Bible Passage: Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: September 27, 2026

Bulletin – September 27, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The Jews had a saying.  Fathers eat sour grapes, and the sons’ teeth are set on edge. (v. 2)  The evokes the image of a father eating a sour, unripe grape but his son is the one who gets a tooth-ache or who puckers.  It was a proverb the people used to make the point that children were suffering because of what their parents did.  It was really an attempt to excuse oneself from responsibility.

Our text today is the LORD addressing this proverb, this attitude among his people.   The LORD doesn’t want us to point the finger of blame at everyone else.  He doesn’t want us to say that everything that is happening is someone else’s fault.  In our text the LORD will call for individual accountability.  He will call for Repentance, not Excuses.

Why were the Jews quoting this proverb at the time of Ezekiel?  Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the sons’ teeth are set on edge. (v. 2)  They were quoting this proverb because they had been carried into exile.  Ezekiel writes at the time when Jerusalem is destroyed by the Babylonians and many of the Jews are carried away from their homeland into exile in Babylon.  And as the people thought about what was happening, they concluded, “It’s because of what our fathers have done.  Yup!  There’s your cause, all right!  It’s all their fault!  Their sins are being visited upon us.”  In verse 25, the LORD calls them out.  You say, “The LORD’s way is not fair.”  The people were even criticizing the LORD!  “This whole exile thing is not even fair!  It’s not my fault grandpa worshipped an idol!”

There is something juvenile about their thinking, isn’t there?  They sound a little like the schoolboy who says the dog ate his homework.  It’s silly, but it isn’t.  It’s sinful, this excuse-making.  Blaming and excuse-making was one of the first evidences of a fallen humanity.  Remember in the moments after the Fall into sin, when the LORD God comes into the garden and asks Adam, Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? (Genesis 3:11)  All Adam had to do was speak one word of confession!  “Yes.”  But a new impulse has been awakened within him!  The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. (Genesis 3:12)  Yes!  Yes!  There it is!  Shift blame!  Point the finger!  Thus was born the sad, pathetic refrain of guilty sinners ever since:  “It’s not my fault!”

Now might be a good time to examine our own lives.  We may not repeat the proverb, “Fathers ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but do we have other ways of excusing sin in our lives?  It’s shocking the way we sinners can justify sin in our lives!  Husbands and wives justify rotten, loveless treatment of each other by saying, “They’ve changed since we got married.  He used to be nicer.  She used to be nicer.” So we give up trying to make our marriages as good as they can be!  People justify laziness at work by reasoning, “It’s a big company!  They can afford it…and they should be paying me more anyway!”  Kids, do you ever feel it’s okay to disobey mom and dad’s rules because you think it’s a “dumb” rule to begin with?  You cut yourself some slack, you let your hair down on the weekend, you drink a little too much, your talk gets slurry, and crude, and raunchy, but, “Hey, I’m just letting off a little steam!  It’s been a long week!  I’m sure God understands!”  Stop there.  Don’t try to bring God in on your sin.  Finally, here is the axiom, the proverb, of our time: “Everybody is doing it!”  The all-time excuse!

The LORD has some sobering words for excuse-makers in our text.  He says, The soul who sins is the one who will die. (v. 4)  Your sin is your fault.  Our culture has embraced the “victim mentality.”  I am the way I am because of everything everybody else did to me.  But your sin is YOUR sin.  Your sin is not grandpa’s fault.  Your sin is not your mom’s fault.  Your sin is not Hollywood’s fault.  Your sin is YOUR fault.  YOU deserve death, eternal death, not because of Grandpa’s sin or dad’s sin, but because of yours.

But there is a path that leads out of death to life!  Repent and turn away from all your rebellious acts, so that you will not set out a stumbling block that makes you guilty. ³¹ Throw off from yourselves all your rebellious actions by which you have rebelled, and obtain a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!  (v. 30-32)  God doesn’t want you to die!  He wants you first of all to OWN your sin.  When I confess the Nicene Creed with you, I say, “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty…We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.. We believe in the Holy Spirit…”  But when I confess my sins I say, “Holy and merciful Father, I confess that I am by nature sinful and that I have disobeyed you in my thoughts, words, and actions…I am truly sorry for my sins, and trusting in my Savior Jesus Christ, I pray:  Lord, have mercy on ME, a sinner.”  Repentance always uses the first person, singular pronouns.  “I”.  “Me.”

Repentance means death and life because repentance looks to death and life.  Jesus’ death and life!  Repentance sees that the “buck” stops with Jesus!  All of that blaming we do, all of that guilt-shifting we do, all of the finger pointing we do, it all lands on Jesus!  The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)  He is willing to be “that guy”!  He is willing to “take the Fall,” literally, and the guilt and blame of every other sin!  Isn’t it remarkable that our impulse since the Fall into sin is to blame the other guy, and that is finally how God will save us!  God blames the “other guy.”  God puts the blame on Jesus.  Jesus dies the death I deserve.  His death and life mean death and life for all who trust in him!

All our feeble excuses melt in the heat and light of Jesus’ cross!  At the cross that new heart and new spirit are born within us.  So don’t be afraid of that word “repentance.”  Own your sin.  And in faith, own your Savior.  Repent, and live! (v. 32) 

Amen.