Sermon 2-12-17 Pastor Ray Lorthioir Trinity Lutheran Church W. Hempstead, NY Based on Matthew 5:13-20 Mirror On The Wall Remember. Last week we saw Moses speak to Israel and deliver this great prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15, The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. And by the way, when the Scribes and Pharisees sent messengers to John the Baptist as we read in John 1:21, They asked him, Then who are you? Are you Elijah? He [John] said, I am not. Are you the Prophet? He answered, No. See that second question? They were asking John about Deuteronomy 18:15. Israel was and is expecting The Prophet. So, as we read through Matthew, we re searching out this important question: Is Jesus of Nazareth the prophet like Moses? Remember. Last week we saw the difference between Moses and all other prophets. Yahweh Himself told Moses, Aaron and Miriam in Numbers 12:6-8, 6 When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. So is Jesus faithful in all Yahweh s house? Does Jesus see Yahweh? Or we could put it this way, in Jesus do we see Yahweh? Does Jesus speak with us clearly and not in divine riddles? In Matthew we re looking to see if Jesus fits all these criteria. And here in the Sermon on the Mount we ll see if He teaches clearly like Moses. Keep it in mind. Now, this week we begin with the great rediscovery of the gospel that Martin Luther made some time either in late 1517 500 years ago this year or in the next year or two. The verse that Luther struggled to understand was Romans 1:17, in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. A righteousness from God has been revealed. What does this mean? The one thing that makes Yahweh holy and us sinners is righteousness. Yahweh s got righteousness. We don t. We are the unrighteous. If we had a righteousness equal to Yahweh s we could get along with Him fine. He could stand in our presence without having to punish us. We could stand in His presence without terror and enjoy our Creator forever. If you didn t recognize eternal life in that arrangement you should. That s what eternal life in the Kingdom of heaven is all about. In order to enter the Kingdom of heaven we need a righteousness equal to Yahweh s righteousness. We need a divine goodness equal to His. With righteousness we can live, move and have our being in Yahweh s presence. He can dwell with us. But, how are we sinners ever going to achieve righteousness before God? Whether you know it or not, this is the major question of all existence. It s the major 1
question of your very life. The fact that our present culture has hidden this burning question from you by burying it under tons of useless philosophy only shows you how important it really is. How are we sinners ever going to achieve a righteousness equal to our Creator s? The gospel provides us with the answer. There is no means by which we can achieve a righteousness equal to Yahweh s. Therefore, Yahweh Himself must provide us with a righteousness equal to His. Indeed, He s the only One who can do such a thing! If He will not, we re lost in His eternal wrath. But Yahweh has provided His righteousness to us. It came wrapped up in a human being. His Name is Jesus. Moses and the prophets say so. So, the Gospel declares that the righteousness by which we enter the Kingdom of heaven comes through Jesus of Nazareth alone. Righteousness is ours by faith in His perfect work on the cross. It is by faith in the guarantee of that perfect work, namely Jesus resurrection from the dead. Our faith in Jesus is credited to us as righteousness a righteousness sufficient for Yahweh to come to us and we to Him, a righteousness sufficient for us to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the righteousness of God come down to us to make us righteous. This is the glorious Gospel of God revealed in Romans 1:17. Now, if Jesus is our righteousness, what happens to the Law Yahweh gave to Israel on Mount Sinai? We answer the question by examining the situation before Jesus came. Before Jesus established the righteousness of God on earth for us, humanity only had hope that Messiah would eventually come and do so. Those who were saved prior to Jesus were saved by faith that Messiah would come for this very purpose. Jeremiah received the key to this. Speaking of Messiah he prophesied: Jeremiah 23:6, This is the name by which he [Messiah] will be called: The LORD [Yahweh] Our Righteousness. But to know what righteousness is, Yahweh established a covenant with Israel and gave them His Law. Listen to what Moses said to Israel in Deuteronomy 6:24-25, 24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. Righteousness comes from obedience to Yahweh s Law. Indeed, the Law is the primary way of recognizing Jesus as Messiah. He fulfilled the Law in its entirety. If each of us could fulfill the Law in its entirety, we wouldn t need a Messiah. But as Paul tells us in Romans 8:3, the sinful nature renders the Law powerless to make us righteous. This makes the Sinful Nature more powerful than the Law. And though the Law is perfectly righteous, it is unable to bring us to righteousness. What then, was the purpose of the Law? St. Paul answers that question in Galatians 3:19, What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed [Messiah] to whom the promise [Genesis 3:15] referred had come. He then writes, Galatians 3:23-25, 23 Before this faith [in Jesus] came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the 2
supervision of the law. This means that the Law is no longer our righteousness before God. Jesus is. But the Law still leads us to Messiah. How so? Luther and the theologians after him had to wrestle with this question. From their work, we find that Scripture reveals the Law to work in three modes. First, the Law is a curb. Curbs encompass a street in order to keep cars from straying out of the way. You can jump the curb if you want, but it s there to keep you in the street. In the same way the Law is a curb to keep all humans in the paths of civil righteousness. This is the only way society can survive. We must be civil enough to each other to allow society to function and human life to be tolerable on this earth. Second the Law is a mirror. This makes me think of the wicked stepmother in Snow White. She would address the magic mirror saying, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? Well, we can address the Law in the same way. