Richard Davenport
September 10, 2023 – Proper 18
Ezekiel 33:7-9
It’s kind of shocking to think about, but it really was only a few years ago that the big, hot-button issue in our country was marriage between two men or two women. Those of us in the Christian church, along with some other religious groups and organizations, thought this was a terrible idea. Nothing good can possibly come from this. It isn’t right. It isn’t healthy. Why should we allow this to happen?
The debates went back and forth and are still ongoing, though that particular issue has been overshadowed by others. When the Supreme Court essentially established it as a right, the conversation about it sort of came to a halt. It’s not surprising that this was the result. When you have people who reject any notion that God is the ultimate authority in their lives, then they have set themselves up as the authority and they work to make everyone else accept their views on things.
One of the main arguments of the opposing side was that what someone does in private shouldn’t matter to anyone else. It’s their business, not yours, so don’t get into their business. Just keep quiet and let them do what they want.
The argument doesn’t work. Marriage is inherently a public act, that’s kind of the point. It’s a public declaration of who you are. What they want to do is not what marriage is. It’s not what marriage means. We have no reason to permit blatant falsehoods and there’s no reason anyone else should be forced to accept it.
It begs the question though, “What is our responsibility toward other people?” Are we each truly our own island, responsible only to ourselves? For as much as we try and act that way sometimes, it just doesn’t sound right. Legally at least, parents are responsible for the wellbeing of their children. Though, even there, some parents don’t really act that way. Abortion also comes along as a way of absolving parents of that responsibility by removing it. Still, even there it seems like there’s more to it. Taking care of other people is the job of whole sections of our society. Police, firefighters, doctors, nurses, the military, all of these are there, ostensibly, to keep people safe. If they didn’t do that, they could get fired or worse for not doing their jobs.
But what about everyone else? Unless I’m in one of those specific positions, it wouldn’t seem like I’d be responsible for others. I’m a parent, but I’m not legally responsible for other peoples’ kids. A doctor wouldn’t be expected to save people from a burning building. That’s a firefighter’s job. A firefighter wouldn’t be expected to do surgery. That’s a doctor’s job. So, even those jobs have limited expectations.
When God speaks to Ezekiel, he gives him a job. The passage really begins back at verse 1, where it says, “The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”
A watchman has a job. He is responsible for the safety of the people in the town or the fort or whatever he’s watching over. If danger is coming that direction, he has to sound the alarm. He may not be able to force anyone to take shelter. He probably can’t stop the enemy from breaking in or prevent any kind of natural disaster, but he can at least let people know danger is coming.
If the watchman sees the danger and warns everyone and those people find shelter, great, everything went according to plan. If the watchman sees the danger and warns everyone but they don’t find shelter, well, there’s not a lot more he could do about it. However, if the watchman doesn’t warn anyone, then even those who would have sought shelter if they had been told to will die and he will share the blame.
In this case, the people the watchman is protecting shouldn’t be putting themselves in the way of danger to begin with. They should be safe and secure where no enemy can get to them. If they were, then they wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of danger at all and watchmen would be unnecessary. But, the people aren’t safe. They’re out in the open where the enemy can strike without warning and thus watchmen are necessary.
So Ezekiel is a watchman, given that job by God. There are many in danger, whole nations in fact. Many who think of themselves as God’s people are in some of the worst danger because they think they are perfectly safe and go about blithely living their lives without noticing the dangers all around them.
Ezekiel’s job is vital. The enemy isn’t a distant threat way off on the horizon. The enemy is on the march, almost to the gates. It’s at the end of this chapter that Ezekiel hears Jerusalem has finally fallen. It isn’t surprising. It’s what God had been saying would happen for generations now. It’s also not as if Ezekiel failed. His job wasn’t to save the city itself. A watchman’s job isn’t to defend the city all by himself. His job is to warn the people of the coming danger. Perhaps some few still in this age of rampant idolatry still heard and heeded the warning and were saved, not just temporally but eternally.
It’s not as if the situation is any better today. Dangers are everywhere. Some are smaller in scale than others, but the effects are no less devastating. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem showed in miniature what will be coming when Christ returns. Jesus doesn’t come to kill and destroy, but if you’ve chosen to make him an enemy, then his arrival will not be joy but terror. The danger is that you continue to treat him as an enemy until it is too late. Jesus will return one day and he will respond in kind.
That’s the grand, obvious danger, but there are many smaller ones. Satan prowls around, encouraging everyone to live how they want, to do whatever makes them happy. He tells everyone there’s no danger. Whatever you want to do with your life is fine. It could be all sorts of things, the various addictions that are always ready to take over your life. It could be a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, perhaps through adultery or the luxuries of wealth. It could be through the allure of fame and power, having influence over the lives of others and knowing that others want to be like you. It’s all dangerous. It all threatens to sweep you away into a life of self destruction. You’ll be so caught up in thinking you’re the indestructible master of your own life that nothing will ever topple you.
It’s then that Jesus comes in judgment and you weren’t seeking shelter. I mean, why would you? There’s no danger out there that really concerns you. At that point it’s too late and your eternity is fixed and unchangeable. It isn’t what God wants to do, but it’s what will happen if you choose that path.
Being a watchman is hard. It means being laughed at and insulted by those who think you’re spouting nonsense. Many times it’s an absolutely thankless job. No one wants you telling them they’re in danger, not when they think they’re perfectly fine. No one wants to be told they might be destroyed for doing the things they want to do. That makes it hard to do the job. It’s so much easier to just close your eyes and not get involved. After all, those people who are out there doing all of those terrible, nasty things will deserve everything that happens to them. They will be judged and they will suffer the consequences.
And yet, someone warned you. Someone told you you were in danger. Someone pointed it out and, despite the fact that you probably didn’t want to hear it, you listened and your eyes were opened to the very real danger. You heard, you listened, and now you have sought shelter in the only place it can be found, right here. Even that unwillingness to announce the danger is something you need to be saved from, because it’s that same kind of selfishness that says you don’t need anyone telling you what to do, and it puts you right back in danger.
Safety is found not in going your own way and facing down whatever is coming all by yourself. Safety is found here in forgiveness, in being restored and made new. Safety is found in the grace of God that makes you into a person that has nothing to fear from God’s judgment, because all of the things that God would judge have been wiped away.
Jesus puts himself right in the line of fire, drawing all of God’s judgment on himself and dying for it. Safety is found in standing behind him, letting him take the hit for you, letting him take the judgment for you.
It’s not just a matter of being a watchman and telling people that danger is coming. It’s also letting them know where they can find shelter. There really is shelter. You’ve been there. You know the way. You know where God’s judgment passes over. The rainbow that God showed to Noah covers the ark of the church. No wrath will come here. The blood of the lamb covers us here. No wrath will come here. God, in his grace, has given us a place of safety, here where we gather around him and receive the gifts he gives us in his Word and sacraments, that restore and renew us.
It is a thankless job, and not just thankless, but one that comes with a lot of frustration and grief. And yet, every once in a while, someone listens. Everyone once in a while, someone looks out at the horizon with you and sees what’s coming with their own eyes and realizes the danger is very real. Every once in a while, someone asks you if you know where to find shelter and you know right where to lead them, to the only place of safety that can be found in this world. It may not happen very often. You may have to warn people many times before they’ll listen, if they listen at all. But some will. Some will hear, listen, and will be saved. After all, you did.