How Do You Feel When Enemies Fall?
Text: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
How do you feel when an arrogant co-worker gets fired from their job?
How do you feel when an enemy becomes infected by a very deadly disease?
How do you feel when a jerk passes you on the road, later to get picked up or, even worse, in an accident?
How do you feel when an opposing political party politician is arrested for corruption?
If we are truly honest with ourselves, more often than not, we have the emotion of pleasure. We have what the Germans call “harm joy.” We have delight and happiness from another person’s misfortune and demise.
But why are we like this; why are we happy when some people fall apart?
More often than not, it is because we believe that the other person deserves the misfortune – that justice is served. Now, when justice is served upon a lawbreaker, we can agree that this is good, right, and salutary. However, I am not talking about what is good, right, and salutary. Instead, I am talking about a diabolical aspect of all of this. You see, when people get what is coming to them, there is a part of us that delights and is overjoyed by their suffering. In other words, I am talking about the sick grin and perverted happiness we get when others experience it. Again, please do not misunderstand what I am saying. Justice is a good thing. When justice is served, that is good. A punishment needs to fit the crime. However, I am specifically addressing our disposition of ‘harm joy’ – the fact that we take self-righteous joy in other people's destruction, demise, loss, and misfortunes. But why do we have such happiness and joy in the midst of another person’s harm? The answer, it actually makes us feel morally superior.
Dear friends, when bad things happen to other people, they get lowered a notch. And when they get lowered a notch, well… we are then able to stand above them with a moral superiority - snubbing our noses at them. That is right; another person’s demise makes us feel good because we believe that we are better than them, morally superior to them, and above them. Their demise brings us confidence and joy because they got what is comin’ to them, and we are still standing tall and strong.
In the reading from 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul gives four examples of the Israelites acting badly and then being punished. In other words, Paul references the Israelite’s idolatry, sexual immorality, tempting, and grumbling, which led to over 23,000 of them being destroyed by serpent bites, a plague, and the Destroyer. But why does Paul share these examples? Does he list them so that we can say,
“I’m glad we aren’t like those Old Testament fools. They got what was coming to them!”
Dear friends, Paul does not give these Old Testament examples as a way for us to puff up our own self-righteous platforms. And furthermore, he does not list these as mere Old Testament history. But instead, these Old Testament examples are history that is meant to serve Christ’s Church in Corinth and Christ’s Church here at St. Paul’s Lutheran. Yes, they are bad examples – awful events that have been recorded for you and me as warnings. In other words, God has a purpose in these Old Testament Israelite examples. God permitted the evils of the Israelites to be recorded for our present good.
But what present good can come from such awful events in the Old Testament? The answer, they serve to be warnings to us that the same thing could happen to us.
Dear friends, we must not be so arrogant to think that we can never get caught up in the same things as the Israelites. Frankly, you, me, and this church could easily get caught up in wanting our own way as the ancient Israelites did. We could easily turn this Christian faith into a circus as the ancient Israelites did. We could easily be given to sexual promiscuity, as the ancient Israelites did. We could easily try to manipulate God and stir up discontent in Christ’s church as the Israelites so easily did. And so, Paul writes these examples down, not so that we can puff ourselves up and say,
“I am so glad I am not like those unfaithful Israelites. I would never do that!”
But instead, Paul writes these examples down to be warning markers so that we don’t repeat their mistakes and don’t wander away from the God that loves us.
Think of it this way: Old Testament Israel's people are no different than you and me. We all have the same old Adam. We all battle against the same devil and the same ideologies of the pagan world. And so, we are parallel to the Israelites. They are at the beginning of time, and we are at the end. And so, we are just as capable of messing things up as they were. And so, don’t be so naïve and self-confident to believe that you are exempt. You and I could fall flat on our faces just as easily as the Israelites did in the Old Testament.
As many of you know, I used to be a pastor in another denomination. I have been in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod for ten years. Before the LCMS, I was in another denomination for ten years. To the point, though, my previous denomination would send out letters from time to time to all the pastors. These letters had a red mark on the outside envelope. If I am not mistaken, I received about 2-3 of these letters over the ten years. And so, every time that I would receive one of these letters, my heart would sink. I would feel sick to my stomach. The reason was it was a letter sent to all the pastors notifying us that a fellow pastor had fallen – a fellow pastor had disqualified himself from the ministry for unethical and sinful conduct. Now, what my previous denomination did very well, was that it used these moral failures and letters not only to notify us, pastors, to pray for and reach out to the fallen pastor but also to stress that all of us pastors were susceptible to the same fate. The letters were used as examples of what could happen to us. Alas, every time that we pastors received these letters, we were left saying,
“God have mercy on me, a sinner. God protect me from the same fate. God shelter me from destruction. Keep me in your care.”
And that is the whole point of what the Apostle Paul is doing in our reading from 1 Corinthians today. He is teaching you and me that when the destruction, demise, and misfortunes of others happen around us that it should not bring us to ‘harm joy’ but instead to repentance.
Dear friends, having joy in another person’s harm is the way of the sinful nature. It is the way of pride. It is the way of self-righteous arrogance. It is the way of a naïve person not realizing that they possess the same sinful nature that is capable of the same atrocities – in fact, a sinful nature that is capable of so much more evil than what they see around them. Indeed, a deluded person full of diabolical self-confidence is a person who says,
“Fall into sin – what sin? Surely I am not as bad as those sinful, dirty fools!”
Beware, dear friends, of being so cocky and so self-assured that you end up like the Israelites who reaped nothing but disaster amid spiritual ignorance. But instead, may you and me - right here and right now – cry out, saying:
“Lord God, may the failures and sins of the Old Testament not be an opportunity for my sinful nature to gloat in self-righteous arrogance, but may these examples be a warning to me. Furthermore, O God, may the sins and failures of those around me also drive me to repentance – may the tragic sins around me be a warning that I am capable of the same sins and so much more.”
And so, may all of these examples drive you and me to the care of the Lord. May the Lord use these examples to lead us continually to His forgiveness, mercy, and help.
May we be driven to cry out,
“Lord Jesus, I am yours; save me.”
Here at St. Paul’s, we will never promote sin or celebrate sin. We will always appeal to justice and forgiveness. However, may we uphold justice and forgiveness with humility – confessing that this world is every bit as bad as the Bible says it is while sympathetically enduring this same world with our neighbors. May we be so bold to confess our sins, repent when our neighbors sin, and then rush with them to the loving care of Christ’s forgiveness and salvation that are freely given to us.
God help us; we can do no other. Lord, have mercy on us.
In the name of Jesus – the One who takes away the sins of the world - Amen.
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