Empty Words

​Midweek 5 – 2024                                                                  LSB 420:1-3, 6-7; 432, 430:1, 5; 880
Text – Psalm 41:6
 
EMPTY WORDS
 
 
David prayed in Psalm 41, “When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.”         “He utters empty words,” said David.  When people say empty words to you,  they’re saying things that might seem appealing, important,  & true – but  ultimately they are not.  
Empty words are not necessarily lies, although they can be.  Empty words can simply be evasive in what they say.  Empty words have little or nothing behind them: no concrete truth, no commitment, no endurance.  We Americans are comfortably  accustomed  to empty words.   We routinely speak them,  & never stop hearing them. 
Our everyday language uses empty words as standard speech.  We include them in our conversations with friends & strangers alike: “How are you?”    “I’m fine.”   “I hope you have a good day,” & sometimes even, “I will pray for you.”   Even if you sincerely mean it when you make such inquiries & pledges,  how long do you remember?  
Does anyone remember their conversations, even thirty seconds after they are spoken?  The lack of memory might indicate a certain emptiness to the words.  It would be okay for us to admit (or to confess)  that most of our conversational phrases  actually mean  very little.  
That’s why Solomon admonished, “Let your words be few.”  (Ecclesiastes 5:2)    It’s why James encouraged us to be “slow to speak” (James 1:19);  & why he compared some of our conversations to forest fires.  (James 3:5) 
In addition to using empty words,  we regularly hear empty words by virtue of the fact that we are constantly immersed in advertising.  We see empty words on every flat surface at the baseball stadium.  We hear a stream of empty words every time we turn on the radio.  We even wear empty words on our forehead & chest because of the way we like to dress.   We ourselves have become walking billboards that tout empty words.    Everyone,  including the preacher, participates in this emptiness.   We are so accustomed to the puffery,   evasiveness,   & false urgency of advertising  that we don’t even notice empty words when we hear them. 
Pledges from politicians are good only for the chuckling entertainment of the moment,  not for actual policy.   Personal promises have come to mean very little,  even in marriage & family relationships.  Long-term commitments rarely endure the latest wave of emotion. 
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of God’s living Word.  (John 1:1–4)     He alone speaks “the words of eternal life.”  (John 6:68)    When you were baptized into the living Christ, you were individually drawn up & out  from the cesspool of the world’s “empty words.”  
In Baptism, the blood of Christ did something more than wash you clean from every sin of empty words & “evil deeds” (Colossians 1:21).  Through Baptism, you were relocated to that one, eternal place  in which  words  still matter: “the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.”  (Apostles’ Creed, Third Petition) 
“When one comes to see me,  he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity;   when he goes out,  he tells it abroad.”   As David prayed those words in Psalm 41, he was praying in the voice of Christ.  All the psalms are about Christ.  (John 5:39)    Like us, Jesus of Nazareth had plenty of empty words around Him all the time.  
The empty words that surrounded our Lord proved to be deadly & there are no emptier words than those of the devil.  That skeevy snake started in the Garden of Eden: “You will not surely die,” he hissed.   “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, & you will be like God.”  (Genesis 3:4–5)   
Thousands of years later, the devil’s empty words focused their intent upon Jesus: “If You
are the Son of God, throw Yourself down,” he said; “all these [kingdoms of the world] I will give You,” he said.  (Matthew 4:6, 9)   Empty words. 
Peter,  despite his earnest desire & best intentions,  likewise uttered empty words to God’s Son,  & Jesus endured those words: “Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You!” swore Peter.  (Matthew 26:35)    Then to the servant girl, he declared “with an oath: ‘I do not know the man!’”  (Matthew 26:72)    Empty words. 
All the other disciples  joined their empty words to Peter’s, making vacuous pledges that they also would never deny the Christ.  (Matthew 26:35)    Among the Twelve, the empty words spoken by Judas Iscariot stand out as the deadliest: “Is it I, Rabbi?”  (Matthew 26:25)    “Greetings, Rabbi!”  (Matthew 26:49)    Empty words. 
“When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.”  (Psalm 41:6 ESV)    Thus, the Lord of Life  was sentenced to death  on the testimony of those who spoke empty words:
Now the chief priests & the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward.  At last two came forward & said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, & to rebuild it in three days.’” ...Then the high priest tore his robes & said, “[Jesus] has uttered blasphemy.  What further witnesses do we need?”  (Matthew 26:59–61, 65) 
 
In these midweek Lenten sermons, two things have been emphasized: 1) that the Psalms speak about Jesus (John 5:39)     & 2) that because the Psalms speak about Jesus, they therefore speak about you.  In Baptism, you were “joined to the Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 6:7) 
Through your Baptism into Christ, the Lord’s burdens have become yours, just as surely as your burdens have been fully taken up by the Lord.  Jesus assured & promised you that His burden would not be too heavy for you: “Take My yoke upon you, ...for My yoke is easy, & My burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:29–30)     “When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.”  (Psalm 41:6 ESV)       Because David’s words speak the pious lament of Jesus, those same words are also available to you for your lament.  
Have you felt the urge & the need for such a lament?   Has a dear friend betrayed you, allowing you to treat him as a confidant,  only to turn around & tell it abroad,  verbally   or on social media?   Has your marriage vow been broken & the marriage bed defiled (Hebrews 13:4), by someone who spoke “empty words” to you on your wedding day? 
Have you entered into a business contract with someone you thought you could trust, only to have your trust violated?   If you have suffered such things as these, then David’s words, & our Lord’s words,  are also yours: “When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity;  when he goes out, he tells it abroad.”  (Psalm 41:6 ESV) 
When you pray those words, you can know & trust that you are not alone.  The entire Church in this vale of tears,  & all her Christians,  have always had plenty of reasons to pray those words with you.  Psalm 41 indicates that Jesus & David prayed those words before you. 
Take special comfort in the fact that your Lord Jesus prayed those words before you.  He knows well the heartbroken feeling of betrayal.  He knows personally the dismay that rises from a sense of exposure.  He knows intimately  the devastating pain that is caused by a close friend, “even my close friend in whom I trusted” (Psalm 41:9),  as it is written later in the psalm.  
Jesus also said in another place, expressing personal familiarity with your pain, “I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.”  (Psalm 35:14)   Again, Jesus said in the voice of yet another psalm:
“It is not an enemy who taunts me – then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me – then I could hide from him.  But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.   We talked in sweet fellowship,  & walked with a crowd into God’s house.”  (Psalm 55:12–14)   Believe the words of the Scriptures: Jesus knows the feeling of betrayal by empty words.  He died for that betrayal & its shame.   Jesus promises you, by the power of His glorious resurrection,  that you will not be tortured forever by empty words.  Amen. 
 
 
In silent pain the eternal Son  hangs derelict & still;  in darkened day His work is done,  fulfilled,  His Father’s will.   Uplifted for the world to see  He hangs in strangest victory,   for in His body on the tree  He carries all our ill.      He died that we might die to sin  & live for righteousness;  the earth is stained to make us clean & bring us into peace.   For peace He came & met its cost;  He gave Himself to save the lost;  He loved us to the utter most  & paid for our release.  Amen.  LSB 432:1-2.