"More Righteous than the Most Religious"
Mt.5:17-20,38-48 Jan.27/02
Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi confronted his players, the Green Bay Packers, after a game they had lost. The team was discouraged, and the coach was upset by all the errors they had committed. He figured they needed to get back to basics, review some fundamentals of the game. So, holding a football aloft in front of them, he said, "Gentlemen,
this is a football."
Jesus begins his teaching ministry in Matthew's gospel with a similar approach. He starts out with breathtaking abruptness and simplicity. The Sermon on the Mount shocks us with its radical approach to belief. It's as if Jesus were holding his message aloft with one hand and saying, "Gentlemen (and ladies), this is discipleship."
That's the name of the game for us - making disciples. We know what a football looks like. But would we recognize a disciple if one walked in our door? Football players know where the goalposts are, but what goal are we as a church to be pushing towards? In Matthew 5 the word Jesus uses to capture discipleship best is RIGHTEOUSNESS. The beatitudes say those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, as are those who are persecuted because of righteousness (Mt.5:6,10). Jesus warns us that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, we will certainly not enter the Kingdom of heaven (5:20). In the next chapter He stresses that we are to seek first God's Kingdom and His (what?) righteousness -- and our other needs will be supplied (6:33). The disciples got the message that righteousness was majorly important; Peter says we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:13). What is righteousness? How do you describe it? It's not something you can put your finger on or pick up off the shelf at the grocery store. If righteousness is key to being a disciple, what does Jesus mean?
A) "Musts" / "Shoulds" Powerless to Make Us Righteous
The dominant idea in the Old Testament is that righteousness means keeping God's law. In Deut.6(25) Moses says, "And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness." The righteousness that is by the law says: "The man who does these things will live by them." (Romans 10:5)
Quite a task, keeping all the laws in the first 5 books of the Bible. By Jesus' day, the Pharisees or "separated ones", felt keeping the rules was so important that they'd better add on protective rules so nobody would even get close to breaking one of the most important laws. They began by identifying the 613 separate commands in the Law of Moses. Then they put a "hedge" or "fence" around the law by interpreting and supplementing the original laws so that there would be no question of coming close to breaking an original command. These supplemental laws were called "the tradition of the elders" (Mk.7:3)- things like the washing of hands and dishes, tithing one's spices, and other picky details. For example, there were 39 categories of the types of activities that were forbidden on the Sabbath. Pharisees refused to buy food from or eat with non-Pharisees in case that person's food had not been tithed. Their add-on rules became a fence that not only kept them from breaking the Ten Commandments, but also separated them from much of society.
Saul of Tarsus (whom we know as Paul after his conversion) was a top-notch Pharisee, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, zealous beyond his peers for Pharisaic customs. He gobbled it up. But he found that all these laws were not much real help against sin. Romans 7 gives a description of Saul's wrestling with temptation and getting no help from Pharisaic legalism. He says: "Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death...What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:9-11,24) He could no doubt rattle off the Jewish laws and regulations from memory, but found them no help when it actually came down to fending off wrong desires.
In Matthew 5, Jesus exposes the bankruptcy of a legalistic approach to religion, the "shoulds" and "musts". He states He did not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it; His teachings supercede or go beyond what the law required. Six times he says something like, "You have heard that it was said...", followed by an Old Testament law or saying of the elders, then comes back with, "But I tell you..." -- and gives a saying that goes beyond even what the Jewish laws required. Not just murder, but anger and calling someone a fool make one subject to judgment. Not just actual adultery, but lustful looks are forbidden; He calls it committing adultery in one's heart. Divorce is not simply a formality of issuing the proper paperwork. Rather than just keep one's oath, we're not to swear, period. The Old Testament limited revenge to "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", but Christ orders us turn the other cheek, go the second mile when the hated Roman officer commandeers your services, give when you're asked. The old law said love your neighbour and hate your enemy, but Jesus calls us to love our enemies, pray for our persecutors, and be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Uh, sorry Jesus, but you want to make things even tougher for us? No way! At least with our tidy list of 613 rules and regulations we could keep tabs on our religious success score. We could have an outward obedience without God prying into our inward purity, whether our motives were right or we actually cared for that other person. You want us to stop flying off the handle? You want us to stand there and take a second swat on the face, be the gopher guy for the enemy, even love our enemy? Impossible! What d'you think would happen if we gave to everyone who asked us? Unreasonable! My pockets are only so deep! And what's more, I don't even WANT to! Get real!
The Sermon on the Mount launches a full frontal assault on our sensibilities, our desperate scramble to present a veneer of religiosity based on bare-minimum obedience. Jesus knows that in our normal, flesh-governed state, we have no hope of loving our enemies. He knows how hard it is for us to keep our eyes looking the other way, our tongues from lashing out with ridicule. He knows our frustration, and that of Saul, at failing to live up completely to even the most basic requirements of godliness. The shock value of "But I say to you" drives us to our knees, acknowledging that all our "musts" and "shoulds" and man-made regulations just do not empower us to become godly people.
