The Anti-Law [Trinity 6; St. Matthew 5:20-26]

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Jesus speaks to you all today saying,

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

You would think that the Ten Commands, which we heard in our Old Testament, would be coupled with the Gospel where Jesus is asked what the greatest command from God is. Then you would expect Jesus to tell us to love God and love our neighbor. That would make more sense to me.

You would also think that God would keep His own commands that He gives to us. You would think that there would be no other gods in the universe, if He’s the only one, so that He wouldn’t say things like, “I have said, Ye are gods.” (Psalm 82:6) If we were not supposed to make graven images, why would He say, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole.” (Numbers 21:8)

It even seems as if the Sabbath day is of no great importance for, “...therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” (John 5:16) 

Should we respect or disrespect our parents? Jesus says to call no man on earth “father” (Mt. 23:9). He also tells a young man who wants to follow Him to leave his dead father to bury himself (Mt. 8:22).

To kill or not to kill? God is infamous for ordering the deaths of so many people in the Old Testament, even causing the prophet in Ecclesiastes to famously say, “A time to kill and a time to heal” (Ecc 3:3). 

What are we to do with the book of Hosea and adultery? God says, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” (Hos. 1:2) 

Is stealing ok? “Israel will go out and ...will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.” (Eze. 39:9-10)

Is lying ok? “[Jesus said] Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast. ... But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.” (John 7:8-10)

Though it says not to covet, Jesus says, “And he said to them, “I have earnestly coveted to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Lk. 22:15)

If this has shaken you, then you don’t know your Bible as well as you thought. Or maybe you do and have just glossed over these parts and filed them under, “No one will ever ask me these questions”. And yet, these places are exactly the parts of the Bible that have turned people away from church and why the pews are so empty today, because no one was there to give a proper answer. 

We take the ten commandments up to such a high level, wanting them in schools and courthouses, that we think that if everyone knew about them, could just see them, and follow them then the world would be so much better. We would place them in front of everyone, or else.

And yet even before this, we have to deal with how the Jews dealt with these commands, because they would know better since they received them first right? For the Jews, the ten commandments were not ten commands, but 10 words., This is the literal translation of both the Old Testament Hebrew and Greek of Exodus 20.

Thus they have 10 words, but only 9 commands, for the first word is God declaring Who He is and what He has and will continue to do. So they have the same numbering as we do, but instead make the focus of the commands God, instead of what we do or don’t do.

And yet this is still only half-way to actually understanding what these commands and words are trying to get across to us. But this is as far as sin will allow us to come, for to understand these words as anything other than the demands of an angry god is far beyond our frail tools of comprehension.

If the world does not teach us this by its endless war and raging, then we who call ourselves Christian, certainly do. For when these commands enter our hands, they become sword, mace, and cudgel. We take them up as our own personal crusade from God and swing them around, assailing ourselves and those around us, forcing them to submit, or else.

For that is all there is to these commands on the surface: a command and an implied threat. You shall have no other gods, or else. You shall not murder, or else. You shall not covet, or else. In wielding this sword of God’s words we become even more barbaric than those religions of war that we say we hate.

So what do we say about these most holy words from our Lord? That they are evil? That it is sin to obey the Law? No the Word of God is holy. It is the only weapon we have against the devil, the world, our sinful nature, and all evil thoughts. It needs to be our main occupation, what we talk about, and meditate on. Anyone who knows the Ten Commandments perfectly knows all of Scripture. Never stop until you have taught the devil to death and become wiser than God and all His saints.

The Law is good. You are not. You are not worthy of being conformed to the image of the living God and yet here it is that the first word of God is, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Saying to us, remember all that the Lord worked out in Egypt all for your sake. All the wonders, all the plagues, all the miracles. If the same Lord that did all that is giving the commands, then it will be all right somehow.

