When Naming The Wolf Makes You The Problem?
Text: Matthew 7:15-23 In the name of Jesus. Amen. You have heard it before, “Those who point out the problem often become the problem.” In other words, often, the troublemaker is not the person causing the problem but the one who dares to say, “There’s a problem here.” That’s how it works in a polite society. For example, if the road in front of your house has a massive pothole and you call the city hall, you’re “complaining.” If a restaurant’s food made your family sick and you speak up, you’re “stirring the pot.” And in the church, if you say, “That preacher’s doctrine doesn’t match God’s Word,” you’re “being divisive.” You see, according to the world and especially in cultures that are drenched in chronic niceness, the sin is not in the pothole or the spoiled food or the false doctrine. The sin is in pointing it out. Again, the one who names the problem becomes the problem. But in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus Himself shatters this worldly logic....