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most righteous of all? What is the answer you d like to that one, especially in disputes with other people? Why you are. But as Jesus is going to show us the only answer we ll get is: not you. That s for sure. Third, the Law is a guide to the Christian life. It s a map of what righteous thoughts, words and deeds are. It s a map that shows the way to love God and neighbor as in You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. It is the second mode the mirror mode that the Law uses to lead us to Christ. For the holy and righteous Law clearly shows us how unholy and unrighteous we really are. It clearly shows us how we justly deserve Yahweh s condemnation, punishment and wrath for unrighteousness. In the Sermon on the Mount we re going to get a powerful dose of Law as a mirror. If we re in Christ, we can use what we find in the Sermon on the Mount as a guide to righteous living. But even then, we ll find ourselves terribly frustrated. And if anyone is without Christ, they will find themselves condemned. For Jesus digs in to show us just how powerful the Sinful Nature really is. But keep in mind that He has a purpose for doing this to show us that He alone is our righteousness before Yahweh. When we bow our knees to this fact of the universe, then righteousness can come. We are hopeless sinners in the grip of the sinful nature. Jesus Christ is more powerful than the Sinful Nature. Last week as we went through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12 we discovered that those who know they are impoverished from lack of righteousness, mourn over the fact, hunger and thirst for the righteousness they don t have and a righteous world they don t live in, and long for purity of heart are blessed. How are they blessed? Because Jesus is here. Messiah has come. We also discovered that because Messiah has come these same people are blessed if they peacefully wait to inherit the earth, blessed if they show mercy as they have been shown mercy from God, blessed if they proclaim Yahweh s peace to the people of earth, and blessed if they are persecuted because of Messiah s righteousness. There s one more thing Jesus said about such people. Matthew 5:14-16, 14 You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light 3
to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. In two other places, Jesus said that He is the light of the world. John 8:12, When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 9:5, While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So how is it that Jesus disciples are the light of the world? Certainly they weren t righteous like He is, nor are we. Again the Gospel good news is that baptized into Christ we have been made righteous in Christ, though we are sinners, and filled with His Holy Spirit. In this way Jesus has made us bearers of His light of the world. Each believer baptized in Messiah carries the light of Messiah within. That light is not any light of this world. It is the light of the righteous age to come brought from the future by faith in Messiah Jesus. It is the light of righteousness won by Messiah Jesus on the cross and brought from the past by faith. It is the light of the very mystical union of forgiven sinners with the totally righteous Messiah. And so, Christ s true Church cannot be hid. It must always be in this world. He said so. It cannot be destroyed. He said so. Somehow, some way, the good works He has prepared for His true Church will cause people on earth to give praise to their Creator, their Father in heaven. But backing up a few verses Jesus also gave us a warning. Matthew 5:13, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Losing saltiness is the same as losing light so that the great light goes out. His light in us is made very dim. Well He knows the power of the sinful nature. But, so that this doesn t happen, He has provided His Church with maintenance. The most important reason we gather together as His people is to receive His maintenance so that His light doesn t go out or flicker perilously. His Word and His Sacraments are designed to keep His light burning in us. His gifts maintain the light of His righteousness within us. Jesus Christ is more powerful than the sinful nature. And so by His power we are His light in the world. The danger of the darkness is very great, however. This past week, a man came home to find the pastor of his church in bed with his wife. It was in the news. It s a large prominent congregation in the south. This could have been the pastor or it could have been the woman. Some women will throw themselves at men they perceive to be powerful. Or it could have been both. Regardless, the darkness settled down where there was meant to be light. Saltiness was lost and the Church of Christ gets trampled in the backlash over such a thing. Therefore, to keep the darkness at bay and His light burning, the Lord has given us both Law and Gospel. For it s possible to be so caught up in the joy of the righteousness to come that we underestimate the present darkness. To prevent this from happening Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 5:17-19, 17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who 4
breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus fulfilled much in the Law and the Prophets through His birth, suffering, death and resurrection. This is the Gospel. But all has not yet been fulfilled. Jesus has not yet returned to openly reveal and install the Kingdom of heaven. Until that day the Law of love is still in operation. The Law commands us to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We cannot teach otherwise. And when the Law of love is held up to us it becomes a mirror. In it we see ourselves falling short of God s glorious righteousness in thought, word and deed. We are brought face to face again with our horrible poverty of spirit. Indeed, Jesus closes off this section of the Sermon on the Mount with a grave warning: Matthew 5:20, For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were regarded as the most righteous people of their time humanly speaking. They were dedicated to fulfilling the law in every detail as Jesus said, even to tithing their spices. But as comes clear from reading the gospels, they were far from loving Yahweh because they could not and would not love Yahweh s Messiah. They could not love Yahweh s Messiah because they could not detect the spiritual darkness in themselves. They could not see themselves as spiritually impoverished. They were self-deceived. For them the Law was their ticket to heaven, and not the all-revealing mirror on the wall. When we properly comprehend the work of the Law, then we see it for what it is meant to be a mirror revealing all the ugly truth. We are not righteous at all. The mirror causes us to hunger and thirst after the righteousness we don t have and a righteous world that we don t live in. In this way the Law sets the stage for the most glorious revelation of all. Messiah Jesus is our righteousness our total righteousness, our only righteousness. Therefore, those who will depend on Jesus for their righteousness by faith have a righteousness that far exceeds that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. This again is the Gospel. It certainly is strange constantly to be torn this way between Law and Gospel. But, this is what Scripture actually teaches. It is actually a good thing to let our sinful natures be torn apart by the Law. For then Messiah s righteousness finds an abode within us. Let it be so to us Lord so that your righteousness in us may exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Amen. All Bible quotes are from the NIV. 5