“RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST”
Saint Matthew 5. 20-26
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity: 23 July Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
“For I say to you [the Lord says to you], that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Do you read your Bible? You are supposed to, and you know it. Do you have a systematic and disciplined schedule of daily “being in the Word?” Good…so did the scribes and Pharisees.
Do you understand the Ten Commandments? Did you have to memorize them in Catechism Class? Do you daily acknowledge that God’s will is for you to obey them all? Good...so did the scribes and Pharisees.
Every day you are a scribe and Pharisee. And, if you think you are most certainly not, then that is simply more proof that you are! Scribes and Pharisees were sinners. You have no problem in admitting that you too are sinful. You reject the notion that you are scribe and Pharisee. They were enemies of Jesus; yes, but so is your sinful “old Adam nature.” One is not a “sinner” because one does bad or wrong things and actions. One daily does evil things and actions because one is a sinner (you are a sinner) by birth, by heritage, by genetics, by “nature.”
Righteousness is being holy. Righteousness is being perfect. Righteousness is being “right” with God. Righteousness is being without sin, both without any daily trespasses and without the inborn status of being “fallen.” Righteousness is not about what’s on the outside but rather what’s on the inside. It’s not so much what one says or does, but what one thinks, hopes, wishes, dreams, and ultimately “is.”
God does not demand that you be “nice.” God doesn’t require that you be friendly, helpful, courteous, kind or any other of the Boy Scout virtues. God isn’t saying you have to be a patriot (and certainly not a Republican) and a civic-minded do-gooder or neighborhood improvement proponent. The scribes and Pharisees were all those things; they had the veneer of righteousness without the content. This is the deception that your inner sinful man or woman indulges in daily. You say: “I haven’t killed anyone; I haven’t shoplifted from Target; I haven’t had sex with my neighbor’s spouse; I haven’t prayed to a statue of Vishnu; I haven’t missed Church; I haven’t coveted my neighbor’s donkey or maidservant; I’m a “Lutheran,” I’m a ‘confessional’ Lutheran; and I’m pretty okay. “You fool,” such thinking can lead to hell fire. Your being okay, your being pretty right with God is lie. Your righteousness will never exceed the righteousness of the scribe or Pharisee because you and they are one and the same when it comes to righteousness: you haven’t got any.
“There is no one who does good, no not one;” maybe not one of you but definitely “one-in-three and three-in one.” The God/Man Jesus is the Righteous One. He is righteousness enfleshed. The Man born from the Blessed Virgin is God. This God is the only God, creator, redeemer and sanctifier. This God is omnipotent, all loving and perfect. Jesus is Righteous. When you have Him, you have righteousness, and you are righteous. When the Lord says: “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things shall be added to you” [Mt. 6.33] He merely saying “believe in Me.” The King is the Kingdom. The King Himself is the righteousness. Only Jesus is perfectly “at one” with the Father; with the Trinity, therefore if you stand in Jesus’ place, you too have that restoration, Sonship, peace and “rightness.”
So, how do you get the King; how do you have Jesus? You can’t go to the actual cross or Calvary. The one isn’t there and the other can’t be found. You can’t plumb the depths of your heart to look for “this little light of mine,” because out of your heart proceeds all manner of vile sin. You can’t look for him in vision or ecstatic experience because the spirits you’ll find there are from the old ancient foe.
You find the Lord of Righteousness in His Word; and only in His Word. The Law, His commands, shows you that you do not have righteousness, that you are dead and damned. Ah, but His glorious Gospel, His “good news” gives you the righteousness that is Him. “For in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith…” [Rom. 1.17] When the Gospel is preached, there is Righteousness: Christ Jesus. When the Gospel is washed on to you, +, there is Righteousness dripping off your forehead and into your soul. When the Body of Righteousness is eaten and His Blood is drunk, there is righteousness on your tongue headed straight to your New Man and Woman Spirit. Thank God the Law has shown you how empty you are, hollow men, barren corpses, so that the Righteousness of Christ may come in and forgive, wash, heal, and strengthen. This is the “righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference” [Rom. 3.21] On the crucifix was righteousness made manifest for you, done for you, paid for you, substituted for you; “set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness..” [v. 25] This perfect obedience, this perfect payment, this perfect sacrifice is yours; imputed to you through faith in the Gospel by the Grace of God.
So when you act like a scribe, believe the Gospel that Jesus had your sins inscribed onto His very flesh with nails and thorns, so that your name would be inscribed in the Book of Life. When you do Pharisaical things believe the Gospel that Jesus came to teach, eat, and convert the Pharisee, just like He did to the Apostle Paul, just like He did to you. When you call people fool, “Raca,” or things even worse, believe that Jesus says to you this very day, “you are my beloved. You are in Me, and I am in you, your sins are covered in My blood and forgiven.”
You stand at this altar, the footstool of God, because the Lamb has “girded your waist with truth, having put on you the breastplate of + righteousness.” [Eph. 6.14]
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost