Psalm 51: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

1. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

“I know my transgressions” says David, “and my sin is ever before me.” This sin is recorded for us in 2nd Samuel chapters 11 and 12. For one spring, when King David’s armies go to war, David himself stays in Jerusalem. And he sees, from the roof of his house, a woman bathing. She is beautiful. So David sends messengers to find out who she is and to bring her to him. David sleeps with her and sends her home.

A while later the woman informs David, “I am pregnant.” So David calls her husband home from the battlefield and says, “Go home to your wife.” But her husband does not. He says to David, “How can I go home to my wife while the Ark of the covenant and the servants of the living God are in the field of battle?” So David causes the man to become drunk, but still he would not go. So finally David gives him a note to deliver to his commander, “Set this man in the forefront of the hardest fighting. Then draw everyone back so that he will die.” Uriah, the man whose wife David had slept with, does as David tell him, as does his commander, and Uriah dies. One week later, David takes Uriah’s wife as his own.

And the Lord sends Nathan the prophet who tells David a story about a rich man with many sheep. A traveler comes to the rich man but the rich man, not wanting to prepare one of his own sheep for the traveler, instead takes the sheep, the only sheep, of a poor man and serves it to his guest. When David hears the story he declares, in great wrath, “The man who did this deserves to die!” At this point, Nathan the prophet looks David in the eye and says, “You are that man. You took Uriah’s wife and killed him with the enemies sword.”

David responds, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan responds, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not  die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”

When David writes “Have mercy on me” he is not speaking flippantly concerning light and trifling sins but as a man who knows the full extent and seriousness of his sin. Throughout the Psalm he says, “Wash me from my iniquity, “cleanse me from my sin, “purge me,” “blot out my iniquity,” “create in me a clean heart,”and “renew a right spirit within me.” David speaks as a man who understands the sinful condition of his own heart. He has seen his sin acted out. He has experienced it. He has observed the havoc it has wreaked and he knows that it can only be taken care of by the Lord. His cry for mercy, repeated in various words, is one that cries out for the cleansing and creative work of God in his life.

This Psalm of David is not the prayer of a sinless and mighty saint but the prayer of a sinful man to his God. It could rightly be called “the sinner’s prayer.” For in this prayer he does not “give God his heart,” “accept God,” or make promises to God, but instead confesses his sin and his need for God’s redemptive work. And this prayer of David which is recorded for us, for our use as well is answered by God’s rich mercy poured out for us in Jesus Christ. This mercy is given to us in Holy Baptism where we receive “the washing of regeneration,” “sanctification,” “justification,” “salvation” and “Jesus Christ.” (For more on this see Titus 3:5, 1st Corinthians 6:11, 1 Peter 3:21 and Galatians 3:27) This mercy is given again in Holy Communion where we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin and it is given in the preaching of the Gospel and in the words of Holy Scripture whenever we hear and come across words such as the words found in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only son so that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life.”

For God, in his mercy, has not left us to take care of our own sin, or to “hurl our sin out the door,” but instead gives us Jesus Christ and his saving work through Holy Baptism, Holy Communion and the preaching of the Gospel. God has given you Christ and because of Christ and His work, you are made holy. Amen.

The is a song entitled, “I think I’m Going to Throw Up.”

It is intended to be a praise and worship song for children.  The lyrics are as follows:

I think I’m going to throw up, (x3)
My hands to the Lord.

I think I’m going to hurl, (x3)
My sins out the door.

At camp we are always looking for new and fresh songs for children.  Creative as it is, this is not a song we will be singing.  It isn’t because the lyrics aren’t cute (in a disgusting boy-ish kind of way).  Its simply because the song presents theology contrary to Lutheran theology, especially evidenced in the second verse.

Am I able to hurl my sins of my own accord?  If I am able hurl them out the door, where do they go?  Do they just magically disappear?  Are they gone for good?

The answer to all those questions is, of course, no.  I can do nothing about my sin.  I can’t hurl them anywhere.  Only in faith given to me by Christ am I able to repent and confess my need for forgiveness.   Only through Christ, who suffered, bled and bore the fatal wrath of God upon the cross, can my sins be forgiven and I be declared righteous.

That’s why we won’t sing it.

First of all, I want to apologize for the tardiness of this week’s post.

This fall has been a recharging time for me. I have been reading “Christian Dogmatics” by Francis Pieper, the “Smalcald Articles”, the “Apology to the Augsburg Confession” and the “Formula of Concord/Solid Declaration”all from the Book of Concord. In addition I am drinking in three different theological blogs. Through these sources, and chiefly through God’s Word, the Bible, God has been restoring and recharging me. It is a joy to hear the Gospel preached and to grow in my knowledge of the Divine Doctrine.

Today I will share a reflection concerning the cross written by my Grandfather, Pastor Gordon Berntson.

The Cross

Beneath Thy cross I’ll ever stay
for sheltered by its heights.
Undaunted will I live each day
Nor dread the starless nights.

Protected by thy cross I’ll find
The strength each day requires
and warmed by peace of soul and mind
I’ll shun Satanic fires.

Enlightened by Thy Cross I know
The blackening clouds of sin
but it has made me white as snow
A child of God within

Grant, Lord, that e’er Thy Cross I’ll see
Without it, I would stray
But grasping it, Eternity
I know I’ll find some day.

In last week’s text, we read of Peter’s great confession that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  That passage, along with this week’s continuation in Matthew, represents a turning point in Jesus’ ministry and in his relationship with the disciples.  Listen again to this morning’s gospel.

<Read Matthew 16:21-26>

How quickly the tables have turned for Peter.  One moment he is given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and blessed by Jesus himself, because Peter finally got the right answer.  “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked.  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” answered Peter, to which Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!”

