Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
“No Sour Grapes!”
Rev. John C. Wohlrabe, Jr., Th.D.
Worship Report
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n the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Amen. The text for our message
today is the Old Testament lesson, which was read a few moments ago.
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riends of Jesus and Friends of Mine: “sour grapes,” you’ve heard this expression before, I’m sure. The
phrase generally refers to bitterness or hard feelings that someone carries, either about another person, a
group of people, or some situation. It’s difficult to trace the exact source of these words because they are
used by three different people from about the same period in history, sometime in the early 6th century B.C.
There is a fable attributed to the Greek storyteller Aesop about a fox who spied a bunch of grapes. The fox
tried and tried to get them, but couldn’t. So she walked away grumbling saying that they were probably
sour anyway. In this case, sour grapes indicate the hard feelings over something that was unattainable.
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lthough written about the same time as Aesop’s story of the fox and the grapes, the case is a bit
different in our Old Testament lesson for today. Here the bitterness is not about something that someone
can’t have, but about something that has happened to someone. Ezekiel was a priest and prophet of God
who was taken into captivity with the rest of his fellow Jews by the Babylonian army of King
Nebuchadnezzar in the year 587 B.C. He quotes a well known proverb, which was first recorded by the
prophet Jeremiah a few years earlier (31:29): “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth
are set on edge.” The reaction of the Children of Israel in Babylon was that they were suffering because of
the sins of their fathers. They refused to take individual responsibility for their situation, blaming it on those
who went before them, and ultimately blaming God. Because the Jewish exiles faced suffering, God was
therefore unjust. They had bitterness, hard feelings, or sour grapes against those who went before them,
and ultimately against God.
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uch sour grapes stem from self righteous indignation, and this self righteous indignation can run so
deep that it even blames God for bad things that happen in one’s life. People can think that they have done
nothing wrong, and that if things are going badly in their lives, then it is due to the sins of others, and God
is therefore treating them unjustly.
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here is such a thing as righteous indignation, you know. We witness something that is so wrong or
immoral that we are totally justified in being offended, in having feelings of indignation, and even expressing
those feelings to others. Jesus himself displayed righteous indignation, for example, when he cleared the
temple of the money-changers. And so, righteous indignation is a justifiable contempt and loathing of a
situation or behavior that goes against God’s will, such as flagrant public displays of sex outside of marriage
that can impact children, abortion, the breakdown of morals and ethics in the financial industry or in politics
or some other area of society, these are all examples of things about which one may and should have
righteous indignation.
On the other hand, there is also what might be called self-righteous indignation. Self-righteous
indignation, a major form of sour grapes, does not arise out of seeing something that is clearly at odds with
God’s revealed will in Holy Scripture, but rather it arises from making yourself the standard of righteousness.
You compare others to yourself.
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avid Brin, an American scientist and fiction writer, decided to study the processes of addictive
behavior for one of his books. How does addiction work in a person? Usually we think of drinking alcohol,
drugs, pornography, gambling, or some such thing when we talk about addictive behavior. But Brin says that
the most common form of negative addictive behavior is self-righteous indignation – sour grapes! He calls it
a “paradigm of self-reinforcement.” You see, on the one hand, righteous indignation is not pleasurable and is
actually something you hate to feel. On the other hand, you indulge in self-righteous indignation, sour
grapes, because it actually gives you a sense of pleasure. It feels so good to be self-righteous, because
you can elevate yourself by putting someone else down. Brin says: “Any truly honest person will admit that
the state [of self righteous indignation] feels good. There is a certain pleasure in knowing, with subjective
certainty, that you are right, at least in your own mind, and your opponents are deeply, despicably wrong.
Sanctimony, or a sense of self righteous outrage, can feel so intense and delicious that many people
actively seek to return to it again and again.”
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ears ago, Dana Carvey had a regular character on “Saturday Night Live” called the Church Lady,
whose name was really Enid Strict. Enid had a talk show called “Church Chat.” The Church Lady would
regularly display, not righteous indignation, but self righteous indignation, comparing herself to others, and
then she would do a little dance to show her own self-gratification at feeling superior.
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o we carry such self righteous indignation toward anyone? Perhaps other family members with whom
we disagree? Maybe other church members with whom we find fault so that we can feel better about
ourselves? Those who have gone before us in the church, whose decisions we may not have agreed with?
We probably don’t admit it, even to ourselves, but in our own minds we are really trying to elevate
ourselves by putting other people down. Somehow we think that such sour grapes make us feel better
about ourselves.
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t is so very hard to face up to our own faults and failures. We always want to blame someone else. We
can even blame God for what we have done wrong. Consider what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. “The
woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). Adam not only
blamed Eve, but ultimately he blamed God for giving him the woman who gave him the fruit so that he ate of
it. Maybe we too blame our spouse or our kids for some bad situation in our lives, and meanwhile, we are
also blaming God, because God ultimately brought them into our lives. Maybe we blame other members of
the congregation or certain boards or officers or called church workers for a myriad of problems, like
financial troubles in the congregation or attendance issues, or repairs and other decisions, and yet,
ultimately we are blaming God here too. God is the One who brought us together! That is how low that we
can sink in somehow trying to make ourselves feel better. It is a sad, addictive behavior. Yet, sour grapes
are sour grapes, teeth set on edge are teeth set on edge (and eating sour grapes and grinding your teeth
are not good things!).
