"What God Demands He Gives" Sixth Sunday after Trinity July 27, 2014 Matthew 5:20–26
To understand God, you need to understand righteousness. You need to understand that He demands righteousness. And generally speaking, people understand righteousness. You don’t have to be religious to know that there are people who live good, decent lives. People are no different today than they were in Jesus’ time. They look at others and see that there are some who are more law-abiding. There are some who take God more seriously. There are some who don’t simply talk about God but they live in a way you would expect someone who believes in God to live. The scribes and Pharisees were such people. The scribes were the ones who knew the Law of God. They knew the Bible because they spent their time copying it word for word. And this wasn’t just a job for them, they took it seriously. They took the demands and the instructions of the word of God to heart and followed them strictly. The Pharisees were the ones who dedicated themselves to living out in their daily lives according to the very same Word of God. They weren’t professional theologians as the scribes were, but they lived in such a way that what God demanded in His word, they were going to fulfill that. Who do you know in your life who serves in the Church as his or her vocation and yet it’s not just a job for them? Who do you know in your life who isn’t a professional church worker and yet lives in such a way where God is first in their lives and their lives are ordered around their cherished beliefs? We may not call them scribes and Pharisees today, but they are the same kind of people. They are those you would think of when you think of righteousness. They are those you think of when you think of what it means to be a Christian. Someone who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. They are the ones you look to and wish you could be like they are. They are the ones you look to and you attempt to pattern yourself after them because you know you should be living that way as well. If you are going to understand righteousness, then you look to those kind of people because they are exhibiting it. But then Jesus douses your expectation of righteousness as a bucket of water on a campfire. He doesn’t say that you ought to imitate them, or try to be more like them, or attempt to get better and better at being righteousness. He says that your righteousness must exceed theirs. You ought not be as good as them, you have to be better. “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” If you want to understand God you must understand righteousness. And to understand righteousness correctly you must understand that God demands it of you. He demands that you live a righteous life. This isn’t some sort of thing where you are happy with yourself because you are always trying to live in a better way and in some ways you are actually improving. It is not even that you end up being as good as those people you have looked up to and have imitated. This is you being the one that others point to when the subject come up of what the Christian life looks like. Where when people want to know how it is that you live in a way that God approves of they see it in you. This is what Jesus has to say to you about righteousness. To understand God, you must understand righteousness. Jesus gives the reason, unless your righteousness is of the kind He lays out for you you will not enter the Kingdom of God. Unless you are living in such a way where you are above reproach, where you are following the letter of God’s Law to every jot and tittle, you will not see God face to face in heaven. What is it Jesus wants you to understand about God here? It is that what God demands is far beyond your own expectations. Your own expectations are that you live a good, decent life. Your expectations are that God looks favorably on you because of it. Your expectations are that there are those who deserve even more favor because they are more righteous. God’s expectations are shown, though, in something beyond this way of understanding righteousness. It is in exceeding the ones who are the most righteous. The ones who exhibit righteousness in such a way that there is no doubt they are righteous and in God’s favor. For the scribes and the Pharisees, though, for those who are like them today, who live above reproach, their righteousness, all of their good things they do, all of their living in a God-pleasing way, isn’t enough. It’s not enough because not only must you be as they are, you must exceed what they are. What Jesus wants you to understand about God is that you will never get there. You will never achieve a level of righteousness where He will look favorably upon you so that you may enter His Kingdom. His demands for you are not simple or easily attainable. His demands are that you exceed the very best righteousness you see. His demands are, in a word, unattainable. That is what Jesus wants you to see about God. That is how He wants you to understand righteousness. Because otherwise you will end up as a scribe and Pharisee in the worst way, where you will not simply live a good and righteous life because God demands it of you but you will put your trust in your doing so. You will look at yourself and see the good works you do, and you will breathe a sigh of relief that you are doing the best you can and even more, you are really a very good person and a good Christian even if you are not of the class of the Scribe and the Pharisee. In short, you will see yourself as righteousness because you will see yourself as righteous. You will be looking to yourself and what you do and how you live for your comfort and your certainty that God shines His favor on you and that you are going to heaven. Understand this, God demands of you something so far beyond your ability to attain that you will have no hope of seeing Him face to face. God demands of you a righteousness that makes your righteousness a self-righteousness and a hypocrisy and a sham. If you choose to comfort yourself in your own righteousness, it will be your only comfort. If you stand before God on Judgment Day pointing to yourself and all the good you have done, you will be left standing alone and condemned before Him. Your manner of righteousness is as Jesus described: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’” You look at the Law of God and see that murder is against it and pat yourself on the back because you have never unlawfully taken the life of an innocent person. Jesus denounces such notions of righteousness. “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” You might get around the relatively easy commandment of not unlawfully taking the life of another, but you will not escape the perfect righteousness and holiness of God who demands that you not think evil of your neighbor when he harms you. Who demands of you that you not speak evil of him when you are angry at him. Who demands of you that you not hurt or harm your neighbor in his body and who further demands that you help and support him in every physical need. This is what God wants you to know about yourself, about Him, and about righteousness. Without this, you are condemned. You are left in that condemnation eternally. It’s what so many scribes and Pharisees never saw because they were too blinded by their own righteousness. It’s what so many today miss because they are too caught up in what they must do to gain God’s favor. God’s demand is as severe as it is because anything less would leave you hoping in yourself. God’s demand as severe as it is gives you no hope in yourself and therefore your hope must come from outside of you. It might be that it comes from something outside of you. But as it is, it comes from someone. Someone who has come not only to tell you of the perfect righteousness of God but to tell you that His demand is never without giving you what is needed to meet that demand. As it is, Jesus wasn’t just standing there showing what the something was that was needed for you, but the who that was needed for you. Jesus as He spoke His words of righteousness that must exceed the very best righteousness stood as the Living Righteousness that you need. Jesus spoke as the one who never thought evil of anyone who harmed Him, who never sought revenge on anyone, who never spoke evil against His enemies, and who also helped and supported His neighbor in every physical need. Jesus didn’t come simply to tell you about Christi’s righteousness but to bring it. He brings it to you in your Baptism. What God demands of you He gives you in your Baptism. The exceeding righteousness of Christ is yours when you are crucified in your Baptism. The Epistle reading connects what Jesus accomplished in His suffering and death on the cross to you in your life in what you need. What you need is not to live better but to be put to death so that you can be raised to life. What you need is not better righteousness but the righteousness of Christ. What you need is not to live your life with greater fervor but to live in Christ. What you need is, simply, Christ. What God demands of you is righteousness as He is righteous. Give thanks that this very thing He demands of you is the very thing He gives. He gives you His Son, Jesus Christ. In your Baptism, in His Supper, in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