And not just somehow or someway, but through this righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees. And just what is this righteousness? Well Abraham believed the Lord and He counted it to him as righteousness. Jesus allowed Himself to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. So we see now that, since “...one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” (Rom. 5:18)

This means, quite simply, that the same Law that is very holy also condemns Jesus to hell. Yes, the Lord your God who has brought your forefathers out of Egypt and of slavery can also bring you out of the slavery of your own Egypt of sin and death and the inability to follow the Ten Commandments.

Much less understand them! You think God can’t follow His own Law, yet in Jesus we see the perfect fulfilling of this strict, demanding lifestyle handed down by God’s own hand. Which leads directly to the Son of God also being given to us by God’s own hand. 

And it is this Son Who does not just come to tell us to worship the true God, but shows us exactly what that means by becoming obedient to Him, even to death on a cross. In not taking the Lord’s Name in vain, not only does Jesus get charges for blasphemy, but comes to fulfill God’s word, not just do away with it.

He fulfills the Sabbath day by giving mercy. He honors His Father and mother by winning salvation through His Body and Blood. He does not murder, but allows Himself to be murdered. He does not commit adultery, but has one wife, the Church. He does not steal, but pays for His own Creation in blood. He does not give false testimony, but bears all false testimony against Himself. He does not covet, but creates that which He desires, that is faith.

Thus, this exceeding righteousness and perfection that Jesus demands is Jesus Himself. It was always the plan to crucify Jesus. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief (Is. 53:10). It was even always Jesus’ plan to be crucified, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame. (Heb. 12:2)

And here is the second point: it is not you up on the cross. It is not you who are being brought up on charges of not following God’s Word. It is not you suffering and dying for your faith. It is not you being liable to hell fire for your anger, because you are not worthy to bear that image. You are not worthy of being crucified, but you are being conformed to this image.

Such is the force of the small church phrase, “In Christ”. In Christ does not simply mean the power boost you get from God to push through any given situation. In Christ is taken in the Church to be literal. In the Epistle reading today, St. Paul proves this point. 

We have already seen that God’s Righteousness is Jesus Himself and therefore the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees is only found in Christ. So in order for us to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must have that righteousness. And the only way to get that righteousness is to be in Christ and the only way to get “in Christ”, is to be baptized.

And baptism is not a work of men, but a work of God. The suffering and crucifixion is not a work of men, but a work of Christ. Therefore you are buried in Jesus’ tomb and have died Jesus’ death all because of your baptism. In Christ, you are dead to sin and since the strength of sin is the Law, you are also dead to the law.

Yet, in this gift of faith and salvation you also have new life in Christ’s resurrection. You have been raised from the death of your own struggles against God’s Law and also those in your own life. Your body of sin has been brought to nothing. Trial and tribulation are now a sign that God is with us, not against us.

Because now, having been found in Christ, we add “In Christ” in front of each commandment. They then become not something we must do, but something Christ has done for us.

So we hear Exodus 20 in Christ’s light:

In Christ, God spoke all these words, saying,

“In Christ, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“In Christ, You shall have no other gods before me.

“In Christ, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 

In Christ, I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

In Christ, You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

In Christ, you Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

In Christ, you Honor your father and your mother.

In Christ, You shall not murder.

In Christ, You shall not commit adultery.

In Christ, You shall not steal.

In Christ, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

In Christ, You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

In Christ you have found the narrow gate that leads to life. In Christ you have found the fruit that leads to your sanctification. In Christ, you have found the peace that passes all understanding even in a world full of struggles and sufferings that we don’t understand. But only as much as we don’t understand the reason for God having to hang on a cross. Yet this He does, all for you.

Hope denied, hope given [Trinity 5; St. Luke 5:1-11]

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In the Hymn of the Day, sung today, you hear Jesus speaking to you saying,

“Nor think amid the fiery trial

That God hath cast thee off unheard,

That he whose hopes meet no denial

Must surely be of God preferred.”

What we will be doing today is keeping the words of our hymn of the day in the front of our brains as we ponder the Gospel reading in which the Disciples haul in a great catch of fish. It is because the words ring very close to what is happening, as it should if its the Hymn of the Day. In singing, “He whose hopes meet no denial must surely be of God preferred”, we see these hopes come to pass in the great catch of fish. Perhaps...

