Like petulant children they bemoan their lot and continue to question their very existence. Nevertheless, God loves His wayward children.
In order to preach a full gospel message for this coming Sunday, we will need to draw from the fuller context beyond our specific selection from the lectionary. For those who fret over the acceptability of such a move, just know that this is perfectly legitimate to do because the pericopal system was designed to get you to the text but not bind you within its artificial boundaries.
In the first part of our reading (33:7-9), the “watchman” is called to warn God’s people of the reality of His wrath for sin. This is a function of God’s justice which we can see in the Law. The opening section also clearly demonstrates God’s eagerness to save His people from their sin. This is the attitude of God towards sinners which we can see in the Gospel. God gives fair warning to His people of the consequences of their sin.
In the second part of our text, we deal with the open question of God’s people in view of His just judgement: “We rot away... how then can we live” (33:10)? The quote directly captures the miserable state of Ezekiel’s hearers. It also expresses something at the core of all human existence. Given all the things that hedge us in, how can we really find any good news in this life? In this section, Ezekiel pushes back on their false answer and engages their basic need for God to save them.
Ezekiel addresses people who were puffed-up with pride but now are exiled in Babylon and their hands are tied. They must stand still as “indestructible” Jerusalem, the focus of their false pride (Ezekiel 11:11), falls to Babylon (33:21). Their pride is defeated. Yet, as sinners often do, their focus remains inward on themselves. Like petulant children they bemoan their lot and continue to question their very existence.
Nevertheless, God loves His wayward children. Verse 11 insists God desires salvation for His children. In fact, God desires salvation for everyone, even for the wicked. Look again at verse 11:
“As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”
Jesus speaks similar words of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
In the conclusion (33:12-20), God promises to forgive sins and not hold their past against them. In order to see this in our text, you must look at a statement that has a bit of dramatic irony in it. This dramatic irony serves as a Gospel Handle which helps us get to the heart of the Gospel in Jesus Christ. In verse 20, the people say: “The way of the Lord is not just.” Here, the word for “just” is תכן (taw-kan) and it deals with the idea of correct scales used in measuring something out. This is “referring to the ways of God as opposed to those of men.”[1] It is like the idiomatic phrase “all things being equal.” Francis Rossow does a masterful job of demonstrating the Gospel Handle with this turn of phrase:
“Once again, a peculiarity of King James language provides a unique Gospel handle. It is the word “equal” in the Israelites’ unfair accusation of God in verse 20: “The way of the Lord is not equal.” Modern versions of the Bible clarify this charge by translating it, “The way of the Lord is not just.” But let us retain the word “equal” and connect it with a passage in the King James Version where the same word has its current meaning, Philippians 2:6: “Who [Jesus], being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Though Jesus was indeed equal to God His Father, “very God of very God,” and it would not have been robbery for Him to insist on His rights as God, He refrained from doing so. As the New International Version renders it, “[He] did not consider equality something to be grasped.” Instead, He “took upon Him the form of a servant... humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). You know what came of it: Our eternal salvation. Apply the charge of the Israelites in our text to the God-man on the cross and there is an unintended ironical truth to what they say. There, on Calvary, “the way of the Lord [was] not equal,” at least not in the modern sense of the word equal,” for Jesus scorned equality and chose instead humility and servanthood.”[2]
It is this “unequal” quality of God’s graciousness that we see in our appointed Gospel lesson for today from Matthew 18:1-20. First, we have a very reminiscent warning in verses 5-6 of Ezekiel’s warning to the watchman but then this surprising unequal graciousness we have in verses 12-14. This illustration of Jesus always seems off to us modern people. It is not right, not just. There is something unequal about it. Make it clear in the preaching of this text that God’s grace always seems off to us unless you are that one. Then His graciousness means everything.
A helpful structure for preaching this text, which is really drawn from the rhetorical structure of our text itself, is the Question Answered Structure:
“This structure identifies a significant question for the hearers (in other words, one that cannot be easily answered, and addresses matters that are significant to the hearers) and then theologically considers one or more feasible answers before arriving at a satisfactory resolution.
