Showing posts with label Trinity 6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trinity 6. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2022

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity – July 24, 2022
Psalm 28; Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 6:1-11
St. Matthew 5:17-26

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Do not think that Christ came to destroy the Law. He came to fulfill it. Truly, I say to you, until Christ returns, not one tiny facet shall pass away from the Law. Until that time, whoever breaks even the least aspect of the Law shall be guilty of the whole Law. It is therefore necessary that your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees for you to attain salvation.[1]

No matter who you are or what you have done; no matter how much money you’ve given to international missions or how many orphans you’ve fed; your moral purity and perfection cannot exceed the Scribes and Pharisees. Your right conduct cannot attain heaven. No amount of training in ethics or morality can keep the Law, let alone fulfill it.

Thanks be to God that this is the purpose of the Incarnation. Christ became man to fulfill the Law because you sinners can’t do it. Before your day of birth, even from your conception, you and all the earth stand condemned and lost. Not only are you turned away from God, but you constantly deny Him.[2]

Jesus took on your flesh and bore your sins upon His perfect shoulders to fulfill the Law. He who knew no sin became sin on your behalf.[3] He perfectly obeyed the law, every jot and tittle, yet submitted Himself to the death of the worst sinner. By this, your sins are forgiven. The Law is fulfilled in His sacrifice because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.[4] His death for your life. This is the fulfilling of the Law.

And yet there is a time between the fulfilling of the Law and the passing away of the heavens and the earth. At the Incarnation, Christ did not come to judge the earth, but to fulfill the Law. There will come a time when Christ will return in judgment. In those days, the heavens and the earth will pass away. So too will the need for the Law to reveal our sin. Our baptisms will be made whole on that day because with the heaven and earth, the sinful nature which still clings to us will be finally destroyed.

But until then, we must do battle against this sinful nature. You who have been washed in the Blood of Jesus at your baptism, must fight against the urges of the sinful man within you. This is the teaching of Christ our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. He speaks not of moral perfection. That is the teaching of the Pharisees. When He calls you to a righteousness greater than the morally pure Pharisees, He is calling you to His own righteousness. He is calling you to the righteousness found in no other name under heaven.

This righteousness of Christ is yours in the waters of Holy Baptism. Because it is yours, it also necessarily affects you. You cannot wash your hands and claim there is no difference afterward. Something has changed. In this case, you have become the dwelling of the Holy Ghost. You are now a holy one of God, a saint, a true child of your Heavenly Father. Christ dwells in you and you are a new creation.

What does this mean when it comes to temptation? The Pharisees would say that it means you must outwardly obey the Law. “Thou shalt not kill” means you shall not take the life of another person. The Pharisees teach in the line of Cain.

Christ, however, teaches in the line of Abel. “Thou shalt not kill” means you “should fear and love God that [you] may not hurt nor harm [your] neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need.”[5] Even if you hate your brother in your heart, you’ve already killed him. When Cain’s sacrifice was rejected by God, the Lord came to Him and said, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”[6]

Cain had already killed Abel in his heart, but the Lord is calling him to repent. This sin, if left unchecked, will boil up from Cain’s heart into his hands. If it gets that far, Satan is waiting to receive Cain into the fire of hell.

So it is with you. Are you angry with your brother, wife, mother, or neighbor? If so, you’ve killed him in your heart. Satan is sitting at your door, ready to welcome you into the fires of hell. Do not give him the advantage. Quench the fire of sin in your heart by being reconciled to your brother, wife, mother, or neighbor. Repent of your sin before God and your neighbor so that Satan would not have another companion in his torment. This is what Christ is calling you to do.

What does it mean to be reconciled? It means to repent of your sins to your neighbor. It means to restore something that you have broken. If you have hurt or harmed your neighbor in his body, reconciliation might look like not only repenting but mowing his lawn until his ankle is healed. Maybe it looks like picking up the medical bill or paying to have his fender fixed.