Surely you can agree. The disciples spent all night hoping to catch fish. This grand hope was not to make them rich or gain them any fame or notoriety, but simply to care for and feed their family. It is a hope that Creation will work like it is supposed to and provide sustenance and product for these business owners, in the form of fish in water. Or in this case, out of water.

I’m sure St. Peter would have been singing our Hymn of the Day afterwards, but probably not before. However, I am absolutely positive that those Jews who were well off, not dependent on fickle bodies of water and weather, and not living from paycheck to paycheck would be singing this stanza over and over again. Indeed, we have already heard the cry from those people, when they said, “Blessed are those who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven.” Suggesting that we can know who will be eating in heaven by what they are eating on earth.

What we don’t like about this part of God’s Word is that St. Peter did NOT catch anything. He was all out of hope. He had no doubt that there was no longer any God in Zion watching out for His people, because St. Peter’s nets, and the rest of his company’s, were empty after struggling all night. Thus, he and his employees sang a different tune from their own history during the time of Elijah, “The deeps afford no water and the rivers are exhausted.” In other words, God has forsaken us.

Fast forward to the time of the creation of our Hymn of the Day. Mister Georg Neumark, at 20 years old and fresh from his higher education in Germany, makes a journey of 152 miles only to be completely cleaned out by bandits. Unable to find work, he goes another 172 miles north, in December, to the city of Kiel, because the friends he had made brushed him off.

Yet, it was there that he found a friend in the local Lutheran pastor and, hope against hope, Neumark was given a top position as family tutor of a rich judge at the recommendation from the pastor. Upon receiving this appointment, Neumark’s relief was palpable and like St. Peter, burst out in a new song, praising God instead of cursing Him.

If this seems just about right to you, I’ve got some bad news. Its not right. There are two things wrong here. One, that people are cursing God and two, that there is a reason to curse God. It is sinful to only turn to God when things are going well, as St. Peter and Mr. Neumark have done. To be sure, you must give thanks to God for all things, but even evil people receive income to survive, no matter if it comes in the form of a job or a catch of fish.

Even though Neumark wrote thusly of his hymn: “Which good fortune coming suddenly, and as if fallen from heaven, greatly rejoiced me and on the very day I composed to the honor of my beloved Lord the here and there well known hymn; and had certainly cause enough to thank the divine compassion for such unlooked for grace shown to me”, like all good prophets, he did not know the greater importance to his words.

In this case, the line, “he whose hopes meet no denial must surely be of God preferred” are not simply pointing to earthly, temporal hopes. For, these we know are just as fickle as water, weather, and bandits and change with any passing season or fad. St. Peter and Mr. Neumark had many hopes in their lives lost and destroyed before one stuck, but what is the one that stuck?

For both, it was the same hope, but we’ll get to that afterwards. For now, it is St. Peter that teaches us and in the beginning, he calls Jesus master. And it is only in the Gospel according to St. Luke that Jesus is ever referred to as such. So we look to the Old Testament and find that this word is invariably linked to someone who is set over laborers or slaves to ensure work is accomplished. In Exodus 1:11, the Egyptians were “masters” set over the Hebrews to afflict them with burdens.

What does this mean? This means that Jesus is being looked at as one who creates burdens and we would agree. Life is hard work and there doesn’t seem to be any relief for us in sight either. So even though St. Peter has heard Jesus call Himself God, he still thinks that God only gives hard work, especially right after a failed 24-hours of fishing.

In our sin, God is our master. He is there to speak and we to obey. He is there to call out and we are there to follow orders. He is there to make life whatever it will be and we are there to plod along like good lemmings. This would certainly invoke curses from anybody, even a true believer.

And yet, Mr. Neumark sings about hope and we know from Ps. 71:5 that God is our hope. But how can God be our “master” and our hope. It sounds counter-intuitive and it is, but only as counter-intuitive as the resurrection.

