Grace
and Trinity Lutheran Churches
Bear
Creek, WI
Epiphany
5
February
9th,
2014
Matthew 5:17-20
“All
Righteousness??”
17 p“Do
not think that I have come to abolish qthe
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but rto
fulfill them. 18 For
truly, I say to you, suntil
heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from
the Law until all is accomplished. 19 tTherefore
whoever relaxes uone
of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be called least vin
the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be
called great vin
the kingdom of heaven. 20 For
I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds wthat
of the scribes and Pharisees, you xwill
never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus'
Sermon on the Mount continues this week. I want to focus on the
second portion of our reading today, in which Jesus explains more
about his purpose. It seems an Epiphany question, as the unpacking
of “Who is this Jesus?” continues. He's the bridegroom at the
wedding of Cana. He's the Son of God at his baptism. He's the glory
of Israel and light to the nations in the arms of Simeon. He's the
one who comes to preach good news to the poor. And now we see more
of why he came – not to abolish the Old Testament, but to fulfill
it.
Starting
out, Jesus puts away the silly idea that still persists today –
that the New Testament somehow invalidates the Old. I heard a famous
atheist scientist, Bill Nye, imply this just this past week. But the
Christian church has struggled to stamp out this false idea. There
was a false teacher named Marcion in the early church who believed
the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were
essentially two different people. But the church, and the Lord of
the church would disagree. Jesus himself says of the Old Testament
scriptures, “These are they that testify to me”. It's a bold
claim. “The whole Old Testament is about me. And I've come to
fulfill, not abolish it.”
There's
much to learn here for us. We can't set Christ against his own word.
We can't cherry pick the verses we like and dismiss the rest. And
we can't re-make God into our own image, or any old image we want.
But even more specifically, Jesus gets to the laws and commandments
of the Old Testament – which many would turn aside and disregard
today, too.
Certainly,
we don't perform the ceremonial laws anymore. The sacrifices
culminated in Christ's once and for all sacrifice. The temple
curtain was torn in two. Jesus is now our temple, our dwelling of
God with man, and in Him we have access to the Father. We don't
regard the clean and unclean food laws and such – Acts makes this
much clear. Christ has fulfilled the ceremonial law.
What
then of the moral law? The Ten Commandments, for instance? We can
see that these are still in full force. And in this very Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus instead of diminishing the moral law, raises the bar
of its demands. Don't murder? I say don't even be angry. Don't
commit adultery? If you do it in your heart, you're just as guilty.
And
here's where it starts to get uncomfortable for us. Jesus didn't
come to take the law away. He didn't come to make it OK for us to
sin however we'd like. He didn't come to abolish the ten
commandments. Instead, he is an extremist when it comes to the law.
He says you can't even relax the least of the commandments. And if
that's true, we sinners, even we Christians, have some explaining to
do.
Do
you relax his law? I know I do. Have NO other gods, oh but we have
our other gods, don't we. We think maybe if we have God somewhere in
the mix that's good enough. But the first commandment is all or
nothing, and we fall on the side of nothing.
Do
you disregard his holy name? Not just do you curse, swear, lie or
deceive, but do you hold his teaching, his word about himself as dear
as you should?
What
about your neighbor? You know the commandment about our parents
doesn't get easier when we are grown-ups, because all earthly
authority comes in here. And which one of us hasn't balked at a
boss, or disrespected our governing authorities as the
representatives of God? Which sinner among us humbly submits to
those who are over us in all aspects of life? Instead we
instinctively rebel, “who are you to tell me what to do?”
“Things would be so different if I was in charge around here”.
I'll
leave the fifth and sixth commandments for next week's reading, but
what about stealing? It's far broader than just taking something
from someone else – but it goes to even trying to get things in a
dishonest or deceptive way.
And
when it comes to your neighbors good name – well there's a reason
the Epistle of James compares the tongue to a fire and a wild beast.
We are very good at cloaking our gossip in a facade of genuine
concern. We are quick with a snarky taunt and slow with a kind,
loving word. We fail to speak up when we should, and much of what we
say is better left unsaid. There is little righteousness here,
either.
And
the commands not to covet leave us nowhere to hide. In the secret
places of the heart, who hasn't sinfully desired something of his
neighbors? Petty human jealousies, greed for goodies, and want of
what's not mine.
We
could go on... but to summarize, Jesus says you won't even enter the
kingdom unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees.
Again, he raises the bar. For the pharisees were the good Jews who
followed all the laws, they were the most righteous, the most holy,
the moral example par excellence' , or so one might think. It might
be like Jesus saying to you today, that you can't enter his kingdom
unless you are more holy than a saint, do more good works than Mother
Theresa, and are a better theologian than Pastor Ruesch. Only the
best of the best, the one without spot or blemish – the perfectly
perfect – can do it. Which means only Christ can do it. Thanks be
to God that he has, and has done it for us.
Christ
fulfills the ceremonial law for us. He comes, not to take away the
rules and laws we can't follow, but to be the perfect sacrifice for
our sins. He comes, not to make help us help ourselves to be
righteous, but to be our righteousness. He is the Lamb, not just of
the passover, but the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the
world. He is the priest, not just who sprinkles the blood of an
animal, but the high priest who sheds his own blood. He is the
presence of God, not just over the ark or in the cloudy pillar, but
in the very human flesh he comes to make righteous. God with man in
the God-man himself. He makes not just lepers clean, but he renews
all creation. He is the one, the one, that God's people waited for
those many, many years.
And
he fulfills the moral law, too. He keeps the commandments that we
cannot and do not. He has no other Gods. He keeps God's name holy.
He is Lord of the Sabbath. He honors his Father and mother. He does
not murder, but always helps. He is ever faithful to his bride the
church. He never wants or take what isn't his, and always speaks
well, speaks truth, speaks love. What would Jesus do? He would keep
every law perfectly, every jot and tittle. He had only pure and holy
thoughts, words, deeds. He didn't sin by what he did, or by leaving
anything undone. He alone was not worthy of temporal and eternal
punishment.
Therefore
whoever relaxes uone
of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be called least vin
the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be
called great vin
the kingdom of heaven
Greatest
in the kingdom is Christ – he who made himself least, servant of
all, servant of yours. He who did not deserve death but submitted to
the cross in your place. He who did not deserve his Father's wrath,
but stepped in the way to shield you from being consumed by its
wrath.
Jesus
fulfills the law and the prophets for us. Jesus fulfills all
righteousness for us. And his righteousness alone is sufficient for
us to enter his kingdom. But it is sufficient, thanks be to God!
What
a mystery Jesus lays out in this section of the Sermon on the Mount.
A call for extreme righteousness, that at first might leave us all
without hope, for we sinners sin much. But the one who demands it is
the one who provides it, and in Christ, we see our righteousness –
ALL righteousness – fulfilled. And through him we enter the
kingdom. Through him, in him, we are righteous.
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