Trinity 6
Dear friends in Christ. The Bible tells us about two kinds of righteousness that people can have. One is civil righteousness; the other is spiritual righteousness. Civil righteousness is an outward righteousness—people doing the right thing. On this July 4th weekend, we think of how important civil righteousness is. It is the reason that we as a nation can be in relative peace among ourselves. It makes the news when someone murders another or when there is a string of robberies. Why? Not only is it good for the ratings of the newscasts but these events are out of the ordinary. Very often good news/ kind things people do to help others goes unreported. Why? Probably because that’s what we expect or hope is “normal.”
A society is based on this civil righteousness. Without it, society would collapse; everyone would live only for themselves; bands of thugs would make murder and mayhem common; people wouldn’t be safe in their own homes; there would be no common trust for a financial system; there would be no respect of property; neighbor wouldn’t show kindness to neighbor.
Our founding fathers based this nation on the notion of a civil righteousness. They believed that people would be learned and virtuous and make their decisions based on that virtue and reason. They were exactly right in that. God created us thinking, rational beings. On top of that, God wrote the holy Ten Commandments in our hearts so we instinctively know what is right and what is wrong.
Certainly, we as a nation today have much to worry about here. Virtue and reason are being thrown out the window, evidenced by people’s seeming inability to figure out even what marriage is or if they are boys or girls. Virtue and reason are being jettisoned by people who know what they are doing is wrong—that’s the Law of God written on the heart convicting them. Instead of admitting they are wrong and changing, they want everybody else to say that they are OK; that what they are doing is not sin so they can feel good about themselves. But same thing like the transgender crowd—no matter how much a person may be mutilated and given false body parts that serve no purpose and given hormones—a guy is still a guy and a woman a woman, the way God made them; so also here: no matter how much a wrong/ sin may be accepted as right by people, it is still wrong/ sin.
This civil righteousness is a good thing for a society and a people, and, in fact, absolutely vital. All of us certainly want a reasonable and virtuous person as a neighbor and our town and nation filled with them. That’s what our founding fathers based the idea for our nation on.
1. But, as absolutely vital as this civil righteousness is, it is not the righteousness that leads to heaven; only spiritual righteousness does that. Civil righteousness, based on reason and virtue, is an outward righteousness. It gives each person his/ her due. But spiritual righteousness is an inward righteousness of faith and good works. That’s the point Jesus is making in today’s Gospel when He tells the crowd in the Sermon on the Mount: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of the Jews. They had a great outward appearance of holiness/ righteousness because they seemingly, outwardly kept the Law that God gave in the OT. Not only that, but they kept especially scrupulously all the add-ons made by the teachers down through the ages. So when the people thought of the scribes and Pharisees they thought of really super holy people; the cream of the crop. But what does Jesus tell the crowds? Does He tell them to try to be like the scribes and Pharisees as much as they could and then maybe, just maybe, they will get into heaven? Hardly! Instead, Jesus tells them that not even scribes and Pharisees with their righteousness will enter heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Here we see that the highest righteousness is not just proper behavior and thoughts—no matter how many they may be. That’s mere civil righteousness.
But the highest righteousness is not civil righteousness. What a thunderbolt of preaching of law this is the crowds and to us! Ask most people what they think religion is, or even Christianity, and they will say that it is about doing good or what to do to get into heaven. But here Jesus throws that notion to the ground—even those that most thought did good, and above and beyond “good,” even those with all their good things they above and beyond what they had to did not have a righteousness that could gain them heaven.
In other words, the highest righteousness, the righteousness by which we enter heaven is not “bean counting”—what I have done and what I haven’t done, keeping track, trying to do more good than bad and by that trying to gain heaven. The simple fact remains: we could do all the good and avoid all the evil we can, but that would just be the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees; it would not exceed it and so we could not enter heaven on account of it. Why not? Because of the so-called “minor” sins we commit and our inner corrupt desires. Sin is not just what we do, it is also what we say, think and our inclinations.
