[Machine transcription]
Dear Baptized in Christ, especially today, Daniel Augustine, grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Well, today we’ve heard more of the sermon from Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, as we
refer to it.
And although it is definitely a sermon, I think that we could also see this as kind
of a confirmation class, maybe unbiased because I teach confirmation.
But Jesus kind of has, he’s withdrawn from these crowds and now he has his disciples with
him and he’s about to catechize them.
He’s about to teach them the Scriptures, he’s about to prepare them for the day when he
sends them out on their own.
And in our own confirmation classes, we usually begin with the two great doctrines of the
faith, the doctrines of the Bible, that being the law and the gospel.
And so Jesus is no different.
And he’s beginning this lesson with the law, and he’s teaching the disciples what keeping
the law really looks like, and in doing so, he’s showing them that much of what they’ve
been taught about the law has been wrong.
Now last Sunday, we heard Jesus kind of set this lesson up by telling the disciples that
the law still applies, but then he says whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do the same, well they’ll be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven.” And he was hinting at what he’s going to say next, and that is
that he’s going to explain what it means to relax the law. And in this, Jesus is
especially looking at four of the commandments. So we’ll take a look at
what Jesus says to them about those, and each of those, and then what they mean
for the Christian today. But first, I think it’s important that we see that in
this sermon in teaching God or Jesus is establishing his authority, and that is
the authority of God. And again, we can look back to last week when Jesus says,
I have come not to abolish them, that is the law and the prophets, but to fulfill
them. And the language that Jesus uses in his teaching today really confirms this
because first he says at each lesson about these commandments, you have heard
Word that it was said, notice he doesn’t say, the Lord says, or it is written, Jesus
is referring to this teaching that the rabbis, the scribes, the Pharisees have been doing,
that all the things they have said and taught have come from their own mouths and not from
the mouth of God.
They’ve twisted and perverted the law to their liking so that they can simultaneously claim
their own righteousness because of the law, but yet condemn those who fail to keep it.
And too often they have applied this law literally, they’ve attempted again to take it out of
the mouth of God from the heavenly realm and put it in their world, the civil realm, and
use it as a tool to execute justice, but in many cases to justify their own self-righteousness.
So they say what they’ve said because they know that it benefits themselves.
And Jesus now refutes this with his contradiction of him again. He says you have heard it was said
but I say to you I
say I
God say and
St. Matthew again kind of set this up for us at the beginning of this account of the Sermon on the Mount with the words
Jesus and he opened his mouth and taught them
So with these words Jesus is not only preparing to catechize these disciples about the law
but he confirms that he does so with all the authority of heaven.
And now, Jesus begins his catechesis, and he starts with the law’s prohibition on murder.
Now as the law was given to Moses, the fifth commandment, it’s pretty simple, you shall
not murder.
But to this, these Jewish authorities had added, and whoever murders will be liable
to judgment.
That is, by their civil courts.
And I think, of course, we can all agree that that’s right, that’s just.
But here, about murder, the Pharisees were being literal.
They were literally defining murder.
They were saying that they were only concerned with the physical act, so only the physical
act of killing was punishable, at least in their world.
And Jesus now refutes this notion with His threefold explanation and expansion of exactly
who is guilty of murder before God.
Not just those who murder with their hands, but everyone who is angry with his
brother, whoever insults his brother, and whoever says, you fool. So here we see
Jesus speaking most especially of the relationships among believers, of
animosity within the church, and therefore his admonition about bringing
the sacrifice to the altar. He said, don’t bring a gift if you have something
between your brother. First be reconciled. Reason with one another. And he says the
same for these civil matters, these lawsuits. Come to terms quickly with your
accuser and vice versa. Don’t let things get out of hand. Don’t let them escalate
and get beyond your control. And even more importantly, don’t pretend that your
personal relationships are of no consequence to the relationship with the
Heavenly Father. And now continuing with relationships, Jesus takes on the sixth
commandment, and also the topic of divorce. You shall not commit adultery.
Well again, to the Jewish authorities this unequivocally meant
the physical act, and honestly it was probably directed more at women than
anyone. And Jesus of course knows this, so he says as much with his inclusion of,
I ain’t a woman with lustful intent,” also is a violation of this commandment.
And you notice he directed that at men, probably another jab at the Pharisees.
So then he engages in what some consider hyperbole, some consider it literal, when he suggests
it’s better to lose an eye that tempts you or lose a hand that offends you rather than
be subjected to the eternal punishment of hell.
But sin doesn’t come from the eye or from the hand, it comes from the heart.
And Jesus’ point is that ridding oneself of these kinds of temptations and desires
might call for some type of drastic, maybe even painful action.
Now Jesus includes divorce in this lesson because it does tie to this commandment.
And honestly, this can be a pretty tricky thing to teach and to understand.
And to be sure, not every divorce comes about because of the breaking of the sixth commandment,
but to also be sure, divorce is never God’s will.
But even Jesus puts this qualifying error about sexual immorality in his lesson, because
it is, after all, lawful to divorce for adultery, because of infidelity.
But again, this isn’t what Jesus is talking about.
Instead, the Jewish authorities, they’ve reinterpreted the law, they’ve made it easier
for a man to divorce his wife, and therefore can free himself from all the constraints
of the law.
All they need is a little certificate of divorce, no matter the reason, and everyone is now
free to do as they please, especially the man.
But in doing so, the man makes his divorced wife an adulteress, and if she would happen
to remarry, the man that she marries, an adulterer.
So the Pharisees in this attempt to skirt the law and keep themselves from being labeled
to sinners have caused everybody to sin, and it seems that self-justification then results
in universal condemnation.
