Sufficient Righteousness
Matthew 5:17-26
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen.
"Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." So . . . how
much righteousness is enough? When it comes to righteousness is it quantity
that is important, or is it quality? Jesus brought in the scribes and
Pharisees as an example of the righteousness that will not gain the kingdom
of heaven. What did righteousness mean to them? Put simply, it meant
performance of duty, and the better the duty was done the closer one came to
the kingdom of God. All of this was laid out in a commentary on the Ten
Commandments called The Mishnah. Nearly 600 different applications of the
commandments of God were discussed in The Mishnah, and the righteous Jew did
his very best to keep them all. And yet, that was clearly not enough.
"Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
Luther said that one of the things that troubled him most about the teaching
of the Church he was trying to reform was what he called the "monstrous
uncertainty." How much righteousness is enough? Have I been forgiving enough
to those who have sinned against me? Have I held my tongue from unkind words
in response to those who have been unkind do me? Have I helped my neighbor
enough? Have I obeyed my parents enough? When have I done enough of those
works which are pleasing to God that I can be certain of my entrance into
the kingdom of heaven? What Luther realized, and what every human heart
knows, is that the question can never be given a certain answer. If the
question of righteousness is a question of quantity, you can never know if
you have done enough.
But look at the setting of this text. It is a portion of the Sermon on the
Mount. What is the Sermon on the Mount? It is a portrayal of the life of
righteousness. It is an account of the way Christians will live. It is a
running description of the various attributes that will mark the lives of
Christians. How much different is this from the approach of the scribes and
Pharisees? Both sound as if righteousness is a matter of doing, a question
of quantity. What is the difference?
The difference is found in this statement from Jesus: "Do not think that I
came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to
fulfill." Jesus Christ is righteousness in Himself. All righteousness is
found in Him. As St. Paul wrote: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. For He made Him who knew no
sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
It was Jesus who came to John the Baptist and insisted that He be baptized
by him to fulfill all righteousness.
For Jesus, righteousness was a matter of doing. It was a matter of being
born in this world, a helpless Babe in the manger. It was a matter of living
out His life according to the will of the Father in heaven, the will to save
His human creation, creatures who had gone astray and were now trying to
save themselves by every manner of self-righteousness. It was a matter of
suffering and dying, both doing what was necessary according to the Law of
God, and enduring everything that hateful, evil men would do to Him. It was
matter of bearing to the cross the sins of the world, and then resting in
the tomb for three days, only to rise again on the morning of the third day.
It was matter of ascending to heaven, there to reign over all things for the
sake of His Church. In doing all of this He was fulfilling the law and the
prophets, and in this way fulfilling all righteousness. And it is this
righteousness that He would give us, the righteousness that exceeds that of
the scribes and Pharisees. It is for us a righteousness not of quantity, for
we have done nothing to gain it, but one of quality, for it comes as a gift
from the Savior of the world.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a problem with all of this. Our
problem is that we rather like the idea that we might have some hand in our
own salvation. The truth is, we much prefer to trust ourselves than Jesus.
We are not always confident He knows what He is doing; we would much rather
keep our own hands on the controls. Even with all the shortcomings we see in
our own righteousness, we would rather have that than to entrust our souls
to someone else. Even if it means that our righteousness is of our own
doing, we seem to find that more appealing than simply receiving the gift of
righteousness from someone else. We are rugged individuals; surely we can
make it work for us.
And we feel the same way when it comes to others. We cannot possibly see how
a gift of righteousness is going to benefit others. If we have unruly
children, the way to handle them is to make more rules for them to follow.
If something is amiss in the nation, surely the answer is to pass more laws.
And even in the Church, there must be some way to get people to be more
obedient to God's Word, to take more seriously the life of the Church.
Surely, there is something to be done, more rules and laws and directions
that will bring in line what is out of step.
But righteousness is really not a question of what we do; it is a question
of who we are. We are not righteous because we do righteous works. We do
righteous works because we are righteous through the gift of righteousness
from our Savior; the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation which
He gives us through faith in Him. The righteousness which comes from Jesus
Christ, His gift of Himself and all He has done to save us, is all that we
need. Because when we have Him and His righteousness, we have everything!
When we have Jesus Christ and His righteousness we have all that is needed.
As St. Paul wrote to the Romans: "If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things?" When we have Jesus Christ
and His righteousness then what will follow is a righteous life, peace, joy,
hope, and all that He would give us in His grace.
How much righteousness is enough? The righteousness of Christ is enough, the
righteousness He gives us-the righteousness that was placed on you in Holy
Baptism, the righteousness restored to you in the words of Holy Absolution,
the righteousness fed to you in the body and blood of Jesus this day. This
righteousness is sufficient for you. In the name of the Father and of the
Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
--
Rev. Alan Kornacki, Jr.
Pastor, St. Peter Lutheran Church, Campbell Hill, IL
revalk...@gmail.com
http://pastoralkorn.blogspot.com
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