Jesus uses the example of the Fifth Commandment. Few would actually have committed the sin of outright murder but the commandment goes deeper than just the outward physical act of killing someone by one’s own hands. Our text: 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 that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. The outwardly egregious sin of murder begins in the heart with anger, which no one sees, and proceeds to insults which is outward but in the eyes of people, a minor sin, hardly a great sin worthy of hell. But as Jesus points out here, sinful desires and words are transgressions of the commandment and deserve severest punishment: unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The highest righteousness by which we then can enter heaven is not a righteousness of quantity but of quality. No matter how much good we may have supposedly done—quantity—it is not enough because God demands perfect righteousness if we are to enter heaven--quality. And here we would all be condemned but for the grace of God who sent His Son to be our righteousness for us. Jesus came to obey God’s holy Law for us, to fulfill every part of it for us and to have and to offer God a perfect righteousness—a righteousness [that far] exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus comes to us in His holy word and sacraments and offers and gives us that highest/ perfect righteousness—His holy, perfect, divine righteousness; and that in place of our lack of righteousness, which He forgives by His holy life and innocent suffering and death.
Now through faith in Jesus we receive the forgiveness of our sins and His perfect righteousness. This faith, which God Himself creates in us by the Holy Spirit, is constantly receiving the forgiveness of sins and the holy, perfect righteousness of Jesus; the very righteousness [that far] exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees and by which we can enter heaven. This righteousness—true spiritual righteousness—is not just right behavior and thoughts, it is now our state/ condition as Christians.
In Jesus, we are righteous with a righteousness that is the righteousness of the very God Himself. In Jesus, we are declared righteous. And what is also so wonderful and glorious is that to have the righteousness of Jesus is to be in union with Him, to have Jesus living in us. And that union with Jesus is brought about by holy Baptism. Hear again St. Paul in today’s Epistle: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
United with Jesus, He is leading us into a life of more and more righteousness. In Him we are perfectly righteous—forgiven our sin and given His righteousness—and now led and empowered by the Holy Spirit to crucify the inner lusts of our heart and to fight against our corrupt inclinations as He works in us the desire to keep the holy Law of God.
In Jesus we have the highest righteousness, a righteousness of quality. It comes from God and has its origin in God’s work for us in Jesus. And why? As Luther points out in today’s Catechism section—that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
2. This righteousness that we have as Christians—a righteousness coming from God, brought about for us by Jesus—is also very practical in the life of the Church and us personally because this highest righteousness that we have in Christ shows itself in reconciliation, in our reconciling with those whom we have wronged. Our text: So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Where there is this highest righteousness, reconciling will always follow because when we have received the forgiveness of all our sins and the perfect righteousness of Jesus, how can we not show that same mercy and forgiveness toward others—especially our fellow Christians; and how can we not try to be at peace with the one we have sinned against. True sorrow over sin and genuine repentance—the repentance that longs for and holds to the righteousness God gives us in Jesus—leads to a sincere effort to undo the wrong we are guilty of. The thing is, because of Jesus, God is at peace with us and the amazing thing is that God is not the one who sinned but we sinned and rebelled against Him and yet He is the one who sought peace with us. How can we not be at peace with each other? How can we not strive to be at peace with the one we sinned against? And on the flip side: how can we refuse to forgive and be at peace with the one who sinned against us and who comes to us seeking peace and reconciliation? A good rule of thumb is to forgive when we are asked, and not only be ready to forgive before we are asked, but even to forgive even when we are not asked. That’s the true, higher righteousness at work in us; it shows itself in reconciliation and striving for that.
This higher righteousness, the one that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees and by which one enters heaven, is expressed in the Blessed Sacrament. As we gather around the altar to receive our Lord’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, we are also confessing by that that we are at peace with our fellow Christians; that things are right between us and the ones next to us. Our main focus becomes showing that same love and reconciliation toward others that we have experienced from the Lord: So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Where that highest righteousness is being enjoyed, reconciliation will always be found. INJ