Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.”
I asked, “What is it?”
He replied, “It is a basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.”
Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.
Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.
He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.” (Zechariah 5:5-11 NIV)
At our house, it’s my job to take the garbage out. I don’t know how it worked out that way, but I usually don’t mind it. There is something therapeutic about throwing stuff away. It makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something. Except weeks like this last week. About once a summer, I can’t explain why, our outside trash bin gets filled with maggots. Does that happen to you? It’s awful. Not just a few maggots. Thousands and thousands of white maggots crawling around. I hate it! They are repulsive. So I take the trash can and wheel it to the curb as far away from the house as I can and just leave it there. I want nothing to do with maggot-infested garbage!
That’s how God feels about our sins: Repulsive. Disgusting. We treat sin like it’s not really that bad. Maybe it’s more like regular old household garbage. You can let it pile up for a while, right? Wait until it smells. Wait until the can gets completely full, then pack a few more things in it, then finally think about doing something about it. Isn’t that our attitude with sin? It isn’t that bad. A few sins here and there aren’t that big of a deal! But to God? Our sin is like a garbage can full of maggots. He can’t stand it. God doesn’t want sin anywhere in his presence. Get rid of it!
That’s why there’s a story in the Bible about taking out the garbage. We’re learning that the book of Zechariah is filled with visions. In a vision, Zechariah sees a huge basket with a lead cover. When he peaks inside, what does he see? A woman! But that woman symbolizes something. What? Iniquity. Sin. She tries to get out of the basket, but she is pushed right back down into the basket. Then two other women—two angels with wings like storks—pick up that basket of sin and fly away from Israel all the way to Babylonia, the far-away home of the enemies of God’s people. Sin doesn’t belong among God’s people. Sin needs to be taken away. Get the picture?
I heard a theologian talk about that recently. The theologian’s name was Carrie Underwood. Have you heard of her? Emily and I went to a Carrie Underwood concert on our trip, and I was amazed that the first nine songs she sang were all about the same theological concept. Can you guess what it was? Sin. Whose sin? Men’s sin. Her first nine songs were about men sinning. I sat there thinking, “Are we men really that bad?” But then I looked around, and from the looks of the thousands of women singing along to those songs, the answer was, “Yes! Men are that bad!” If you want to hear about how bad sin is, just go to a Carrie Underwood concert. She’ll tell you.
One song stood out to me, because she sang about a pastor. It’s the song “Two Black Cadillacs.” Have you heard it? The song talks about a man’s funeral. At the funeral, “The preacher said he was a good man, and his brother said he was a good friend.” But there were two ladies there dressed in black, driving black Cadillacs, who knew the truth. He wasn’t. He wasn’t a good man. That man was a cheater. He was a sinner. And he got what he deserved: Death.
It’s just that the two women weren’t perfect either. They had a secret at that funeral too. If you’ve heard the song, do you know what it was? They killed him. The man cheated on his wife with another lady, and they both conspired together to kill him. It’s a good old feel good country song! As I listened, I realized that Carrie Underwood can teach people about sin better than I can. All of us have secrets. All of us have garbage. We need someone to take the garbage out.
But the preacher said he was a good man! That phrase hit home for me. At a funeral, what is the preacher expected to do? Talk about how great the person was! “The preacher said he was a good man!” I can’t do that. Know why? Carrie Underwood says so! And, it’s not true. If, at your funeral, I announce, “He was a good man,” how many of the people there would agree? 50%? 75%? Maybe 90%? Not 100%. All of us have secrets. Who knows your secrets? Whom have you hurt? From way back in grade school to yesterday? A good man? A good woman? Come on!
God knows. He can see all the maggots crawling around in our hearts and in our lives. They are repulsive. Our sins are disgusting. What do we deserve? Worse than my garbage can sitting at the end of the driveway. Worse than the man in the coffin in the “Two Black Cadillacs” song. We know it. We deserve God’s anger and wrath. We deserve to have God get rid of us. Our hearts convict us. God’s Word convicts us! We need someone to take our garbage out.
That’s why it’s so great to read this strange, beautiful vision in God’s Word. Who takes our garbage out? God! We’ve talked about how God’s people had just come back from exile in Babylon. We’ve talked about how things were not going right. They saw the results of their sins. They felt guilty for their sins. They wondered if they could ever be clean. Ever be forgiven. So what did God do? He put their sin in a basket and took it all away. I love the little details in God’s Word. This huge basket had a lid. What was it made of? Iron. Have you ever seen a woven basket with an iron lid? Why? Sin was not going to get out. It was not going to get away. It was gone! Think of what God was telling his people: God takes our garbage out! It’s gone!
