Lent 2—Reminiscere
Dear friends in Christ. This Sunday has the Latin name “Reminiscere.” It means “remember”—you can probably see here the word “reminisce”—and comes to us from the first word of today’s Introit from Psalm 25: Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your loving-kindnesses, for they have been from of old. “Remembering” serves, then, as today’s theme. Our text today picks up on this theme of remembering and as we spend a few moments this morning examining this one verse the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah we will see both that we remember and the Lord remembers.
1. Dear Christian, we are in the season of Lent. It is a holy and especially penitential season. Especially now do we examine our hearts and lives in the mirror of God’s holy law. Especially now we take God’s holy Ten Commandments in hand, and like a light shine them in every corner and crevice of our heart and life. This is not a mere superficial look for sin; it is not finding sin and then trying to rationalize it away; it is not comparing my life with those I think are great sinners; it is not using God’s law on a sliding scale or “grading on the curve.” Instead, it is holding God’s holy Ten Commandments in hand saying and comparing: God has commanded this. Have I done this—not just outwardly—but from the heart? God has forbidden this. Have I not done it—not just outwardly—but from the heart. Do I truly love with all my heart what the Lord commands and truly hate, from the bottom of my heart, what He hates? And what are we doing as we examine our hearts and lives in the mirror of God’s holy Law? We are remembering! Here is the heart and core of Lent’s repentance—remembering our sin. And why is it vital that we remember our sin? Because there we first recognize why we need Christ, a Savior from our sin; because then we recognize what the big deal is about Good Friday and Easter. Without Lent and its driving home to us our sin and the results of our sin—namely death, God’s wrath and eternal damnation—Easter is nothing more than the world’s “Happy Easter! Happy Spring!”
As we remember our sin, especially now in Lent, we see again and anew the hostility of the human heart—our heart—for God. By remembering our sin we see that our hearts and acknowledge that our hearts are by nature—as we are born and come into this world—without the fear, love and trust in God. If we Christians, who have the new self, the Christian, within us and the Holy Spirit—and we still daily, often, and grievously sin—how sinfully corrupt must the human heart be! Recognizing this, our sinful condition, we cannot go along with the world’s way of thinking: “look in your heart”; “you’re really a good person.” By remembering our sin, by recognizing the depth of our natural sinfulness and rejection of the Lord and His will and way—how we, dear Christian, must be full of sorrow, sorrow over our sin and sinfulness!
And then we hear our Lord’s words in our text: Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? Ephraim is one of the 12 tribes of Israel. It was the mightiest and most prominent of the northern tribes of Israel—and it was the mightiest and foremost in idolatry. In no way was it worthy/ deserving of the Lord’s love; in no way was it worthy and deserving to be the Lord’s dear son or darling child. So, in answer to the question: Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child?—if the actual condition of the heart and mind is considered, then the answer would be a definite “no!” That’s the verdict we must pronounce on ourselves as we remember our sins. That’s precisely the job of God’s holy law/ the holy 10 Commandments: to show us our true condition. And what’s the point of that? It is to bring us to recognize our sin and sorrow over them—to see against Whom we have sinned and what we by our sins have earned and deserved: namely God’s wrath and punishment; that we have to consider ourselves Ephraim and answer “no” to the questions: Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child?
But, dear Christian, in Lent we do not just remember our sinfulness and our sin. Otherwise we would have nothing but despair; there would be no hope or rescue for us. The purpose of Lent is only halfway done with its emphasis on examining our hearts and lives in the light and mirror of God’s holy Law. Recognizing sin only for the purpose of recognizing sin serves no purpose—it will only lead to despair and hopelessness. Remembering sin—our sin, our damning sin—is to serve the purpose of driving us to remember God’s promise of mercy and forgiveness of sin. The season of Lent is both inward focused—on our hearts and lives—and also outward focused—on the cross and empty tomb of Easter.
That’s the only way that repentance is truly repentance. Repentance has two parts—sorrow over sin, what we call contrition; and the second and main part—faith, faith in the Lord and His promises of forgiveness; faith in the Lord and His work for us: His holy life and His innocent suffering and death for our sins. In other words, may the remembering of our sin lead us also to remember the Lord’s mercy!
Really, the only way that we can truly repent of our sin is if we remember the Lord’s promise of mercy and forgiveness. What worthwhile purpose would remembering our sin serve if we didn’t at the same time remember our Lord’s mercy and forgiveness? All that we would have is sin and we would have to face an angry God who would condemn us eternally for that sin. Yes, there would be sorrow together with despair. But repentance—its main part—faith—remembers God’s promise of mercy and holds to it. That’s why we remember our sin: so that we may also then remember God’s mercy and forgiveness. By remembering God’s mercy and forgiveness we are bold to remember our sin and sorrow over that sin because no matter how great our sin that we may remember, there’s always more than enough of our Lord’s mercy and forgiveness to go around—and why? Because its foundation is Jesus and His saving work! In response to the question in our text: Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child?—we answer a definite “Yes!” when we remember our Lord’s mercy.