The question is simple, memorable, and remains the same throughout the entire sermon. It cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no” but invites the hearers into processing various answers. The movement toward a faithful answer provides the dynamic progression of the sermon. This progression could be a movement from false answers to a true answer or from partial answers to a full answer. The preacher avoids trite false answers that will insult the hearers, and he seeks to have a final resolution that proceeds from the Gospel.
The sermon usually opens by depicting the human or textual dilemma that raises the focusing question. The answers are then arranged in a climactic scheme, offering more development to the later answers. In dismissing the false or partial answers, the preacher is clear about the theological reasoning that guides the discussion and, thereby, teaches the hearers how to think through matters theologically. Along the way, the preacher is careful not to raise distracting issues or to change the question. Finally, the sermon concludes by proclaiming the satisfactory gospel-based answer.”[3]
The Focusing Question: Is God Just?
A: Review the theological confession of Theodicy
1: “Theodicy: God is all powerful (so He must be able to prevent suffering);
God is good (so He must want to prevent suffering); yet suffering exists.
2: Assenting to any two of these propositions presents no problem; but since the three together appear contradictory, various attempts have been made to negate one.”[4]
3: If the question “Is God Just?” is the frame of the sermon, then the watchman on the walls answer is: Yes, He is! But what does that answer mean (33:7-9)?
First False Answer: The whole Old Testament is about an angry God who is not Just. That is why we need Jesus in the New Testament to be kind and fair.
1: Problem with Ezekiel’s hearers is they view God’s actions as unfair. “We rot away... how can we live” (33:10) like this!
2: Marcion (Second Century): Old Testament God was evil.
3: But you cannot justify God’s actions. You are only trying to justify your own actions. But we cannot justify ourselves before God or make sense of the world apart from God’s justifying grace.
Second False Answer: Maybe, God has not made His decision about things yet.
1: Problem with Ezekiel’s hearers is they thought Jerusalem’s continued existence meant God was still undecided about their fate (Ezekiel 11:11). They could not have been more prideful and wrong (33:21).
2: Open Theism and its dangerous conclusions: God might not, in fact, be omnipotent. Some worldly affairs are, perhaps, beyond His control.
3: You cannot justify God’s actions by making Him less-than-God. You are only trying to justify your own conclusions. We cannot justify our conclusions about God or make sense of the world apart from God’s justifying grace.
Third False Answer: Suffering is a lie or an allusion. You just need to look on the bright side of life.
1: Ezekiel’s hearers just flat out deny God (33:17-20).
2: Christian Science: Denies the existence of suffering, dismissing it as an illusion.
3: We cannot justify God. You are only trying to justify yourself. We cannot fix God or make sense of the world apart from justifying grace.
Gospel-Based Answer: God is Just, but not in the way you would expect.
1: Gospel Handle from Rossow.
2: Saint Augustine rejected all attempts to justify humans by separating them from the causes of suffering. For Augustine, the existence of evil was the primary cause of suffering. The source of evil is not God Himself or His creation. Instead, evil is traced to humanity and to the sin first introduced by human free will (Genesis 3). Theodicy is not a problem with God; it is a problem with humanity and sin.
3: This was the primary reason why God sent His only begotten Son Jesus (Genesis 3:15) to deal with our sin and be our Savior. Jesus is the watchman on the wall and the Word of repentance that brings life through His substitutionary atonement and glorious resurrection. Jesus is the prophet greater than Ezekiel who speaks a word that answered definitively all the questions and objections to the graciousness of God. God justifies a sinful humanity by grace alone, through faith alone on account of Christ’s shed blood and third day resurrection alone.
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Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Ezekiel 33:7-9.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Ezekiel 33:7-9.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
[1] Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, et al. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000. 1733.
[2] Francis C. Rossow. Gospel Handles Finding New Connections: Old Testament Lessons. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2014. 183-184.
[3] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/thematic/question-answered/
[4] Steven P. Mueller, ed. Called to Believe, Teach, and Confess: An Introduction to Doctrinal Theology, vol. 3, Called by the Gospel. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005. 123–124.
