Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost
The Two Kinds of Righteousness God Gives You
Theme: God’s Word gives you two kinds of righteousness: first, the
righteousness of faith; second, the righteousness of your acts of love toward
your neighbor.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. God tells you about two different kinds of righteousness in His Bible.
These two kinds of righteousness should never be confused. They are separate
and distinct in the same way that two people are separate and distinct from one
another and should not be confused one with another, even though they are both
people. God’s two kinds of righteousness are separate and distinct, but they
are closely related to one another, in the same way that a daughter is related
to her mother. Separate and distinct kinds of righteousness, yet the one born
of the other, the one created and produced by the other, the one alive because
of the life given to it by the other. Simply stated, the first righteousness is
the righteousness of faith, which God has laid upon you and placed into you;
the second righteousness is the righteousness of your love for neighbor, which
miraculously proceeds from
and is born out of faith.
Today’s Gospel is a beautiful and simple illustration of God’s two kinds of
righteousness, both of which He has given to you and both of which He wants to
continue giving to you and supplying to you all the days of your life. A woman
has come to Jesus:
“Weeping, she began to wet His with her tears and wiped them with the hair of
her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment [from her
alabaster flask].”
How does Jesus respond? “Your sins are forgiven. … Your faith has saved you; go
in peace.”
Your ALIEN Righteousness:
Not Born in You or Arising Up From You,
But Coming To You From Above
St. Luke wrote this Gospel. Luke did not want you to think that this woman’s
love for Jesus and her faith in Him simply materialized—poof!—out of thin air.
Luke took pains earlier in his book to explain to you how and why this woman
should even desire to come and weep at Jesus’ feet. Luke wants you to know that
this woman believed in Jesus because of the miracle-producing power of the Word
that was preached to her. That is why Luke very carefully wrote prior to
today’s Gospel, “The report [about Jesus] spread through the whole of Judea and
all the surrounding country” (Luke 7:17).
Here is what happened to this woman: first, she heard the preaching of the Good
News concerning Jesus; second, this Good News miraculously produced God’s gift
of faith in her; third, this miracle of faith drew her to Jesus while He
reclined at the table. As you heard Luke explain in today’s Gospel,
Behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that He was
reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of
ointment…
It was the hearing of God’s life-giving Word that drew this woman to Jesus. It
was the Gospel—what St. Paul calls “the power of the God” (1 Corinthians
1:18)—that brought this woman in. Stated another way, God’s Word gave this
sinful woman His first kind of righteousness, the righteousness that covered
her sins and hid her shame and made her no longer afraid of her God, “Standing…
at His feet.”
So here is the first miracle in today’s Gospel, the miracle that
delivers God’s first kind of righteousness both to this woman and to you:
· This woman had no personal righteousness of her own; no standing or
stature either before God or men. The Pharisee who was watching this entire
episode would have happily told you that. “If this man [Jesus] WERE a prophet,”
the man mused, “He would have know who and what sort of woman this is.”
· But this Pharisee did not and could not see the first kind of
righteousness that God had given to this woman through the power of His Word.
“The report [about Jesus] spread through the whole of Judea and all the
surrounding country” (Luke 7:17) and that report had given this woman God’s
gift of faith. Along with the miracle of faith, God also gave this woman the
first kind of righteousness, what you might call “alien righteousness” or
“foreign righteousness” or “righteousness that came from outside this woman.”
God placed upon this woman a gift of righteousness, not her own, but perfect
and holy and from above. This is the righteousness of faith, which your God has
likewise placed onto you. This is the righteousness of the forgiveness of sins,
which your God has likewise laid upon you like a blanket or a robe.
· Jesus even confirms and consoles this woman with His gift of alien or
foreign righteousness—that is, the righteousness of forgiveness and faith—by
speaking to this woman the same Words He likewise speaks to you every Sunday
and every time you hear His Words: “Your sins are forgiven.”
Your PROPER Righteousness:
What God’s Gift of Alien Righteousness Miraculously Produces in Your Words, in
Your Actions, and in Every Part of Your Daily Life
Look at what beauty and love have now sprung up and resulted from the great
gift of God’s alien righteousness or foreign righteousness, which came to this
woman through the miracle-producing Word:
Behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that He was
reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of
ointment, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His
with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet and
anointed them with the ointment
Here is the second miracle in today’s Gospel, the miracle that creates and
produces God’s second kind of righteousness both to this woman and to you:
· God’s first kind of righteousness, sent from above, bears divine fruit
within you! Just as a mother would conceive and give birth to a lovely
daughter, so also had the hearing of the Word concerning Jesus (Luke 7:17)
given birth to this woman’s washing Jesus’ feet and drying them with her hair.
· God’s second like of righteousness, given to this woman, certainly
comes from above—as the result of a miracle—but this miracle grows and
flourishes inside of this woman and also inside of you. That is why we might
call this second kind of righteousness “proper righteousness” or
“locally-produced righteousness” or (dare I say it) “personal righteousness.”
God’s second kind of righteousness is not a righteousness that we muster up for
ourselves or offer to God, but it is a righteousness that God Himself produces
inside of us. God produced within this woman a new heart and a new desire: a
new heart that stands or kneels in meekness and humility before her God and a
new desire that reaches out in kindness and love toward neighbor. Here in
today’s Gospel, you might even say that Jesus is both God and neighbor to this
woman. She stands and weeps before her God while she washes her neighbor’s feet.
· In this beautiful Gospel, God is explaining the beautiful Work that His
Word continually produces also in you. Other people around you might not think
your acts of love toward neighbor amount to all that much. Don’t worry about
that! This Pharisee did not think too much of this woman’s love for neighbor,
either. Furthermore, you yourself might not feel as though you love your
neighbor as you ought. If so, learn from this woman. Learn that your love for
neighbor gets its energy and fuel, not from your own efforts, but from the
miraculous work of God’s Word within you: “Learning that [Jesus] was reclining
at the table” is what prompted this woman’s humility toward God and love toward
neighbor. In the same way, your hearing of the divine Word—along with the faith
God produces by that Word—will likewise prompt and create your humility toward
God and love toward neighbor. Do you feel like you do not love your neighbor
enough? Repent and pay
more attention to the Word and allow it to do its good work in you. You will
find yourself opening your alabaster flask soon enough.
“Behold, a woman of the city… a sinner.” There are many other places in God’s
Bible where He teaches and explains to you more about His two separate kinds of
righteousness, the alien righteousness that covers you with the forgiveness of
sins and the proper righteousness that produces good things in your heart and
mind and life. Many other Bible passages teach these things, but hardly any of
them do so in a lovelier way than today’s Gospel. Here a woman looks as though
she is coming to do something for her Lord Jesus, weeping at His feet and
drying them with her hair, displaying the second kind of righteousness that God
produces within you. This act of love and adoration is only possible because of
what Jesus first did for her through the power of His Word. “The report [about
Jesus] spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country” (Luke
7:17), and this report performed a miracle. The report about Jesus gave this
woman
God’s first form of righteousness—the righteousness of faith—from which her
act of love now proceeds.
These are the same two gifts—the same two kinds of righteousness—that your
heavenly Father likewise bestows and gives to you through the same powerful
Word. When you hear the absolution, when you listen to the sermon, when you
come to Holy Communion, God assures you of the alien or foreign righteousness
that is now miraculously laid upon you, through which you have the forgiveness
of sins and the promise of eternal life. As you go your way after worship, back
to family and to friends and to other people whom God has placed into your
life, the Word keeps doing its miraculous work, producing God’s second kind of
righteousness in your heart and in your mind, by which you now love your
neighbor with the very same love that God first gave to you.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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