However, just a few verses later Peter the rock and key master of the kingdom of heaven is put in his place and is given a much harsher name than “rock”.  “Get behind me, Satan, you adversary!  You are a trap and stumbling block to me.”

What happened to cause this reaction from Jesus?  Why is the rock now a stumbling block?

After, Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus began to tell his disciples about how he must go to Jerusalem, their central place of worship, suffer terrible pain and be killed at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes.  “Killed” as in “dead”.  That’s something that we often gloss over; something we essentially have become calloused to because of our familiarity with the gospels, but it was shocking and distressing news for the disciples.  Now, Jesus also told them that he would be raised again on the third day, but Peter apparently didn’t hear that part of the equation or more likely, he didn’t understand it.

So Peter, being the new best disciple of the group, decided to take Jesus aside from the rest of the group and rebuked or chided Jesus, saying, “God forbid it” or “Mercy Lord!  This must never happen to you!  After all, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!  You, yourself just confirmed it!  You are the one the prophets spoke of, the one sent to bring a new and everlasting rule of peace and prosperity to the land just like our great king David.  This is your destiny!  You cannot be killed.  You don’t know what you are saying.”  Peter had his mind on the here and now, the things present and right in front of him.  He had in mind earthly things and an earthly kingdom which is exactly what got him into trouble.

Jesus, of course, didn’t take too kindly to Peter’s words.  “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; for you are a setting your mind not on the things of God, but on human things.”  Peter simply didn’t understand Christ’s mission and though he meant well, he ended up actually causing temptation for Jesus.

So even though Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, he had no idea what that actually meant.  Peter’s mind was set towards his understanding of what a messiah would be.  His limited human understanding included political revolution and a new world order, the restoration of his beloved nation of Israel.  His vision was for an earthly uprising and an earthly reign. The problem with his vision is that even if it were God’s plan, it would still have left the world in a state of fallenness, in a state of shame before a Holy and Perfect ruler.

This tempted Jesus perhaps not because of what Peter’s vision for the messiah entailed, but more likely because it was a path that wouldn’t include the cross.  He was tempted because he was fully human.  However, he was also fully divine which is why he understood exactly what his mission on earth was.  And because he knew that he must go to Jerusalem, that his purpose was to suffer persecution, die a horrible death on the cross, and then be raised, he rebuked Peter and put him in his place.  “Get behind me, Satan, you adversary!  You in your depraved and limited mind can only think of things in human terms and in human aspirations.  We are not equals.  You don’t walk in front of me, you don’t walk beside me; you get behind me.”

Our Program Director, Luke Berntson, tells the story of a young man who while attending a Bible study confessed that he struggled with swearing and didn’t feel that he could change.  Because of this he felt shame.  The Bible study leader told the young man that if he wanted to stop swearing he had to start praying every time he wanted to swear and eventually he would stop.  But even something that can seem so trivial to some of us was a burden that, looking at this young man, Luke knew he wouldn’t be able to bear.  The Bible study leader, though meaning well was actually setting the young man up for failure and subsequently even more shame and guilt.  Even if he could succeed, the lesson learned would have been to treat all sins the same way, as though our depravity could somehow be healed through our own personal refinement.

I doubt the Bible study leader meant this, but it was as though he were telling the boy that he could walk as an equal with Jesus.  That he could lead a holy life just as Jesus did.  This view reduces Jesus to just an example to aspire to.

So Luke decided to talk privately with the young preteen and told him in language understandable to a preteen, that there ultimately was nothing that he could do about his swearing and in fact there was nothing he could do about any of his sin.  He told him that there was nothing he could do to make himself holy.  Instead, he told him that Christ has paid for his sin and that because of Christ God has forgiven his sin and has declared him to be holy for Christ’s sake.

After Jesus rebuked Peter, he turned to the rest of his disciples and told them, “If any want to become my followers,” or more literally, “if anyone wants to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who want to save their life for my sake will find it.”

When Jesus told his disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him he first told them the same thing he told Peter; to come after him.  In the Greek, it is the same thing.  To Peter he said, “get behind or get after me,” to the disciples he said, “come behind or come after me.”  Essentially, he says that if anyone wishes to follow Christ, deny their self, take up their cross and follow him one must first get behind him and through the gift of faith, repent and confess that they are not equals with Christ.  We cannot walk in front of him or beside him.  We cannot take care of our sin on our own nor can we fix the world by any merit of our own.  We can only follow behind Christ in the faith he has given us; carrying our cross, our sinful and fleshy desires, as he paves the way to the cross where all of our stuff is taken care off.

That young man could not do anything about his sin on his own.  Any attempt to do so would backfire and bring only deeper shame and guilt and a sense of failure.  But through the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s calling upon his life, he can now recognize his sin for what it is and take it up, disown it, and carry it as he follows Christ.  If he tried to save his own life, it would never work.  He would lose it.  But through Christ he is able to lose and loose his sin upon the cross, where he would find his life.

Like Peter we often try to walk with Christ as equals.  Our inclination as fallen human beings is to try and do something about our fallen selves and the world around us, but find that it is never enough.

But brothers and sisters in Christ, God in his mercy has called you to get behind him.  He has shown our sin for what it is.  Christ has paved the way to the cross, the place where we in faith can lay down the burden of our sin and stop trying to live as equals with Jesus; we are able to experience life as people free of shame and guilt and obligation when it comes to our salvation.

And so also, our works and good deeds are no longer done out of a sense of obligation towards our salvation, but rather they are done because we are called to care for others and this world as a testimony to the love and grace of God in the hope that our deeds may glorify Christ and therefore bring others to faith in him.