“THE RIGHTEOUS ONE PAID THE UTTERMOST FARTHING”
Saint Matthew 5: 20-26
6th Sunday After Trinity: 3 July Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
It isn’t the pastor who call you a sinner, who calls you to repentance, that is the author and giver of the Ten Commandments. God Himself wrote the Law on the tables which He gave to Moses. You heard them read this morning, not just from “the Bible” but from the very mouth of The Lord: The Word of The Lord! That means more than you realize and thus your very indifference along with all of your other failing to do The Lord’s will for you should also be repented of. Even if you have a slight inner thought that the Old Testament reading for the 6th Sunday after Trinity is a bit too long is a damnable sin! Too long? How many Lutherans get exercised when the Mass goes longer than 60 minutes? Their name is Legion. Some better place to be? Some other distraction more important than the Decalogue?
We are all Scribes and Pharisees and of our own knowledge, wisdom, works and obedience we are self-damned and in no case will we enter the kingdom of heaven.
The Lutheran Scribe is the one who knows more Bible passages than their neighbor…and lets their neighbor know about it in an attitude of smarmy superiority. Or the “Confessional” who spends more time bragging about the Book of Concord than in bearing their brother’s burdens in love. The Lutheran Pharisee is just like any other hypocrite…they think that because they haven’t committed a murder and haven’t called anyone “Raca” or “Thou fool,” they’re doing pretty okay, all things considered. No. The active sins of not trusting God, not loving Him and bathing in His gifts is damning, and also not loving your neighbors with sacrificial love in action is damning, but the sin that besets so many in our own circles (well, everyone of course) is the sin of indifference, lackadaisical boredom to the true hellish nature of sin. Luther “got it.” It’s a pity more of those who carry his moniker don’t.
Jesus only came for the sick and diseased. Now of course that IS everyone, but He chastised the Pharisees and Scribes because they refused to admit their inclusion in that category. Those who refuse Mercy will not be compelled against their hard hearts for Salvation Surgery. One who spits out Jesus will be spat out by Jesus.
His church is to be, and IS, a family table of constant confession and absolution. It isn’t exactly what Christ established for Peter, or King David, or the Woman caught in adultery, or…everyone else, to simply and robotically mouth the words: “…all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended Thee…”
Now this truth won’t cause life-long Lutherans to change habits and start coming to Individual/Private Confession wherein they can confess a sin, by actually naming it, though Dr. Luther would be happy if it did. But at least one can consciously repent of more than generic sin and be contrite over actual sins committed during the week past. It isn’t surface Scribe failings or Pharisaical minutia with tithing mint and cumin; it’s that there are hatreds, hurts, and enmities between you and others—other fellow Christians. Leave your gifts that you think you bring, and go to your brother, go to your sister, and be reconciled. Confess your sins and freely without qualification, demands for satisfaction, or any other expectations, Forgive. You have the Crucifix over this altar to remind you of what and how The God/Man did for your own loosing and freeing.
Jesus is forgiveness. He is your forgiveness for failing to forgive as you ought to, as you must. Jesus is your peace and rest. He gives your guilty conscience peace and rest as He comes and dwells in you by His sweet Word of forgiveness. He has settled all hatreds between you and your perceived foes, between Peter and Caiaphas, David and Saul, Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve, and most especially Adam and God. Jesus kept those Ten Commands that you have a hard time even focusing on while they’re being read. Jesus suffered the anger and hatred of the Council/Sanhedrin. He let Himself be nailed to a wooden cross altar as the Sacrificial lamb to reconcile all His brothers—you and your brethren.
Jesus deigned, indeed gloried, to be tossed into the prison of death so that you would be pardoned. Forgive your neighbor.
“I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of The Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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