↓ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grants Pass, OR
↓ Faith Lutheran Church, Medford OR
Matthew 5:17-26 RIGHTEOUSNESS PAST THE PHARISEES
LORD God, Heavenly Father, we confess that we are poor, wretched sinners, and
that there is no good in us; our hearts, flesh, and blood being so corrupted by sin
that we are never in this life without sinful lusts and desires. Dear Father, forgive
our sins, and let Your Holy Spirit cleanse our hearts so we desire and love Your
Word, abide by it, and by Your grace are saved; through J.C. Amen.
JESUS IS UNIQUE “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law
or the Prophets,” Jesus said. Now why would the people think that? Where
would they get the idea that Jesus might be teaching something against the
Law or the Prophets? Well, consider how different Jesus was from the
legalistic religious leaders of His day. He ate with tax collectors and sinners.
He healed on the Sabbath. He touched the unclean and diseased. He
preached repentance and forgiveness, the loving-kindness and mercy of
God. He was a bit of a radical. And so, some may have drawn the
conclusion that He was throwing away the Old Testament and giving them
something totally different.
JESUS IS PERFECT [LAW] In order to dispel any such notion, Jesus
said, “I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” He wasn’t undoing and/or
trashing the Law and the Prophets; rather, He was bringing them to their
perfect expression and realization in Himself. Everything written in the Old
Testament comes to its pinnacle and culmination in Jesus.
10 COMM. STILL APPLY And so He says, “Whoever breaks one of
the least of these Commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called
least in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Anyone who says that the Ten
Commandments no longer apply to today’s contemporary world,
traditional definitions of marriage and morality can be discarded, and times
have changed and the church has to change with them – those who say
such things, even under the guise of love and inclusiveness, are acting
against Christ. He didn’t come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.
DON’T BRUSHOFF TH’LAW And this applies not only to others out there
but also to us in here. We know well the temptation to brush aside God’s
Law, to think to ourselves, “Even though this is wrong, even though it
breaks a Commandment, I can go ahead and do it anyway because God
will forgive me.” We in effect destroy God’s Law when we misuse His grace
in that way, as an excuse to live however we please.
NO LICENSE TO SIN, St. Paul, addresses this in today’s
Epistle. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” God’s forgiveness is not
a license to sin, it’s freedom from sin. It’s the taking away of sin. Why
would we want to embrace again the very things which condemned us to
hell? Since the old Adam still hangs about our neck, tempting us to think
lightly of sin, the Law is still in force in this fallen world. Not one jot or tittle
will pass away from it till Christ’s return. The commandments still apply to
every single one of us.
“RIGHT PAST” PHARISEES However, just because that is so, we
shouldn’t fall into the opposite error and think that we can gain eternal life
by our keeping of the Law, by our own good living. Listen to what Jesus
also says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” It’s not just
that you have to do your best and try your hardest, and God will accept that.
It’s that you’ve got to do even better than those who dedicated their whole
lives to keeping God’s Law down to the finest detail, otherwise you can
forget about eternal life. Not even the Pharisees, not even monks make it
on their own steam. In the Old Testament God summarized what He
demands when He said, “Be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” And
Jesus Himself taught in this same Sermon on the Mount, “You shall be
perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Holiness and perfection.
That’s what the Law requires. Anything less just isn’t good enough;
there’s no wiggle room.
INWARD [vs. OUTWARD] You see, God isn’t simply after good
outward behavior, He seeks inward righteousness. And so it’s not simply
that you shouldn’t murder, but that you shouldn’t even speak angry words or
harbor ill thoughts in your heart. It’s not simply that you shouldn’t commit
adultery, it’s that you shouldn’t have a lustful thought or desire. It’s not
simply that you shouldn’t steal, it’s that you shouldn’t be inwardly greedy or
covet what belongs to your neighbor. And most important, you should love
and trust in God above all things.
