Sermon for Epiphany 6, February 12, 2023
Matthew 5:21-37 21You have heard that it was
said to people long ago, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be
subject to judgment.” 22But I
tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be
subject to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, “Raca,” will have to
answer to the Sanhedrin. But whoever
says, “You fool!” will be in danger of hell fire. 23So if you are about to offer
your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something
against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar and
go. First be reconciled to your
brother. Then come and offer your
gift. 25If someone accuses
you, reach an agreement with him quickly, while you are with him on the
way. Otherwise your accuser may bring
you to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will
be thrown into prison. 26Amen
I tell you: You will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 27You have heard that it was said,
“You shall not commit adultery,” 28but I tell you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. 29If your right eye
causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your
body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30If your right hand causes you to
fall into sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your
body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 31It was also said, “Whoever divorces
his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.” 32But I tell you that whoever
divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to be regarded as
an adulteress. And whoever marries the
divorced woman is regarded as an adulterer.
33Again you have heard that it was said to people long ago,
“Do not break your oaths, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.” 34But I tell you, do not swear at
all: not by heaven, because it is God’s throne; 35and not by earth,
because it is his footstool; and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of
the great King. 36And do not
swear by your own head, since you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Instead, let your statement be,
“Yes, yes,” or “No, no.” Whatever goes
beyond these is from the Evil One. (EHV)
Live
in the righteousness God accepts.
Dear friends in Christ,
It’s hard
to keep up these days. How is anyone
supposed to know what is right or wrong when the standards of society are
constantly changing? How is a child
going to know how to behave when his parents tell him one thing and his school
or friends advocate for something completely different? Yesterday’s pronouns are unacceptable for
many today. Yesterday’s norms are thought
hopelessly outdated. Today’s societal
demands will soon be just as wrong, that is the one constant. When a sinful world tries to make itself
happy, it succeeds only in frustrating itself, so it tries again and again to
find a way to feel good, but hopelessness keeps it constantly looking for
something to give it meaning.
In many ways, this has been going on since the
beginning. Mankind has always been
searching for a way to ensure happiness and prosperity. The ancients developed all kinds of deities
and religions to try to appease the gods and keep life good. Finally, out of all those ancient tribes, God
chose Israel to be His special people for whom He would provide prosperity,
peace, and eternal life. So that they
might have peace in their lives while they waited for His salvation to come
into the world, God gave them commands to rule their social life, behavior, and
worship.
With everything laid out before them, life and
obedience should have been easy. Yet,
that wasn’t the case. For them too, the
sinful nature got in the way. Instead of
simply trusting God’s instructions, promises, commands, and His plans for the
future, the people wanted something else, so they turned to other gods, more
rules, and more ways to try to keep God at bay.
As you read the Old Testament, you soon see the
trouble Israel experienced simply from not trusting God to do what He
promised. Eventually, the teachers of
Israel came up with multitude regulations that they thought would make them
righteous before God, though those man-made rules didn’t have God’s authority
behind them. The Pharisees and Sadducees
of Jesus’ day were considered the best of the best at obeying the laws. Yet, Jesus observed about them, “Isaiah
was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. They
worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they are doctrines.’” (Matthew
15:7-9)
Much of our world is caught in a similar
dilemma. Yet, no matter how hard one
tries to please the opinions of the world, and even no matter how hard we try
to obey the commandments God Himself has given, our actions are always falling
short of the righteousness we need to enter heaven. That is precisely what Jesus was trying to
get across to the people in His audience.
This text is Jesus’ explanation of His statement immediately preceding, “Unless
your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)
The people Jesus pointed to were considered the
best of the best in their day. Yet, those
people were the shining example of obeying the detail of the laws while
completely ignoring the heart of it. In
our day, it might be a married man telling his friend, “I can look at all the
pretty girls and the naked ones on the internet, and as long as I don’t touch,
I am okay.” Well, maybe his wife won’t
know, but God knows what is in the heart.
It's no different than the gossip who puts on a
smiling face when she meets her neighbor then tells another neighbor whatever
dirt she has heard whether true or not, which is, likewise, no different than
listening to the hundreds and thousands of slanderous accusations thrown about
in our world from every side of every debate and every politician.