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lso any self satisfaction we may get out of such bitterness is only an illusion. It doesn’t really make us
feel any better. Instead, it is very destructive to relationships. It causes tremendous tension in families and
in Christian congregations. The Apostle Paul alludes to this in our Epistle lesson for today. He says, “Do
nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of
you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others…” (Phil. 2:3-4).
Of all the threats to the unity of the church, being “full of oneself” may be the greatest. It’s no wonder
that when St. Paul lists the works of our sinful nature, he includes “selfish ambition” (Gal. 5:20). People full
of themselves see themselves everywhere. Another’s success makes them see their own lack of it, and
there are sour grapes as a result. Another’s failure makes them grateful it isn’t theirs, that they didn’t make
that mistake, but again there are sour grapes. People full of themselves have no room for the needs of
others, for a word from God, or even for Christ and the Holy Spirit, because they are already full of
themselves. You can’t look out for others if you are full of yourself. You can’t follow Christ when you are full
of yourself. You can’t even worship right, taking in God’s Word and our Lord’s Supper, when you are full of
yourself. Sour grapes are a result of being full of yourself , they are a result of self righteous indignation.
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et, God has a response to sour grapes, to self righteousness and to all that results from our sinful self
centeredness. You see, God cares about us, and despite our sin, he does not give up on us. Out of his love
for the Israelites, his chosen people, God urged them to depart from the path of self-pity and self
destruction. Such sour grapes and teeth grinding was only going to lead to more misery. By blaming others,
they were only deceiving themselves. They were not acknowledging their own sin. God was concerned that
they were not repenting. He asks: “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” The implication here is not only
physical death, but also spiritual and eternal death. God makes it clear that he takes absolutely no pleasure
in the death, physical, spiritual and eternal, of anyone. That’s why he sent to them the prophet Ezekiel,
calling them to repent of their own sins.
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here is another way, a better way, better than the self-deception of blaming others, of self righteous
indignation, of self centered bitterness, all of which leads to death. There is a way that leads to life. The
Children of Israel were called to cast away their transgressions by humbly confessing their sins before God
and trusting in his mercy. That is what repentance is all about. And in so doing, by faith they would receive
a new heart and a new spirit.
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od promises a new heart and a new spirit to us too. The promise of a “new” heart and a “new” spirit
means things are completely different, made anew. It means we have another chance and new
opportunities with others. Instead of blaming God for our problems, we can thank him for his many blessings,
chief of which is our new heart and new spirit. This new life doesn’t focus on the bad, but on the good. This
new life is available to us solely because of what God has done for us. He takes no pleasure in the death of
anyone. And so he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Jesus took all our self-deception and self-righteous indignation upon himself on the cross and died for them,
so we can be free of those delusions. Jesus died for the sins of the world. Then, after his resurrection and
ascension, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, who gives us forgiveness and new life through faith in Jesus as our
Savior. We are reborn with a new heart and new spirit. This happens to us in Baptism, “the washing of
regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). And this new person in us continues to grow and
thrive as it is fed by God’s Word and our Lord’s Supper in the Divine Services of God’s house.
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his new heart and new spirit has a renewing power in our lives. We don’t have to try to cover up our
own problems, our own failures, our own sins in some facade of self-deception. We don’t have to try and
find satisfaction in our lives through the addiction of self-righteous indignation, which, like other addictions,
leads only to more misery. We don’t have to have sour grapes about what others have done or situations
that confront us in our lives.
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e have a true and reliable source of life in Jesus Christ. Because he has conquered death, we need
not fear death. For those who believe on Jesus Christ, we are spiritually alive and physical death is no
longer eternal death, but instead it is the doorway to a glorious eternal life with God. Our new life in Christ
also means new life for us right now.
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his new heart and spirit makes possible our ability to reflect the mind of Christ, as Paul encourages in
the Epistle lesson for today. With Christ in us, we are not filled with self, but instead we are filled with
Christ and the Holy Spirit. We will not want to do things out of rivalry or conceit. We will not want to
grumble or complain. Instead, in humility we will count others more significant then ourselves, and we will
readily look to the interests of others.
Theologians call this new heart and new spirit sanctification. It’s almost like absorption through osmosis.
It doesn’t just happen. You can’t work your way into a Christ-like mind-set. It comes as you spend time
with him in his Word at worship and Bible study; pondering the significance of your Baptism; receiving him in
Holy Communion. He speaks; you listen; you receive, you then respond in faith. More and more, you lose
your old self and you become more like him. Strangely, instead of seeing yourself everywhere, you find
Jesus everywhere – and more and more, other people find Jesus in you. My friends, this is a beautiful thing
to behold.
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our grapes, self righteous indignation, hard feelings, bad attitudes, rivalry, grumbling, questioning – all
of that is part of the old life, the old self centered life. It is a life full of misery and it leads to death. God
calls us to turn to him and live. In Christ we have a new heart and a new spirit, a new life! You are filled
with Christ and his Spirit. In this new life, there is no room for sour grapes. Let it be so for us, dear Lord;
Amen.