Trinity 6

Matthew 5:20-26 - Trinity Six - July 27, 2014
Exceedingly Righteous in Christ

If I were to ask someone whether he knew he were going to heaven or not, and that person replied by saying something like, “I sure hope so,” what would that amount to other than “I don’t know for sure”?  Such a response would be an indication that that person is not going to heaven, because it would be an indication that he puts his faith in something other than Christ – something uncertain.  Faith trusts in what is certain, because it trusts in what God has done to save us.  That’s why God teaches us to trust his word.  Faith is confidence.  But this is not because faith is some great work of ours.  It is not our own capacity to believe that makes faith certain.  No.  It is God’s word.  There are many elements of doubt in our faith, because we are but flesh, and therefore susceptible to the devil’s wiles.  But there is no element of doubt in the promises of God.  So that is what we cling to.  God’s word stands sure no matter what storms of doubt might be swirling inside of us. 

One who is not certain of his salvation is uncertain for one very simple reason. 

He is not certain of the gospel.  Such a one is relying on his own strength instead of on God.  Of course faith directed inwards will leave us unsure.  It should!  But the gospel makes us certain.  In order to be certain when you are not, when you are harassed by doubts and worry, you simply need to learn the gospel better.  This is what Jesus intends to teach us in the words we just heard him speak as recorded by St. Matthew.  So if, when you are asked whether or not you’ll go to heaven when you die, you have ever found your immediate response to be something less than “absolutely yes!”, please listen closely.  Jesus wants you to know for sure.  And if you already are confident, then listen all the more, because Jesus wants your confidence to rest in his holy word which comes to you this morning. 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Let us pray:

I know my faith is founded on Jesus Christ, my God and Lord;
And this my faith confessing unmoved I stand upon His Word.
Man’s reason cannot fathom the truth of God profound;
Who trusts her subtle wisdom relies on shifting ground.
God’s Word is all-sufficient, it makes divinely sure,
And trusting in its wisdom, my faith shall rest secure. Amen. 

Jesus said, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

The scribes and Pharisees were very good.  They knew the law very well.  And they openly obeyed it.  Righteousness is nothing other than perfect obedience to the law.  That is what the law demands.  As God said to Moses in Deuteronomy 5:

“Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess” (Deuteronomy 5:32-33). 

The law requires righteousness.  If you have this righteousness, which the law demands, then you have certainty of God’s abiding favor and you are blessed.  The scribes and Pharisees imagined that they had such certainty, and that they were therefore blessed.  Their righteousness was obvious to everyone.  It was generally recognized as the greatest status that man could gain for himself on earth.  Attaining such righteousness therefore stood as the only assurance that man could stand before God in heaven.  Everyone else was taught to doubt that they had such assurance. 

The scribes and Pharisees obeyed not only the external requirements of God’s law.  They also obeyed their own rules, which were developed over many generations by respected rabbis in order to help them keep God’s law.  They obeyed rules that kept them from wandering to the right, and rules that kept them from wandering to the left.  In this way, they demonstrated their zeal to walk in all the ways of God.  Because of their commitment to God’s command, these leaders of the Jewish people held their own obedience as the standard of righteousness.  God’s law was good, after all.  It came from God’s own mouth on Mt. Sinai and was recorded by the hand of Moses the prophet who was the greatest prophet God had sent. 

But God would send another Prophet, as Moses reported in Deuteronomy 18: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deuteronomy 18:15). 

Now this Prophet like Moses was here.  He rose up among the people.  He was their God who had taken on their flesh and blood to become their Brother.  He spoke the word of God.  He did not say, “Thus saith the Lord,” as Moses had.  Instead he said, “I say unto you.”  He spoke with the authority of God.  He didn’t bring a new law.  He demanded what God truly required in the Law of Moses.  He said that the righteousness that the scribes and Pharisees demonstrated was not enough.  If one wanted to see the kingdom of heaven, his righteousness must exceed the very best that man is capable of. 

Man is able to keep his hand from murder.  That’s what he is capable of.  But he cannot tame his heart.  He cannot keep himself from hating his neighbor or judging him or looking down on him or calling him a fool.  We can hardly even keep our ears from relishing in gossip let alone joining in with our lips?  Now certainly it is a worse offense to murder a man than to hate him just as it is a worse offense to steal than to covet or to have an affair than to gaze at another woman.  We make such distinctions wisely, and we must for the sake of civil order.  But the kingdom of heaven works differently than the kingdom of the world.  God demands a righteousness that proceeds from a pure heart.  The law can’t give what it demands. 

We make distinctions between various sins from greater to lesser not for the sake of justifying ourselves before God, but for the benefit of our neighbor.  The greater of these sins do more to hurt those near us; they do more to war against the soul, and to numb our conscience, and so we check ourselves.  Nonetheless, it is not by getting as close as possible to what is righteous that we become certain of our eternal salvation.  Our discipline will never uproot our true corruption.  God is not interested in our distinctions when it comes to entering heaven.  Our conscience must be further exposed if our confidence is going to be driven away from ourselves and toward God’s mercy instead. 

No matter what our obedience looks like on the outside, we fall short.  Our hearts are full of sin.  The scribes and Pharisees had perfected outward obedience to the law.  In a subtle tip of the hat to their fantastic self-discipline, Jesus at the same time reduced their obedience to exactly nothing.  Their righteousness, as impressive as it was, was insufficient.  “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

So where then will our certainty come from?  It must come from outside of us.  It must be a righteousness that we are certain that God is pleased with.  It must be a righteousness that exceeds what sinful man can muster.  It must be the perfect obedience that only God can render.  By reducing our best efforts to nothing, Jesus directs us to what he and he alone accomplishes.  He accomplishes what he bids us now to trust in, to base our faith upon, to be certain of. 