There are so many pictures in the Old Testament of God’s forgiveness. A couple weeks ago, we heard, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). God has transported our sins to the other side of the world. In another place, Micah says to God: “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). God has hurled our sins to the bottom of the sea. As deep as the Titanic, as deep as where that submarine was squashed by the weight of the ocean a few weeks ago, that’s how far God has removed your sins from you.
How? Jesus. Jesus put himself in our place. Jesus took on himself all our sins. When Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,” (Matthew 11:28), he wasn’t just talking about us being tired. He took onto himself our guilt and burdens and sins, and he took them to the cross. He took them away. God doesn’t overlook sin. God doesn’t say, “Hey, no big deal!” God forgives sin. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). I read a quote recently, “Sin is when I substitute myself for God. Salvation is when God substitutes himself for me.” Isn’t that true? “Sin is when I substitute myself for God. Salvation is when God substitutes himself for me.”
Do you see what that means? Martin Luther would talk like this: When the devil comes to you to accuse you of your sins… That’s what the devil loves to do, isn’t it? He loves to make us feel guilty of our sins… When the devil comes to you to make you feel guilty for your sins, do you know what you can say to the devil? “I’m sorry, Satan, but if you have a problem with my sins, you’ll have to take it up with Jesus. I don’t have my sins anymore. Jesus took them away. All of them. If you have a problem with my sins, you’ll have to take it up with Jesus. I’m forgiven.”
Whatever sins you’ve committed, Jesus has taken our garbage out. Whatever junk is weighing you down from the past, Jesus has taken our garbage out. Whatever smells from your past seem to cling to you, Jesus has taken the garbage out. Like those angels with the wings of storks who carried a big basket of iniquity with an iron lid to Babylonia, Jesus has taken your sins away!
But that’s not the only thing God wants us to learn today. He wants to drive home the truth that sin doesn’t belong among God’s people. That Christians are to be different. That Christians are never content to live in sin. Do you understand what I’m saying? This “getting rid of sin” is an always thing. Christians are constantly striving to get rid of the sin in our lives. Like garbage that needs to be taken out every day. Christ’s forgiveness doesn’t make sin okay. Christ’s forgiveness is what motivates us even more to rid our lives of sin. Christians aren’t content to live in sin.
Are you? Just this past week, I had three different people talk with me about people who say they are Christians but think their sin is okay. A man has a problem with alcohol. He gets drunk every night. He refuses to admit his problem. But he goes to church! A woman uses God’s name in vain in almost every phrase. “Oh my God.” As if God were nothing. Over and over again. But she goes to church! Two men refuse to talk to each other. Ever. They can’t stand each other. But they go to church! Brothers and sisters, do you see a problem? Being a Christian doesn’t mean we have an excuse to sin more. It means Christ’s love compels us to turn away from sin.
That’s what the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. Did you memorize the verse from last Sunday that we were going to memorize? “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6). Every day, the Holy Spirit works in a Christian the desire to confess our sins. Every day, the Holy Spirit works in a Christian the desire to turn away from sin. To flee from sin. Every day, the Holy Spirit works in a Christian the desire to live for Christ. Do you? Not by our power. By his power! Sin has no place in the community of God. It needs to be gone.
This is why we fall back on Jesus. Earlier, we heard the apostle Paul describe his struggle with sin. “I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). Who can relate to that? All of us! Our sinful natures daily war against God the Holy Spirit. What’s the solution? “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ my Lord” (Romans 7:25). People often ask me why God gives us his forgiveness in so many ways: Through the Word, through Baptism, through the Lord’s Supper. Why? We need it. We need it! “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ my Lord.” Every day is a struggle. You are not alone. The Spirit struggles with you! And Jesus is here. To fly your sins away.
If, one day, I get the chance to preach for your funeral, I’m not going to say, “He was a good man.” Or, “she was a good woman.” Do you know what I’m going to say? “She had a perfect Savior!” Jesus is a good Man. Jesus, on the cross, picked up every sin and carried them all away. And here’s Jesus’ invitation to you: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Don’t ever get content with the sin in your life. Bring it to Jesus. Don’t ever get used to the garbage in your life. Bring it to Jesus. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” God takes our garbage out.
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