The Amazing Compassion of Our God :: Luke 6:36-42
[Jesus said:] Become compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Do not go on judging, and you will certainly not be judged. Do not go on condemning, and you will certainly not be condemned. Go on forgiving, and you will be forgiven. Go on giving, and it will be given to you. They will give a beautiful measure, having been pressed down, having been shaken, and having overflowed into your lap. For the measure which you measure, it will be measured back to you.
I invite everyone now to open your service book to page 324, fix your eyes on the fifth petition, and join me in confessing faithful doctrine on the Lord’s Prayer.
What is the Fifth Petition? And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that he would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing by punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.
IT IS AMAZING HOW COMPASSIONATE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER REALLY IS.
This is our theme.
Our Heavenly Father does not look at our sins and cast us aside because of them: He compassionately forgives. Our Heavenly Father does not withhold your petitions because he measures your worth: He compassionately gives. Our Compassionate God forgives us on account of Christ, who gives us the beautiful measure of eternal life through means of grace.
I. [Our Heavenly Father does not look at our sins and cast us aside because of them: He compassionately forgives.]
Brothers and sisters in Christ, your Heavenly Father is amazingly compassionate. He doesn’t just do compassionate things: Compassion is part of his identity, as he tells us in Exodus 34. Yahweh God is merciful and compassionate, deferring anger, and abounding in covenantal love and faithfulness (Ex 34:6). He doesn’t exist without compassion ... nor does he exist apart from compassion. He had compassion on Adam and Eve in the garden. He had compassion on Noah and his sons before the flood. He had compassion on the Israelites in bondage. He saw our plight and felt pity for us. More than that, he knows your plight ... He knows your sin ... He knows your pain ... He knows your sorrow ... He knows you.
As we heard last week from Luke 15, when we are lost, he is compelled by his compassion to search for us, and when he finds us, he calls all the company of heaven to celebrate with him (Lk 15:1-10). When we are far off, he does the unthinkable, running to us in compassion to embrace us and feed us forgiveness. When we are hurting, he speaks compassionate words of peace ... that is, absolution (Ps 138:4, Gen 50:21). When we are naked, he clothes us in robes of righteousness. When we are hungry, he feeds us his bread of heaven. When we are thirsty, he gives us his cup of salvation. And as we continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness, he continuously and compassionately extends his magnificent invitation to join the feast of forgiveness ... the unending celebration of joy in the kingdom of God because we who once were lost, now are found. It is therefore fitting that we celebrate and rejoice (Lk 15:32a), that our God has (and continues to) overcome our evil with his good (Rm 12:14-21).
Yes, it is amazing how compassionate our Triune God really is.
II. [Our Heavenly Father does not withhold your petitions because he measures your worth: He compassionately gives.]
Our reading from Luke chapter 6 is part of our Lord’s Sermon on the Plain. This sermon is the most significant summary of Jesus’ catechesis ... that is, teaching ... in the Gospel of Luke. Here, we hear Jesus instructing his disciples ... (Yes, that means you, too) ... what it means to be a disciple, and how miserably we fail at that. To be a disciple means to be a perpetual student of God’s Word, which shows you in no uncertain terms your sin and your need for a savior ... just like the sick, the lame, the blind, and the deaf. Jesus is describing how repentant sinners live, saying, Whoever comes to me, hears my sayings, and does them (6:47).
We need to listen because too often we want vengeance to be mine, not God’s. We want to be the judge and jury ... because we want things our way. Too often we want those who sin against us to get what we think they deserve. We want to condemn ... because we want things our way. Too often we tell ourselves it’s okay to forgive but not forget, which is another way of saying we won’t forgive. These things are the opposite of the compassion we pray for in the fifth petition.
Repent! Recognize the sin in your life and trust the Word of our Savior, who longs to make you compassionate, just like your heavenly Father..
III. [Our Compassionate God forgives us on account of Christ, who gives us the beautiful measure of eternal life through means of grace.]
Today’s Gospel from Luke 6 isn't so much a directive as it is a divine intervention. The verb for “become compassionate ... you will not be judged ... you will not be condemned ... you will be forgiven, it will be given ... pressed down, shaken together, overflowing ... these are all divine passives. That means these things happen to us by divine intervention. Our compassionate Triune God sees that we are captives of death, so he does something about it. He sees that we are poor, miserable sinners, so he does something about it. He knows that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to him. So he does something about it. He leads us into repentance ... to remove the log in our eye so that we will see clearly that his forgiveness is now yours to give (vv 36-38a). Now we can: Go on forgiving ... Go on giving ... becoming compassionate, just like your Father is compassionate. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the actor here. Our Triune God will give the beautiful measure of forgiveness into your lap.
Talk about an amazingly beautiful measure!
In his compassionate mercy, God died for you. Our Sinless Savior in his body lifted the heavy burden of our sin onto his cross, where he suffered for it. He lifted all the burdens of human life ... despair, depression, anxiety, pain, fear, loss ... all the things that weigh people down ... up onto his cross. He had made sure his body of divine mercy was nailed to his cross so he could not move from it until he had paid the redemption price for you ... his death. Your sin then died on the cross, and it was buried so you will never hear from it again.
It was in this way, that instead of judging you, your heavenly Father judged his beloved son. Instead of condemning you, he condemned his beloved son, Jesus. But he didn’t just stop there, just as importantly, he raised Jesus from the dead to give you the overflowing beautiful measure of hope and joy ... knowing that everlasting life is yours ... that it is for you.
God certainly didn’t have to do any of this for you. But like I said, this is his character. He didn’t have to turn the other cheek in the Garden when Adam and Eve blamed God, the devil, and each other for their sin and shame. Instead of striking them down right then and there, in compassion, God was merciful to them, giving them the promise of our redemption through the son of the woman (3:15) ... covering their shame with the first sacrifice ... and finally protecting them from living eternally in sin while sending us into the world to proclaim how amazing his compassion really is (Gen 3:21-22).
Later, he waited patiently in the days of Noah ... another example of compassionate mercy ... while the ark was being prepared. He saved eight people, bringing them safely through the water of a baptismal flood. As Peter proclaims, baptism now saves you (1 Pet 3:21). And the beautiful measure of the Holy Spirit is still overflowing into your life. Your sin was washed in this flood so that God could raise you into eternal life just as Christ was raised from the dead (Rm 6:3-4).
Because the Holy Spirit has now cleansed the temple within you, Jesus is now with you always ... leading you through this wilderness of sin ... enabling you to become compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. He has clothed us with the robes of righteousness to wear to his great feast. And now he’s calling you into the Lord’s Supper, the beautiful measure of bread and wine, body and blood that is pressed down, shaken together, overflowing in your lap. Because we are weak from sin, He even goes on giving it into our hands ... into our mouths ... for the forgiveness of your sin.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, do you see the amazingly beautiful measure that is overflowing for you! You, the Children of God, have been chosen in compassion to taste and see that the Lord is good! As the psalmist concluded for us today ... Your covenantal love, O LORD, endures forever (Ps 138:8) ... in Jesus’ name.