Full Sermon The Hand of the Lord Who Freely Gives based on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The Hand of the Lord • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsWe give because the hand of the Lord freely gives so much to us.
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Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our hands are amazing. When are hands are working good, then all kinds of things can be done. Our hands “showcase the amazing feat of the Lord’s engineering, capable of an intricate series of movements made possible by articulating joints between twenty-seven bones and the more than thirty muscles that move them. Even seemingly simple movements can be quite complex. Recent research has determined that the fastest accelerating part of the human body is not the blink of an eye. The snapping of your finger is actually twenty times faster, taking just seven milliseconds to travel from the thumb to the palm.”[1]Our hands are truly amazing.
Our hands can do a variety of things. Our hands can be used to play golf, write our name, cheer someone on, make things out of wood, and drive a car or truck. The many things we do with our hands can be good for helping out others or can be harmful to others. Certain gestures with our hands can show someone that we care for them. Other gestures with our hands can show that we do not want anything to do with another person.
Jesus, in our sermon text in Matthew 6 for tonight, refers to human hands. Jesus says in Matthew 6:3, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” These words of Jesus are from the chapters of Matthew that are often called, the Sermon on the Mount, because of the place where Jesus spoke these words. At the start of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is addressing His disciples with a crowd around them listening as well. Jesus’ disciples are the “poor in spirit” and they have nothing to offer God. They look at Jesus with empty hands. Jesus has filled their hands with His good gifts. You and I have nothing to bring before God because of our sins and wrongs. The Good News is that Jesus has filled our hands with His good gifts, too. Still, Jesus has taken all those sins and wrongs to the cross and in exchange gives us the good gifts of forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. We have this promise. Thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus for us we have our hands filled by our loving Lord.
Jesus says in Matthew 6:3, “But when you give to the needy...” Not if you give to the needy, but when you give to the needy. Giving to the needy is one of the things Christians do. Instead of keeping everything for ourselves and not sharing with others, Christians realize that all we have is a gift from God and we give to the needy in our world. Someone does not need to be a Christian to give to the needy, but Christian giving is intended to be different. Instead of wanting all kinds of thanks and hands slapping your back, Christian giving is intended to be the kind of giving in which the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. What does that mean? Jesus explains in Matthew 6:4, (Christian giving is to be done in a humble way), “so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Christian giving is not to be showy, but done in such a way that God the Father might be the only One who knows where the gift came from.
A Lutheran pastor puts things this way, “Jesus’ words grab hold of the heart of the matter. ... On the one hand, the moment that we start to dwell on what our hands are doing, we take our focus off our neighbor and his or her needs in order to make our giving all about ourselves. Our neighbor is no longer best served. On the other hand, there is the greater spiritual concern. Our sinful condition has so distorted our lives that we can outwardly appear humble, keeping our giving to ourselves, but inwardly be brimming full of arrogant pride in the work of our own hands. It may not look like the praise of others. But it is the praise of self, a reward that also soon fades. Closing our hands to God’s gifts in order to quietly praise ourselves leads us to the same place as the hypocrites. Jesus shows us that our sin is much worse than what we do or don’t do with our hands. Even anonymously giving to the needy can be distorted into our own selfish praise.” (Taken from part of a sermon by Pastor Matthew Rosebrock on Matthew 6:1-6).
In other words, the real problem we have is a heart problem. Ash Wednesday is designed to show us our heart problem. Jesus says in Matthew 15:19–20, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” This condition of the heart means that we are all sinners and wrongdoers who deserve nothing but God’s anger and punishment. If our lives were left in our hands, even though our hands can do amazing things, we could never be forgiven and saved from the punishment we deserve.
Still, the Old Testament prophet Joel gives us words of hope this Ash Wednesday in Joel 2:12–13, “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” The Lord is calling sinners and wrongdoers to repent, that is, change their hearts and minds totally around in a new direction.
King David also knew about this heart problem. He pleads in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” David knew that he could not repair the damage he had done with his own hands. He needed the hand of the Lord to give him a clean heart and a renewed right spirit.
We, like David, need to have the hand of the Lord give us a clean heart and a renewed right spirit. How does that take place? Why does the Lord give and give? Jesus brought this about by the work of His hands. Jesus, in His great love for you and me, allowed His left hand and His right hand to be stretched out on the wooden cross outside Jerusalem. He has taken your sins and wrongs all the way to death on the cross. Your sins and wrongs are taken as far away as the east is from the west. Jesus did everything needed to completely forgive you and fill your empty hands with salvation and gracious favor.
Now as you live out your life by giving to the needy and telling others the Good News about Jesus with a new heart, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing by daily repenting and growing in faith. Remember that the rewards of this life are like nothing compared to the everlasting gifts of God who rewards in secret. As you come to the altar with empty hands, your hands will be filled with the true Body and Blood of Jesus, given and shed for you. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Raghav Acharya, Elio J. Challita, Mark Ilton, and M. Saad Bhamla, “The Ultrafast Snap of a Finger Is Mediated by Skin Friction,” The Journal of the Royal Society Interface 18, no. 184 (November 2021), April 15, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0672.
