“How does she do that?” I think that whenever I see our organists play – especially at choir practice when they effortlessly play music they’ve never seen before. As much as I would like to do what they do, I can’t, even though I took eight years of piano lessons. I just don’t have the God-given talent they do to play the keyboard.
“How does she do that?” Have you ever asked this question in regard to another Christian? When you hear, for example, how the widow in the New Testament gave everything she had as an offering trusting that the Lord would take care of her, do you wonder how she did it? I’ve often even concluded that I can’t do what the widow did because my faith is not as strong as hers. If you too have thought this, Jesus has news for us. In our text he uses a mustard seed and a mulberry tree to illustrate how even a small faith can do big things like restrain, rebuke, and forgive sin.
Our text begins with Jesus saying: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves” (Lk. 17:1b-3a). As long as we live in this world, temptation will bombard us. That, however, is no excuse to rush headlong into sin. Jesus especially warns us against doing anything that would lead “little ones” to sin. In fact, he says, it would be better to have a millstone (a round stone as big as a boulder) hung around our neck and be thrown to the fish then to promote sin.
That’s a strong warning for us parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and older brothers and sisters isn’t it? When little children watch us what do they learn? Do they learn how to be patient and calm even when the computer isn’t doing what we want it to, or do they learn how to throw tantrums? Do they learn how to speak well of our governing officials, or get the impression from us that they are the scum of the earth and can be ridiculed? Do they learn what it means to be a cheerful servant, or learn well from us how to mope and complain about the chores around the house? Do they learn how to tell the truth, or bend the truth? Should I keep going? I don’t think I need to. It’s clear that God ought to hang millstones, not medals around our neck for the way we often promote sin instead of restrain it.
Jesus doesn’t just want us to restrain sin by setting a good example for others to follow; he wants us to restrain sin by rebuking it in others. “If your brother sins,” Jesus said, “rebuke him” (Lk. 17:3a). Jesus, of course, doesn’t want us to do this in a self-righteous manner (Matt. 7:3 ff.). We don’t point out sin in others to show how superior we are. We rebuke because sin damns and we don’t want anyone to suffer the eternal consequences of impenitent sin.
Although pointing out sin is a loving thing to do, society tells us to mind our own business. Unfortunately we Christians have listened to society and we don’t rebuke one another as often and as quickly as we should. If one of us, for example, were to crack a crude joke, how many of the rest of us would rebuke the sin? Aren’t we much more likely to remain silent, even pat ourselves on the back for not having been the one to crack the joke?
Let me illustrate how dangerous it is to think that my neighbor’s sin is none of my business, and to suppose that as long as I keep myself from sin all is well. A lifeboat drifted away from a sinking ship. All those aboard were happy to be alive. It was a funny thing then when one of the passengers started sawing a hole in the floor of the lifeboat. What was even stranger is that none of the other passengers said anything about it. No one said anything because the man was sawing under his seat, not under anyone else’s. What could they do, the other passengers reasoned, but mind their own business? If that man wanted to cut a hole under his seat and have water rush in around his ankles, well that was his problem, not theirs. Not their problem? Of course it was their problem! They should have rebuked the man. And if he didn’t want to listen, they should have taken his saw away, for the action of that one man would in time adversely affect all passengers (adapted from illustration in Concordia Pulpit Resources Volume 11, part 3, page 13).
Fellow members of St. Peter, when we think that the impenitent sin of another Christian is none of our business, in time our whole congregation will sink. That’s why Jesus gives us steps to deal with sin (Matt. 18). The purpose of church discipline is to save souls. Therefore it’s worth doing the way God wants it done.
But now what should we do when the sinner repents? Forgive of course! Jesus went as far as saying, “If [your brother] sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him” (Lk. 17:4). Jesus doesn’t just want us to forgive once or twice. If true repentance is there, he wants us to proclaim forgiveness again and again, even if this means forgiving the same person seven times for the same sin in the same day!
Don’t you find forgiveness to be a beautiful concept until we have to practice it (C.S. Lewis)? While we love to hear how God has thrown our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19) we’re slow to do the same for one another. We may even consider it impossible to forgive certain people and so have refused to do so.
The disciples must have felt the same way because after hearing how Jesus wanted them to restrain, rebuke, and forgive sin, they exclaimed: “Increase our faith!” (Lk. 17:5) That sounds like a pious response but the disciples might as well have said, “Who can do these things, Lord? They’re impossible! We don’t have enough faith.” In reality they were blaming God for their inability to do what he wanted them to do. That helps us understand what Jesus meant when he responded, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you” (Lk. 17:6). Jesus was not suggesting that true believers should be able to tend their gardens simply by commanding the weeds to be uprooted and sent to the compost. Of course if that was God’s will, it could be done that way. Jesus’ point was that the disciples didn’t need extra faith to do the seemingly impossible things he had urged them to do. God had already given them the power to restrain, rebuke, and forgive sin. The disciples just weren’t making use of that power. Instead they were making excuses by saying their faith was too small.
Sound familiar? Have you ever heard yourself say, “Oh, I I’ve tried to forgive that person but I just can’t. I guess I don’t have a strong enough faith.” The problem is not faith but focus. When we can’t forgive it’s because we are looking to ourselves for the power and not to God. When we think we can’t do what God wants us to do we need to call to mind these words of the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17) God has changed us through Christ. All the millstones we deserve to have hung around our neck have been placed around Jesus and our sins have been drowned in the depths of the sea. We are not only forgiven but we have been renewed to do what God wants us to do. Paul went as far as saying, “I can do everything (even restrain, rebuke, and forgive sin) through him who gives me strength” (Philip. 4:13). It’s not the “size” of your faith that matters; it’s the focus. Focus on God’s love for you and you will restrain, rebuke, and forgive sin.
Jesus ends our text with a parable about a master who doesn’t thank his slaves for doing what he has commanded them to do (Lk. 17:7-10). The point of the parable is that when we do, with God’s help, what he wants us to do, we should not think that we have done something special and deserve a pat on the back for it. Restraining, rebuking, and forgiving sin is simply our Christian duty.
“How does she do it?” Whether we say that about someone who is good at playing the piano or good at forgiving others, one thing is true, that individual can play the piano and forgive sin because God has given her the ability to do so. While God may not have given us the gift of making music, he has empowered each of us to restrain, rebuke, and forgive sin. That’s his promise. Stay focused on this promise and you will do what seems impossible no matter how small your faith may seem. Amen.