At his Baptism, the Father spoke from heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to confirm that Jesus was his beloved Son who pleased him in all things.  When John baptized him, it was because Jesus insisted that in this way they must fulfill all righteousness.  This means that our righteousness is fulfilled when Jesus takes all our sin upon himself and places into the water of Holy Baptism all the perfect obedience that he came down from heaven to complete.  In Baptism, our sins are washed away – more than that – our best efforts and greatest works are cleansed of all the selfish desires and self-justifying motives behind them.  And there we are clothed with the very righteousness of God himself, the very righteousness that the Law requires and that was earned by our Substitute, because in Baptism we are washed in Jesus’ blood. 

Jesus fulfilled the Law selflessly – for your sake.  He did nothing to justify himself.  He did everything to justify you.  The Law requires love.  And in love for his Father in heaven, Jesus loved poor sinners as well – he loved us to the end. 

Is Jesus good?  Then your righteousness is good.  Is Jesus pleasing to his Father in heaven?  Then you are pleasing.  Does his obedience exceed your greatest strivings?  Then what he gives you in the promise of salvation exceeds what the Law requires.  It gives you what was so pleasing to God that he could not and would not leave his Son in the grave after he took the blame and bore your sins on the cross.  And if God would not leave his Holy One in the grave, neither will he leave you in the grave, since He has joined you to Christ’s death and resurrection through Holy Baptism and so made you holy too.  He will raise you up, because your sin is paid for.  It is gone.  If it cannot keep Jesus dead, then it cannot haunt you or make you doubt Jesus’ promise.  And as at death God will welcome your soul to the kingdom of heaven, so at the resurrection of all flesh, he will raise your body in perfect holiness to dwell with him forever. 

And you know this.  You know this because you are living in the kingdom of heaven right now.  The kingdom of heaven is not some place we go where God is king and we are his subjects.  The kingdom of heaven is the realm of God right here on earth.  The kingdom of heaven is upon us.  It consists not of rules to help us from swerving left or right.  It consists of pure forgiveness and mercy that lead us with Jesus on the straight path to everlasting bliss.  The kingdom of heaven is where heaven comes to us in the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. 

That’s why we sing Holy, Holy, Holy when we prepare ourselves to receive Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.  This is what the angels sang when Isaiah saw heaven and was scared.  So this is what we sing when our eyes are shown the salvation that God has prepared for all people.  When our sins are forgiven and we are given peace with God, we see heaven.  “Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord.”  Jesus comes in the name of the Lord.  He comes to destroy our doubt by destroying our confidence in what we have done.  He comes to destroy our doubt by establishing in our hearts the certainty that what he has done for all sinners he has done for us poor sinners as well.  His body and blood for us to eat and drink seals this promise to us. 

That is why we come to church.  The kingdom of heaven is here.  We still live in the kingdom of the world.  It is the kingdom of the devil.  He tempts us and tries to get us to think that it is modest and self-effacing to act uncertain when asked whether we will go to heaven or not.  But such humility is a lie, because it amounts to nothing more than to regard the work of Jesus as insufficient.  But it is not insufficient.  What we claim for ourselves by Christ’s command and promise exceeds not only the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees; it silences the nagging doubts of the devil who knows that he’s been beat. 

And so we pray:

Increase my faith, dear Savior, for Satan seeks by night and day
To rob me of this treasure and take my hope of bliss away.
But, Lord, with Thee beside me, I shall be undismayed;
And led by Thy good Spirit, I shall be unafraid.
Abide with me, O Savior, a firmer faith bestow;
Then I shall bid defiance to every evil foe.  Amen. 

If we were to claim our own good works, then yes, we would have to humbly plead ignorance as to whether we are good enough.  But Jesus tells us that we need not act uncertain.  If we trust in what we have done or not done, we can be totally certain: We will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  But if we trust in what Jesus has done, we can be even more certain: He gives us God’s favor.  He tells us that because he lives, we also shall live. 

And so we live.  We live as children of God with whom God is well pleased.  We stand justified, that is, forgiven and declared righteous.  God knows what righteousness is.  And so do we.  It is found in mercy.  It is found where God seeks us out in our doubt, and in our fear that maybe he is still angry at us.  He seeks us out and assures us that he is not angry, and that no matter what we must suffer in this life the suffering and death of Jesus Christ has turned away his wrath and won for us everlasting kindness.  Christ has bought us with his blood – the very blood of God once shed for all sins – in order that we might be his own and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting innocence, righteousness, and blessedness.  All these are ours – even now – by faith — faith that is borne by hearing God’s promises. 

We serve Christ by confessing this.  We lay aside our claims to be righteous before God, and so in love for one another, we lay aside our claims to be right before those who have offended us or whom we have inadvertently hurt ourselves.  We bring our gifts of thanksgiving to the altar of our Savior God by first reconciling with those who may have something against us.  We ask for mercy, knowing that God has already shown it.  And we freely give it, even as God has done for us.  We go home with one another justified, because every penny has been paid by Christ.  We live together in the kingdom of heaven today as we bear each other’s’ burdens, and in eternity where the only burden we will bear will be the excessive weight of joy that we are now too weak to know. 

Let us close with a prayer:

In faith, Lord, let me serve Thee; though persecution, grief and pain
Should seek to overwhelm me, let me a steadfast trust retain;
And then at my departure take Thou me home to Thee
And let me there inherit all Thou hast promised me.
In life and death, Lord, keep me until Thy heaven I gain,
Where I by Thy great mercy the end of faith attain. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.