Trinity 6 The Sunday of Jesus’ Sermon on Murder and Righteousness
Trinity 6
Matthew 5:17-26
July 8, 2018
“You’ve Heard Wrong”
Outline
You’ve heard it said…
- That Jesus came to get rid of the old rules.
- That God just wants you to be happy.
- That Jesus only wants you to try your best.
What God actually says…
- He loves you.
- He gave Jesus to keep the rules for you and die to make you perfect, righteous, and holy.
- He gives you new life to keep His commandments.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Five times in his Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…” And then He goes on to say, “You’ve heard wrong!” In today’s Gospel reading, He says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, ‘You’ve heard wrong!” And then He goes on to explain that they’re all murderers. That anyone who is even angry with his brother is a murderer! And that we’d better all repent.
So I’m going to give you some things you’ve heard about Jesus from of old that you’ve heard wrong. First, you’ve heard it said, ‘Jesus came to get rid of all those old rules and instead teach us about love and kindness.’ Have we not heard this? Have we not even thought this ourselves? “Jesus is good and the Old Testament is bad. The Old Testament is full of all those weird rules and laws. We don’t need that anymore. Jesus is Mr. Nice Guy who gets rid of all those rules.” Well, you have heard wrong.
And this is pretty much the exact point of the Gospel reading today. That Jesus didn’t come to loosen up all the commandments that God gave in the Old Testament. He actually came to tighten the screws even tighter. He says, “You think you’re just not supposed to kill each other. Ha! I tell you that if you get angry with someone, if you call someone a name, if you insult someone—then you’re guilty and you’re going to pay for it.” Does that sound like someone who wants to get rid of all the old rules? No! It sounds like someone who actually wants to enforce them—for real.
Here’s how this happens. Here’s where this misunderstanding always comes in. We all know that Jesus didn’t like the Pharisees. He’s constantly going against them. Making them mad. Contradicting them. Etc., etc. So the Pharisees are the bad guys. But the problem comes in that we equate the Pharisees with the old rules. So we say, “The Pharisees are bad because all they care about is rules.” And then Jesus, you see, has to become the good Guy who doesn’t care about rules. Only love and kindness.
And that’s where we’ve heard wrong. The problem with the Pharisees isn’t that they have rules. It’s that their rules are wrong. They made up their own rules instead of God’s. That was their problem. They left behind all of God’s actual rules and commandments because they couldn’t keep ‘em anyway. And instead, they lowered the bar and made up a whole bunch of their own rules that were easier for them to keep and to hold over other people.
Jesus, then, raises the bar back up to where God wants it to be. He actually demands far more of us than any Pharisee ever does. Because doesn’t care about how good you look on the outside to others—He cares about your heart. He raises the bar on the 5th Commandment, “You shall not murder.” He says, “Even if you have anger and hatred in your heart, you are a murderer.”
So Jesus isn’t against rules. He’s against you and I, like Pharisees, making up our own rules that we think everybody should keep. And then not caring about the actual rules and commandments that God gave. He actually cares about the rules. In fact, He cares a lot about the rules. And He wants you to keep them. So if you’ve heard that Jesus came to get rid of all the old rules, you’ve heard wrong!”
Now that should send a little panic into your heart. It absolutely should. Because the next and second thing that you’ve heard is this, “God just wants you to be happy.” And you and I, we thought the rules really didn’t matter that much. We just thought God wants me to be happy. Well, you heard wrong. At least in part. God likes you being happy, but He certainly wants more than just that.
I mean, just think about how silly this really is. If you quit your job, divorce your spouse, desert your children, move away to a nudist colony and worship Satan—and then say, “I’ve never been so happy”—is that what God wants? Would we all say, “Well, as long as you’re happy, then God’s happy?!”
This is utter ridiculousness. And it’s sin. God wants you to be happy. That’s WHY He gave the rules. He doesn’t only want you to be happy. He wants you to keep the rules and be happy. What does God really want you to do? Not just be happy. He wants to be right. He wants you to do right. He wants you to be righteous. He wants you to be holy. He wants you to be godly.
Now while we’re here let’s ask a bigger question. What does God really want you to do? It’s a very basic question. We’ve already said He doesn’t just want you to be happy. He wants more than that. So what really does God want you to do? We should all be able to answer this, right? We’re all Christians.
