Now this is important because just a few verses before our reading back in Romans
12 Paul warns never to avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it
is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord. So we don't avenge
ourselves we give it to God but now he's telling us how that vengeance gets
collected. The governing authority is God's servant. It says he's an avenger
who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So vengeance is still real but
it's just not yours to collect. Instead he says pay what you owe. Being subject to
this authority pay what you owe them as a subject. Taxes, revenue, respect, honor.
Those are the kind of debts that the sword can collect and the last time I
checked that if you don't pay them the sword will come knocking on your door.
But of course being subject to an authority is not the same as approving
of that authority. For instance if the government were to command you to sin
you do not obey. Acts 529 says we must obey God rather than men. So there is a
line and it reminded me of a story of three young men in the book of Daniel.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you've ever heard this story. They're standing in
front of this fiery furnace and they say our God is able to save us but even if
he doesn't we still won't bow. They didn't raise an army they disobeyed and then they
walked in. See Paul is writing to just ordinary Christians about the wrongs
being done to them and how they should be responding. But there's something that
the sword can't do. See this the sword the law of the world only reaches the
outside of us. It punishes what we do but has very little to say about what we
don't do. As far as I'm aware there is no law in Texas that will punish a man for
being stingy or for refusing to lift even a finger to help his neighbor get
the justice that they deserve. He can walk past all of that and in the eyes of
the law can remain a perfectly righteous man. Not doing those things is not
against the law. In fact sometimes the sword fails even inside of its own
boundaries. What's the name of the book? Romans. It's the letter to the Romans.
The authorities in power at the time, Paul's writing to these Christians in Rome,
this servant of God that he's describing, this avenger, the man who does not bear
the sword in vain, his name is Emperor Nero. And within a decade of writing this
letter that servant of God will be killing the people who are reading this
letter to include Paul himself. He knew that but he wrote it anyway. But that's
Rome. Now we might have some history aficionados where Nero is top of mind
throughout the day at some point but I'm going to assume that he's not right now.
Let's bring it a little closer to home because you know how it goes. Because
you've lived it to some degree. Authorities like bosses, managers, HR departments,
social workers, judges, police officers, politicians. The truth is at some level
we've been let down by the authorities that are in power around us. And yet we still
pay them taxes, revenue, honor, and respect. We want justice but
well what are we supposed to do now?
Paul says there's one debt that's left.
See you pay all of these other debts. You pay all of the taxes, the revenue, the honor,
and the respect. No one's going to chase you after it now. There's one debt left.
You owe no one anything except to love each other.
Okay. That sounds doable, right? Doesn't it? Love each other. It seems pretty simple.
And then it seems even more doable because he tells us
what love looks like by telling us what it doesn't do.
Right? Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
So don't steal for them. Don't sleep with their spouse. Don't covet their stuff.
I think most of us hear that and feel like you know I've got a pretty good handle on those things.
But let's ask Jesus what does love mean?
What is his definition of love? We find it in John 15 13. He says greater love has no one
than this. That someone laid down his life for his friends.
We owe love to one another. Jesus defines that love. That debt that we still carry. Not
that debt that we still carry. Not politeness.
Not just keeping your hands to yourself. Your very life.
And Paul says you owe it.
Not to the people that you like, but to your neighbor.
Which, typically speaking, ends up being the very people we don't want it to be.
See, we want the ones who failed us to answer for it. But how often do we want to answer for
how we failed God? That's a different conversation.
See, if God's vengeance is real and Paul is telling us that it is,
it's not just coming for the person who wronged you.
In the Old Testament reading this morning, Ezekiel is handed an office.
A terrifying one, actually. God makes him a watchman and tells him to blow the horn.
And if he doesn't, the blood of the one who dies is on him.
And he's not going to be able to answer for it.
Tells him to blow the horn. And if he doesn't, the blood of the one who dies is on his hands.
All three verses of that reading, there's blood. Somebody's blood ends up on somebody's head.
That watchman is blowing a horn for a reason. He's blowing a horn
because there's a sword on the way.
And the sword did come. In fact, on the night he was betrayed, Jesus tells his disciples
that it's about to happen. And he quotes the prophet Zechariah saying,
I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
The sword the watchman had been warning about for centuries.
The one meant for the wicked, the one coming for you and me and our sin.
Fell on the shepherd instead of the sheep.
Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate, this magistrate, this governor, if you will.
The man of authority holding the sword.
And Pilate says, don't you know that I have the authority to release you
or the authority to crucify you?
And Jesus responds saying, you would have no authority over me
at all unless it had been given to you from above.
Which means that the very authority Pilate used to condemn him
was the authority that Jesus himself had given him.
He handed the man the sword and then stood still while it came down upon him.
But why?
Well, Jesus said so himself. No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.
Greater love has no one than this. He laid his life down for his friends.
Actually, Paul tells us that while we were still enemies, not even friends, Christ died for us.
He paid the debt that no one else could pay.
And as he's on the cross with nails in his hands and his feet, he looks out on the soldiers,
the high council, and the governor. What did he do when these authorities failed him?
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And God did not answer that by striking Pilate down.
Despite a rigged trial, an innocent man dead, lying in a borrowed tomb,
instead on the third day, God raised him.
God dealt with that total failure by the authorities, not by striking down the guilty,
but by raising up those who had been wronged.
That's what he did with the wrong that was done to him.
But look at what he did with yours, that debt that you owe that you never paid back.
With yours, that debt that you owe that you never paid. The love you owed your neighbor
and didn't give. The life you owed and kept yourself. It was owed, and it was collected,
but not from you. Somebody's blood always ends up on somebody's head. Yours ended up on his.
Your account is settled. There's nothing left on it with your name.
And when he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,
he wasn't only praying for the soldiers or the council or Pilate, he was already there dying for
you. That forgiveness that he asked for from the cross is the same forgiveness that reaches you
this morning, and it has your name on it.
So what about the ones, the authorities that wronged you?
The boss or the judge or the officer or someone who's supposed to come in and fix it all,
but never showed up?
Paul doesn't tell us to stop caring. He tells us to leave it to God's wrath.
I found in a sermon on this very text, Luther said that the right response is to pity them.
Pity them, because if you take your hands off of it, you give it to God,
they're still not getting away with anything.
But now they're falling into the hands of the living God.
You can let go of the weight of that failure or that injustice, not because it didn't matter,
not because it didn't matter, but because it's already been dealt with.
Either it fell on Christ or it will fall on the last day.
Either way, it's not on your shoulders, and it never has been.
In the Lord's prayer, we say forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
You hear those words, you're asking for God to hand you something that he's already bought,
and to work it through you toward the very person or authority you've been holding a grudge against.
It's the result of what happens when you're forgiven. God works forgiveness through you to
others. So the sword is God's, and it's not ours. But when it fails, and it will,
God doesn't hand you a sword. He hands you a word.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.