Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Matthew 5,38-48. The 21st Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Matthew 5,38-48. John 15,9-12 (13-17). (John 4,46-54); Löhe uses John 4,47-54 5113

21. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 066

Wendelin, Abbot † 1015

20. Oktober 2013

1. Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord, to Thy faithful people pardon and peace; that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve Thee with a quiet mind. Amen (The Book of Common Prayer, 21. Sunday after Trinity).

2. Jesus taught the crowds, saying: „You have heard that it was said: »An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.« But I say to you: ‘Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.’ You have heard that it was said: »You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.« But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers,what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.“

3. Jesus taught: »You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.« Our first thought on this might be to equate perfection with righteousness, and in this we would not be far off the mark. Perfection is doing something right and the way we want it done. A perfect MLB playoff game is not merely winning that game, but winning that game by not allowing your opponents to score any hits or runs. For a pitcher, a perfect game is when he chalks up 27 strikeouts. Such feats are difficult to obtain, and thus perfection is a goal we often fall short of in our daily endeavors. The same is true of righteousness. Who is a righteous man or woman? Patriarchs like Enoch and Abraham come to mind, along with Joseph and Mary, but the Apostle Paul tempers that achievement when he tells us: »Both Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written: »No one is righteous, no, not one«« (Romans 3,9-10). Well, if we are not perfect or righteous, perhaps we can be pious. Piety is the practice of living a Godly life faithful to God’s will. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism exhorts us to live a pious life in the section on the Ten Commandments. Jesus also exhorts us to such piety throughout Matthew 5 in this morning’s Gospel Lection.

4. Jesus does not make piety, righteousness and perfection easy, does He? Look at the qualifications. It is not enough to love your neighbors, but we must also love our enemies who hate us. This would be a good topic for our Congress and President to hear and meditate upon in a homily. Is there much love shown by the Democrats to the Tea Party Republicans who seem to thwart their every move in Congress? Is there much love shown by some Republicans to the president who seems to have inflicted maximum invective and pain upon them in the recent government shutdown? It’s not easy to love those whom we are in conflict with, whom we despise and whom we might even hate. And yet, Jesus says to love such people, and not just love them but give to them in their time of need. If one asks you for a jacket, then give him two. If one asks you to walk a mile together, then walk with her even farther. Give until you feel the loss in your own possessions or time is what Jesus is saying. Or to put it another way: help until it hurts. These are tough words to live by.

5. Who then is perfect like God our Father? Certainly none of us, and surely no one else in this world of 7 billion men, women and children. So if you are looking at the Beatitudes this morning as a list of things you must do to earn or assure yourself of eternal life with God, then the words of Jesus are words of condemnation to you. Those who live by the law will be judged by the law and will also die by the law, for the law ultimately reveals sin, and sin separates us from God. God does not have some cosmic scale upon which He weighs you to see if your good deeds outweigh your bad ones. With God, you see, it is all or nothing. You are either a sinner or a saint, righteous or unrighteous, perfect or imperfect. Good works don’t determine your status because works are just a manifestation of who and what you are deep down inside your soul and your cells. Paul lays it out rather clearly: »No person will be justified in God’s sight by works of the law, since the knowledge of sin comes through the law« (Romans 3,20).

6. The radical way of discipleship set forth by Jesus in Matthew 5-7 is not by way of the law. Paul tells us that: »The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, for the righteousness of God is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe« (Romans 3,21-22). Recall how Jesus speaks at the beginning of the Beatitudes: »Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the reign of heaven. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world« (Matthew 5,2.13-14). These are present tense declaratives and realities that Jesus spoke to His disciples. You are blessed. Your are salt and light. You are these realities because Jesus says you are, and He says you are because He is. Jesus is your Blessing. Jesus is your Salt and Light. The benefit of having this Jesus is this: »All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His Divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus« (Romans 3,23-26).

7. Jesus declares you perfect and He makes you perfect on account of His propitiation for sinfulness. God hates sin and the rebellious sinner; therefore in His holy justice He must punish sin and condemn sinners, but God is a God of love who does not want to damn His fallen creation to perdition. God, however, in His holiness and righteousness cannot just overlook our sin. Sin must be atoned for and the sinner must be punished. A propitiator is one who appeases God through a sacrifice, and one who atones for another’s sins by sacrificing himself. Jesus Christ is the Propitiation for all sinners, for the entire world, and, yes, even for you. God sent His Son to atone for sin, Himself being the sacrifice to bear all sin’s awful load. Jesus became the Chief Sinner on the cross, and by becoming the Sinner who bears the sin of the world, He bore our just punishment and condemnation in our place. Jesus has atoned for sin, paid the ransom price and has merited the forgiveness of sin. This is why you are now declared perfect by Jesus.

8. Jesus told the apostles on the eve of His betrayal and crucifixion: »As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. Love one another as I have loved you« (John 15,9.12). What is this love? It is a love that suffers all for the neighbor and redeems them back to God the Father. How do we love? Just as Jesus loved us. It is a love that suffers all for the neighbor: helping him when he is in need, giving to our church so she can continue on with the proclamation of the gospel and putting the best construction on things that we hear people say or do. Such love is not easy, for it is a costly love, but Jesus gives us the strength and the will to love this way for this is how He loves us. May the Holy Spirit work in each of you to love in this way, for by such love the Holy Spirit uses His Church and His Christians to be a blessing to the world in many diverse ways. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Steadfast Love and Righteousness; enliven us so that in Christian love we are a blessing to our neighbors. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, October 21, 2013

Matthew 5,38-48. The 21st Sunday after Trinity

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