"A Righteousness That Won't Work and One That Will" (Sermon on Matthew 5:21-37)

Last week’s Gospel reading ended with these words of Jesus, from Matthew 5, verse 20: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And really, those same words could serve as the beginning of today’s reading, which starts at verse 21. For today Jesus will give examples of the supposed righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees--a surface righteousness that will not get you into the kingdom of heaven--so that then you will be ready to receive the only righteousness that will get you in. And so our theme this morning: “A Righteousness That Won’t Work and One That Will.”

Now this presumes of course that you want to enter the kingdom of heaven. If you’re not interested in that, you can stop listening now. Because then you’ll be on your own, and good luck with that. If all you can come up with is a righteousness like that of the scribes and Pharisees--a righteousness of your own making--then you’ll be stuck in your sins, under God’s judgment, and you will end up in the kingdom of hell, not heaven.

And that would mean you’d miss out on all the blessings of life in the kingdom of heaven. Life in the kingdom will be life as God intends it to be: We creatures in right relationship with our Creator, no more sin and separation. Humans in right relationship with one another, no more hurting and hating. Creation restored, no more disasters or diseases. This will be better than anything you can imagine. Healing and wholeness, joy and community, blessings abounding. Forever. Fantastic. Beyond your wildest dreams. This is what it will mean to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is definitely something to be desired.

But the question is: How do I get in? What does it take to enter the kingdom of heaven? That’s the big question, isn’t it? And what Jesus says it takes is righteousness. Not just any old righteousness, but a pretty high standard of righteousness. A better righteousness than that of the best people of his day, the most religious people around, the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes were the experts in the Law of Moses. They knew the rules, handed down by the Lord through his prophet Moses, and recorded in Holy Scripture for all Israel to obey. And the Pharisees were the ones who set out to obey those laws, as meticulously as anybody in the land. They wanted to assure themselves that they were doing it right, better than anyone else, to make sure that God would be pleased with them, the good guys.

So Jesus’ words are rather shocking: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” My, oh my, who can do that? If the scribes and Pharisees won’t make it in, then what chance do I have?

Well, that’s the point. That’s the point that Jesus is trying to get across. Their kind of righteousness isn’t going to cut it. You need something different, something better, a righteousness from outside of yourself, one that you can’t come up with on your own.

If you think you have within yourself a righteousness that’s good enough to get you into the kingdom of heaven--if that’s what you think, think again. And so, what Jesus does now is to strip away the phony, inadequate righteousness that the scribes, Pharisees, and anyone else may think they have within them. Only then will you be ready to receive the one kind of righteousness that will pass inspection and get you into heaven.

So, what was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? What was it like? What characterized it? In brief, it was a surface kind of righteousness. It was a superficial keeping of the rules that came from within themselves, what they could generate and what they could manage. And it looked good on the outside. It looked impressive.

That sort of surface righteousness needs to be undone. When we think like that, we need to have the rug pulled out from under us. We need to realize that that ain’t gonna cut it, not in God’s sight. And so that’s what Jesus does now, telling us that our sin problem is worse than we thought.

Consider the Ten Commandments. The Fifth Commandment, for instance: “You shall not murder.” The scribes and Pharisees would say that, as long as they had not physically killed someone, they had kept this commandment. But Jesus shows that this commandment goes much deeper than a mere outward, surface keeping. 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 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.”

You see, the Fifth Commandment forbids doing any harm to our neighbor, whether in thought, word, or deed. Hateful words reveal the same sinful heart that, in extreme cases, ends in actual murder. But it’s the same sinful heart. So if you’ve got angry thoughts and you speak hurtful words to your neighbor, you have not kept this commandment. You are a murderer, and you will go to hell. That’s what your own righteousness will get you.

Or take the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.” The scribes and Pharisees thought that, as long as they did not physically sleep with another man’s wife, they had kept this commandment. But Jesus says that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Lustful thoughts reveal the same sinful heart as in the man who actually engages in physical adultery.

Then there’s the matter of divorce. If a scribe or Pharisee wanted to dump his wife and take up with another woman, all he had to do was get a legal divorce. Just make sure you give her a certificate of divorce, and then you can do what you want. Of course, you’ll make the woman you divorce look like she had been unfaithful, even though she wasn’t. And any man who later marries her--you’ll make him likewise to be stigmatized as an adulterer. So, you can break your marriage and ruin the reputations of two other people, but who cares? At least you’ve kept the law by providing a certificate of divorce. That’s how the scribes and Pharisees would justify it.

But not in God’s sight. God sets too high a value on the gift of sexuality to let it be treated so shabbily. The prohibition on adultery covers all forms of sexual immorality, in thought, word, or deed. Even if you can make it look good in the eyes of the world.

Dear friends, we all are sinners. If entering the kingdom of heaven were up to our keeping of the law, we would all go to hell. We all have broken God’s commandments in one form or another. The surface righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees will not work. You and I need something better.

But when we’re satisfied with ourselves, we’re not going to hear that. So God has to strip away our self-satisfaction. That’s what the law does. That’s what Jesus is doing in our text. He is stripping away our surface righteousness, so that we will be ready to receive the only righteousness that will pass the test. A righteousness that comes from outside of us. The righteousness that Jesus fulfills and gives us.

Jesus fulfills what we fail at. He is the only one who has kept the law as it should be kept. He alone has a perfect righteousness, the only one that passes the test. Jesus by right enters the kingdom of heaven, but only after first suffering the wrath laid upon sinners. On the cross, Christ dies the death of sinners, taking your sins and your death on himself. The Son of God dies in your place, so that now you will not die forever. This tells you that God must really love you! He does, in spite of your sins! Jesus’ blood and his righteousness--this is what covers you and cleanses you and gets you into the kingdom of heaven! There is no other way. This is the only righteousness that works. It’s a righteousness that comes from outside of you and is given to you as a gift.

And then, once you are pronounced righteous--freely, by God’s grace—then this Jesus kind of righteousness gets to work inside of you and begins to change you from the inside out. The righteous life of the Christian is different from that of the scribe and Pharisee, because it goes deeper than the surface. Your righteousness is connected to Christ by faith, and then that faith works its way outward. It is this connection to Christ that makes your good works acceptable to God, because they proceed from faith and are purified by Christ’s forgiveness. So Jesus can indeed speak of “your righteousness,” because he does expect you, his disciples, his followers, to do a more genuine keeping of the commandments than the surface keeping of the scribes and Pharisees.

Brothers and sisters, today Jesus strips away our self-righteousness, in order to give us his righteousness--and with it, the kingdom of heaven. First you need to come to the end of your rope, and then you’ll be ready to receive the only righteousness that will get you into the kingdom of heaven. It’s a righteousness that comes from outside of you, as a free gift. It’s the righteousness rooted in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord. And it is a righteousness that then gets to work inside of you, changing you from the inside out. That, my friends, is quite a bit different from the surface righteousness the world knows. And you know what? It works!

Matthew 5:21-37 (ESV)

[Jesus said:] “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. 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. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

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