Jesus said, “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.” What does it mean to be merciful? Here our Lord calls us to treat others as we have been treated by Him. How is that? How is our Father merciful to us? God's mercy is that He doesn't give us what we've got coming for our sins. God's mercy is that He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve. Our Father's being merciful means that He sends His Son to become a man and take our sins away rather than leaving us to be punished for them. The mercy of God is that rather than suffer for our own sins, rather than try to come up with what we owe to God, rather than try uselessly to work off our punishment, Jesus Christ comes and takes our place. He lives our life, perfectly keeping the Commandments and following the Father's will. He dies our death, crucified on the cross for our sins. Where you and I deserve to die for our sins, Christ dies for us and conquers death by rising again. Where God ought to leave us lying in the filth of our sins, instead He washes us with water and His Word in Holy Baptism. Where you and I deserve to hear the condemnation and death sentence pronounced by God, instead in the Holy Absolution we hear our pardon pronounced. Where God ought to let us starve, instead He feeds us with Jesus' body and blood, the Bread of Life. All that you have deserved, the Father lays upon the Son for you. Rather than treat you as an estranged sinner, in Christ, God the Father calls you His Son. THAT is the mercy of our heavenly Father.
Since God our Father has had mercy upon us in Christ, since He has not treated us as our sins deserve, how can we then go and treat others as if we can judge them? Jesus says, “Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned.” Even Christ Himself has not come to judge! In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “The Father did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but that it might be saved through Him.” And elsewhere He says, “I do not judge you; Moses judges you.” Meaning that the Law and Commandments speak condemnation, but Jesus came to give life. How then can we judge and condemn others? When God has freed you from your debt, do you dare to go and hold what someone owes you over their head? Brothers and sisters, listen carefully to what Jesus is saying: If you seek the mercy of God, if you don't want the Lord to hold your sins against you, if you come to church and receive forgiveness of sins, then don't you dare turn around and withhold that forgiveness from others. If Christ has come not to condemn you, then don't you dare condemn others. Don't claim to believe in the mercy of God when you have no intention or desire to exercise mercy over others!
But we do it all the time. “Judge not and you will not be judged.” Oh how people love to quote that bit of the Bible. When someone gets corrected for doing something wrong, they cry, “Judge not!” Why? because they want to sin without being bothered with having to repent and stop their sin. But don't we love to judge? We sure do. Every single one of us has people we know that don't at all measure up to our standards. And so we look down on them. Maybe its because we stayed married and they didn't. Maybe it's because we think our kids turned out better than theirs. Maybe because we have a better job. Or go to church more. Or do more for others. There is not a one of us who hasn't judged others as if we were better than them for one reason or another. And if you claim that you have not judged like others do? Well, point proven! Our sinful flesh just can't get enough of pointing out the smallest speck in someone's eye. But the Lord warns: Look out for the plank in your own eye! With those words, Jesus has just told you that no matter the sins, YOURS are bigger than your neighbor's! Wow. That's harsh. Brothers and sisters in Christ, repent! Repent of judging others as if you are more righteous than they are. Repent of condemning others who don't measure up. Repent of looking for specks when you've got a two-by-four sticking out of your eye. Repent because the Lord warns that you will be measured with the same measure you use! Why do you think so many TV preachers fall into gross sins? Because they preach nothing but condemnation of others and themselves as holier than thou. And their measure comes back to measure them when they end up doing the same things and worse! But never mind them, beware of such a measure used on you!
What is salvation for such amateur judges as us? Simple: God's mercy. If the Lord were to judge us as we judge others, we would be doomed! Instead He offers up His own Son in our place. And then the order is reversed! Where we would judge others, the Lord ought to judge us. And He will judge those who refuse His salvation! But now, having had mercy upon us, we learn to have mercy upon our neighbor and not hold their sins against them, just as the Lord doesn't hold our sins against us. So never mind the speck in your neighbor's eye. But there IS a plank, a log, a big piece of wood that you SHOULD keep in your eye. Not the plank of your sins, but the wood of the cross. Keep before your eye the vision of Christ crucified for you! See in that bloody God-Man that your Father has mercy on you. When you pass this font, and when you remember your baptism each day, let it be to remind you that the Father has been merciful to you in Jesus. When you come forward to eat and drink Jesus' body and blood, recall that by this holy food, the Lord is giving you what you don't deserve! And thank and praise God for His wonderful patience and His great mercy which is yours in Christ. Then ask yourself, with such mercy of God upon you, can you do anything less than have mercy upon your neighbor? Oh, yes, it's hard! I didn't say it wasn't! In fact, it's impossible and the world doesn't teach it at all! You will only learn mercy for your neighbor as you receive the mercy of God in the gifts He gives you here in church. Receive the mercy of God here. And the Spirit will work in you to be merciful to those around you.
Now I want to be clear about all this judging talk. The purpose of Jesus saying “Don't judge” is NOT for you to go around telling people to mind their own business when it comes to your sins! “Don't judge me!” The purpose of our Lord saying that is so that you don't go around judging others. HOWEVER, there IS a right kind of judging that goes along with our different callings in life. For example, it is OK to judge if you are, well, a judge. Also, parents must judge their children's behavior and correct and punish them when they do wrong. Part of a pastor's calling is to judge whether doctrine is right or wrong and to address the sins of God's people so that they will repent. So, yes, there are proper and right times to judge and measure. But even in those instances, do you see the opportunity for mercy? Mercy doesn't go to the letter of the law but releases one who is condemned from what they have coming. Remember that, parents, when your kids get in trouble. It's your job to punish, true. But it's also your job to teach mercy; to teach the forgiveness of sins. There is a great example of this in our Old Testament lesson today. Joseph was hated and despised by his brothers. They sold him into slavery and even that was only because it was more convenient at the moment than killing him. Joseph ended up serving hard time in Egypt's Pinckneyville Prison. And yet, by God' hand, Joseph ended up being the highest ruler in all Egypt only Pharaoh excepted. And when Dad died, the brothers knew they were in trouble. Now Joseph would get his revenge. Now he could take them down and ruin them and destroy them. But He did not. Because Joseph lived by the grace and mercy of God, He could do nothing less than carry out that same sort of mercy for his brothers, not punishing them, like they had coming but taking them in and caring for them. That's mercy—received by Joseph from God and given by Joseph to his undeserving brothers.
Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful.” God has not given you what you deserve. He has given Jesus what you deserve and has given you what is Christ's. Font, altar and pulpit are the places where you can see and hear for certain that the Father has not judged you but saved you. To worship God and to glorify Him in the highest way is nothing other than to seek His mercy and to receive His promises and blessings and forgiveness. And having received such a salvation, the highest and best good work you can do for the people in your life is to have mercy upon them, just as God has had mercy upon you. In other words, don't go to the limit of the Law, don't bring down upon them what they may indeed deserve. Rather, set them free from whatever debts they owe you. Stop keeping track. Stop measuring. This work is what is the greatest blessing for your neighbor so that no one will fear what they owe you but will rejoice to say, “That person had mercy upon me!” Don't judge. Don't condemn. Because you have not been judged and neither are you condemned. Christ was judged and condemned for you. Therefore both you and your brothers and sisters in Christ are free. Amen.