Reconciliation does not mean pretending that nothing has happened. If your sister has something against you, repent and offer to help. If she refuses your apology or refuses to accept your help, there is nothing you can do. You are not bound by another’s actions. You are bound by your own. A bridge cannot be built from one shore. Christ is teaching you today concerning your own sins and how to be reconciled when you are legitimately the one at fault.[7] No one is above these sins against our neighbor. Take time to examine your conscience and see where you have broken even the least of these commands. I’m certain you will find something because the Law will always accuse your conscience, even as it instructs you how to love and trust in God and keep His commands.

Jesus has died in your place to fulfill the Law. He is calling us this day not to fulfill the Law ourselves; nor even to ‘do our part after He’s done His part.’ He is calling us to believe what He has done for us and to show forth the fruits of salvation so that we do not join Cain, Saul, Ahab, Judas, and Simon in eternity.

Give thanks to God! Your baptism revives your soul and makes you whole. So use it well, because you are a new creation in Christ! Live out your vocation in faith, being reconciled to those around you. Then shall come the day when Christ will place the glorious robe of righteousness, which you have possessed since the day of your baptism, upon your shoulders forever.[8]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.



[1] This paragraph is a summary of St. Matthew 5:17-20.

[2] The preceding two sentences are a summary of stanza 2 of All Christians Who Have Been Baptized, by Paul Gerhardt, as found in Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), hymn 596.

[3] 2 Corinthians 5:21.

[4] Hebrews 9:22.

[5] Small Catechism, 5th Commandment.

[6] Genesis 4:6-7.

[7] For instruction on reconciliation when you have been sinned against, see St. Matthew 6:8-15; 18:15-20.

[8] All Christians Who Have Been Baptized, stanzas 5-6.

Sunday, July 11, 2021

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity

 

Psalm 28; Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 6:1-11

St. Matthew 5:17-26

            In the name of the Father, and of the T Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

            At the time of our Lord’s Incarnation, the Pharisees believed the Law of God required outward obedience. They had begun to teach Israel how to outwardly obey the Law so that they might become holy. The Pharisees recognized that sin infects the whole person, that the inward motivations of the heart cannot perfectly obey the Law of God. But in their view, the Law did not require this. The Law only required outward obedience. This they believed was achievable. Through such outward obedience, they would be made holy, and this holiness would make them acceptable to God.

            The primary error in this teaching of the Pharisees is their view of the Law. God’s Law demands perfect obedience – outward obedience, inward obedience, conscious, unconscious – perfect obedience. “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”[1] The Law of God is perfect and holy, therefore it requires perfect and holy obedience.

            No man is capable of such obedience. We may be able to keep portions of the Law in an outward manner, we may even be able to keep the whole Law in an outward manner, but so long as we dwell on this side of heaven, Original Sin guarantees we will transgress the Law inwardly. We will also certainly sin outwardly.

            Our Lord is teaching this precise lesson in today’s portion of the Sermon on the Mount. “I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”[2] The Pharisees were outwardly righteous. They outwardly kept the Law better than anyone else. Yet entrance into heaven requires more righteousness than this. The Law of God requires perfect righteousness. Keeping the Law in every jot and tittle.

            You have heard what God said in the Ten Commandments, “You shall not murder.” The Pharisees have taught you that to keep this commandment means do not kill people. But Jesus says that whoever is angry is in danger of judgment. Jesus says whoever calls his brother empty-headed[3] is in danger of the council. Jesus says that anyone who calls his brother a moron[4] is in danger of hell fire.

           These words of Jesus should not be easily dismissed. At the heart of murder is anger. Cain was first angry with God and Abel. This anger consumed him and led to his murderous act. Should Cain have called Abel a moron, Jesus says the result would’ve been the same. Cain would be in danger of hell fire. ‘The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. It defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.’[5] Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words hurt forever. The consequences of our words hurt forever.

            If we cannot keep the Law as God has commanded, how can we call the Law Good, Wise, and Holy? St. Paul says the Law “imprisons all under sin, that the promise of grace might be given.”[6] If a man has cancer, but does not feel the effects, he will not seek treatment. However, when set against the good and set standards used in testing, his cancer is revealed, and he knows where to seek treatment. The Law functions the same way for man. The Law reveals your sin and calls your attention to it. You realize that you are imprisoned under the Law. Like the all-too-often death sentence of cancer, the Law reveals not only the cause (being sin) but the result (death).

