Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
“The Joy of Getting Caught”
2 Samuel 11:26—12:10, 13-14
6/12/16c
2. David Needed to Get Caught
Anything to keep from getting caught! He’d made his bed—quite
literally—and now he’d do anything to keep from lying in it.
You know the story of King David. What he saw one afternoon as he
strolled atop the roof of his house. Whom he saw, that is, her shapely
form peeking out from beneath the bubble bath. Bathsheba. Beautiful
bathing Bathsheba. Wife of another man. And you know about the deed
that David, in his insatiable lust, did next. How he sent servants to
Bathsheba to summon her to his house. And how David then took this
beautiful woman, wife of another man, into his chamber and slept with
her as though she were his wife.
Not long thereafter came the announcement: “I’m pregnant.”
She’s pregnant. What do I do now? I cover it up, David decided.
Wasting no time, David ordered back to Jerusalem Bathsheba’s husband,
Uriah the Hittite, who was serving with the army at the time. And David
asked many questions of Uriah about how the war was going, pretending
to be interested in that, but what David really wanted was for Uriah to go
home to his wife and sleep with her so that he would think the baby was
his own. It didn’t work. Uriah was too honorable. “While my fellow
soldiers are out fighting shall I go and enjoy pleasure with my wife?” he
asked the king. And though David wined and dined him, Uriah spent
each night at the gate of the king’s house, and did not so much as return
home to give his wife a kiss.
So, his first plan foiled, David became desperate, sinking deeper into the
pit he was digging for himself. He plotted a murderous plot. The king
sent Uriah back to the battlefront with a letter to Joab, the army
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commander. In the letter David ordered Joab to set Uriah in the thick of
the fighting in the hope that he would be struck down and die.
When David received word that his plot had gone off as planned and
Uriah was dead, David waited until Bathsheba’s period of mourning was
over, then he quickly took her into his home to be his wife. To the
king’s subjects this would have appeared to be a generous action, the
king providing for the well-being of a widow. David knew the real
reason—by quickly taking Bathsheba to be his wife, his child, once
born, would appear legitimately to be his own. David hoped that no one
would know that their baby had actually been conceived in adultery,
while Uriah was still living.
No one would know? Deep down David must have realized that was not
true. The country & western song says, “No one knows what goes on
behind closed doors.” Oh yeah? The Lord knows! (Illustration from
Dr. Reed Lessing.)
Royal David sinned royally. And our text says, “The thing that David
had done displeased the Lord”(2 Sam. 11:27). Clearly, David was
gambling with his soul. Martin Luther said, “When a person sins against
his conscience, that is, when he knowingly and intentionally acts
contrary to God, as, for instance, an adulterer or any other criminal, who
knowingly does wrong, he is, while consciously persisting in his
intention, without repentance and faith and does not please God…
[David] was under the wrath of God and had lost his holiness and the
Holy Spirit until he was converted again” (Walther, The Proper Distinction Between
Law and Gospel, pp. 217-218; quoting Luther, St. Louis ed. 10:1706). So writes Luther.
As for David, however calm he appeared on the outside, on the inside he
was miserable, guilt-ridden, and terrified, as he wrote later in Psalm 32:
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day
long” (v.3).
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Anything to keep from getting caught! That’s what David kept telling
himself. But David needed to get caught.
And the Lord in His grace and mercy caught David and confronted him
out of His love for him.
“Nathan,” the Lord said to His prophet, “Go to this king and tell him a
tale of wickedness and injustice that will arouse his righteous anger.
Then in a flash, Nathan, turn the mirror on him!”
So Nathan the prophet went and told David of a rich man who had
flocks and herds aplenty and another, poor man, who had nothing but
one little ewe lamb which was very dear to him, like a member of the
family. And a traveler came to town. And the rich man, when the
traveler came to his house, was unwilling to take a lamb from among his
own flock to prepare for a meal for the traveler. Instead he seized the
poor man’s beloved lamb and prepared a meal from it.
When he heard this, David cried, “As the Lord lives, the man who has
done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because
he did this thing…” (12:5-6).
And then those crushing and devastating words, but words David
absolutely needed to hear. “You are the man!” (12:7) And this is the
thing that you have done: “You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with
the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife” (12:9). Though the
Lord gave you the kingdom and your master’s house and your master’s
wives, and though the Lord would have given you more besides, you
have despised the word of the Lord and have done evil in his sight. And
now that you have done this the sword will never depart from your
house as long as you live.
And then David gave a model confession. No excuses, no denials,
simply acknowledgement and contrition: “I have sinned against the
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Lord.” It’s six words in English, just two in the Hebrew. Because when
you confess your sins it’s not the many words that matter.
Upon David’s hearfelt confession, he was immediately put right with
God again through these words spoken by Nathan: “The Lord also has
put away you sin; you shall not die” (12:13).
