Homily on Agnoēma (ἀγνόημα)
St. John's Lutheran Church
Fourth Wednesday in Lent
Sermon on Hebrews 9:7
In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 9:7: “7but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.”
My high school science teacher told me once, that sin only counts if you know that you have sinned. I would like to tell you that he is right. I would love to tell you that you only need to worry about the sins that you know that you have committed, but my science teacher is wrong. We do need to worry about our sins – the sin we are aware of and the sins we are unaware of. Due to the fall, sin is a pervasive element in our lives – we cannot help but rebel against God. Sin has become impulsive.
How can we be forgiven unless we acknowledge our wrongdoings? Can we be forgiven if we cannot recall or even know that we have sinned? How can we know the Love, the Grace of God if all we can do is fear that we will be punished for sins that we did not even known we committed?
The Greek word for these unintentional sin is agnoēma (ag-no´-ay-mah) which means ignorance, mistake, and/or error. Surprisingly this word only show up once in the Greek New Testament. To give you a better understanding of how this Greek word is used, here is a short passage from the Book of Sirach – one of the books of the Greek Old Testament.
Sirach 23: "1Lord,father and master of my life, do not abandon me to their plan; do not leave me to fall among them. 2Who will set whips
upon my thoughts and the discipline of wisdom over my heart, lest they spare my mistakes and do not overlook their
sins, 3so that my ignorance does not multiply, and my sins abound, and then I will fall before my adversaries, and my
enemy will rejoice over me?"
Sirach was aware that his unaware sin, his sins committed in ignorance, would cost him
his life and more importantly his salvation
Imaging driving down a road and then being pulled over by the cops and being told that you were going the wrong way on a one way street or you where going 10 miles over the speed limit. How where you to know that you where going to wrong way, there were no signs. How where you to know that you were going faster than the speed limit, did not feel like you were going 45 in a 35 MPH zone.
My friends, despite not knowing the direction of the traffic or feeling the speed that the car was going, you were still breaking the law, you were still sinning. Not knowing the direction of the traffic would not prevent crashing into that car that just turn onto the street. Not knowing the speed of the car, would not prevent you from loosing control and flipping the car. In both cases, not knowing and/or not feeling would not prevent you from crashing possibly dying.
This is how it is with sin, just because you did not feel like you were sinning; just because you did not know that you were sinning, did mean you weren’t sinning. The devil takes your ignorance of sin and tell you, like my science teach told me, it is only sin if you know it is a sin; it is only a sin if you feel that it is a sin. And we use this ignorance of our sin to justify our action – how can it be sin if it feels right to cheat on my spouse, how can it be a sin to help my fellow drunkard, to get him or her another drink.
Just like driving over the speed limit or going the wrong way on a one way street is wrong; feelings and actions, when not inline with Gods will is wrong. There is a saying, that I said a lot when I was a kid and I am sure you have heard similar phrases, that what they do not know will not hurt me. It can easily be said that “what I do not know will not hurt me”. I would like to think we all know this saying is a wrong. There are hundreds if not thousands of things in the world that can hurt us, many which we are unaware of. Example of this, is COVID-19. Two years ago many did not know of this virus before they became sick, and sadly, many died to this little known virus. Food that is undercooked, still harbor virus and bacteria that will make you sick, and most of the time you can not tell that it undercooked. And in some parts of the world, the drink water look clean and clear but can contain harmful chemicals if not treated. In a similar way, unknown sin can and will harm us, separate us from God and send us to the pits of hell
How do we know if what we are feeling and doing is inline with Gods will? We look to Christ Jesus, Gods word incarnate. The writer of the Book of Hebrews relates the Old Testament practice called Day of Atonement (A event that happened once a year where the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animals onto the Ark of the Covenant for the forgiveness of unintentional sin for all the people sense the last Day of Atonement), the writer relates this to Christ redeeming work on the cross. The writer points out that Christ is the new everlasting High Priest who enter into the presence of God (the Holy of Holies), on our behalf, and shed his own blood as a eternal sacrifice to forgive our sins. The ultimate in Christ atonement act on the cross can be summed up in Christ words on the cross “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
I started this Homily with a question – How can we be forgiven unless we acknowledge our wrongdoings? The answer is that sins committed in ignorance still just as damming as the sins we are aware of. Let us not despair, there is Hope. Hope for forgiveness, Hope for salvation, Hope for everlasting joy. This hope is found in Christ, His death and resurrection on the cross, and these words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” These words apply to us today just as they applied to them who nailed Him on the Cross
In Christ we have forgiveness and enlightenment. He opens our eye, to see what we did not see before, as we grow in Christ, aware of His high priestly intercession for us. We become aware of how to serve him better, how to avoid to sin against other. For the cross of Jesus, open out eyes to better living now and sure and certain hope. Amen
May this knowledge that Christ redeeming work on the Cross, forgives us of all our sins, even the sins we have done in ignorance. Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
