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The Sermon for Sunday, September 4th, the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Ezekiel 33:1-11; Psalm 119:33-48; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 18:15-20
The Text: Ezekiel 33:1-11
INTRODUCTION
In London during the Second World War, it was necessary for its citizens to take shelter when the air raid sirens sounded, since German bombs were about to fall. If those sirens had not sounded, the British authorities would have been responsible in part for the increased number of injuries and deaths. Since those sirens did sound regularly, the authorities were doing their part, and it was up to every individual to take shelter in an underground air raid shelter if possible.
Our First Lesson today begins with a comparable situation, but in ancient warfare. A watchman had to blow the trumpet to warn the people of an impending battle and armies marching against them. If the watchman failed to blow the trumpet, the people would not prepare for battle, and many lives would be lost unnecessarily. The watchman would be responsible for these needless deaths. Yet, if the watchman blew the trumpet to warn the people of a coming battle, then he would have done his part, and anyone who did not prepare for battle and defend himself would be responsible for the loss of his own life.
GOD APPOINTS THE PROPHET EZEKIEL AS A WATCHMAN
God appointed the prophet Ezekiel as a watchman for the people of Israel. His responsibility was to hear God’s word and proclaim God’s warnings to his people to turn away from their sin and turn back to God. If Ezekiel failed to warn the Israelites that they would die in their sin, God would hold Ezekiel responsible for the death of every evil person, but if he passed on God’s warnings, then he would be guiltless, and everyone that continued in his sinful ways without repenting would be responsible for his own death (Ezekiel 33:7-9).
THE MEANING OF “DYING IN HIS INIQUITY”
Someone might ask here, what the meaning of “die in his iniquity” (vv.8 &9) is. Since all people die a physical death, what difference does it make if someone dies in his sin? The answer surely lies in the fact that a person who dies in his iniquity without repenting will die spiritually in this life and eternally in hell. The only way to be saved from this fate was to turn away from evil and do good, keeping God’s commandments.
The people of Israel were saying that their transgressions and sins were upon them, and they were pining away in them; they were asking how they should then live (v.10). God’s reply through Ezekiel was that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live (Ezekiel 33:11), and God tells them, “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11c, KJV)
It is instructive to note that the people felt themselves losing vitality and melting away on account of their sins, and they did not see how they could free themselves, or else they were too spiritually lazy to do so. God’s answer is clear in two respects: firstly, he does not delight in a sinner’s death; secondly, he calls for complete and immediate repentance, so that a person may not die spiritually.
APPLICATION
The passage consists both of God’s instruction to the prophet Ezekiel about his role as a watchman and God’s exhortation to Israel to repent of their sinful ways and turn back to God. The message given by the Lord to Ezekiel in the next nine verses after this passage is that the righteous person who turns away from righteousness and embraces a sinful way of life will die and none of his righteousness will be counted to him, while the sinful person who turns from evil and makes restitution for the sins he has committed and starts living righteously, God will forgive and not remember his past life of sin (Ezekiel 33:12-20).
Today, unlike the ancient Israelites who had the Pentateuch and some writings of the Prophets, we have the whole Bible, the whole word of God. It functions as a watchman that ever speaks to warn us to turn back to God. But we also have preachers and teachers of God’s word who warn us to repent before it is too late. In the Anglican Church, ordained ministers are seen as fulfilling the role of prophets in proclaiming God’s will and God’s messages to his people. The Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent confirms that ordained ministers have a prophetic function like St. John the Baptist when it uses these words:
O LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever,* one God, world without end. Amen.
(p.93, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928)
Though some of us are ordained ministers and fall into the category of spiritual watchmen, all of us are receivers of God’s warning. No-one is too righteous to be warned by God. We all have sin somewhere in our lives, and the warning of God comes to us all. Hear what the prophet Jeremiah said about the human heart:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
(Jeremiah 17:9-10, KJV)
The psalmist, knowing the sinful nature of every human being, prays to God in this way:
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalm 139:23-24, KJV)
To others we may appear holy and righteous, and yet deep within, there may be a hidden sin, of which we have not repented. Therefore, we must all take warning and turn from every kind of sin with steadfast purpose and firm resolve. Otherwise, one day that skeleton will fall out of the closet when we least expect it.
We must also remember that before we can function as watchmen for others, whether believers or unbelievers, we must be watchmen for ourselves, that we do not fall into temptation. The Lord Jesus Christ commands all his disciples to watch and pray:
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
(Luke 21:36, KJV)
Prayer and vigilance go hand in hand: we cannot be watchful, or vigilant, spiritually unless we pray, for as we listen to God in prayer, his Holy Spirit will warn us both of sins in our own lives that we need to repent of and of trials that we will face, as well as the sins of others that we must pray for them to abandon.