Thursday after the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 8/3/00

Matthew 27: 3-4 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!" Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. --NKJV

In the name of the One Who was condemned so that we could be forgiven, amen.

The real tragedy with Judas isn't so much that he hanged himself, but that he died in unbelief. The shocking thing is that he was halfway to repentance. He felt sorry for his sin, but he didn't look to Christ for forgiveness. And the people he went to for forgiveness committed spiritual murder when they did not show him his salvation in Jesus.

Spiritual murder is a real concept; it is spoken of elsewhere in Holy Scripture. When someone is sorry for their sins, we should take them the next step and show them their forgiveness in Christ Jesus. But sometimes our sinful nature doesn't want to forgive. Sometimes we are more condemning that God is, and yet we ourselves have been forgiven by God.

Martin Luther said that it is a great evil to mix our anger with God's anger. For this reason we kneel before the Lord every day and ask His forgiveness. Then we forgive others as He has forgiven us. Now, that doesn't mean that we overlook or excuse sin. Sin must be faced and confessed. But we never dump the burden of guilt back on the person who is sorry for his sins. Instead, we lead him to Jesus and dump the guilt at Jesus' feet where we dump our own guilt. Amen.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are innocent of all guilt, and yet you gave Your own Son to pay for our sin. Help us always to turn to Him for forgiveness. Help us to forgive others as You have forgiven us. Forgive us even for the times when we have committed spiritual murder by not offering forgiveness to those who are sorry for their sins. We ask this in our Savior Jesus' name, amen.

Copyright 2000 Reformation Lutheran Church http://ReformationChurch.org