What sweet music those words must have been to David who after all
this time finally owned up to his sin from a truly penitent heart. Later he
wrote of this incident in Psalm 32: “I acknowledged my sin to you, and
I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to
the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (32:5).
In the same Psalm he also spoke of the blessedness of being forgiven.
He wrote, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered” (32:1).
Now, the earthly fallout from David’s sin was indeed severe, as we
know sin’s fallout usually is in this life: David experienced a tarnished
reputation, the death of his infant son, family strife, and a kingdom
thrown into turmoil.
And yet, yet—God assured David of His favor, of His pardon. God
kept David in the faith and supplied him with the strength he needed
until the day he died.
1. We Need to Get Caught
Dear friends in Christ, David needed to get caught, and we too need to
get caught.
Strange as it may seem, we Christians repeatedly ask God to do for us
what He did for David: catch us in our sins and spare us from the
spiritually lethal effects that come with hardheartedness.
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See, we need to be caught. Often, we are aware of the sins we have
committed, but, like David, we determine to cover them up. We hide
them, or we try, anyway. We explain them away. We make excuses for
them: “It’s not that big of a deal.” “It didn’t really hurt anybody.” “A
lot of other people do it.” “It’s just the way I am.”
But such talk is very dangerous. C. F. W. Walther, our Synod’s
founding father, wrote: “The light of faith can be extinguished not only
by gross sins, but by any willful, intentional sin. Accordingly, defection
from faith occurs far oftener than we imagine. Faith ceases not only in
those who lead a life of shame, but also in such as permit themselves to
be led astray against their better knowledge and the warning of their
conscience (Walther, 216).
In light of this danger to your soul, it is very important for you to keep
yourself in the places where you can “get caught”!
Keep yourself in the Word and Sacraments.
Keep yourself in fellowship with other Christians. Through sermons and liturgies,
through Bible study and interaction with fellow believers, God will send “Nathans”
to you who will call you to confession—even when you aren’t expecting it or
relishing it. Paul teaches in Colossians 3: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom” (3:16).
And as we learned from David, when you are caught in your sins, give up quickly and
voluntarily, as David did. Take advantage of the opportunities God gives you to confess your
sins and then receive absolution.
Confess your sins directly to God in personal prayer. Then, rejoice in the promises of complete
forgiveness He gives in the Scriptures:
“If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
“The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Confess your sins with your fellow Christians at the beginning of the
Divine Service. When the pastor forgives your sins “in the stead and by
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the command of” the Lord Jesus Christ (LSB, p. 185), believe the Good
News: Your sins are really, truly, and completely forgiven (John 20:2223).
For sins that particularly trouble your conscience, confess privately and
directly to another Christian. Seek out any trusted Christian brother or
sister for this important activity of consolation through the Gospel.
Don’t be afraid to come to your pastor, because comforting troubled
sinners with the Gospel belongs to the essence of a pastor’s calling. It is
also a safe place in that pastors are pledged never to divulge the sins
confessed to them.
David’s experience with Nathan was an instance of Private Confession
and Absolution. And while it was painful for David to look Nathan in
the eye and say, “Yes, I am the man. I have sinned against the Lord,”
what joy and release David experienced when Nathan looked him back
in the eye and declared, “The Lord also has put away your sin”!
Private confession and absolution, as this pastor learned from personal
experience years ago, is a powerful experience of the Gospel. That’s
why Luther writes in the Large Catechism, “If you were a Christian,
then you ought to be happy to run more than a hundred miles to
Confession, not under compulsion but rather coming and compelling us
(that is, us pastors) to offer it” (LC V 30).
Why would a person go through such a humbling and painful process
voluntarily? Because we know that the One to whom we turn is the
Friend who lovingly hung on the cross, being judged, in our place. He is
the one who is really “the man,” as Pontius Pilate said when he
presented Jesus to the people, “Behold, the man!” Jesus was the
innocent king who took upon Himself the sins of unrighteous king David
and unrighteous you and me, so that by His blood He might cleanse us
all. “You are the man!” said Nathan to David. Then penitent David
went free—why? Because another king, another man, the God-man,
would one day go to the death that David and we deserved. Jesus died
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for all and the Father’s forgiveness is received by all who come to Jesus
in faith.
The woman in today’s Gospel reading knew this and came to Jesus with
her many sins, believing in His forgiveness, and to her Jesus said, “Your
faith has saved you; go in peace.” Paul also knew this and said in our
Epistle: “I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me.” And we know about faith in Christ, too, so we have
put our faith in Him that His blood might cleanse us as well.
It’s because we know God’s grace in Jesus, dear friends, that we will
voluntarily go through this pain of getting caught. Because we know
that
FROM GETTING CAUGHT COMES REAL RELEASE.
Conclusion
Confession and absolution is the joy of being free, of going home! It’s
the joy of returning to God’s pronouncement made at Baptism: “You
are my dear child forever.”
Amen
This sermon was largely taken from a sermon plan from 2007 by the
Rev. Stephen J. Constien.
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