WHITEWASH/ED That’s why Jesus called the Pharisees,
“Whitewashed tombs,” “well taken care of cemeteries.” Outwardly they
were clean and pure, but inwardly they were full of uncleanness and dead
men’s bones. This is what all human righteousness is: A good-looking and
attractive exterior that covers nothing but rotting, stinking death on the
inside. Can you do any better than the scribes and the Pharisees? Then
you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That’s the judgment of the Law.
LAW’S TRUE PURPOSE The real purpose of the Law, then, is not to
save us but to drive us to Christ, our only hope and our only Help. For only
in Jesus do we receive an inward righteousness before God, the
righteousness of faith, whereby we despair of our own goodness and
instead rely on Christ alone. As we prayed in the Introit, “The Lord is my
Strength and my Shield; my heart trusted in Him, and He helped me.” Only
in Jesus is there deliverance from the judgment of the Law. We know only
Jesus performed the Law without fault or failure. Again He said, “Do not
think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to
destroy but to fulfill (them).” And all this Jesus did for you and in your place.
J. FULFILLED LAW #1. Our Lord fulfilled the Law in two ways. First
of all, as true God who at the same time had become fully human, Jesus
never sinned, as it is written in Hebrews, “He was tempted in all points as
we are, yet without sin.” Not only did Jesus not do the things the
Commandments forbid, He also did do everything the Commandments
demand. Not only did He not murder or steal or have impure thoughts, but
He also perfectly loved His Father in Heaven and His neighbor on earth,
showing compassion, healing, doing good and teaching the truth to all. Our
Lord lived a holy life as our Representative and our Substitute, that our
unholy lives might be redeemed.
J. FULFILLED LAW #2. Secondly, Jesus fulfilled the Law by
completing all of the old ceremonial requirements regarding the Sabbath
and the sacrifices and so forth. By His holy death and burial, Jesus Himself
became our eternal Sabbath rest; and so He says, “Come to Me all you
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” “I will release from
the crushing weight of the Law; I will give you the peace of being reconciled
with God.” And by His once-for-all, final sacrifice as the Lamb of God,
Jesus cleansed us from our sin and purified us. All the Old Testament
Jewish rules and regulations found their goal in Jesus, who put that all to an
end in His crucified body, that the Law might no longer condemn us. We’ve
been put right with God again. That’s why on the Cross Jesus said,
“IT IS
FINISHED.” It is accomplished, completed, perfected, fulfilled. All has been
done, as Romans 10 declares, “Christ is the fulfillment of the Law for
righteousness to everyone who believes.” Our Lord is now risen from the
dead that we might be given new life and a sure hope.
YOURS IN BAPTISM That new life, that sure hope are entirely
yours in Holy Baptism. St. Paul says in the Epistle that by water and the
Word you were buried into Christ’s death and raised with Him to a new life.
His death counts as your death. The hellish judgment he experienced
counts for you too. For you who believe and are Baptized are united with
Him. Living in Christ, taking refuge under His wings, you are protected and
kept safe from the devil and from death itself. There is no fear of hell and
judgment for the faithful Baptized; for Christ has already endured that in
your place, for you. Your Judgment Day is in the past. It occurred on Good
Friday. The flames of hell were doused for you at the Font. All there is now
for you is the everlasting life of Christ into which you have been raised.
IT’S POSSIBLE …IN J.C.! So the Words of Jesus which seemed to be
impossible are now, in fact, true in Him: “Unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no
means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” By faith in Christ, your righteousness
does indeed exceed that of the Pharisees, for it has been given to you
freely by God’s grace. You have the perfect righteousness of Jesus. The
Father has declared you to be holy in His sight. He didn’t just demand that
you straighten out your life, He gave you a whole new life, the life of
Jesus that is full and complete and perfect and everlasting. Through Christ
you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Believe that “This is most
certainly true.”
S.D.G. Our Lord brought you through the Red Sea in Baptism, out of
the house of bondage. Your old selves were crucified with Christ, that you
should no longer be slaves to sin. So then, reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Just as you have been
united with Him in His death, you will surely also be united with Him in the
Resurrection of the body when He comes again. To Him, the Father and the
Holy Spirit belongs all worship honor glory and praise now and forever. IJ’N