Like a dentist's drill uncovering an infection down under the enamel, Jesus' words cut through our hardened human spirit to expose the truth about us: we're not righteous, nor will we ever succeed at the "religion" game without outside help. We're selfish. We're lazy. We like to indulge in what's dangerous. We find ourselves taking the easy way out even when others may be harmed. Scripture's diagnosis is not a pretty picture. "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." By the works of the law no one - NO ONE, zilcho - will be justified (Rom.3:20,23; Is.64:6; Gal.2:16). How can we carry the football when we're all covered with grease?!
If you will bear with yet one more mention of Walkerton, 7 people died and 2300 people became sick, some with lasting effects, because of our sinful carelessness. Justice O'Connor pointed out that more than the Koebel brothers are to blame: government cutbacks and policies prevented measures from being in place that would have sounded the alarm sooner and saved lives. The farmer took a bare-minimum, law-abiding approach: the E coli-laden manure was spread near the well according to accepted practices, we're told. The PUC fellers took a minimum-obligation approach: who'll know the difference if they fudge a few figures and miss some measurements? The government ministries took a bare-minimum approach, assuming local officials would all follow procedures and that a minimum of checking up was required. The citizens and councillors of Walkerton cast their votes then trusted their officials to do their job without closer accountability. But the laws and procedures that were in place did not prevent people from dying and getting sick. Unfortunately one of the reasons we need government and police and soldiers and bureaucrats is our sinful human condition: people don't always do what they're supposed to. As Becky Pippert says, the "rot" is in everyone. The Common Sense Revolution might work in an ideal society, where everybody had common sense and always used it. But we don't always operate by common SENSE; instead we give in to common SINS.
My point is not to single out any group or party; it's just another example of our woeful human condition. We are hopelessly infected with the sin disease and unable to cure ourselves. Jeremiah (17:9) said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" The way of the law - musts, shoulds, policies - just isn't going to cut it. How, then, are we ever going to discover what "righteousness" is? How can we possibly follow Jesus Christ?
B) Righteousness an "Inside Job" for Believers in Christ
Jesus' "But I tell you" statements suggest righteousness is not found by trying to keep the law, but by our inner attitude being "in tune" with God. The heart of the righteous person throbs in sync with the pulse of God's will and good pleasure. The prophet Samuel caught the importance of heart-attitude when he said to Saul, "The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart [because you have not kept the Lord's command]...To obey [the voice of the Lord] is better than sacrifice; arrogance [is] like the evil of idolatry." (1Sam.13:14; 15:23) "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1Sam.16:7) David was chosen and became Israel's greatest earthly king because he was a man "after [God's] own heart" (Acts 13:22). Saul tried to get away with doing the bare minimum. David was keen to see God's purposes prevail; even if it meant little pipsqueak Goliaths had to step aside.
What's God seeing in our heart today? Do we have on our heart what's on God's heart? How do we get this heart transplant? How can we who are incurable sinners ever become "righteous"?
You may recall Isaiah 53 has probably the most startling prediction and detailed prediction about Jesus in the Jewish Bible. Verse 11 says, "by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:11) In Hebrew and Greek, both "righteous" and "just" are identical, same word. So you could translate this, "My righteous servant will make many righteous." That came true at the cross. Peter writes, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24) Paul puts it most bluntly in 2 Cor.5(21), "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Did you catch that? We can become righteous -- in Him! "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4) - what rules, regulations, "shoulds" couldn't do, Jesus did - fulfilling the requirements for our sins as far as the law was concerned, changing us personally when we receive His gift by putting our trust in Him. The Bible says Christ "has become for us...our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Those who commit themselves to Jesus are justified or "made righteous" in a couple of ways - imputed and implanted. Righteousness is "imputed" to us in a legal sense: He's paid our sin-debt, our account is cleared with Holy God, we're certified as "right with God" in the heavenly court. Theologians call this "forensic" or "extrinsic" righteousness (uggh): now if God looks at us, He no longer sees our sinfulness, but Christ's righteousness covering us. "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them." (2 Cor.5:19) The score was Satan - a million, Sinner Sam - nothing, but the scoreboard just got wiped clean!