The sad thing is that almost all of us Christians think we know the answer—what God wants us to do—and yet very few of us Christians can actually tell you all the ten commandments. The Ten Commandments are the list of what God wants us to do. It’s that simple. What does God want me to do? To have no other gods, to not misuse His name, to remember the Sabbath Day, to honor Mom and Dad, etc. I’m sorry if I ruffle any of your feathers this morning, but if you can’t say all ten of the commandments then you really need to work on that. Take the hymnal home or get your Catechism at home and make sure you have all ten memorized.
God is serious about those ten rules. That’s why He gave them. He wants us to be happy and those ten rules will do it.
And now you should really be panicking. Jesus makes the rules really hard to keep. And then—God wants you to actually keep them. Now you’re in trouble. That’s our Gospel reading today. That’s what Jesus does. He shows you that you’re in trouble. Don’t be a Pharisee, He says, lowering the bar on all the rules, making up your own rules, and acting like you’re keeping all of them. You’ve heard wrong! He says, “Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
Finally, as you and I panic that God actually does care about His rules, the last thing you’ve heard is that Jesus only just wants you to try your best. Again, you’ve heard wrong. Jesus doesn’t just want a good-faith effort. There’s no “A for Effort” with God. He wants you to be right. He wants you to be perfect. He wants you to keep the rules. Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Exceeds. You better have something better than the scribes and Pharisees. You better not just be making up your own rules or just thinking God will give you an “A for Effort”. Or you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven.
Are you panicked? I hope so. In fact, I hope you’re more than panicked. I hope that we are all so besieged by the truth of what Jesus actually says—that we’re ready to let go. To repent. We have, indeed, heard wrong. And we’ve thought wrong. God does care. He cares about His commandments and He cares about you. So God does the only thing that will work for you to enter the kingdom of heaven. He sends Someone to keep all those rules and commandments for you. He wants you to be right. And good. And holy. So He gives for you His good and righteous and holy Son.
You have heard that God loves you. Well, you’ve heard right about that. But He doesn’t love you by getting rid of all the rules or by saying He just wants you to be happy or by saying ‘just give it your best try’. He loves you by giving His perfect Son to live perfectly for you, to shed His blood for you on the cross, and to rise from the dead for you. That’s what it means that God loves you. He gives you Jesus.
You’ve heard Jesus doesn’t care about the rules? Wrong. He cares so much He died for you breaking all of them. You’ve heard God just only wants you to be happy. Wrong. He doesn’t only want you to be happy—He wants you to be happy so much that He gives You His Son Jesus Christ to die for you and give you life forever in heaven. You’ve heard that God just wants you to try your best? Wrong. God wants you to be perfect. And you are. Through the forgiveness of all your sins in Jesus.
So let’s revisit this question. “What does God want me to do?” Forget the rules? Just be happy? Just try my best? No, God wants me to be holy. So for that, He wants me to believe in Jesus. You know that, right? Of course you do. So don’t believe those other lies you’ve heard. God wants me to believe in Jesus. To have all my sins washed away in Jesus. To be righteous and holy and perfect in Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of my sins. To be baptized into Jesus. To eat and drink Jesus’ body and blood. That’s what God wants me to do—to believe in Jesus.
At the same time, God also wants me to live a new life in Jesus. He wants me to be happy in Jesus. Which is why He wants me to keep His rules. To keep His Ten Commandments. Will I keep them perfectly? No, I won’t. Because I will still struggle with my sinful nature. But I have Jesus for that. And by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, I can begin to keep His rules. And in doing so, can find some of the happiness and joy that God truly does want for me.
So I will say again—this means that you and I should know His rules. We should know His Ten Commandments. If we don’t, then we’re obviously just making up our own rules like the Pharisees did. We need to know the Ten Commandments. So make sure your Catechisms are dusted off and ready to use at home. Say one commandment a day in your prayers. Or post them up on your wall at home. (Be careful to use the right numbering if you’re going to do that. If the second commandment is, “You shall not make unto thee any graven image,” then you have the Reformed numbering. Which isn’t wrong, necessarily, but it’s just a little different from ours and you don’t want to get confused.)
If you have kids, practice saying the Ten Commandments with them. And when your kids do something wrong and sinful, remind them which commandments they’ve broken so that they understand the connection. We always have room for growth when it comes to the commandments.
At any rate, we certainly know that some of the things we’ve heard are wrong. So you’ve heard it said right today—What does God want you to do? Believe in Jesus Christ your Savior who has lived and died for you to forgive your sins and make you perfect. And living in Jesus, know God’s commandments and keep them.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.