Because here it is, in Psalm 22, that we find God praised as the hope of the Psalmist and yet the entire psalm begins with lambasting God for forsaking him. God is our master, demanding impossible tasks of us and yet declares to be the easy yoke. But this contradiction is only possible because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

You see, our hope is not just built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, our hope is Jesus’ blood and righteousness. It is Jesus Himself. St. Peter and Mr. Neumark were not just hoping for a favorable outcome to the lives they were living. They were hoping and praying for a Savior to rescue them from such a life that inflicts such hardships upon people.

St. Paul clarifies this in Romans 5 saying: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (v.1-5)

He also says in Chapter 8: “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (v.24-25)

St. Peter rejoices at the catch of fish, not because he can now keep his doors open for another day, but because a man, Who is standing in front of him, has just commanded the dried up sea to produce in abundance. A man that looks like him, smells like him, and talks like him has spoken but one word and made all the fruitless labor of St. Peter’s hand an overflowing cup of salvation.

Christians don’t really rejoice in moments of God’s seeming intervention of joy and comfort in life simply for the sake of joy and comfort. We rejoice in the fact that there is a God Who was made man that covers all our sin and gives us the hope of a better eternity by His side.

A master is not a master because he does the work of keeping his own law. A preposterous proposition. A master is a master because he orders others around. The fact that God Himself comes down as a man, born under the law, in order to fulfill it, is very backwards. Yet in the case of the one, true God of all things, we see this is true. Jesus has come not to be served, but to serve and offer His life as a ransom for many.

“Our hope for you is unshaken,” says St. Paul, “ for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (2 Cor 1:7). Jesus Christ shows that hope is alive on Easter, because Easter means resurrection for all flesh, not just those who are well off and well-to-do. The death of Jesus Christ our Lord we celebrate with one accord; it is our comfort in distress, our heart’s sweet joy and happiness” which we sing in LSB 634 written by Mr. Spegel, alive around the same time as our Mr. Neumark. 

Thus we find that our hope is the God-man Jesus Christ, Who suffered and died for us to show us He cares for and loves us. Now the master who demands perfection, is the same master Who purchases and wins that perfection for us, on the cross. Now the master who overloads our workload, is the Master to bare all our burdens, on the cross. 

So that when we return to our Hymn of the Day, we find a much truer meaning to Mr. Neumark’s words. For instead of “hope for a good life”, we sing for “hope for an eternal life”. Instead of “hope for easy street”, we sing for “hope for streets covered by the Blood of the Lamb”. It is in this Jesus-centered hope to which God will not deny us anything, even up to His entire Kingdom!

So how do we know we have this hope and are preferred by God? It is in your baptismal date, engraved in stone, when Christ entered your life and gave you faith to hear and believe that the hope He reveals on Easter, is now very much your own hope. And this hope, God will never deny you.

Body of comfort [Trinity 4; St. Luke 6:36-42]

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Jesus speaks to you today in the Gospel, saying,

“Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”

The joke goes: I used to think the greatest organ in the body was the brain. Then I realized who it was telling me this. For some of us, the brain is the most wonderful. It can think, it can rationalize, it can do wonders. Mind over matter, for example.

For most of us, the opposite is true and we find the mind to be one hidden trap after another. Leading us towards the inevitable dementia, Alzheimer’s, or any number of other mental diseases that would disqualify us from owning a gun.

There are four words that no one wants to hear, especially from their own brain: “please let me die”. We don’t want to hear them because they are a sure sign that the person uttering them has given up. They are confessing that the struggle is too much for them, battle has drawn on too long. 

We don’t want to hear them because they hurt us, especially if its from our own mind. “Us” who are still able to move around and do things. “Us” who are still energetic enough to work and drive and sit comfortably for more than five minutes at a time. For us who are able, giving up is not an option.

We would rather that they are having trouble not judging others or not condemning others or forgiving others. This is because we can recommend a book for each one. There is a class for learning how not to judge. There are feelings to be sought out in not condemning others and there are Bible lessons on how to forgive. 

