Preke - Sermons - 2025

Luke 6:36-42

Luke 6:36-42

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?

40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen

Dear congregation,
Although Luke writes a gospel and thus reports about Jesus Christ, Luke tells us more about God than any other evangelist. For example, the Greek word "theos," which means God, appears 48 times in Mark, 51 times in Matthew, and 290 times in Luke.
A central theme in the Gospel of Luke is God.
Who is this God whom Jesus calls Father?
God is in the background of everything that happens in Jesus' life. Jesus' life reveals how God works in the world. From Jesus, we, as subsequent Christians, learn how to understand God and how to act as God desires.

So it begins ambitiously in verse 36: "Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful!"
Mercy is one of God's most important attributes that enables good coexistence. Mercy is a response to being moved by the need of another.
And this brings us to such an essential part of our human coexistence: how do we react in times of need? How do we act when we are in need? How do we act when others are in need?

How important is need for our decisions?

Psychologists would answer: need is very important. Because need creates fear.
Fear is a reaction. Only when we recognize the underlying need can we overcome fear.

Compassion leads to perceiving and accepting that people are in need and that they get into need. Because unfortunately, we humans rarely tell each other about our needs. We are ashamed. We hide it.

No one wants to be in need, because after all, it's much more attractive to look good.

"Be merciful!" is the first call I hear from this: Observe and assume that the person you're talking to has been in need before, or knows of need, or is even in need.
But we prefer to look only at the surface: For example, there's a man who doesn't like to participate in conversations. He seems a bit irritable, annoyed. He gives the impression: "Leave me alone!" He even seems a bit arrogant.
Many people are quick to judge: Okay, I don't want anything to do with him!
But it could also be that this man was taught as a boy: You're worthless. You have nothing to say.

There could be an old need behind his behavior – perhaps even something he himself isn't aware of.

"Be merciful!" To me, that means: Look at your counterpart with God's loving and caring eyes.
The weekly verse from Galatians 6:2: "Bear one another's burdens, and so the law of God will be fulfilled" is, for me, an answer to the question about the beam in another's eye.
It's so easy for us humans to judge another person or to pass judgment on them.
It happens in a flash. We see someone, and within seconds, the first judgment is made: I like them or I don't.
Dating platforms exploit this to an alarming extent: Choose a partner:
Click through the offers: quick, quick: this one works. This one doesn't work at all.

Speed dating accelerates this even further: Don't look too closely. Don't get involved with anyone – no, just quick, harsh judgments.
This leads to everyone wanting to present themselves as well as possible – just not show any weaknesses.
It's merciless and exhausting. Yes, that's how we live with each other.
How beneficial, in contrast, are encounters in which we can be who we are. How healing are relationships in which we are loved with our weaknesses and strengths.
Instead of seeing the beam in the other person's eye, we should perceive the pain that this beam causes. I've often noticed that people are very aware of their own weaknesses and suffer enough from them.
And if we are honest with ourselves, we also know how difficult it is to get the speck out of the eye.
So a starting point is: "Be merciful to yourself!" Dedicate yourself to what hurts you and what determines your perspective, your views, your worldview.
What distress, what pain has become a splinter?
Sometimes it is helpful to ask such questions in a conversation with an experienced pastor, counselor, or brother or sister.

I'm sure that if we treat each other like this—with compassion, empathy, touched by, and sensitive to the needs of our fellow human beings—then something will change in our lives. If we share each other's burdens instead of judging them for their weaknesses, then it will make our coexistence easier.

Luke changes his perspective. He moves away from the human conviction: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And instead, he lives by the insight: As God has done to me, so I will do unto you.
This is a wonderful and healing change.
Here lies a different view of humanity. It no longer holds true: I have to earn God's love and then I deserve it, but rather: God loves me unconditionally. Later, Luke illustrates what he writes here in the magnificent parable of the father who welcomes his son with open arms. He wishes this attitude for Christians in the world.
Christians become people who live in the world with open arms.
But what's special about Luke's view of humanity is that it's based on relationships, not on achievements. A person isn't worth what they achieve and do. Consequently, a person doesn't become worthless because they do evil. Through God's relationship, through God's mercy, a healing change takes place. Whoever experiences this takes a new look at themselves: They develop themselves, they don't remain the envious brother who doesn't care about the friendly welcome of the returning prodigal son. No, whoever takes the relationship with God as the starting point for all relationships passes on the love they themselves have experienced. Their own splinter is healed, and thus trust is awakened that the beam in the other's eye can also be healed through love, through mercy.

Once again, this isn't about false tolerance toward injustice or violence. Let's be clear about that. It's not about accepting that the world is becoming more evil or that our treatment of one another is becoming more rude.

It's about interrupting precisely this development by constantly examining myself: What is actually troubling me? And how and where am I involved in this evil world? How quickly do we justify violence when it is committed in the name of freedom or as a defense?
Mercy is not alms, not naive love: it costs us something: it is compassion – it is
true connection. It is love.
The father who paid out his son his inheritance must have suffered when it was squandered – he must have suffered to see his son with the pigs – his joy must be understood against the background of suffering.

This is forgiveness. This is mercy. This is love – it is the willingness to overcome evil with good.
It is the request that God grant us strength in times of need to remain loving, rather than inhumane.
It is the request that God challenge us so that, at our human limits, we do not make enemies of strangers, but friends.
It is the trust of a gracious God in his ungracious humanity: Be merciful,
as your Father is merciful.
It is the insight that when one bears one another's burdens, life becomes bearable.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.