Sermon for Trinity 6
Romans 6:3-11 + Matthew 5:20-26
There’s a verse in the book of Hebrews that says, Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. How many people do you think actually believe that today, especially here in our country? Most people—and I’m talking about people who still believe in a god, or in the afterlife—most people are pretty sure they’ll “see the Lord” in the end, even though they know they’re far from holy. Most people believe they’ll “go to heaven” when they die, whatever that means to them. Because, as Alan Jackson sang long ago, they’re “workin’ hard to get to heaven where I come from,” and, as long as they work hard at it, they’re pretty sure that will be enough. Then, of course, there are those who don’t think they even have to do that much. God will let them into His eternal home, they suppose, simply because He owes it to them as His creatures.
Then along comes Jesus, who says, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. But narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” According to Jesus, most people will not see the Lord in the end—at least, not in a pleasant way. Most people will perish. Because they lack the holiness, the righteousness that God requires for people to enter His kingdom.
Well, how does one acquire such holiness, such righteousness? The Methodists have a “method” for it, which is where they got their name from, a method to become holy. The Jews in Jesus’ day thought they knew. They had living examples of what they thought was righteousness all around them in the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders who appeared, on the outside, to be holy men, leading holy lives, fully in line with God’s holy Law. They rested on the Day of Rest! They tithed, down to the individual cumin seed! They prayed lengthy and public prayers! They meticulously obeyed, not only the Ten Commandments, but all the others, too, in the Law of Moses. The average Jew could only aspire to be as holy and righteous as the scribes and Pharisees, because their place in heaven was practically assured.
Then along comes Jesus, who says, toward the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, I say to you that unless your righteousness goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Oh my. That must have come as a shock to them. It was meant to! The people had to be shaken out of their delusion that a person could work his way into heaven. And so Jesus opens up and unfolds the Law to them, to show them just how much is required for a person to be holy and righteous enough to enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to the people of old, ‘You shall not murder,’ and, ‘Whoever murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘You idiot!’ will be subject to the council; but whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.
God’s Law, that is, His moral Law, His standard of right and wrong, is absolute, and strict. It’s not enough to “not murder.” That’s only a small part of righteousness. God’s Law requires a heart that doesn’t hate or get unjustly angry, and a mouth that doesn’t insult, or berate, or spread rumors about your neighbor. Instead, God’s Law requires a heart that loves even one’s enemies, and is merciful and compassionate, and a mouth that builds up, helps, and defends at all times. And then, yes, it also requires hands that do not kill, or hurt, or harm, but that, on the contrary, do good to one’s neighbor. That’s the righteousness that the Law requires, according to what we number as the Fifth Commandment.
In the verses right after today’s Gospel, Jesus goes on to the Sixth commandment: You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.
You see, it’s not enough to avoid extramarital sex, although righteousness certainly demands that. God’s Law also requires eyes that don’t even linger on a woman, or a man, and hearts that don’t lust for them. It requires dressing yourself and behaving in a way that doesn’t tempt your neighbor to lust for you, either. It requires genuine love and fidelity and respect within a marriage, and it requires that marriage must truly be until “death do us part,” not the divorce-because-we-don’t-get-along-anymore practice of our society. That’s the righteousness that the Law requires.
Jesus goes on to give an example of what righteousness looks like. “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny.”
In other words, people like to think that they’re a-okay with God, even if they’re not a-okay with their fellow human beings, as if “it’s just me and the Lord, no one else matters.” But Jesus says, no. God’s own Law demands, not only that you render to God due reverence, fear, honor, and worship, but that you live in perfect peace and harmony with your neighbor, and that you atone for your sins against your brother, because if you’ve sinned against your neighbor and you haven’t made it right with him, he has something against you, you can’t even begin to deal with God. He doesn’t want your worship. He doesn’t want your “gift” or your offerings, if you refuse to be reconciled to your brother.
Jesus goes on in the same way, throughout the Sermon on the Mount, revealing just how strict God’s Law is, exposing the scribes and the Pharisees, and everyone else, as lawbreakers, as unrighteous people. Because no one, including the Pharisees, keeps the Law in this way. The scribes and Pharisees had, at best, relatively decent outward obedience. But their hearts were far from sinless, and their words were often dripping with poison. There’s a damning verse in the epistle of James that puts it this way: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
So, what lesson—or better, what was the first lesson Jesus’ disciples were to take away from these words He spoke to them? “I have to work harder than the Pharisees? I have to fix my heart and my words and my actions? And then, hopefully, I’ll have enough righteousness to enter the kingdom of heaven?” No!
Jesus, through His apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3, explains it this way: Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The Law is good. What it demands is good. But it wasn’t given in order for people to enter the kingdom of heaven by keeping it. It was given to show us what God judges to be righteousness, and then, to show us that we all fall short of that righteousness, because, ever since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, mankind is unable to be the righteous people we need to be in order to enter God’s kingdom. The Law was given to show us what unrighteous people we are. The Law was given, as St. Paul writes, to lead us to Christ, who is the end of the Law for righteousness for all who believe.
This is how Paul goes on to describe it in Romans 3: But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being made righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as the atonement seat, through faith, in His blood…that God might be righteous and the one who makes the person who has faith in Jesus righteous.
You see what this means? The only way for sinners, like you and me, to have a righteousness that goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is to have the righteousness of faith, the righteousness that doesn’t come from trying to keep the Law, but that is credited to us lawbreakers through faith in Christ Jesus, who paid for all our unrighteousness with His own blood, shed on the cross. We are “made righteous” or “declared righteous” or “justified” through faith in Christ crucified. That’s the righteousness that makes us worthy of and able to enter the kingdom of heaven.
And you were clothed with that righteousness in Holy Baptism. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, who is called “the Righteous One,” because He truly was, and is. The baptized, who cling to Christ in faith, are sinners who are no longer counted as sinners, sinners who are no longer subject to hellfire.
But being baptized into Christ also has other implications, as Paul said in today’s Epistle. Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? So, then, we were buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in a new life. You’re counted righteous by faith, through Baptism, but if you believe in Jesus, that means you’ve been born again. You’ve been given a new heart, a new life, with holy impulses, holy desires. You’ve been recreated for a new kind of obedience, to live no longer in unrighteousness and filth, but in righteousness that resembles the righteousness of God.
And so we turn back to Jesus’ words of Law, not to find out how to become worthy of the kingdom of heaven, but to find out how children of heaven are expected to behave in our Father’s house. So, yes, turn away from murdering, but also turn away from hatred and bitterness, and from hurtful or insulting words. Turn away from speaking ill of your brother, away from bitter anger, and toward love. Turn away from sexual immorality, toward sexual purity. Turn away from lustful and lingering looks, and away from filthy thoughts, toward love for and commitment to your own spouse, and toward kind and clean thoughts toward those of the opposite sex. And, thinking about how your actions may have an impact on others, dress modestly, and behave purely and chastely. And, yes, bring your offerings to God and worship Him, but first, if you’ve offended your brother, or even if he thinks you’ve offended him, care enough about him to try and work it out with him, because those are the righteous attitudes and behaviors that God expects from those whom He has made His children through faith in Christ Jesus.
So, you need a righteousness that goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? They didn’t have the righteousness that you have, the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ Jesus, but you baptized believers have it! You are children of the kingdom of heaven, children of the righteous God! Now go forth, and live accordingly. Amen.