And so last, Jesus is going to touch on this topic of oaths, which touches on the second
and possibly the eighth commandments.
And though it’s not a direct reference to them, Jesus’ teaching undoubtedly points
to the honoring of God’s name, to the name and reputation of our neighbor.
It seems that the Jewish authorities had created this kind of hierarchy of oaths, this legal
thing to what extent oaths could be enforced.
Obviously those oaths that were sworn before God were binding, but the rest not so much.
And to be sure, there are oaths which we rightly swear before God that are the things of God.
For instance, marriage, a man and woman declare before God that they are going to commit themselves
to each other until death. The ordination of a pastor, he makes six distinct vows
and promises for which he must give an account to God. Once again here, Jesus
isn’t talking about those oaths, he’s talking about the ones that have been
made in an attempt to remove the accountability to God. Oaths taken with
the words that you’ve heard people say like, I swear on my life, or I swear on my
mother’s grave. And so even in these promises, we are still accountable and
answerable to God because the things that we swear on are still the things of
God. Our life is not our own to swear on. So Jesus says, don’t take oaths casually
or unnecessarily. Even better, don’t take them at all. Deal plainly with your
neighbor. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Now it’s easy to think that Jesus
Jesus’ point in this text today is, is about how man has corrupted God’s law, he’s taken
it for his own purposes into the world, and it’s true, man does take God’s law, he applies
it literally when it suits him, and either changes or ignores it when it doesn’t.
We’ve all probably heard it said, you can’t legislate morality, but that sure hasn’t stopped
us from trying.
And we know that God’s law, the Ten Commandments specifically, they’ve been the basis of many
of our laws for years, and yet we haven’t achieved peace, justice, and love.
Not that we haven’t tried really hard to fix all of that.
We have laws against murder.
We have laws against assault.
We have laws against violence.
We even have what we call hate crimes.
But who gets to decide what constitutes hate?
Is it hateful only because it is said against a specific person, an idea, or in a certain
manner?
Isn’t all hate, no matter who is it directed at, wrong?
And is spoken hate somehow worse than hate that is in the heart?
Well, Jesus obviously says, no, don’t hate, period.
And just because we’ve established a law here on earth, that doesn’t mean that it’s good.
Murder laws might not protect the unborn, they might not protect the incapacitated.
Marriage laws might not recognize marriage as it was instituted by God between a man
and a woman.
This recently poorly named Respect for Marriage Act is evidence of that.
Divorce laws, particularly no-fault divorce cases, they don’t uphold God’s intention
for marriage, for protection of the family, for protection of children.
And we can make a list that just goes on and on.
And we make up these laws because, let’s be honest, it’s easier to change the law than
it is to change our hearts, and that’s exactly what Jesus is talking about today.
The heart.
It is the heart which is sinful.
It is the heart that turns away from God and away from our neighbor.
It is the heart that is of the flesh and behaving only in a human way, as Paul says.
Now the law of God, we sang this last Sunday, the law of God is good and wise.
And the law of God does govern our hearts, but any time that we try to make man’s law
that has nothing to say about, then we make it, we get it wrong most every time.
We take God’s law and we try to shape it to our world and we ruin it every time.
And that doesn’t mean that the law doesn’t have anything good to say about who we love
or who we don’t love, our jealousy, our lust, our envious, our evasiveness and truth-telling.
And although it is written on our hearts, the law always, always condemns.
It doesn’t save, doesn’t work change in our hearts.
Now it might make us feel bad or guilty for a moment, but we pretty much figure out how
to get past that pretty quickly.
And nor are our hearts changed by some ability of ourselves to do good or want to do better.
No a changed heart, we know, comes through conversion from unbelief to faith and the
saving grace of Jesus Christ. And so, it’s pretty easy today to look at everything
Jesus is teaching and only see negative stuff. It’s all law. Where is the gospel in
this gospel? Well, Jesus shows us today even if we think all we are hearing from
him are harsh words. And the good news is that because we are free and liberated
from the judgment of the law because of Christ, we are free. We’re free to forgive,
We’re free to reconcile just as we have been forgiven and have been reconciled to God.
And we see what is in the heart of the Christian and how it leads us to a right relationship
with each other, especially our brothers and sisters in the church, instead of seeing technicalities
on how we can claim our own righteousness.
And we do actually see this in our catechesis, especially on the commandments, the explanations,
The what does this mean for us Lutherans?
To help and support our neighbor in every need, to lead a chaste life in what we say
and do, to not swear by his name, but to pray praise and give thanks, and to defend our
neighbor and speak well of him.
And the good news too, of course, is that Jesus said all these things because he loves
us.
He wasn’t teaching the disciples these lessons about the law so they would go out and find
the lawbreakers and beat them over the head with it.
He wanted them to know what love for one another really looks like, that the great love that
He has for us is reflected in our relationships, again, especially those right here within
the church.
So the law doesn’t change our hearts, the work of the Holy Spirit does.
The Holy Spirit who comes to you by the gospel, by the Word of God, and delivers the gift
of faith to the heart of the unbeliever, and the gift of daily repentance to the faithful.
Who comes with forgiveness of sins in the water of baptism, in the body and blood of
Christ at the Lord’s Supper.
The Holy Spirit who sanctifies you and strengthens you for your daily fight against your sinful
heart and against the attacks of Satan in a hateful world.
The Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends to re-imprint his image on your heart.
So yes, we have the law, and it shows us our sin, but we have a far greater gift in the
gospel which shows us our Savior.
So we pray with the psalmist, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me. Amen. Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
