Trinity 6
Mt
5:20-26
7/28/19
When teaching the Ten Commandments
in Catechesis, I always enjoy arriving at the Fifth Commandment. Right from the start, the First Commandment
drops like a hammer: “You shall have no other gods.” Then we reflect on
Luther’s explanation in the Small
Catechism: “We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.” We learn that at god is anything in which you
put your trust; anything you value most; anything that gives you a sense of security
and well-being.
The list of things that take on this
role is nearly endless: money, popularity, possessions, sex, hobbies, sports …
and you can go on and on. Each person
knows that this is true about him or herself – that we put all kinds of things
before God and so break the First Commandment.
Certainly, when teaching youth, they
recognize that they break the Second and Third Commandments. But when you get to the Fourth Commandment,
you have another one that hits them in the face. Of course they recognized that they don’t
obey their parents all the time. They
don’t obey their parents as they should.
Luther’s explanation drives home the point that is already painfully
obvious: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise our parents and
other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.”
Then finally, we get to the Fifth
Commandment, “You shall not murder.” I
always like to ask: “So has anyone here killed a person?” And of course, the answer is always no. No
one there has killed another human being.
And then, on cue, I like to say: “Great! Finally, a commandment that we
can keep.”
In our Gospel lesson this morning,
Jesus takes that thought away as he teaches us about the truth depths of the
Fifth Commandment. He teaches us that
God’s will includes the physical, but extends far beyond that. It extends inside us to our heart – to our thoughts, attitudes and
emotions. In doing so Jesus shows us our
sin. There’s no doubt about it. But is he only
doing that? Now that is something that
we will have to consider as we go.
Our text this morning is part of the
Sermon on the Mount. Jesus begins our
text by saying, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’” In this section of the sermon, six times
Jesus states, “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you.” In each case our Lord is taking up an understanding
of Scripture that was present among Jews in his own day, and then explaining
how it is either insufficient or just wrong.
This
way of speaking was very striking in the first century Jewish world. There authority was based on quoting what previous
authorities had said. “Rabbi X, said
that Rabbi Y said that Rabbi Z said this” was the kind of thing people were use
to hearing. Authority was to be found in
the chain of authority that went back into the past. The Pharisees spoke about
the “tradition of the elders” when describing their interpretation of the Torah
that directed people about how they were to live.
But
Jesus didn’t do that. In fact he did the exact opposite. Six times Jesus declares, “You have
heard that it was said … but I say to you.” Jesus was not playing the same game as
everyone else. And people noticed, “Matthew tells us at the end of the sermon,
“And when Jesus
finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was
teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Jesus had authority because he was the Son of
God who had come into this world. He was
God with us, telling us how things really
are.
But
what he tells us is hard to hear. Jesus
says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not
murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to
you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be
liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the
council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.”
Our
Lord says that to be angry with a person
is to break the Fifth Commandment and be subject to judgment. To treat another
person with contempt is be subject to judgment.
And our text leaves no doubt that when Jesus speaks about judgment, he
means hell – the hell of fire.
Now I am
confident that no one here has murdered another person. But I am also absolutely confident that every single person here has felt anger,
spoken in anger, and acted in anger. We
have nourished and fed anger, cherished it and held onto it. As fallen people, this is what we do. Jesus said to the Pharisees later in this
Gospel, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this
defiles a person.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder,
adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
There is no
getting around it. This is Law in its
most penetrating and killing form. As we
stand before the just and holy God we deserve nothing but hell. It can only
lead us to confess the anger in our life, and the way it causes us to treat
other people.
Yet as we
confess our sin, we need to listen to how Jesus began this sermon. In what we often call the Beatitudes he said,
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus began the sermon by declaring that
those who are poor in spirit – those who are in need of spiritual deliverance –
are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. You are poor in
spirit. You struggle with anger in your
life, and all of the things anger causes you to say and do. But Jesus says that
you are blessed because the kingdom of heaven is yours now. When our Lord
speaks of the kingdom of heaven, he describes the saving reign of God that he brought
into the world. Jesus began his ministry
by declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He told the Pharisees, “But if it is by
the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come
upon you.”
Jesus
brought the reign of heaven – the reign of God – into this world as he was sent
by the Father. He came to defeat sin,
death and the devil. He came to do that
by dying on the cross. Jesus came to
give his life as a ransom for you. His
suffering and death for your sin was the cost of forgiveness for you. That is
what had to happen for you to be just and holy before God. But on the third day God raised Jesus from
the dead, as he defeated death itself.
And so now through faith and baptism you are holy in God’s eyes.
You
have received the gift of eternal life with God. Sin and death cannot take this
away. And death itself which looks so
threatening is already whipped. It
cannot separate you from Christ. It has no power to hold your body. Because
Jesus Christ the risen and exalted Lord has announced that he will return in
glory with all the angels. And on that
day he will raise your body and transform it to be like his resurrected body
that can never die again.
Yet
the words of our text this morning do more than just show us our sin when we
fail. They also show us what God has now
made us to be through the work of Jesus Christ. We have seen that Jesus begins
the sermon by addressing us as people who have already now received the kingdom of heaven – the reign of God. To
have received the reign of God is to receive Christ’s saving work through the
Spirit. The apostle Paul says in Titus that God “saved us, not
because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our
Savior.”
Those who have
received the reign of God – those who have received regeneration through the
Spirit in baptism – are different. You
are different. And that is why just a
little before our text Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city set
on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a
lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in
the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father
who is in heaven.”
Jesus says that
because you have received his saving reign – you are the light of the world. He tells us to live and act in ways that let
our light shine before others – ways that cause out good works to be seen by
others for this give glory to God. Our
Lord says that those who have received his reign, live in ways that show his
reign. Why? Because that is what his reign through the work of the Spirit does.
This means that
while we never cease to be fallen people –old Adam - who stumble and fall, we
are also a new creation in Christ who through the work of the Spirit can live in ways that are true to God’s
will. We are people who want to live
in those ways. And we are people who know what those ways look like.
In our text
Jesus says, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there
remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift
there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then
come and offer your gift.” Our Lord
describes the setting that existed in his time when the temple was still
standing and in operation. He says that
if a person is bringing an offering to God, and remembers that there is someone
with whom there is a dispute – someone with whom anger had been created and exists
– he is to leave the gift at the altar.
He is stop right there and first
go and be reconciled. Only then
should he follow through making his offering.
So what does it
mean to live as those who have received the reign of God, as those who are a
new creation in Christ? It means that we
seek to be reconciled with others. It
means that we ask for forgiveness for
Jesus sake. It means that we forgive others for Jesus’ sake.
Now this is not
something we can do on our own. It is
only Christ’s reign that can make it possible.
It is only Christ’s Spirit who can make this possible. Christ’s reign through his Spirit now is
present for us in the Means of Grace. He
read God’s Word and hear it proclaimed to us. We received Holy Absolution. We
come to the Sacrament to receive Jesus Christ’s true body and blood for
forgiveness of sins and strengthening of the new man. Here we find forgiveness for those times we
fail. Here we also receive strength to live as what Christ has made us to be
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