The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Galatians 5:25-6:10

In Christ Jesus, who did good to everyone, even to those who could not see the good and did not give thanks for it, dear fellow redeemed:

“Good” is a word kind of like “love”—it can be used in many different ways and have a variety of definitions. Just as it is difficult in our society today to agree on what is loving, so it is difficult to agree on what is good. Is something “good” if it makes me feel good? An illegal substance might make me feel good in the moment, but it is very damaging and bad for me. Is something good if more people are happy with a certain outcome than are unhappy? What if the majority is wrong?

The politicians are out in full force right now promising to accomplish good things for us. “I will give you more freedom!” “I will give you more rights!” “I will make everything more equitable—level the playing field for you!” “I will get you more money!” “Wouldn’t that be good?” What is good for one isn’t always what is good for another. And what we think is good for ourselves might not actually be what is good for us.

It might be helpful for defining and recognizing what is good to hear what God says is “not good.” Here are some examples from the book of Proverbs:

• “To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness” (17:26).
• “It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice” (18:5).
• “Desire without knowledge is not good” (19:2).
• “Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good” (20:23).
• “It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory” (25:27).

These proverbs tell us that unjust punishment is not good, injustice and unfairness are not good, unbridled desire is not good, cheating or taking advantage is not good, overindulging in food and an appetite for glory are not good. So it won’t do to define “good” as getting or having exactly what I want because that may not be good for me or for anyone else.

Today’s reading charts out a very different course for us as Christians. This epistle (or letter) from St. Paul was first of all “to the churches of Galatia.” These churches had been troubled by false teachers, false teachers who were telling these new converts that they needed to follow Old Testament rules and regulations such as circumcision and certain days of obligation in order to be good Christians. This focus on human works caused pride, in-fighting, and envy among the people. No doubt it also caused the false teachers to be puffed up since so many were now following them and forsaking Paul’s teaching.

“You are forgetting something fundamental,” said Paul, “something essential to the Christian faith. You are forgetting love—both God’s love for you and your love for one another.” Paul summed up this idea with the phrase, “law of Christ.” He said, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

That phrase sounds a little strange to us. We think of Christ as Savior, not as Lawgiver. In fact, we push back against people who say Jesus was just a good teacher or that He intended to replace Old Testament law with a new standard of morality. That’s how some describe His Sermon on the Mount, as presenting a different kind of law than the Ten Commandments.

The “law of Christ” is not a new system of morality, but it did have a different reference point. Its reference point was not Mt. Sinai with all its thunder, lightning, and fire where God gave the holy law to Moses. Its reference point is another mount, Mt. Calvary, where Jesus gave up His life as a sacrifice for us sinners.

The evening before His death, Jesus said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Joh. 13:34-35). Jesus’ disciples were to love others just as He had loved them. His love was the starting point.

He showed love for the people around Him by speaking God’s truth, both the law and the promises. He showed love by healing the sick and injured, comforting the hurting, feeding the hungry. Then He showed love by letting Himself be led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7)—“the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29). He had committed no sin, but He paid for our sin. He owed us nothing, and He gave us everything. He came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mat. 20:28).

That is love! And that is what Paul means by the “law of Christ.” It is a sacrificial love; it is outward-focused. “Just as I have loved you,” said Jesus, “you also are to love one another.” Just as Jesus gently restored transgressors who were sorry for their sins, so we are gentle and understanding toward our fellow Christians who fall because of weakness. Just as Jesus bore “our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa. 53:4), so we bear one another’s burdens of sorrow, pain, worry, and doubt. Just as Jesus sowed the good seed of righteousness through His gracious words and works, so we speak and serve one another graciously in His name. We learn from Jesus how we are to love. We learn from Jesus what is truly good.

But just because we know what is good, does not mean we always do it. Like the Galatian Christians, we need to be reminded about our sinful ways that work against God’s ways. “Let us not become conceited,” wrote Paul, “provoking one another, envying one another.” These things happen when we determine what is good by the wrong standard. We are tempted to measure how good we are by how much better we think we are than the people around us, or even by how good other people tell us we are.

We might think that we would never fall into the sins that others fall into, but Paul warns us not to be so proud: “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” In another place he wrote, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man” (1Co. 10:13). It does not take some unique, powerful temptation to get us to sin. The common temptations are effective enough for our weak flesh, temptations like conceit because we think are better, or pointless arguments that cause division, or envy because we want what someone else has.

“For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing,” writes Paul, “he deceives himself.” This is why each one of us must “test his own work,” not by comparing ourselves with others but by the standard of God’s holy law. This is how we each “bear [our] own load.” We take responsibility for our own words and actions. We acknowledge our own sins. In humility, we bring this heavy load to our Lord in repentance, asking for His mercy.

And how does He respond? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28). You see, Jesus is the Chief Burden-Bearer. He took the massive burden of our sin and death on Himself and exchanged them with the free gifts of His forgiveness and eternal life. It is His bearing of our burdens that makes possible our bearing of one another’s burdens. It is His strength we draw on. It is His love that inspires our love. We have nothing to give that He did not first give to us. Everything comes from Him.

It first came to us when He joined Himself to us in Holy Baptism. It was then that we became members of His holy body. This is why Paul said to the Galatians earlier in his epistle, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20).

Christ lives in you by faith, and He works His good through you. When, as our reading says, you “bear one another’s burdens,” when you humbly serve one another, when you faithfully support your pastor, when you do good without growing weary, that is Christ working through you. That is Christ blessing the people around you through your humble service.

You don’t have to guess at what is “good.” You see it clearly in what Jesus has done for you and for every sinner. His goodness, His love, His mercy never run out—there is more than enough for all. And it is our feet, our hands, our mouths that He graciously employs to dispense these gifts.

“So then, as we have opportunity,” writes Paul, “let us do good to everyone”—spouse, children, parents, siblings, teachers, classmates, bosses, employees, friends, strangers, enemies—“let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith”—especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ, all to the glory of His holy name.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

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(picture from “Healing the Blind Near Jericho” by a Netherlands artist in the 1470s)