            Christ our Lord is calling our attention to our sin. He is pointing out the sin residing in our hearts that we might identify it, repent of it, then flee from it. The instruction to be reconciled to your brother and your adversary are examples of the fruit of repentance. The one whose righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees seeks reconciliation.

            Where do we turn for help? We cannot keep the Law for we sin daily and we sin much. We turn to Christ. The Son of God has come to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it. It would be impossible for Christ to destroy the Law. First because the Law is the Will of God. It is Christ’s own Will. He cannot destroy his own Will. Second, the Law is eternal. It is essential to God. Third, if Christ were to destroy the Law, how would man realize his sin? How could anyone be saved if his need for a Savior remained hidden? Sin has so corrupted mankind that without the Will of God we would be content to live in our sins. We would know nothing better until the day we die and see Abraham from afar in our eternal torments.

           Christ used the Law of God to show Cain his sin before he ever killed Abel. When Cain was angry, Christ said to him, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”[7] This was God calling Cain to repentance of the sin in his heart and warning him of the consequences for allowing that sin to fester. God desired reconciliation between Cain and Abel. Cain refused this Word of God, allowed the sin of his heart “to give birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”[8]

            What then does it mean that Jesus came to fulfill the Law? That not one jot or tittle will pass away until all is fulfilled? In the first place, it means that Jesus was born under the Law that he might keep it perfectly. God himself took on our flesh in order to submit to the Law of God. Jesus actively kept the Law in every way. Never once did he break the Law in thought, word, or deed. He kept it perfectly. This active obedience of Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments. His active obedience fulfilled all the commandments God has given to man. But the active obedience of Christ was not enough to redeem you. It was not enough to save your soul from deserving hell.

            Jesus also submitted himself to God’s justice. The Law of God requires not only obedience, but it requires justice for transgression. It requires payment be made for the debt of sin. The wages of sin is death. Therefore, God’s justice requires the death of the sinner. Jesus, though he knew no sin, took the place of sinners. He died the death that we’ve earned. Death had no claim on him because he did not sin. They still beat him, stripped him, and crucified him. Jesus really died. He died because he bore your sins.

            But death could not hold him. It would be unjust for death to hold Jesus because he was without sin himself. His holiness exceeds the sin of the world. Therefore, when he rose from the grave, it was in victory over death. It was in victory over sin. This fulfilled the Law of God. Jesus fulfilled the commandments of the Law through his active obedience, his perfect keeping of the Law. Jesus also fulfilled the justice of the Law through his passive obedience, submitting to death on the cross on your behalf.

            It is this death into which you are baptized. You are baptized into death with Christ, so that you would also rise with him.[9] In Holy Baptism, you died. One who has died has also been freed from sin.[10] You have been freed from the sting of death which is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law.[11]

           “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”[12] The Law is fulfilled, not destroyed. God’s Holy Law is Eternal and Good. Those who have died to sin now look to the Law to see “those good works which God has prepared that we should walk in them.”[13] We look to the Law to see what it is to live like our Heavenly Father, to live according to His Word in love and service to our neighbor.

            This is also the teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. How does one become more righteous than the Pharisees? Through the Blood of Jesus that has fulfilled the Law. What does that look like? It looks like seeking reconciliation. Notice that whoever is angry, or says “Raca” or “moron” is in danger of judgment, the council, and hell fire. These things are bad for you because by doing them, you are allowing sin to rule you. You are returning to the sin of Cain.

            Instead, be reconciled to your brother. Repent and beg forgiveness. Then walk in love. In doing these things, in seeking to keep the Law of God, you are not making yourself more righteous than the Pharisees. Rather, you are showing that the righteousness of Christ already belongs to you.

In T Jesus’ name.  Amen.



[1] James 2:10.

[2] Matthew 5:20.

[3] ῥακά (Matthew 5:22)

[4] μωρέ (Matthew 5:22)

[5] See James 3:1-12.

[6] Galatians 3:22.

[7] Genesis 4:6-7.

[8] James 1:15.

[9] Romans 6:1-5.

[10] Romans 6:7.

[11] 1 Corinthians 15:56.

[12] Romans 6:1-2.

[13] Ephesians 2:10

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