Turn and Live

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Turn and Live

This has to come out. One of the strange parts about being a human being is that there are parts of your body that can go bad. And then, when that happens, they have to come out. A person gets an abscessed tooth. And the dentist says, “that has to come out.” A person gets a tumor and it is malignant. And the doctor says, “that has to come out.” It’s a strange fact to think about that you would have to say, “goodbye” to a part of your body because if you don’t that part will destroy your body. But my dear friends in Christ, just as there has to be surgery done on your body, there also has to be surgery done on your soul. That’s what God’s word is speaking about in Ezekiel 33: “⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. ⁹ But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.” (Ezek. 33:7–9 NIV11-GKE)

What is the abscess and cancer that infects the soul? It’s sin. And sin is serious. So, in these words the Lord tells Ezekiel that his role, his task, his ministry is to stretch out with his word and speak to them about their sin. For they have to turn away from their sin. And notice how sincere and serious the Lord is. He is so serious and so sincere that he threatens Ezekiel with a warning. He says that if he does not correct a person who is sinning, that God will seek vengeance on him.¹(Ezek. 33:8 BHS-T)}}

But, my dear friends, it’s not easy to speak to someone you know and love about their sin, is it? And when we are called on to speak the truth in love to those around us we face real and true temptations. On the one hand we can face the temptation to deny that there is a sin at all. And we can even come up with convenient lies to justify our bad path. We say to ourselves, “If I speak to my loved one about his or her sin, that would drive them away from church.” My dear friends, that is a lie. None of you, if your loved one had an abscessed tooth would say, “just give it some time. It’ll get better.’” It doesn’t work that way. And you know it doesn’t work that way. On the other hand, we can face the temptation to destroy the person. And it happens like this: We are so frustrated by the sin the person is caught in that we lose all patience and self control. We tell the person about their sin and then storm away. And we neither listen to this person, nor do we give them a chance to repent. And with our actions we show that we are concerned about ourselves and our own consciences. But we really aren’t concerned about the person who is caught in the sin.

In my life I’ve done both of these. And, when I look back at the times I’ve messed up by denying that there was a sin at all and by destroying the other person with my impatience, where do I go with my own sin? I turn from my sin and repent. I turn to Jesus and live. And I invite you to keep doing the same. Jesus is the only one who confronted sin perfectly—the only one. And he did this for you and for me. Think of Jesus last week in Matthew 16. Do you think that it was fun for Jesus to call Peter, “Satan?” But patiently he spoke to Peter out of love. And he didn’t just speak about Peter’s sin perfectly, Jesus also died for that sin perfectly. And he does the same for us. He forgives the times we denied that there was a sin at all. He forgives the times we destroyed the other person with our own impatience.

And then what does he do? He sends us back out there in the world. He does this because sin is serious. But he does so with the promise that he will be with us. So, he invites us to turn and live. He addresses these words to us as speakers. But, the words that follow he speaks to us as listeners: “¹⁰ “Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?” ’ ¹¹ Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’” (Ezek. 33:10–11 NIV11-GKE)

One of the challenges of being a human is that sin is sneaky. It can sneak up on us and capture us and lead us to think that it’s ok. If you want to see this in action, look at little children. Picture a little child strapped into one of those little feeding chairs. You are there bringing the spoon to his little face. And he eats. But he doesn’t just eat the food, he is also learning about the food. He squished it in his hand. After that, he lets it drop to the floor. And, look at that! When I let go of the food, it falls to the floor. I wonder if it will always do that. And look at that, Mommy always picks the food up and cleans it up. And, wow, look at that, she gets pretty frustrated that she has to clean that up. That’s funny. Finally, what happens? She gets so frustrated that, when he’s just about to dump more food on the floor, she slaps his hand. And what happens? His world falls apart. He begins to realize that what he does might be wrong—even if there are not consequence right at that moment.

Look at that picture and learn from it. Because the picture is much the same for adults. One would think that as adults we would have this figured out. But we don’t. We are caught in a sin, and if nobody tells us that it’s wrong, we have this huge temptation to conclude to ourselves that what we did is perfectly permissible. And sadly, there might even be some kind person who tells us that what we are doing is not good. And we do not take them seriously. And then, like the mommy to the toddler, the world slaps us.

That’s the challenge. But there’s also the challenge that follows. When we see how bad our sin is—how it hurt those around us and our God above, we conclude that there’s no way that sin can be forgiven. And it’s that understanding and attitude that the Lord is speaking about in these words. The people say that they are withering away under the weight of their own sins.²(Ezek. 33:10 BHS-T)}} They cannot get rid of its weight or its accusing finger. So the Lord speaks to those who are trying to convince themselves that they cannot be forgiven that he most definitely does not take any pleasure in people dying and going to hell. What then is the solution? Turn and live. He invites them to turn from their sin, and repent of it. Then he invites them to live, knowing that their sins are forgiven.

And my dear friends in Christ today he does the same. Turn and live. Do this as a speaker of God’s word. But also do this as a listener. Be willing to hear when others are speaking to you about your sin. If what you are doing is against God’s word, then repent of it. And know that, as you do this, your sins are forgiven. And, at least by our Lord, they are forgotten. It has become popular to say that we need to forgive and forget. But that’s not really that biblical. There may be sins we have committed or ones committed against us that we will never be able to forget. But, we will be able to know that our sins are forgiven—whether we can forget them or not. So, my dear friends, Turn and live. Turn and live as one who speaks God’s word and as one who hears God’s word. Amen.

¹ ”וְדָמ֖וֹ מִיָּדְךָ֥ אֲבַקֵּֽשׁ“

² ”נְמַקִּ֖ים“