I want to begin today with a story, one you’re likely familiar with. It’s the story of Golem. Not the one beside me, but the one from the LOTR series.
Golum, if you recall, was once a hobbit. A peaceful average little fellow. Once known as Smeagol. But somewhere along the way, he came in contact with something, an unignorable force -> the ring . This ring was no normal ring, but it was a force of evil, with a spirit of its own, intentions of its own. That ring wanted to be found, it wanted to tempt smeagol. And it did. Just seeing the ring drove smeagol into a fit of jealousy and desire, a fit of temptation. It looked good to his eyes, it promised unmatchable power. And this temptation drove smeagol to kill his best friend. And it wasn’t until then, through the committing of a horrible soul shattering sin that smeagol became united with the ring. And it utterly transformed him. Over time smeagol became a memory of the past. He was now “Gollum,” a sick, decrepit and unrecognizable monster.
Even years years after when he had been apart from the ring for decades, he was still the creature that he had become through sin. He was permanently transformed. Even when fordo would show kindness and mercy to smeagol, Gollum would try to pervert his kindness and remind smeagol that frodo hated him and had stolen his ring, that he was only using him and ultimately wanted him dead! But smeagol fought this, saying no, Fordo is a friend, he only wants to help smeagol, he wants to destroy the bad ring, to save smeagol, to help smeagol, to free smeagol from his slavery to the power of the ring.
But in the end, as Fordo was going to finally destroy the ring, to redeem all under its powerful grasp, the darkness overcame smeagol, the liar within Him overcame him. Gollum couldn’t let the promise be fulfilled for him, he couldn’t let Frodo redeem him. He couldn’t let himself be freed from slavery to the ring, for the rings grasp over him was simply too strong. And so as frodo threw the ring into mount doom to be destroyed forever, Gollum lept in after it, to die with his sins, to let his brokenness break him forever. The ring had distorted smeagol so badly, that his only hope, the destruction of the ring, had become his greatest fear!
The texts for this morning bring us to a similar place. Humanity had just fallen, Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit, they had just fallen into sin and rebelled against God. They had just broken the perfect relationship that they were created into. And then they heard it – the sound that struck terror in their hearts like nothing else could; God walking in the garden, “in the cool of the day.” Something that, before the Fall, for Adam and Eve was normal, was comforting and familiar; God’s presence with them in a beautiful place, at a beautiful time, w/beautiful weather – the Garden of Eden, the cool of the day – was transformed by sin and guilt. The knowledge of their own guilt had transformed what should have been a source of comfort into a source of terror.
When we’re guilty everything can feel like an accusation. To the one who knows he lied on his tax forms, every letter from the government is a threat. To the one who has done wrong, everything is a trial – and they are always guilty. And until they actually receive their incoming judgment, everything comes across as a court order, as their own soul, their own conscience accuses them of what they caught themselves doing red-handed.
This is the work of Satan. This is the kingdom of the accuser. This is the house of the strong man. It binds us in our sins, it binds our wills and perverts our minds, closes our eyes, hardens our hearts, it plugs our ears. It is the kingdom of the devil himself, the kingdom of guilt, of shame, of condemnation. This is the work of demons. These demons serve the accuser, the tempter, the liar, the snake! What they want is for you to pervert everything, the good intentions and love of your neighbour and of God toward you to be perverted into an accusation of guilt. They want you to live in fear. But I echo to you this day the words so often spoken by our Lord, – fear not, for I am with you. The one who has the power to cast out demons is here with you now. He who binds the strong man is here now, with you and for you, it is He who plunders the house of the strong man and takes those who he was holding captive back home to be with Him. And He does it all by putting your guilt to death through His own flesh on the cross.
Hear the words of Christ – All sins will be forgiven.
All sins.
There is no height nor depth of sin that God’s grace cannot or will not reach. Forgiveness of all sins was accomplished on that cross once for all, and forgiveness of all sins is handed out weekly, daily, hourly across the whole earth through the Word read and preached, through confession and absolution, through the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In these things, earlier when we confessed our sins and received absolution, right now in the preaching of the gospel, and in just a little while as we partake of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, demons are being cast away, Satan who once held you captive is being bound in chains and locked in hell where he belongs. Through this gospel of the forgiveness of sins right now in this very moment the kingdom of Satan is being conquered, and the kingdom of God is established here on earth.
But if you hear this word today and cast the work of the Spirit through these holy things aside as if it were an unclean thing, a common thing, a thing that cannot save, a thing not worthy to trust in – Baptism, the Supper, the Preaching of the Gospel – then you will find yourself on the last day having rejected forgiveness itself. That my friends, is the only thing that is unforgiveable – the rejection of forgiveness itself, for outside of the means of grace, there is no salvation. Just as the unhealable wound is the one you refuse to have bound up, and the unhealable sickness the one you refuse to take medicine for. Yes, you have committed the unforgiveable sin, you all have, and so have I. There are a vast many individuals whose ultimate fear, or perhaps ultimate guilt, is that they have committed this sin as if this is the one sin that Jesus did not die for. As if all other sins are taken upon Him, but this is the one that you must bear yourself. To believe this is to be held captive once again by the strong man. There are an even more vast many individuals who turn this not into the one sin that cannot be forgiven, but to say that if we continue doing any and sin at all, to perpetually live in a sinful life style, that this, is the unforgivable sin, as if no sins, except those you have stopped doing, are forgiven. But I will simply repeat to you the words of Christ Himself – All sins will be forgiven. To which of these things is your mind captive to? The forgiveness of sins, the promise? Or is it still bound to seeing guilt and threat everywhere?
The Holy Spirit is the one who creates faith, trust, and rest in the work of Christ finished for us on the cross through the absolution given to us in Word and Sacrament. As you partake of Holy Communion this morning, as you hear the words; this is my body given for you, my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, and as you eat that same flesh and drink that same blood – the Accuser within you, will be bound, tried, and executed – and you will be free. Free of guilt, free of shame, free of fear. Because in Christ, all sins have been forgiven, all punishments that you deserved have already been suffered, and all of death has been died, and all that is left for you to receive is grace. You who once walked under a cloud of guilt and a mist of shame, hearing accusations where there were none except inside your own heart, now look to Christ, who names you righteous, a doer of God’s will, a brother, a sister, a mother, even though you are not. Behold, in Christ, all sins are forgiven sins. Behold I say again, in Christ, all of your sins are forgiven sins. Let go of your sin, let yourself be accused, let yourself be put to death in Christ through Baptism, let yourself be forgiven, let your greatest fear become your greatest hope! Amen.
