Not hard but impossible

Sermon for St. John Lutheran Church, Cedar Falls

 

Matthew 5:21-37

Thank you so much the invitation to be with you this morning, and especially for the invitation to preach on… let me get this right, Matthew 5, but not the beatitudes part… or the turn-the-other-cheek part… or the love your enemies part… but the middle part. The heavy part. Well, at least I feel like you must trust me or something.

            We need some context. So, I’m going to go back a few verses and get Jesus’ introduction to all this business. In verse 17, Jesus says, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Now, that doesn’t sound like great news to start, and it just gets worse and worse as we read through today’s Gospel reading. Not only shall you not murder, but whoever is angry has committed murder in their hearts. Not only shall you not commit adultery, but you should start tearing out eyes and things to stop yourself from doing so if that will help. Jesus takes all the laws and levels them up. After all, he says he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

            This trend continues throughout the Gospel of Matthew—again and again, seemingly righteous folks come to Jesus and he says, “Yeah, but what about this?” and they leave him upset, angry, and eventually it gets him murdered. I suspect one of the reasons the crowd turned so quickly against Jesus before Pilate is that they felt what Jesus was asking was too hard. Certainly, the rich man who came to him much later did. Jesus told him to give away everything, which precipitates that famous exchange between the disciples where they ask (finally!) the question we should all be wondering right about now, “Then, who can be saved????” And Jesus replies, “For mortals it is impossible but for God all things are possible.”

            This is the heart of a very serious question in the Gospel of Matthew: Is salvation under the law really hard… or is it impossible? This is maybe the very most important question for you in your faith life, because how you answer it changes EVERYTHING. How you answer that question will color everything you ever read in the Gospel; it will change your faith life; it has divided the Christian church for as long as there has been a church, and we don’t talk about it enough. Instead, we read passages like Matthew 5 in Bible studies and then we go around the circle and say things like, “Well, that was a downer” and we quickly move on, because we know something… we feel something when we read this scripture. If we are honest, we are deeply convicted by this scripture, and we would likely prefer to scratch this right out of the Bible, because we have been taught from an early age that being faithful is about being a good person and this passage seems to suggest that we need to be REALLY, REALLY good people, and it sounds REALLY, REALLY hard.

            But if that is how we are supposed to read this, then the Gospel of Matthew is terrible news. It’s like that scene in The Good Place where the characters discover that nobody has been getting into the Good Place (i.e. heaven) for centuries, because nobody has been remotely good enough, and the best guy in the world, who has been working his entire life solely for the purpose of reaching the Good Place, is still not remotely on track to do enough to get there. That’s the kind of realization that has led certain Christian sects through the ages to claim that the very smallest remnant will be saved, and everybody else will be condemned to hell. This is where you end up if following Christ is really hard. Not good news… also not true.

            To follow the full law is not really hard; instead, it is impossible. And it takes following Jesus for his entire ministry for the disciples to get there, because they are so locked into this idea of righteousness that depends on the holiness of the believer. It takes until Matthew, chapter 19, and the story of the rich man for them to finally turn around and exclaim, “Jesus Christ! (the disciples alone had the right to do this without breaking the 2^nd commandment, so I like to imagine they took full advantage) How can anybody be saved?!?!”

            For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.

            It is impossible. Following the law is not possible. Do you realize how incredible a revelation that is? Because it means that we cannot be dependent on ourselves—a truth we have known deep down all along—but in this world, we are supposed to pretend we have it all together. So, when Jesus says, “Anyone who looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery in his heart,” we nod along and say, “Ah, yes, Jesus. I agree. I have never once looked upon anybody with anything but the purest of hearts. I never even looked at my wife until the day we were married. Huzzah, Jesus, huzzah!”

            And when Jesus says, “If you are angry with a brother or sister, you are liable to judgment the same as a murderer,” again we respond, “Too true, Jesus—too true! I, myself, have never once been angry with anyone, not least my family, who you will tell me I should hate later in the Gospels.”

            Let me tell you what happens when we stop pretending that Jesus is telling us to do something hard and instead telling us it is impossible to be righteous by our actions: When we are freed by grace in the knowledge that our salvation is not dependent on correctly following the rules, rather than becoming little hellions, we become disciples. We follow Jesus Christ out of joy, not fear. They say that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), but the end of wisdom is the sweeping awareness that there is nothing to fear—not any longer—because we have a God who we know in Jesus Christ who went before us. After all, Jesus said he had come to fulfill the law, and fulfill it he did. You see, if the law was only to become really hard, then Jesus would have only needed to be a really righteous man. Since it is impossible, then only God-incarnate can do it.

            So, what does it look like to be a Christian under the banner of a fulfilled law that is impossible for us to keep? Well, Martin Luther said, “Sin boldly!” And for five hundred years that has often been misinterpreted to mean, “Do whatever you please!” The reality is much cooler: You are free to love! You are free to care for a world that desperately needs it! You are free to take chances and make mistakes! You will never do enough, but what you do is amazing and valuable and you remain the very best instruments for God to work through! You are the best—every one of you! And we don’t say that enough, because we read scripture like Matthew 5 solemnly as if we can do it. Of course, you should not go out and be angry… of course, you should not go out and cheat on your spouse, but you will already do these things if you are filled with gratitude for the grace of God that frees you from trying to be perfect. The law never makes you more righteous—it only shows you your need for a Savior.

            The best news is that you have one! So, go be Christ-filled, spiritual people! Not because it will save you but because you already are saved. Go, be disciples of Christ! Not because you feel obligated to but as a free expression of what people do who have received an incredible gift! Go, love one another! Care for one another! Lift another’s spirit! Pay forward this gift of grace!

            I suspect you all need to hear this one more time: You are good people—not because of how well you keep the commandments but because of Jesus Christ, who kept them on your behalf. You are good people—sinners, yes, but so much more. And I know this because you are human beings—like me. Like all God’s campers. There is absolutely nothing that separates us from God any longer. So, if you read Matthew 5:21-37 in Bible study again someday—perhaps even this week—make sure you also read the resurrection— or make sure you also turn to Paul in Romans and read about justification by faith through grace. Do not let one heavy word beat you up without reminding yourself of a God who has something better lying just ahead. Instead, paint with all the colors—dark and light—then come back to Matthew 5 and hear Jesus for who he is: The Son of God come to the world to save sinners like you and me.

            When you do that, everything changes.   Amen.