Our Accuser [Trinity 6; St. Matthew 5:20-26]

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Who speaks to you all today saying,

“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court…”

In our lives of reading and studying God’s Word, we have been taught that we have an accuser. One who constantly stands before God accusing us of evil against Him. We immediately sort this out to be the devil, who is a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

Not withstanding, we also have Revelation 12:10 which says, “…the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.” And we all know who it was that was cast down out of the heavens like lightning.

Also, St. Peter warns us that our “…adversary the devil prowls about as a roaring lion seeking who he may devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8) So, it appears natural to equate the devil with the Accuser.

And I would say, in one sense, you are right. In another you are wrong. In the first place, yes, the devil sits and whispers in your ear all of your guilt and all of your prestige. He sits in front of God enumerating all this and you have no defense. The devil is an accuser.

In the sense you are wrong is this: the devil has nothing of himself. Meaning, he doesn’t just make up his accusations on his own. He creates nothing. He must use something in order to corrupt it. In your case, he uses everything you say, do, and think, against you. What he uses is not his own, but what is yours alone.

Take Proverbs 18:17, for instance. There, the Lord says, “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.” Here, the word used for “another” is the word St. Matthew uses for “accuser” (LXX), in the Gospel today. This means that we think we get into heaven by making our case first, but there is always the cross-examination.

The word “another” can also mean a close acquaintance (Hebrew). Maybe a neighbor or friend, but in any case someone who is close to us; who knows us very well. This we would say, is not just ourselves, but the Almighty God.

God is the one Who knows us, our inward parts, and all our inward thinking. He numbers the very hairs on our heads. He has fashioned us from clay, breathed life into us, and has given us Law. A Law whose sole purpose is to reveal our sin and guilt.

Our neighbor is our adversary! What I mean by that is, you will never come across an alien or a foreign being and be able to say he is your adversary. Whenever you are in conflict with someone, anyone, it will always be with a neighbor; a close acquaintance, whom you are supposed to love as you love yourself.

We are so self-righteous that we think by demonizing a certain portion of the population of earth, that we can justify our sins against them, our hatred of them, and be righteous in God’s sight. And God’s Law reveals this to you. It fact, it does more than reveal this hatred, it also testifies against you as an adversary!

Repent. You now have not just one, not just two, but three adversaries who contend and bring forth compelling evidence towards your guilt. You have the devil. You have yourself; meaning the good you want to do and don’t do, and your neighbor. And you also have the Law of God which always accuses and always proclaims your guilt.

Just as Jesus has shown you today in taking “You shall not murder” all the way to “You are responsible even if your brother is angry at you.” Which, of course, is the impossible-to-reach “righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes”.

If man is so inundated with witnesses to his guilt, how then can the psalmist say, “Malicious witnesses rise up;

    they ask me of things that I do not know.

They repay me evil for good;

    my soul is bereft.” (Ps. 35:11-12)??

And:

“Deliver me not over unto the will of mine adversaries: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.” (Ps. 27:12)??

The Law always accuses every man of guilt and in sin we even try to use that Law to justify our own sinfulness. Jesus is a man. The Law accused Jesus as well and He did not get off His cross until the last penny was paid for sin.

We, the Accused, rose up against the Judge, accused Him of His accusations against us, and put Him to death. We demand justice for sin, death, and corruption at the hands of God and we bang on the door, day and night, until we receive it in blood.

And so it was. Jesus stood before the angel of the Lord, accused and condemned, hanging on the cross. The perfectly clean, became unclean. The friend became the adversary. The innocent became guilty.

Jesus became a man in order that all the accusations of the holy Law and the devil now target Him instead of you. He is now the one who leaves His gift at His heavenly altar and is born of a virgin to reconcile with you. Jesus attempts to come to terms quickly with you, but fails. However, He fails successfully.

This is because Jesus’ righteousness does and has always exceeded the scribes and the Pharisees. And, according to our proverb quoted earlier, it is better to have the last word in court than the first. Before Jesus, death was the last word. After Jesus, life is now the last word.

This is because the Lord will weaken His adversary. All adversaries and accusers will perish. The adversary, all of them, will be taken away. Not your neighbor, but the sin that puts you and your neighbor at odds. The death that frightens and kills will be removed and the devil, the one who uses the Law of God to accuse His High priest and those whom He has baptized; this Accuser will be judged and will be removed.

For, now that we have been baptized into the Body of Christ, we love the Law, though it still accuses us. Yet, because we have this promise of redemption and salvation from God, we bang on the door to our heavenly judge demanding justice day and night, and God grants it.

Not because of our persistence or even because of our righteousness, but it is granted because justice has already been perfected. Redemption has already been completed. Forgiveness has already been filled up, in you, to the brim.

For Christ’s sake, we receive acquittal. For Christ’s glory, we are released from our debts. For Christ’s sake, we are delivered from false witnesses, because now no accusation sticks to the Christian. No charge holds water and no case is airtight.

All accusations brought against part of the Body of Christ are evil and do not stand. Only the cross now stands in the courtroom waiting for any and all pronouncements of sins and trespasses. For once they are announced, they are immediately dismissed. Christ has conquered them, Christ has paid for them, and Christ will never die again.