Are you blind? Just as good! We can get you a seeing eye dog, a cane, and make it so that you can safely walk around the city with noise-making crosswalk signs. I can see so I can help you. Life will be grand with both of us and everything will be ok. The seeing will lead the blind and we will not fall into a pit.

But the words “please let me die” do not have any manual, or class, or sympathy to recommend fixing the problem. No amount of not-judging, or not-condemning, or forgiving, or being able to see will solve the problem that these 4 words present.

When our Lord commands us in His Gospel heard today, our response is immediately: “Point me towards my judgement, Lord, that I may eradicate it” or “where do I condemn and not forgive enough, that I remedy such error on my part” or “just tell me how to see again and I will do whatever you ask”. 

We rush to the sector we think is bringing down our Lord’s judgement upon us and start shoring up the defense. Jesus says, “here” and we move there. “Here” “Here” “Here”. We’re tiring but Jesus doesn’t slow down. “Here” “Here” “Here”. If we could just take a break. Here here here. Just a second to catch our breath. Here here here here here here.

Instead, Jesus shifts into higher gears: “Blessed are the poor”, Jesus says. That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not poor. I thought I was doing ok. Blessed are the hungry. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the hated. Just when we think we are getting ahead of Jesus’ commands, He turns a corner and demands that instead of accomplishing, we should be languishing and regretting even thinking that our hard work could stave off dying.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:3). Our own itching ears don’t want to hear that our bodies will eventually betray us and disable us. They don’t want to hear that no amount of “not judging” will get us out free, neither do we want to hear that Jesus is the One who judges.

Church history teaches us this lesson. For, in our study of the first 500 years of the church, the bishop’s have done nothing but battle over the two natures of Christ and how they relate to us. The fight was over whether or not Jesus was God, man, a mix, or something different.

It turns out that our beloved Nicene Creed was the thing to save us. For in it we learn that Jesus is of the same substance with the Father and yet was made man. No mixing or mingling, just the mystery of the God-man, Jesus Christ.

This is important because God has a body just like ours, but without sin. And He made our bodies for us, not so they could fall into sin, decay, and death, but so that they could live with Him forever.  

By becoming man, He takes all our sin upon Himself, even the sin we feel there is no escape from or even sin that we think is unforgivable. For it is these bodies that will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The mortal shall become immortal. The perishable, imperishable. 

Thus, the main idea in today’s Gospel is mercy and forgiveness, but since we cannot even restrain our judgement, this mercy and forgiveness must come from somewhere apart from our failure. For what is the measure we want to be measured with when we come in front of the Judge? Not ourselves, but The cross.

It is the suffering and dying of Jesus that shows us what true mercy is: forgiveness. It is the judgement of Jesus in front of the world that shows us what true judgement is: forgiveness. You get the picture. We want the cross and nothing else to judge our deeds.

Jesus shows us this is two instances. The first is Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and her hair. The Pharisees are grumbling and denying Jesus’ divinity, but Jesus turns to St/ Peter and says: “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” (Lk. 7:41-42) 

It is in life where, when we examine ourselves according to God’s Word, we find an enormous ineptitude in following Him. And since that ineptitude is so enormous, it is that exact proportion with which we love our Redeemer in return. Our debt piles up, but our moneylender in heaven is full of forgiveness. 

Thus even if our minds betray us and lie to us, forgiveness is greater than that lie. Even if our life is failure at doing good and success at doing evil, there is forgiveness for that. Life is a series of events in which we become like our teacher, who is Jesus. 

And that Teacher suffered, but was brought into glory; everlasting glory. That compared with temporal suffering is insignificant. For, “...not only does creation groan, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:23) We wait, but we wait in hope. The hope that our groaning will only last a short while.

But we must wait with Jesus, Who shares our humanity. We must bear our cross to be found a good and faithful servant. And we must bear it in these bodies that get tired, get hungry, and get worn out. Though our bodies betray us, our Savior does not. He keeps His promises and His Word is true. 

So even though the devil, the world, and our sinful nature mean nothing but evil for us in our bodies, God means it for our good. He will provide for us and our little ones, in His Church, that many will be saved and brought to new life.