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“Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.”

᛭ INI ᛭

“Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.” But in what way is your heavenly Father merciful? He doesn’t just set aside what you’ve done against Him. He doesn’t just ignore it, sweep it under the rug, let bygones be bygones, or shrug it off. Your heavenly Father doesn’t do any of that with your sins.

For sure He sets your sins aside. For sure He covers your sins. For sure He takes away your sins. If He sets them aside, takes them away, they end up somewhere. But where then do they end up? If He covers them up, averts His gaze from them, what’s covering them? What’s He then focused on, if it’s not your sins?

That’s the ultimate question. And there’s only answer to that question that lines up with what God tells us in His Word. There’s only one answer that will truly give peace to the sinner. Only one answer that satisfies as much as a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing,” given right “into your lap,” literally “your bosom.”

(2. Your heavenly Father is merciful in and through Christ.)

“Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.” How merciful is that? In what way is your heavenly Father merciful? He’s merciful in this way: He takes the whole heaping pile of ruin that is your sins, every way that it creeps into every aspect of your daily life, each dark corner of your heart, “your bosom,” where sin resides, lurking, waiting to pour forth again from your heart, through your mouth and into your life—He takes it all, and gives it to His eternal and eternally sinless Son, Your God and Lord, IHS Christ.

Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. His blood covers all your sins like the depths of the sea, like we heard last week. All your sins and the eternal consequences before God’s judgment throne get credited to Christ’s account. He’s forsaken because of them. As Paul says, God has “forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Col 1) Nailing it to the cross in the suffering, crucified, dead flesh of His Son, for Christ “bore our sins IN His own body on the tree, by His wounds you have been healed, forgiven,” as the Spirit says through Peter. (1-Pet 2)

As the River of Life flows downward from Mt. Eden and God’s eternal Zion, giving life to all the world, so also all the mercy of God flows down to each of us from the Holy Mountain called Calvary. At the place of the skull, Golgotha, every skeleton of sin that’s in your closet and mine is given the Sisera treatment by Christ, Christ receiving four nails, when even just one peg would do… Christ also “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in [the cross]!” Satan, who accuses God’s people night and day, was sent packing forever, for Christ’s blood “has set us free to be the people of God.”

And the mercy of God in Christ really is yours. It’s as true as Christ’s death and resurrection. It’s a real as Eden was. It happened for you just as Jael happened upon Sisera. He’s been so merciful to not just make it something you’ve got to agree to or make a choice for. He doesn’t just create the chance for mercy. He accomplishes mercy, purchases mercy, purchases redemption, purchases the forgiveness of sins, and then He delivers it. And He does so in the only way your heavenly Father knows how: “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing,”

Baptism promises and brings [a great many benefits and blessings]: victory over death and the devil [Romans 6:3–6], forgiveness of sin [Acts 2:38], God’s grace [Titus 3:5–6], the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with His gifts [1 Corinthians 6:11]. [42] In short, Baptism is so far beyond us that if timid nature could realize this, it might well doubt whether it could be true. [43] Think about it. Imagine there was a doctor somewhere who understood the art of saving people from death or, even though they died, could restore them quickly to life so that they would afterward live forever. Oh, how the world would pour in money like snow and rain. No one could find access to him because of the throng of the rich! But here in Baptism there is freely brought to everyone’s door such a treasure and medicine that it utterly destroys death and preserves all people alive. (LC V)

Not only that, but “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing,” is the nature of the Gospel itself, through which God “does not give us counsel and aid against sin in only one way. God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world [Luke 24:45–47]. This is the particular office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the Power of the Keys.” (SA-III-IV) It’s hard to believe any of that is true, but it is…

(1. We ought to be merciful with that mercy and not our own.)

“Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.” The mercy flows into your “lap,” literally your “bosom.” He pours out His overflowing mercy and forgiveness into your heart by faith and if He’s pouring an overflowing amount there. It seems that it would then just keep on overflowing until it falls out of your lap, overflows the breaches of your bosom, and spills out into your daily life toward the people in your daily life. Like Joseph did for His brothers who sinned against him…

But there often wells up from the deep dark recesses of our hearts something besides mercy. That’s what Christ confronts us with today. He brings up how the Father’s mercy ought to spin out in our daily lives through us, but how often it doesn’t. Of there’s much more of an over flowing of grudges, bad blood, of keeping score and settling the score, rather than mercy, forgiveness, and kindness. We often keep record of someone’s misdeeds against us. There’s a lot of “she did this,” and “he did that,” all the while when we do those very same things to others, we’ve got a reason for why it’s okay for us but not them. “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

“Love doesn’t keep a record of wrong.” Not only because it’s loving. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,” not only because then you wouldn’t be hypocritical. “Love doesn’t keep a record of wrong” because God has “forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us.” (Col 2) “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4) “God is love.” “We love because He first loved us.” (1-Jn 4) “And God loved the world in this way: He gave up His only Son,” (Jn 3) “not counting their trespasses against them.” (2-Cor 5)

And yes, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” (Mt 7) But how often we use forgiveness, or let others use forgiveness, to keep living in sin… And yes, “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, “I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Lk 17) But how often we use that as an excuse not to forgive. “They didn’t repent enough…” we say. Have you? Not seeking to forgive someone sins against them: “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt 6) “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” (Mt 5)

(Conclusion.)

“Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.” How is He merciful? Christ dead for you and your sins, even the sins of the whole world. How great is that mercy? How much is it? “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing.” That mercy of God, His forgiveness and redemption in Christ IHS, His Son, our Lord, flows downhill from Calvary. It overflows into the Font, it tsunamis forth as Absolution and Sermon constantly announce the forgiveness of ALL your sins, it’s bottomless in the chalice of Christ’s blood, shed for you. There you “learn from Christ to love God and your neighbor.” (Christian-Question 18)

“Thou anointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.” (Ps 23) That’s how the Lord does mercy. That’s how the Lord forgives you. It abounds in many ways to you: Baptism, Absolution, Gospel preached and taught, the Supper of Christ’s body and blood. Yes, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing,” given right “into your lap,” literally “your bosom.” And from you the Lord causes it to overflow to those around you, that, as a result of God’s own mercy in Christ, you really are in word and deed, by true and living active faith in Christ, “merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

᛭ INI ᛭