But God's righteousness is much more than just a certificate on the wall, or an entry in the divine record book. It's not only imputed, but "implanted" through the coming into our lives of God's Holy Spirit. We're actually changed to share Jesus' righteous nature, more and more. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17) Romans 12(2) describes us as being transformed by the renewing of our mind, no longer conformed to or shaped by the world's mould, but able to "test and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will." That's the key to righteousness - wanting whatever God wants, stepping into the yoke to share in His next project. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to teach us, guide us, and help us understand what's on His heart. So Paul can state bluntly, "we have the mind of Christ"; "we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." (1 Corinthians 2:12,16)
This implanted righteousness grows within us to keep us in tune with God's desires. (the big word for this is "sanctification") We come to show forth God's being, His own righteous loving nature, in our aims and behaviour. John writes, "If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him." (1Jn.2:29) As time goes on and we keep yielding to the Spirit, our implanted inner newborn condition and behaviour will come to match more and more closely that external "imputed" righteousness. If Jesus is really living in us and we are in Him, those formerly "impossible" responses of loving one's enemy and going the second mile will start to happen. One commentator put it this way: "Believers are drawn into the movements of God's righteous rule." Paul described it as being "filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ", or "the fruit of the light [which] consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth" (Phil.1:11; Ephesians 5:9).
If the "football" of discipleship in Matthew's account is righteousness, in John's gospel the distinguishing mark of disciples is love. This is no contradiction, because what's on God's heart anyway? "God so loved the world..." (Jn.3:16) In his letter John combines the two, saying, "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." (1 John 3:10) Love constitutes the righteous. Jesus promised that those who invite the poor, crippled, lame, or blind to a banquet will be repaid at "the resurrection of the righteous" (Lk.14:14). In the account of the "sheep and the goats" at judgment in Matthew 25(37), it is the "righteous" who respond, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?" and so on. Clearly, when all is said and done, the "righteous" are those who have practised love. For love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom.13:8-10).
Esau's and Hitch's Gifts
Joe Wheeler tells the story of Esau Tinkerer, who kept a general store in an out-of-the-way small town. He had no use for religion. The pastor and elders had tried to talk to him, but nobody seemed able to get through to him about spiritual matters. One December Esau discovered an old newspaper from about 20 years before when he was going through some things, and put it beside the till thinking he'd have some fun with the customers. People would start reading it and then a minute later catch on that it was from way back. Esau would slap his knee and have a good laugh, and nobody seemed to mind.
One day old Hitch Thomas came into town, swinging along on his peg leg. Hitch'd had a wooden leg as long as most people knew him. He only came into town every six months or so to buy supplies, so folks tended to view him as an outsider. When Esau realized Hitch was headed for the store, he tipped the boys off not to let on about the paper. It worked. After Hitch bought his vittles, he noticed the paper, picked it up, and seemed to read it really seriously. Then he left the store without saying a word. Esau and cronies laughed fit to bust - old Hitch hadn't even caught on!
A couple of days later, Christmas Eve, Esau noticed Hitch coming through town again, so early in the morning it was still dark. Esau noticed Hitch had a crutch tucked under one arm. He thought that a little strange, unless it was kind of like a spare tire in case the wooden leg gave out. But Esau just went on tending the store.
That night around 9 o'clock, just as he was closing up, Esau caught a glimpse of Hitch passing through town again, heading toward home. He was making pretty poor progress through the snow, and walking kind of funny, though he was whistling and seemed in good spirits. Then Esau realized Hitch only had one leg and was swinging along on the crutch under the off arm.
"Hello, Hitch," said Esau, "what's ailing you?" "Nothing," replied Hitch, "feeling chipper as a cricket. Never felt better in my life." "But where's your wooden leg? Lost it in the snow?" "No -- remember that paper in your store the other day? I saw that notice about the little boy who lives in the place about 12 miles out on the river road. Got his leg caught in the jigger wagon and they had to cut it off. It said how poor the family was, and how nice it'd be if somebody could give the little feller a wooden leg for Christmas so he could run around and play. Well, I was a young'un myself when I lost my leg so I knew 'bout how he must be feeling. Couldn't stop thinking about it. So this morning I walked out to where they live. Nobody was home, must've been away for the day. But I took off my wooden leg and tied it to the front door with some green and red ribbon. He'll be pretty tickled when they come home, don't you think?"
Esau just stood there; he couldn't have said a word if his life depended on it. He knew the little boy had died years ago, and the family had moved away. But he'd have cut his tongue out before he told ol' Hitch, who that day had walked nearly 28 miles to give his wooden leg to a little boy for Christmas.
"Well," said Hitch, swinging himself back onto his crutch, "guess I'll be on my way." But before he left, he put his hand on Esau's shoulder and said, "Esau, I was all alone when I walked over and left my peg leg for him. But on the way back, I ain't been walking alone. No sir, I ain't been walking alone." And with a wave of his hand and a smile on his face, Hitch Thomas headed back to his cabin in the woods.
As Esau stood there, a tear rolled down his cheek as he watched the old man swing himself along on one leg and a wooden crutch. The church bells began to ring out the glad tidings of Christmas. Esau dropped to his knees and made a Christmas present of his heart to the One who had walked back with old Hitch.
Let's pray.