What's a proverb? A proverb is a short saying that expresses in a picturesque way a seemingly obvious truth. For example, Benjamin Franklin was famous for his proverbs. Do you remember any that he said? One of his that I remember from my grade school years was: “A stitch in time saves nine.” What does that mean?
When I was growing up, Mom used to darn our socks when they got holes in them, or she would sew a patch on our jeans. The sooner she mended the hole before it got any bigger, the less work she had to do and the more comfortable the patched clothing was for us to wear. Benjamin Franklin's proverb used that picture as a background to say in a general way, “Whenever a problem arises, get to it timely and you'll save yourself some work.”
There's a proverb in our text: “The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?” What does that mean?
Well, did you ever eat sour grapes? A couple of weeks ago our family went on a summer outing to the lake. The gals packed a picnic lunch and we brought along some green grapes. Oh, they looked so good. They were nice and plump, full and colorful. I thought, “These will be great!” The first one I had was good and sweet. I took a second one. Yeow! Was it sour! It almost made my teeth hurt, or, as the saying goes, it “set my teeth on edge.” How bitter and distasteful. I bet you all know what that's like, don't you?
But there's more to this proverb than talking about the bad taste that sour grapes leave in a person's mouth. The key is this: who eats the grapes, and who suffers as a result? Again, here's the proverb, “The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.” In other words, “Dad ate the bad grape. So how come I've got the sour taste and upset belly? I didn't do it; he did.”
(I. So stop blaming others. It's you and me.)
That's what Israel was saying in the time of the prophet Ezekiel. God's warning to them that He would punish Jerusalem because of the accumulated sins of the whole people put a bad taste in their mouths. So they complained about what others had done, namely the generations before them. You see, instead of taking ownership for something that's gone wrong, people are very fond of finding someone or something else to blame for their faults and problems. Israel blamed their fathers and grandfathers. They said, “Our fathers did it; they ate the sour grapes; they turned bad. It wasn't we, their children. But we have to suffer the consequences for it.”
Oh, how they were suffering. Israel was plucked out of their own land by an enemy to the east. They lost their homes; they lost their cities; they lost their temple and they were transplanted far away into Babylon as servants in a land of heathens. But they denied their own guilt in it and chose to blame their wicked fathers for their misfortune. They also accused God of being unfair. God answered their objection by saying, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb. For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son – both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.”
Think, dear friends, of what that says to each one of us – as well as Israel . God says, “Every living soul belongs to me. Everyone is responsible to me for his own actions. The one who sins suffers.”
First off, He created you; He created me; He created our fathers and mothers; He created everyone. No one that you see at school, work, the store, or on the street came about by any other means but God. He created all. As such He's the Owner of all. And each of us has a direct relationship to Him. What does He expect of us?
Well, what do you expect out of something that you make or do into which you put an effort? Don't you expect some return or usefulness out of it for you?
One of you has put together a race car. Don't you anticipate that it's going to perform for you when you race it? One of you has fixed a hole in the roof of your house – several times. Don't you anticipate it's going to hold the water back from dripping in? One of you just got back from a hunting trip that you planned out. Didn't you anticipate some return for your expense and effort? Don't you expect some usefulness or return for what you do?
What about God? He made us all. Doesn't He have the right to expect that we would have some type of relationship with Him, a living relationship? “ I want you,” He says, “ to live with me.” He expects each to respond to His love with a life of love in Him.
But what happens if we turn away? What happens if we follow our own will? What happens if we neglect to look at our own faults and sin and seek to put the blame on others? What happens when we claim God is unfair? He responds, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” We can't shift our love and blame elsewhere.
It's a harsh warning, dear friends, to us, to our world. “ Stop blaming others.” God says. “ It's you and me. I want you. I want you to live with me. I don't want you to die apart from me.”
The truth is we have all sinned against Him. We can't blame others for that. It's between God and us – individually. We should each die as a just punishment for our own guilt. That's bad news. But the good news is that God's love is unbounded. He declares, “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone. Repent and live!”
Towards that end He sent Christ to satisfy the demands that we have failed to keep. He was punished in our place. He took the blame for our sin upon Himself willingly, like Paul pointed out in the Epistle Lesson when he wrote, “Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped (to greedily hang on to and refuse to give up), but made Himself nothing…and humbled himself…to death, even death on a cross!” (Phlp.2:6f). Take that attitude of humility for yourself.
He was rejected in our place because all too often we did not stop blaming others and didn't settle things between God and us. We even accuse God of injustice. But wonder upon wonders - because of what His Son endured on the cross for us, God won't reject you but receives you in faith to Himself. Why? Because that's His desire; that's His goal – to save you whom He created. “ Live! He says. I Don't Want You to Die. Live through my Son.” And He means that for all.
You know, it doesn't matter who you are, what you have done, or how bad you've been. The Lord said here, “If a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed…he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die.” But the opposite can happen to. The point is “turning away from” sin not “how bad” the sin or the person is. Turn away from it…
II. …And get a new heart and spirit.
To that end Jesus told the Parable of the Two Sons in the Gospel Lesson today. A man had two sons. He asked them both to go into the field and work for him. The first son selfishly replied, “No way.” But later had a change of mind, and went into the field. The second son cunningly said, “Sure thing Dad,” but had no intent of going into the field. Then Jesus asked, “Which of the two did what his father wanted.” You would have to say, “The first one,” right, even though he initially spoke against his father?
That's the way it was for many sinners in Jesus' day. They were bad; oh, they were bad. But when the Lord Jesus invited them to live because he didn't want them to die in their sin, they had a change of heart and spirit . It didn't matter who they were, what they had done, or how bad they had been. What mattered was change – admitting their sin and looking only to the Savior for help God through Ezekiel spoke of the change this way, “Repent! Turn away from all your offenses, then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit .” There's the key, dear friends, rid yourself of sin and get a new heart and spirit.
Can you rid yourself of sin? No. But Christ can rid you of sin. He can straighten you out by what He did on the cross. That's what He came for. He could do it; you can't.
Think of it from the standpoint of a homeless beggar on a street corner. Such a one has probably heard hundreds of times – “Get a job!” But usually the person who says such a thing doesn't offer him one. If the beggar had a chance to respond, maybe he'd say, “I've tried and tried to get a job, but again and again I've failed.”
What about us sinners towards God. He says, “Get a new heart and spirit.” But our reaction is somewhat like the beggar's, “I've tried and tried to change my life, but again and again I've failed.”
Isn't that exactly how you feel, dear friend, when you see your sin and admit it instead of blaming others or accusing God of injustice? The humble sinner knows he can't do it. So it was that God told Israel later(36:26f), “I will give you a new heart and spirit, I will remove from you your heart of stone...and you will live.”
That new heart and spirit is found in Christ who alone cleanses us. It's entirely different from the old sinful one that clings to us. The old heart glories in itself; the new is full of pride to be God's little lamb. The old heart sees friends and family as people who are supposed to give love and attention to them. The new heart sees people as outlets for its love. The new heart and spirit see everything differently from the old, because the Holy Spirit empowers them. He does it because God cries, “ Live! I don't want you to die.” And so He provides through His Son what we cannot. That's grace, dear friends; that's the Gospel. God grant that it change our hearts, minds, and spirits too; for Jesus' sake.