“THE RIGHT ONE”
Saint Matthew 5. 20-26
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity: 15 July Anno Domini 2007
Fr Watson
It is human nature to always view yourself as right and the other guy as wrong. That is, it is sinful- fallen human nature to always justify oneself; ones actions, thoughts and words.
All ignorance and lack of understanding is also sinful. Adam before the fall understood. But now in this sinful broken decaying world all of you, all of man, is dense, and if you will, retarded when it comes to both Righteousness, and how righteousness is achieved.
Modern men and women; modern Lutheran men and women, are ignorant if they think that the Pharisees and Scribes are only words that define historical Jewish political partie1
s of 1st century Palestine. No, the sin of Phariseeism is hypocrisy and self-righteousness; works righteousness. The sin of “Scribe-ism” is elevating the text of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), or the entire Bible for that matter, over the Will and Purpose of the Triune God. The Pharisee does not understand sin, and thus cannot understand salvation and the Savior. The Scribe does not understand justification by Grace, nor does he grasp the purposes of Law and Gospel, and thus cannot understand salvation and the Savior.
The sinner is both Pharisee and Scribe. The fallen post-Eden man and woman is both Pharisee and Scribe.
When you think that some of your trespasses are not all that important you are a damned Pharisee. Do you gossip? Do you curse and swear and use hurtful language? Do you ever cheat and steal on so-called “little things?” Do you lust and have inappropriate sexual thoughts? Do you get angry and lose your temper with your fellow men; that is, do you ever call someone raca; fool?
The fatal mistake that men and women make, that those first century unbelievers made, is to think that obeying the law, being “right” with God, is a matter of outward appearances. The mistake that Pharisees make is to think that their “good intentions” matter; that if they “mean well” and try hard and keep the Commandments in their outward actions, that God will count it towards them as “being right.”The Lord Who is God; the Trinity in Unity Who is perfect and Righteous in Himself, does not grade on a curve. Be perfect or die. Sin, at all, even a little bit, and die. It looked to observers, those who like you can only see man on the “outside,” that the Pharisees were pretty good people. They were not. They were bad people. Sin isn’t a flaw, a defect which can be repaired. Sin isn’t a sickness which can be medicated, splinted, and healed. The pagan can’t try real hard living an outwardly virtuous life and be “right” with God.
Sin isn’t what one does, it is what one is. The sinful actions that sprout every day on the outside come only from the bad seed that is buried inside. You can’t fix it; it needs to die. You can’t re-model it; it needs to be condemned and destroyed. You can’t use the Bible as a manual for self improvement; the Word of God gives you the Law which kills and the Good News of the Righteous One. The Scriptures give you not scribes but the author Himself; Jesus the God/Man.
Being right with God can’t be earned or achieved, only bestowed. Being part of God’s family can’t be chosen only given by adoption. Only God is righteous, that is, perfect, just, holy, true and good. Only Jesus is the Righteous One. For you, for anyone, to be “right” with God means that Jesus is in you and you are in Him. Only Jesus does this, bestows Righteousness by Grace.
Jesus makes you righteous, that is, He justifies you by being the Just One. He satisfies the perfect, demanding, and total justice of God by paying for your injustice. Only Christ exceeds the outward preening and posturing of the Pharisees by being inwardly perfect, innocent and spotless. For all of your sin in using language, a gift of God; for your cursing instead of praying, for your name calling instead of up-building, Jesus was in danger of the council. Where you should have stood justly condemned, the Lord stood before the Sanhedrin unjustly sentenced.
You who rightly should have been judged worthy of death and hell were replaced by the sacrificial substitute: Jesus the Lamb. Jesus suffered hell on the cross and was then killed and buried in the earth—the dust of death. You, who far too often have sinned against your brother and are unwilling to go to him and be reconciled, have had Jesus go to the cross and reconcile all your sin by becoming the ultimate gift—the gift for your redemption. Where you refuse to forgive those who won’t do things “your way,” Jesus forgave those who nailed Him to wood. He forgave you. You have bought not with gold or silver but with Christ’s Body and Blood. He paid the last penny.
He is here now, again. He work was not over two-thousand years ago at Calvary. He is here this morning again to keep you righteous, in Him, by faith, by strengthening your faith, by being in your ears… and soon, on your tongues.
In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost