INJ

Matthew 5:20-26 | “The Last Penny Paid”
6^th Sunday after Trinity | 27 July 2014

Dear Saints,

Jesus is blasting away at us in the Gospel text this morning. These are words first preached in this Sermon on the Mount, but they ring as true today as they did then, because every single one of us wants to be a Pharisee.

When we see the Scribes and the Pharisees we want to boo and hiss, we know they are the bad guys. Since we were children we’ve heard how the Pharisees hated Jesus, how they fought against Jesus, how they thought they had earned their way into God’s pleasure with their works.

But look, if we were there that day, and we were walking around, we would admire the Pharisees. The Pharisees were good people, by all accounts they were outwardly righteous. If you were walking down one of the dark Jerusalem alleys at night, you would be glad to see a Pharisee. No doubt some of them were corrupt, but as a general rule the Pharisees were the guys you hoped your daughter would date. They were well educated, godly, clean (they were always washing this and that), and often wealthy. The people would have had great respect for the Pharisees.

If you were talking about righteousness, you were probably talking about the Pharisees; their entire existence was built around being righteous and holy.  

We know that the Pharisees had added to the laws given by Moses. They had totaled up the laws in the Torah and counted 613, and then they came along with a hedge around these, further instructions to make sure they didn’t even get close to breaking the law.

Now we balk at this, “Look at how hard they are making things! They are adding to the Scriptures.” God set the bar here with Moses and the Ten Commandments, and the Pharisees had raised it to here with all their extra rules. But still we are impressed, as the people were impressed, with this relentless effort of the Pharisees to be righteous.

Imagine their reaction, then, when Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” What!? (And imagine what the scribes and Pharisees thought about that too!) If that is the standard, who can get in?  

But with these words Jesus is pulling the mask off of legalism. He’s showing us that this is all a big trick. The Pharisee’s had not made the law more difficult, but easier to keep. All of their extra laws were really lowering the bar, making it do-able, difficult, but doable.

Think of this: the Scriptures say, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” The Pharisee says, “You should not walk more than 100 steps on Saturday.” Which can you do? It might be a hassle to count your steps one day out of the week, but you could manage it, but which of us could rest our head on our pillow at night and think, “I did it today, I love the Lord with everything I have”?

The Law says “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (This, by the way, is not a command that we love ourselves first. I’ve heard a lot of people say, “I need to learn how to love myself first before I love my neighbor.” That is not what Jesus is talking about. We naturally love ourselves and take care of ourselves, we don’t even think about. And this is the kind of love that Jesus is calling us to. Here’s the example. If I’m sitting around watching the Rockies, and I get thirsty, I don’t even think about it, I stand up and go the kitchen and get something to drink. But if I’m sitting there watching the game, and one of my children, flesh of my flesh, one that I love, says, “Dad, I’m thirsty” then I groan, and wait for the commercial break, and labor my way up to the kitchen like I’m one of Pharaoh’s slaves. See the difference? When Moses and Jesus command us to love our neighbor as ourselves, they are calling us to expand the unthinking and almost instinctive love and care that we have for ourselves to our neighbor.) So the Lord says, “Love your neighbor.” The Pharisee says, “Wrap this leather poach on your arm and pray three times a day.” Which can you do? Which can you manage?

See this: The Pharisees had lowered the bar, God’s standard, but this is the trick, you don’t want to lower it too far. You don’t want it too easy. It wasn’t easy to be a righteous Pharisee, but it was possible. And everywhere we find legalism we find this characteristic: there are those who are in, and those who are out. There is a standard of righteousness used to exclude the “unholy” and include the “holy”.

Now we might not think this is true today, that our culture is so licentious that there are no rules at all, that anything goes, that everything is tolerated, but there are legalistic standards everywhere around us. Tolerance, in fact, is the new holiness; the more tolerant you are, the more righteous. Everyone these days has their pet cause, and this becomes the standard of judging our neighbors actions.

We know, sadly, that this is how many people outside the church think of the church, as some sort of “holiness club,” that we come here every Sunday to talk about the rules, about how to be holy, and to talk about how bad everyone out there is, who don’t keep the rules. What an abomination! But, but, we also know that this Phariseeism clings to our sinful flesh, that this theology is our native language.

The Lord has given us His law with the chief purpose of showing us our sin, of accusing us before God, of exposing our sinfulness and the deep, deep corruption of our nature, and the wrath that we deserve from God. That is the number one function of the law, to terrify us, to bring us to the end of ourselves. But the devil takes the law and misuses it; Instead of condemning us, he misuses the law to justify us. So he softens it, makes it manageable, and the result of this standard is pride and despair. Pride for those on the inside, for those who have kept the law, and despair for those on the outside who have not.  

Now, the devil tempts all of us in this way, to have these standards of holiness. I suppose we have a lot of these lists, this is what makes me a good Christian, this is what makes me a good citizen, this is what makes me a good worker or student, this is what makes me a good family member, husband, wife, child, etc. This is what makes me a good person. And we measure ourselves by them, and we are proud or despairing. We measure our neighbor by them, and we are angry or envious.

So to us, with our lists, with our standards of holiness, with our Phariseeism and our proud little legalisms, to us Jesus comes and preaches, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Whatever your standard is, it is too low, not enough, you are worse than you think you are.

Jesus, here, is really raising the standard far above our reach, the holiness of God Himself. The law requires that everything you have and are be poured out for the neighbor in the Lord’s name, which means you are guilty, and more, condemned. If you are going to reach the kingdom of heaven, then, it will not be your work, it will not be your effort, it will not be you living up to whatever man-made standard you’ve cooked up, it will be another righteousness, in fact, the righteousness of Christ Himself. And this, comes dear saints, not from your doing, but from His dying, His rising, His forgiving.

Jesus is here attacking your righteousness so that there is space for something better, something greater, for Jesus Himself, His righteousness, His keeping the Law, His blood and perfection and holiness, and it is yours.

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” But you, dear saints, have the righteousness of Christ. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller