week with the question, “If God is love, can He exist where there is no love?”
KLAUS: Mark, would you give a brief synopsis of last week?
ANNOUNCER: Well, we started off giving an answer to the question of whether God exists, talking about the proofs of God’s existence. But then we started this question about whether a loving God can exist in a world where there doesn’t seem to be much love.
KLAUS: You know, when the angel came to the Bethlehem shepherds with news of the Savior’s birth, he said, (Luke 2: 10, 11) “Fear not, I bring you good news of great joy that is for all people.” Right from the beginning, Jesus was sent to be a joy to the world. That would make a great Christmas carol, I think. Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
ANNOUNCER: Someone’s beaten you to that.
KLAUS: Always. At any rate, when Jesus talked about hearing the Word of God, He said believing hearts would receive it with joy. After His resurrection, when He appeared to the disciples, they had joy in their hearts. After His ascension the disciples were once again filled with joy. If you read through the book of Acts, you can hear how members of the early church were constantly being filled with joy.
ANNOUNCER: Well, you would think that all Christians are supposed to always be filled with joy. But the truth is we’re not. And where do you see this joy of God’s love in a world that seems to have such a lack of it?
KLAUS: You mean with crime in the streets, and political corruption; death and pain and wars and rumors of wars….
ANNOUNCER: Or, even on a personal level, people that have individual burdens to bear – problems at home with the family, finances, or their health. And the answer has to be more, I think, than just – well, you have to be positive and create your own reality and see the glass as being half-full rather than half-empty.
KLAUS: Nope, I’m not going to give any glass half-full answers. What I’d say is a profound Biblical truth that changes everything.
ANNOUNCER: And what is that profound Biblical truth?
KLAUS: It’s this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak, but He is strong.
ANNOUNCER: And we know you didn’t write that.
KLAUS: No, but I wish I had, Mark. If an individual understands those words, if he holds on to those words, the clouds that seem so thick start to clear away. Not the fading memory of a dear but departed friend, but a living Lord Jesus is with His people, loving them. The world can press in, but Jesus is there. The world’s lack of love does not diminish God’s capacity to love or prevent Jesus from coming to us with His love.
ANNOUNCER: He comes to us in His Word, in His Sacraments, and in the Good News that He died and rose again for us.
KLAUS: Yeah. People may not feel that He is there with them, but Jesus is. After all, where did God show His love for us most clearly? On a cross, surrounded by hatred. You may feel that everything around you is falling apart, but the risen Jesus is there, with words of promise that are stronger than your feelings. And not just there, but there loving you, and forgiving you, and restoring you, and holding you.
That’s what Saint Paul wrote to the church at Rome: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that’s going to be revealed. Jesus loves us. The world has its hurt and its pain. Christians aren’t immune from those things. But the ultimate, the final victory belongs to those who trust in Him as their Savior.
Even more than a final victory, we are, in Jesus, given victories in this life. Wrapped securely in the Savior’s love, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Jesus loves me, this I know. That’s why the tribulation, distress, and danger and sword can’t separate us from the love of God which is ours in Jesus. You know how that passage ends, Mark.ANNOUNCER: Yeah, it says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors…”
KLAUS: Let me interrupt there. Does it say we will be more than conquerors?
ANNOUNCER: No, it says we are more than conquerors.
KLAUS: Right. Right now, the love of God, the peace of God, the presence of the Savior lets us know that we are more than conquerors, whether it looks like it or not.
ANNOUNCER: And also whether we might feel like it or not.
KLAUS: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. And He loves our listener, too.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s why the angel said: Fear not, for we have good news of great joy. Unto you is born today a Savior.
KLAUS: That’s why.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain” arranged by Henry Gerike. Used by permission
“What Shall I Render to Lord” by Jayne Southwick Cool. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Draw Us to You” by Michael Burkhardt. From Hymn Improvisations, vol. 1 by Michael Burkhardt (© 1993 MorningStar Music Publishers)
“O Day Full of Grace” by Charles Ore. From From My Perspective, vol. 4 by Charles Ore. (© 2002 Organ Works Corporation)