“JESUS YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”
Saint Matthew 5. 20-26
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity: 3 July Anno Domini 2005
Fr Watson
Unless you are all "better" than the Scribes and Pharisees you won't go to heaven! What's interesting, is, that even on the surface level you are not as righteous as they were. By "righteous" we mean "right with God." On the surface, to all the observers, they appeared very righteous. The Scribes were devoted, concentrated and accomplished students of the Hebrew Scriptures. They had much of what we call the Old Testament memorized. They were constantly pouring over the Psalms and the Torah; are you? The Collect for the Word, found at page 14 of your hymnals, hymnals which you all daily use, correct? , say that you should "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" the Holy Scriptures. The Scribes did; do you?
God has given you His very Words, just for you. Why don't you read them, why don't you treat them as the precious jewels they are?
The Pharisees tithed and fasted. Again, they appeared to all observers to outwardly comport all their lives to not breaking the commands of God. They were considered by all to be good citizens, good neighbors, and decent, upright, good people. They would not have watched sexually laced television shows or movies. They would not have lost their tempers and yelled at their parents, children, or spouses. They would not have gossiped or outwardly coveted their neighbor's possessions. Even here, in seeming to keep the Law, the Pharisees have you all beat cold. And lest you to quickly dismiss these Pharisees as mere hypocrites, remember, they were trying to do what God had commanded all of us to do at Mount Sinai, obey His written will. How hard do you really pay attention to the Ten Commandments? Do you even have them memorized?
The problem is, even if you knew your Bibles better than the Scribes; and even if your outward appearance was more obedient seeming than the Pharisees, you and they would still all go to hell without the true Righteousness of God. The true Righteousness of God is only in Christ Jesus. Jesus is the only Righteous One. Only the Savior is perfectly "Right" with the Heavenly Father!
Lest anyone hearing His words might get the wrong impression on obedience, Jesus makes it clear that one can't obey their way into paradise. Jesus correctly explains the Law of God. It isn't what one outwardly says or does that breaks the Commandments of God, it's what is in one's heart that damns. It isn't so much what one does, as what one is!
That's the cold, harsh, biting sting of the Law, you law-breakers; you are just like the Scribes and Pharisees, no worse than they, but no better than they either. All sin in the secret heart, in the place of the old Adam nature, is the damning sin of rebellion.
But take heart brothers! You are no longer relying on your heart, your efforts, your obedience, or your righteous deeds. You have a new heart, the heart of Christ Jesus. This transplant took place when He came into you during your washing of re-birth at the Holy Font, the birth-canal + of your mother, the Holy Catholic Church. The Spirit has breathed eternity into your lungs and given you Jesus as your blood pumping organ. You drink the Blood of Christ, for you already have the heart of the Lord; He is your Righteousness.
Trying to obey the Decalogue without Jesus Christ as the fulfiller of Torah, the tragic condition of Scribes and Pharisees, is to be lost forever. The Christ is the not only the completion to the Law but the key to all Scripture.
Jesus loves you. He doesn't like your disobedience, but He loves you anyway. He loves you not with smarmy "enabling" indulgence; He loves you with action and result.
He gives you Himself. And, since He is the one Who perfectly obeys, He gives you peace with regard to the Law. He gives you Himself. And, since He paid for your evil thoughts, spoken words and evil activities on the Cross where He gave His own heart, His own blood, He gives you now the Body and Blood of the Living One; the everlasting One; the obedient Son.
Your righteousness does exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, for your righteousness isn't the self-righteousness of the enemies of Jesus, your righteousness in Jesus Himself. You are Righteous in His love for you. You are righteous in the Faith He has worked in you by His Word. You are righteous in the robes He has clothed you with + in your Baptisms. You are righteous in the Food and Drink He gives you at Table.
The Lord Jesus paid the last penny of your infinite debt. He paid it with His own perfect Righteousness poured out in His precious blood; given out in the holes made in His immaculate flesh. You now pray for your fellow Scribes and Pharisees, that they too, may be given the Gift of Christ; the free present of His Righteousness for them. You daily repent of the Scribe and Pharisee that still clings to you. You daily rejoice that, that old man, that old nature, has been crushed and rendered subservient to the Christ in You, the Righteousness of God.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost