Don't Give Up on Christ. Look Up

The Twelfth sunday after pentecost

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. ^5:1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (NIV)

You came out of theater and you were disappointed because the movie wasn’t as good as you had hoped.  You finished the book and you were disappointed because the ending was a let down.  You were disappointed after the game because your team came up short.  You were disappointed when you finished your meal at the restaurant that everyone had been raving about, because you just didn’t care for it that much.  We’re not strangers to disappointment.  We’re used to facing it on different levels on a regular basis. Sometimes, we’re even the cause of it.  I recall while growing up that about the worst thing I could imagine hearing were the words “We’re disappointed in you” from my parents.  It was one thing to do something wrong and get scolded or punished for it – that’s fair enough.  But to know that you let your parents down was crushing.  It’s a horrible feeling to know that we’ve let anyone down; it’s especially hard when the people we let down are our parents. 

Or God.  If parents are disappointed in the disobedient behavior of their children, how much more so must God be disappointed with our sin?  Why?  Because remember what he’s done for us in the first place.  Paul spent the entire first half of his letter to the Ephesians reminding them of God’s grace to sinners.  Listen to some of the pictures and descriptions he used – pictures and descriptions that apply to you as well: “saints” and “faithful” (1:1), “he chose us… to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ” (1:4), “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (1:7,8), “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (2:4,5), “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (2:19).  All this God has so graciously done for us, so how does Paul discourage us from disappointing God?  He says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (v.30).  Can you imagine God lamenting?  Can you imagine him being overcome with sorrow?  Can you imagine him being crushed?  Now, can you imagine him feeling this way because you caused it by your sin? Perish the thought.

Instead, let us strive to live according to the new man in each of us, the one cleansed and fed by the gracious promises of God’s forgiveness.  To do that, as we continue to grow up and shape up, let us always remember to Look Up.

There are two reasons that one person will tell another to look up.  We usually assume it is because there is something to see, as most often that is what is intended when the command is given.  But the other reason can be just as important.  Sometimes, when a person says, “look up,” the one speaking is trying to divert the other person’s attention away from something that could cause harm.  The person terrified of heights is discouraged from looking down when there is a significant drop below him, so someone else tells him to be sure to look up and keep looking up.  When there’s a sketchy commercial on TV while a child is watching, a concerned parent might call for the child’s attention so as not to see the commercial. 

Paul applies the encouragement the same way.  To look up is to divert our attention and energy away from the moral filth all around us and in us.  It simply isn’t in keeping with the type of transformed believers Paul describes in the first three chapters of Ephesians.  To look up is to “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (v.31). 

But we also are told to look up when there’s something else we shouldn’t miss.  That is, other times “look up” is intended not to draw our attention away from something, but toward something else.  A shooting star or a quick glimpse of rare wildlife might be reason to look up.  A teacher losing her patience with a daydreaming student might firmly tell him to look up at her when she’s showing the class how to do something.  A coach, noticing that his player is about to get smacked by a ball headed right for him, yells at the player to look up and catch the ball so that he doesn’t end up with a black eye or a goose-egg on his forehead.  So we are encouraged to look up, not just so that we avoid one thing, but so that we don’t miss another.

When it comes to living the righteous lives which in Christ we have been set free to live, it is not only important that we look up to Christ, but essential.  “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (v.23).  You know what’s easy?  Bitterness, rage and anger… slander, etc.  You know what’s difficult? Kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.  You know why?  Because it’s easier to look laterally than it is to look up.  There’s not a person here this morning that doesn’t know that the staple of Christianity is forgiveness.  It is the centerpiece, it is what sets it apart from all religions, and it is impossible on our own.  Because by nature we’re like pigs who prefer to wallow in the muck, even after Christ has made us clean.  We wallow in the muck when we harbor hate and bear grudges against others, because we prefer to look laterally and focus on how rotten that person is or how terribly wronged we were.  And we can go on like that for a long time.  And we will go on like that for a long time… unless we look up.

For then we see the model of forgiveness.  When I look up at God and his unconditional forgiveness toward me, I am slapped in the face with the reality that I have no business whatsoever withholding forgiveness from others.  That is why Paul attaches that example of Christ’s forgiveness to us when he encourages our own forgiveness.  When we struggle with how to find it in ourselves to forgive others, he says to not bother looking at ourselves – we won’t find anything; instead, look up and see how gracious God is to you.  If he does not count your most vile and shameful sins against you, then who are you to count the sins of another against him?  Christ has forgiven him.  Will you not?

A missionary once taught that very lesson.  He noticed a convert to Christianity speaking unkindly of a third party.  “Is she a Christian?” asked the missionary. “Yes, I believe so,” replied the convert.  “Well then, since Jesus loves her in spite of that, why it is that you can’t?”  The gossip ceased immediately when the stinging rebuke was felt.  A short time after, the same individual was speaking to the missionary with the same unkind spirit about some other individual.  Again the missionary asked the question, “Is she a Christian?”  Thinking himself to have learned his lesson previously, he thought he knew just how to answer.  He said, “Actually, I am quite certain she is not.”  “Oh, then,” responded the missionary, “I should think that we must feel such sorrow and pity for her lost soul, that it would be impossible for us to have any worse feelings about her, no matter what she did.” 

Only Christ can allow us to see things so simply.  The brother or sister in Christ who sins is forgiven by Jesus himself – how can we do otherwise?  Or, in the case of the unbeliever who sins, how can we sit and stew and slander, when the soul in question is one that is currently on the path to eternal damnation in hell?  How can we do anything but forgive?  Can we forget about the one who didn’t just show us forgiveness, but earned that forgiveness for us by having the life sucked out of him through the agonizing cruelty of the cross?  He died for you and me.  How could we possibly be so arrogant as to presume that only we deserved that forgiveness and not this other person who has done wrong?  No, his sacrifice for us commands our respect and begs us to pay that forgiveness forward.  His sacrifice deserves to be recognized, as was the sacrifice of a slave for his Roman master.

This slave, who knew that there were some who wanted to put his master to death, dressed himself in the clothes of his master, so that he would be mistaken for him.  It worked.  The slave was taken, and he was put death in place of his master.  The master was compelled to recognize his servant’s sacrifice, and had a brass statue of the servant raised in his memory.  The sacrifice of Christ for you and me was far greater.  The difference it makes is eternal.  How can you recognize and commemorate that deep, deep sacrifice?  You can forgive, “just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Would you like for it to become easier and easier to forgive others?  Then continue to look up, not just once, not just here and there, but always, continually, throughout life.  Do it over and over and over, until it sinks in how your Savior endlessly forgives you.  “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (v.1,2).  Imitate him (NIV 1984).  Follow his example (NIV 2011). 

When you struggle with forgiving others – and you will, for you are not Christ, but seek merely to imitate him – remember the lesson a grandfather taught his grandson.  When his grandson came to him full of anger at a classmate, the old grandfather said, “Let me tell you a story. I, too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.”

He continued, “It is as if there are two wolves inside me: One is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will fight only when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But the other wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit.” The boy asked, “Which one wins, Grandfather?” The grandfather said, “The one I feed.”  That is the key: to feed the new man in you; to make sure he is properly nourished, so that he wins the battles in your heart.  To accomplish this, yes, look up, but also be sure to come back next Sunday morning as conclude our series and focus on how necessary it is to Eat up. Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)