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9/20/20 - Pentecost 16 - Ezekiel 33:7-11 - The Church Fulfills Her Role As Her Brother’s Keeper
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The Season
After reliving the great events of the life of Christ, the worshipping Church spends half a year focusing on the teachings of Christ. The Spirit uses those teachings of Jesus to grow the faith of believers. The appointed lessons of the first five weeks teach us the characteristics of the Holy Ministry

The Sunday
The Church fulfills her role as her brother’s keeper. The privilege, responsibility and importance of this task all rest in the words from our Gospel that follow Jesus’ divine directive, “I tell you the truth…” The keys of the kingdom have been placed in our hands. It is our privilege and responsibility to bind and to loose—to be our brother’s keeper—because Christ has appointed the Church to carry out that task on his behalf.

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First Lesson - Ezekiel 33:7-11
Since the time of Cain, man has hated being his brother’s keeper. Are we any different today? Who but little Pharisees enjoy pointing out others’ sins? But God tells us the task is not optional. No one wants to wake up their next door neighbor at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday. But if his house were burning, and you let him sleep, you are not just loveless and careless. You are a killer. In the same way God drops on us the heavy message of being a watchman for our brother. God’s judgment on fallen man is as clear as it is severe. If we fail to do the job God has assigned us, God promises to hold us accountable. With the Law driven deeply into our hearts, God then reminds us why he has given us this job: because of his grace and his desire for the salvation of all mankind. The responsibility of waking our neighbor asleep in a burning house becomes a joyful privilege when he emerges safely from the smoke. May our task of being our brother’s keeper always be one done with such responsibility and joy.


Second Lesson - Galatians 2:11-21
Being your brother’s keeper will lead at times to uncomfortable situations or even confrontations. Here Paul tells how he had to oppose Peter to his face. Paul did not do this out of jealously of this reputed pillar; this was no power play pitting the Apostle to the Jews against the Apostle the Gentiles. This had to do with the eternal salvation of everyone involved. Trusting in anything other than Christ is like sleeping in a burning house. Paul took his job of being a watchman seriously: if righteousness could be gained through the Judaizers’ demands, then Christ died for nothing! So Paul woke his sleeping neighbor with the harsh reality of Peter’s hypocrisy. But the Word did its work; Paul didn’t merely keep his brother, he won his brother over.


Gospel - Matthew 18:15-20
The importance of Christian discipline lies in the fact that the keys have been placed into the hands of the Church and in no other. The Christian and the Church are a fallen sinner’s only life line. Satan tries to make Christian discipline seem like the height of hypocrisy or meddling. But his is a self-interested motive: he wants the fallen brother’s sins bound like his for an eternity in hell. Only love could lead the Christian and the Church to go to a fallen brother. Only love led our Savior to command it. Even the manner Jesus prescribes shows great love for the fallen. First, privately, so that offense and embarrassment might be contained, and pardon and forgiveness might all the more readily flow. Then with two or three, that the matter might be underscored without making tongues wag throughout the congregation. Finally, also in love, the Church calls and, if necessary, shuns. Such a great privilege and power has Christ bestowed on us! It leads us to even greater reliance on prayer for guidance and the presence of our Savior among us.



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