“Real Righteousness”
Matthew 5:17-26
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew 5:20 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.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Time for a one-question pop quiz. I’ve been away from you for the past two weeks and I want to see how you’re doing. Ready? Here’s the question: Is the following statement True or False? “As long as you try your hardest to be good and do your best to keep the commandments, God will accept that and give you eternal life.” If you answered “true” you are no Christian. The statement is false. That statement reflects the theology of those who say, “God helps those who help themselves.” In other words, you do your part and God will take care of the rest. You show that you are sincere, you do something for God, and God will in turn do good to you and bless you. In effect, God cannot work without you; you and God work together to achieve your salvation.
The theological word for that is “synergism,” which means “working together.” I do my part, God does His part, and everything is taken care of. There’s just one problem. Synergism is a heresy, a false teaching. And if the surveys are right, it’s a popular heresy. About 40% of people who call themselves Lutherans agree with synergism.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus emphatically rejects and condemns synergism when He says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” It’s not just that you must do your best and try your hardest; you must do better than those who were, in their own minds, the very best at keeping the Law. The Pharisees dedicated their whole lives to knowing and keeping God’s commands, right down to the finest detail. For instance, you think it’s hard to tithe and give 10% of your income in offerings. Most people give less. Well, the Pharisees would not only tithe of their income but of everything they had, even down to the herbs they would use to prepare their meals. They tried to keep God’s Law perfectly, even making up some of their own laws along the way.
Jesus says you must do even better than that; otherwise, you have no chance of entering the kingdom of heaven. Even the Pharisees don’t make it. Even the godly church people don’t make it. The Law requires holiness and perfection. Anything less just isn’t good enough.
James makes this point very clearly in his Epistle when he says, “Whoever keeps the whole Law, yet fails in just one point, He is guilty of all of it” (Ja 2:10). It’s sort of like a balloon. It may only bump into that one little sharp object. Only one little portion of the balloon may be pierced. And yet the result is that the whole thing pops and is ruined. One breach in the balloon’s surface ruins the entire balloon.
That’s how it is with God’s Law. Even if you were able to keep all the Law except in one area, that one point brings down the whole structure of the Law. For the Law all hangs together in love for God and for the neighbor. You can’t just say, “Oh, I did that a long time ago when I was young and foolish; I’ve gotten my act together now.” Or “Oh, I was just tired and stressed out and in a bad mood when I lost my temper; you can’t hold that against me.” Failing in one point is failing in all points.
The one point that Jesus focuses on in today’s Gospel is the 5th commandment, “You shall not murder.” Now, as near as I can tell, all of you have kept that law, at least as far as not taking another human life is concerned. But in God’s sight this commandment requires much more than not killing someone or even not hurting someone. It also requires that you do good to your neighbor and help him in all his physical needs. When you have done something against another person, Jesus says here that you should swallow your pride and go and be reconciled to him as a matter of first priority. And when he has done something against you, you are not to hold a grudge and refuse to speak to him and seek some sort of revenge.
Rather, when the person who sinned against you repents, you are to forgive, you are to be merciful. The 5th commandment deals not only with deeds but also with words and the desires of the heart. Jesus says that anger toward your brother and hostile, spiteful words put you in danger of the judgment of hell. It is written, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer” (I Jn 3:15). Not just the outward act, but also the inward desire is sin, for all sin begins in the heart.
That is why Jesus called the Pharisees, “whitewashed tombs;” in other words, “well taken care of cemeteries.” Outwardly they seemed clean and pure, but inwardly they were full of decomposition, decay, and dead men’s bones. This is what all human righteousness is – a good-looking and attractive exterior that covers rotting, stinking death on the inside.
Can you do any better than the scribes and the Pharisees? If not, then you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That is the judgment of the Law. And if you are trusting in the Law and the spirituality you have worked up for yourself, then you will be delivered to the Judge, who is Christ, and He will hand you over to the officer, who is Satan, and you will be thrown into prison, which is hell, until you have paid the last penny of what the Law requires, which you will never be able to do.
Jesus is teaching you here that you must not seek merely an outward righteousness like the Pharisees, but an inward righteousness before God, the righteousness of faith, whereby we place our confidence not in ourselves, not in our own goodness, but in Him alone and pray the words of the Introit, “Yahweh is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.” Only in Christ is there deliverance from the judgment of the Law. For only Christ has performed the Law without fault or failing. Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill (them).” Jesus alone has kept the Law. And He did so for you and in your place.
Our Lord fulfilled the Law in two ways. First, as true God who at the same time had become fully human, Jesus never sinned, as it is written in Hebrews 4:15, “He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.” Not only did Jesus not do the things that the commandments forbid, He also did everything the commandments demand. Not only did He not murder or steal or have impure thoughts, but He also perfectly loved His Father in heaven and His neighbor on earth, showing compassion, healing, doing good and teaching the truth to all. Our Lord lived a holy life as your representative and your substitute in order that your unholy life might be redeemed.
Second, Jesus fulfilled the Law by completing all the old ceremonial requirements regarding the Sabbath and all of the sacrifices. By His holy death and burial, Jesus Himself became your eternal Sabbath rest, cleansing you from your sin by His once-for-all sacrifice. All the Old Testament Jewish rules and regulations found their fulfillment in Jesus who put that all to an end in His crucified body. Not only did Jesus live a perfectly godly life in your place, He also suffered on the cross the full sentence for your imperfect and ungodly life in order to reconcile you to the Father. Your Lord is now risen from the dead that you might be freed from judgment and given new life and a sure and certain hope.
That freedom, that new life, that sure and certain hope are all yours in Holy Baptism. For St. Paul says in the Epistle that by water and the Word you were buried into Christ’s death and raised with Him to a new life. His death to sin counts as your death to sin; and His resurrection counts as your resurrection. There is no fear of hell and judgment for the faithful baptized, for Christ has already endured that in your place, for you. Judgment day for the believer is in your past; it occurred on Good Friday. The flames of hell were doused for you at the baptismal font which joined you to the cross. Through God-given faith you now have life in Christ.
So it is that the words of Jesus which seemed to be impossible are now, in fact, true in Him: “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” By faith in Christ, your righteousness does indeed exceed that of the Pharisees, for it has been given to you freely by God’s grace. You have the perfect righteousness of Jesus. By faith the Father has declared you to be holy in His sight and has given you the life of Jesus that is full and complete and perfect and everlasting.
And lest you be tempted to fall back into your old life of sin and death and the bondage of the Law and say to yourself, “Hey, all that counts for my salvation is what Jesus did and not what I do; that means I can live however I please, right?” To that, St. Paul says this in Rom. 6:1, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” How shall we who have been freed from hell’s prison purposely go back and put ourselves in chains and behind bars again? That’s exactly what we’ve been liberated from! Why would we willingly want to be anywhere near there and risk falling away from Christ?
No, your old selves were crucified with Christ when you were baptized. You have been given to walk by faith in the newness of Christ’s life. He has brought you through the Red Sea of baptism, out of the house of bondage. Therefore, see yourselves as God does – dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ. For just as you have been united with Him in His death, you will surely also be united with Him in the resurrection of the body when He comes again.
And to further solidify your union with Christ, come now and receive his body and blood under the forms of bread and wine. For here is real righteousness, yea even Christ’s righteousness physically and tangibly given and put into you in order to give you forgiveness, strengthen your faith, and give you the ability to go on with your life and withstand this evil world until you are called Home.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