This text talks about divorce, and certainly
there is way too much of that in our world, yet, it is no better to take and
discard sexual partners right and left before marriage. God intended the sexual relationship to be
between one man and one woman for life.
Now, I hate to break it to you, but there is no
person on earth or in this room who is innocent in the examples Jesus used
here. All of us have lusted about
someone or something. All of us have
played loosely with the truth somewhere along the way. All of us have had anger that wasn’t just or
righteous, and I would bet all of us have disparaged someone else at some point
in our lives. Therefore, if we want to
have a hope of heaven, we need to Live in the righteousness God accepts.
Years ago, I met a man who claimed to be a
youth pastor at a large congregation of another denomination, and he asked me
what the ELS stood for. I explained that
we are a Synod of Christians who believe God’s word means exactly what it says
and we try to follow it. His reply shook
me to the core; he said that couldn’t possibly be true, because I hadn’t plucked
out my eyes or cut off my hands. Now, I
wasn’t shaken because of my guilt. I was
shook because that man was teaching young people, and he knew nothing about the
gospel or God’s Word in general.
The scribes and Pharisees believed that they
were righteous because of their works.
Many people in our times fall into the same trap. However, God’s justice demands perfect
righteousness to enter into His presence.
After rescuing Israel from their slavery in Egypt, God declared to them,
“You therefore shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45) Any slight flaw in
thought, word, action, belief, or even feeling—as Jesus is showing in this
section of His sermon—leads to condemnation in hell. We need a better righteousness than we
ourselves can live. We need Jesus. We need to believe and trust in Jesus alone
for forgiveness and salvation. We need
to Live in the righteousness God accepts.
The whole Bible centers on this point. Your salvation and eternal life hinge on this
point. Only Jesus has lived in such a
way that God could declare from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.” (Matthew
3:17) Jesus is the only human ever to
live about whom the Holy Spirit could have the writer declare, “The Son is
the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine nature.” (Hebrews
1:3) By His life, death, and
resurrection, Jesus restored the image of God in Man that Adam and Eve had
lost. Even as a Child, Jesus had a perfect
relationship with His parents and the Lord God.
Luke reports, “He was always obedient to them.…[And] Jesus grew in
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.” (Luke 2:51-52)
There is no other Man like Jesus. Perfectly holy, perfectly obedient to His
Father’s will, and perfectly righteous before God and men, Jesus is acceptable
to His Father in heaven—so loved and cherished by the Almighty that God has
declared, “You are my Son. Today I
have begotten you. Ask me, and I will
give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your
possession.” (Psalm 2:7-8)
Furthermore, the psalmist writes, “Nevertheless, you make him suffer
need, apart from God for a while, but you crown him with glory and honor. You make him the ruler over the works of your
hands. You put everything under his
feet:…O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm
8:5, 6 & 9)
To Live in the
righteousness God accepts means to live in Jesus, because “God made
him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Our broken nature truly desires to earn peace
with God, but apart from Jesus, we are completely unable to do anything that
would please God. Many people are
ashamed of that fact. However, that too
is the sinful nature taking control.
Therefore, to Live in the righteousness God
accepts means to be humble before God, confessing all our sins and
iniquities, while trusting wholeheartedly in God’s promise that “If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Dear friends, on the last day when you and I
and everyone else will stand before the Judge of the world, there is only one
things we can plead, “Jesus crucified for me.”
Though without sin, Jesus bore our guilt on the cross. In an exchange so great it cannot be
fathomed, God took our sins and counted them to His Son, but He took the
perfect righteousness Jesus lived and possessed, and He credits it to our
accounts, so that He can welcome us into Paradise as His dear, holy children He
always wanted us to be.
This morning, we are invited again, to come to
the altar of our Lord Jesus and receive His true body and blood to restore the
forgiveness of sins that grants us this perfect righteousness. Come and partake of Jesus’ body and blood
that He offered to God, the Lamb without blemish or fault, that took away our
sins and brings to us the medicine of immortality. Live in the righteousness God accepts. Amen.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you faultless in the presence of his glory with great joy, to
the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus
Christ our Lord, before all time, now, and to all eternity. Amen.
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