Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Upon retiring from the service, Don needed a new ID card showing he had gone from active duty to retirement status. But the photo taken of him was not particularly good and he wasn’t at all quiet about it. “If I have to carry that ID around with me for the rest of my life,” he complained to the photographer, “I want a better picture.” “You want a better picture?” asked the photographer defiantly. “Then bring me a better face!”
The blame game – we all play it, don’t we? Don tried to blame the photographer, but as far as he was concerned it was all Don’s fault. Yes, the blame game is very popular. In fact, it’s as old as Adam and Eve. You’ll recall that right after their Fall in the Garden, when they were confronted by God with their sin, they immediately began to point their finger and blame someone else. We see a classic example of that blame game in our text for today from the Book of Ezekiel. At the time, the people of Judah were exiled in Babylon, where they were suffering at the hands of their captors. And Ezekiel tells us that their response to that suffering was to quote the following proverb: “THE FATHERS HAVE EATEN SOUR GRAPES, AND THE CHILDREN’S TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE.”
You know, how when you bite into a grape that’s not quite ripe, sometimes the taste is so bitter it makes you scrunch up your face and shudder in pain? Well, that’s how the people of Judah felt about their current situation. Only in this case, they felt it was not their fault. They insisted that they had not eaten the sour grapes; their fathers had. In other words, they were blaming their forefathers for the painful mess they were in.
Does that sound familiar? Kids, when they’re caught fighting, will often say: “Well, he started it.” Or if they do something wrong, they’ll reply: “Yeah, but everyone else is doing it.” And actually, we adults are no different. If we break the speed limit, we’ll think: “But I have a good reason for it.” If we lose our temper, we’ll say: “You make me so angry.” Even when we harbor a grudge and refuse to forgive, we often blame the other guy: “Yeah, but he never said he was sorry.”
In these, and many other ways, we too can get caught up in the blame game. And the reason it’s so insidious is because it leads to fatalism and irresponsibility, so that we don’t accept accountability for our actions. For while it is true that our forefather, Adam, brought the curse of original sin upon us and all mankind. We ourselves are also guilty of plenty of actual sins that we commit in thought, word and deed. As a matter of fact, the word ‘sin’ in our text comes from a verb that means: ‘to bend or twist.’ Unfortunately, all of us have the natural sinful tendency to bend and twist God’s Word to make it say what we want it to say, instead of obeying His will, word for word. And when we play the blame game, pointing our finger at someone else, the most insidious thing of all, is that we’re really blaming God for our sin.
According to Ezekiel, that’s exactly what the people in our text were doing. They said: “THE WAY OF THE LORD IS NOT JUST.” My friends, have you ever found yourself saying the same thing? “It’s just not fair, Lord. Why is this happening to me? I’m one of the ‘good guys.’” Such thoughts betray an attitude of self-righteousness, as if we have some inherent goodness or holiness in us, that deserves God’s kindness and blessing. On the contrary, the Law clearly states that we are poor miserable sinners, who daily sin much and deserve nothing but punishment. And so, to blame God for our sin, to accuse Him of being unfair and unjust, is the height of blasphemy.
Interestingly enough, the word ‘just’ in our text, actually means: ‘equal.’ It was used of putting weights on a scale, so that they balance. But as God points out in our text: “IT IS NOT MY WAYS THAT ARE UNJUST. IS IT NOT YOUR WAYS THAT UNJUST.” In other words, when you and I and our sinful deeds are weighed in the scales of God’s justice, we are found terribly wanting. And sadly, the blame game doesn’t remove our blame at all. For no matter how much we point our finger at God or others, we cannot escape that fact that we are the guilty ones. And in the words of our text, our iniquity only leads to ruin. Or to put it more bluntly, as the Hebrew text does: it’s a stumbling block that causes us to stagger and fall down into the bottomless pit of darkness and despair, known as hell!
Thankfully for us, though, God’s Word of Gospel is even more powerful than His Word of Law. And the Good News He shares with us in our text is this: “I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF ANYONE.” God does not delight in our suffering and shame. He does not want us to wind up in that bottomless pit of darkness and despair. And for that reason He took the fall for us. Even though you and I have no right to blame Him for our sinful predicament, in His mercy He willingly took all the blame upon Himself. That’s what the crucifixion of our Savior was all about! It was God the Father pointing His finger at Jesus, and saying: “You wicked, wicked man; you must die!” And He did it to Jesus, so that we He wouldn’t have to do it to you and me. It was Jesus saying: “It’s my fault; I did it!” And He did it, so that you and I could be absolved and exonerated. In short, Jesus took all our blame and shame upon Himself, and in exchange gave us His righteousness and holiness to cover up and blot out all our guilty stains.
Which is why God so tenderly and lovingly exhorts us today to repent and turn and live, for it is only through repentance and faith that we can have eternal life. As He says in our text: “CAST AWAY FROM YOU ALL THE TRANSGRESSIONS THAT YOU HAVE COMMITTED, AND MAKE YOURSELVES A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT.” Here God encourages us to daily cast away our sins in contrition and repentance, just like we do in the Baptismal formula, when we ‘renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways;’ to humbly confess our iniquities to Jesus and cast them down at the foot of His cross, so that He can carry them all away and dispense with them for good.
In fact, it is God Himself who throws away our sins. He is the One, who empties out the trash and garbage of our guilt. In the words of Micah 7:19, “GOD will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” And as Corrie ten Boom so beautifully expressed it: “Then He puts up a sign that says: ‘No fishing allowed!’” In other words, God never casts us away. But He does cast our sins away, as far as the east is from the west, so that they can never be retrieved again. That is the gift we receive through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
And the miracle of the Gospel, is that even such repentance and faith are a gift that God works within us by the power of His Holy Spirit. He is the One who fashions in us a new heart and spirit by the Means of Grace. There is no way we can do that on our own. As God Himself put it earlier in Ezekiel’s prophecy at Chapter 11, verse 19: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” That is the Good Work of salvation that God began in us at our Baptism, when He removed our stony heart of sin and gave us a new heart to repent and believe in Him.
You see, the word ‘new’ in the Old Testament refers to a broken object that has been repaired or a demolished city that has been rebuilt. And that is what God has done for us by the Gospel – He has repaired our broken hearts with His pardon and forgiveness. He has rebuilt our demolished lives with His salvation and new life. Best of all, He continues that Good Work in us through the Word and the Sacraments. Every time that we read and study the Scriptures, or attend Worship and Bible Class; every time we feast on the Lord’s Supper and receive His holy absolution, we are made into brand new creatures, forgiven and free!
Back in January of this year, a 15-year-old boy from the Maldive Islands prevented a would-be assassin from killing the country's president during a stop in the north of the archipelago. The boy, dressed in full Boy Scout uniform, was waiting to shake the president’s hand, as he greeted a crowd. Suddenly an attacker with a knife wrapped in the Maldivian flag lunged at the president. When the Boy Scout saw what was happening, he reached out and stopped the attacker, even though his hand was injured by the knife. In doing this, the boy saved the president's life.
It was not just quick reflexes that saved the president’s life, it was a sacrificial spirit. That young boy was willing to jeopardize his own life for the sake of his leader. How much more amazing is the Good News of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ, the Leader of the whole universe would sacrifice His life to save you and me and the all the world from sin, death and hell. He was not only injured, but shed His blood to bring us forgiveness and new life. And by His Spirit, He is working each day to bring us to repentance and keep us in the faith. May that encourage us to make faithful and diligent use of His Means of Grace at every opportunity that by His grace we may repent and turn and live! And then to share that precious message with others, that they too may repent and turn and live! For His name’s sake we pray. Amen.