Because the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness stand; because we, in both sorrow over the sins we remember and in boldness of faith, remember and cling/ hold to that mercy and forgiveness, we have joy and peace in the Lord and rest of conscience. It is precisely here that we must be on guard because here is where the devil will want to attack us. He is very happy that we remember our sin—because it will lead us into doubt and despair; it will get us to think that there’s no way I can be God’s dear child and heir of heaven. But the devil is not happy when we remember our Lord’s mercy. That’s why the devil will try to get us to think that our sins are too great or serious for forgiveness; that’s why he will try to get us away from the word and sacrament, away from gathering together in our Lord’s house where we hear and receive these gifts of mercy and forgiveness—where we are reminded and in the sacrament taste and see that the Lord is good, merciful and forgiving.
It doesn’t matter whether we “feel” forgiven—if we think that, we have fallen into one of Satan’s traps that bases our forgiveness on “feeling.” No! God’s promise of mercy stands. That’s why we need to remember it and hold to it. That’s what the Canaanite woman, whom Jesus praises in today’s Gospel [Mt 15.21-28], did: even when/ precisely when it seemed the Lord was rejecting her. And Jesus answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”; she held to the Lord’s word/ promise: she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table”. Even when we don’t “feel” forgiven; even when it seems like we are experiencing God’s wrath over a certain sin, it’s precisely then that we remember and hold fast in faith to the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness.
How quickly we fall into forgetfulness—that horrible trap of Satan! Both that we forget the mercy and forgiveness of the Lord—so that faith has no object to cling to—or the opposite, that we forget our sins—so that we think we have no need of our Lord’s forgiveness and mercy and Jesus, our Savior from sin. May we, led and strengthened by the Holy Spirit keep remembering the Lord’s mercy!
2. Our Lord also continues in our text: For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord. Notice what the Lord says: I do remember him still. And why? My heart yearns for him. And what’s the result? I will surely have mercy on him. That’s why the Lord remembers—to have mercy on us! In other words, both we remember the mercy of the Lord and the Lord remembers His mercy.
Precisely because the Lord remembers His mercy to us He doesn’t just give us right away the punishment we earn and deserve for our sins. Instead, He speak[s] against [us], that is, He reproves us in His holy Law and calls us to recognize our sin and to sorrow over it. When you hear the voice of God’s holy Law accusing you of sin, don’t run away from it; don’t try to rationalize it away; don’t let it drive you to despair. Instead, remember that here the Lord is remembering His mercy toward sinners/ toward you and calling you to repent, i.e., to remember and recognize your sin so that in faith you remember His mercy toward you in Christ and run toward Him and His mercy. By His holy Law—and especially now in this holy and penitential season of Lent—the Lord is remembering you in mercy: I will surely have mercy on him. He is now calling you to repent: that is, to remember your sins and to remember His mercy to you. He is now drawing you to Himself as in the holy absolution and Gospel He is giving you His grace; He is in the Holy Sacrament giving in your very mouth His very body and blood that brought about that forgiveness and giving you that very forgiveness itself. He is reminding you/ causing you to remember His mercy and by that is drawing you to Himself. Here is His great love for us sinners, as He says in our text: my heart yearns for [you]. That’s why the call to repent—the Lord remembers His grace and mercy to us and He wants us to remember His grace and mercy to us! That’s the point of Lent! That’s the glorious preparation for us for Easter, so that we long to hear Easter’s proclamation: He is risen!
What is so glorious is that the Lord hears our penitent pleas: I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him! As we go to Him in sorrow over sin and faith, we are, in a sense, reminding God of His gracious promises to us to forgive us our sin for Christ’s sake. We are, in the boldness of faith, holding God to His promise, and what is so glorious is that the Lord wants to be reminded and is ready to forgive us our sin for Christ’s sake and be reconciled to us because my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him! He quickly acknowledges our penitent pleas and turns to us His Fatherly heart of mercy.
Our daily and, now Lenten, repentance touches our Lord’s merciful heart which is brimming with forgiveness. As we, remembering our sins, pray with David in Psalm [25.6]: Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses, for they have been from of old, we remember/ remind ourselves of the Lord’s mercy and cause Him to remember them—something He delights in and wants to be reminded of and is something He longs show us . INJ