Don't Relax; Rejoice!
Intro: I can think of no bigger thank you than by giving glory to God by the preaching of his Word according to your gracious invitation. [Pause] If there's one thing I don't really get, it's that if you're driving in the outback, if you slow down on the dirt tracks with their grooves, you'll become stuck. You can't relax. If you fill a pool with tapioca, you can run across it, but the second you try to walk or stand, you'll sink. You can't relax. Now, make no mistake, you're not able to make yourself a Christian, and you're not able to keep yourself a Christian, but you are able to treat God's Word as if it's not that serious, but that's not a good idea.
Today's Central Thought is:
Don't relax – God is serious about every word he has said, but rejoice – Jesus seriously fulfilled every word of God and by faith you do too.
Let us examine this. Jesus says in today's reading, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore 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, (Mat 5:17 ESV)” People want to relax and get away with doing only as much as they need to. My brother had a classmate who did the maths on how high a mark he needed to get on his final exam and still pass the unit, and discovered that he could get a 0 and still pass the unit, so on the day of the exam he got his exam paper, sat down, took out a fork and knife, ate his exam, and walked out. People like to get away with as little as possible. You may ask, “do I have to know the entire Bible to be saved?” The answer is no – even if you study it for your whole life you can never know it as well as you should. So immediately you think, “well, good, I don't need to worry about hearing or reading this book. Time to sit back and relax.” How quickly you abandoned God's Word! Does our Lord Jesus speak this way? Does he not tell you that the Word of God, specifically here the Old Testament (which people today ignore and misunderstand), is so important that not the littlest part of the littlest letter will pass away from it, but in fact it is so important that he himself will fulfill all of it? Is it not self-centered pride that leads us to do this; pride that breaks the 1st commandment?
And then there's anger. Anger prevents love, which is what the 5th commandment calls you to show to your neighbor, that you help and support him in every physical need. Anger prevents this. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22 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. (Mat 5:17 ESV)” Don't relax and say, “I have not committed murder.” See where you have failed to give physical support for your neighbor, see where you have withheld your love. Don't relax, God gives a serious word here.
Don't relax, and don't abuse. Of course don't abuse your neighbor, that is part of sinful anger. But don't abuse God's Word. Jesus says “You have heard it said . . . but I say”, not because the Old Testament is wrong – none of it will pass away because it is God's Word; he says it because of those who have interpreted the Old Testament wrongly – the scribes and Pharisees. They lessened it, they loosed it. “Oh, as long as you don't commit horrible murders, don't worry about it.” (while they themselves were full of anger and hate). That was never the intent of the 5th commandment, and that's what Jesus is doing – showing the real intent and purpose of the 10 commandments – not for your self–righteousness, but to reveal why you need the higher righteousness achieved by Christ on the cross which is a gift received by faith.
The ultimate authority of the Old and New Testaments is Jesus Christ, so don't go interpreting either without him. The answer to why we don't sacrifice animals on altars, is an answer that is about Jesus and his fulfillment of the Old Testament and is taught by Jesus; so don't look for any other answer than a Jesus answer (and it's great that I can do this as a guest pastor and leave the hard work of teaching here to the called and ordained servant of Christ given to this parish [point] and I can just merrily go back to Melbourne after). Don't say, “you called me a fool, so it's off to hell with you because that's what Jesus says, even if my own sinful unwillingness to repent is why you said it”, because you should know the Bible has more to say about the 5th commandment than what Jesus says here, but that the answer will be centered in and taught by Jesus. Don't abuse God's Word. Don't relax.
And especially don't relax and don't abuse when it comes to teaching others. And you know the best way people learn? By example. Don't teach others to lessen the 5th commandment by your own anger. Don't teach others to lessen the 2nd commandment by not praying for them and leading them in prayer. Don't teach others to lessen the 3rd commandment by not receiving the Lord's Day as holy by hearing his Holy Word, by hearing preaching, and by receiving his holy Sacraments. Don't relax – rejoice! God gives serious words, but Jesus seriously fulfilled every word of God. Jesus did the will of your Father in heaven. Jesus never wanted to do the least he could get away with – the least love he could show, the least salvation he could give, the least reconciliation between God and man that he could accomplish. He came to earth to do it all – to win the complete reconciliation between you and God, to take all of God's wrath against sin in order to take away all of your guilt and shame over breaking God's holy commandments.
Rejoice – because Jesus doesn't abolish God's Word, he fulfills all the promises of God's Word by abolishing your sin. Jesus is the one who came to fulfill. The demands of the Law are harsh – no sinful human being can fulfill them, but Jesus did in your place. The promises of God in the Old Testament are many – and Jesus fulfilled each one of them perfectly – a point Matthew very much wants you to know because he's always showing how Jesus is doing it; Matthew uses the word fulfill most often to introduce an Old Testament quote and apply it to Jesus' work. Rejoice – your salvation is fulfilled as a free gift by this Jesus Christ.
Rejoice at this full reconciliation. Jesus says, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Mat 5:17 ESV)” For Christians, this reconciliation between you and God is something you share with one another at the Lord's Table, for the Lord's Supper. What God gives you, you share together – if love, then love; if mercy, then mercy; if the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, then you receive it together and confess it together and share that forgiveness with one another together.
Don't relax, but rejoice, because by faith you also do what God says and teach it by faith. It is by faith, and faith alone, that you want to be reconciled to each other and put away your anger by forgiveness, because God is no longer angry with you because of the blood of Jesus. You can't relax because you are saved and because God sustains your faith, but you can rejoice at the fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Rejoice – but don't get ahead of yourselves. Yes, as Christians you want to do this and teach this because you belong to Christ, because you have been brought into his kingdom through baptism. But don't get ahead of yourselves – you are also sinners. At the same time that you are a Christian who does what God says, you are also a weak sinner who wants to go against God's Word. This predicament will remain with you as long as you're on earth. You will remain a weak sinner.
A weak sinner puts his/her opinion in the place of God; a Christian puts every word under God's Word. A Christian interprets God's Word as speaking about the promise of Christ, a sinner interprets God's Word to make his/herself look good and holy while being angry and resentful on the inside.
Jesus is describing the community of faith that is created by his death and his righteousness – a community, the Church, that rejoices because it does what God says and teaches it by faith. Don't relax – as a Christian, and a Christian congregation, you won't want to. I mean, what a terrible burden to do the will of him who purchased and won you, and to share that most precious truth (in its 6 chief parts [wink]) with your family. (And to teach others to do so, as Jesus 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, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 5:17 ESV)”, to teach others to do them is to fulfill 2nd & 3rd commandments and to live with absolution as the center of the congregation and home.)
Are you a weak sinner? Come to the fountain of grace! Are you a Christian? This is the result of God's gracious gift of faith, and you have no end of troubles from the world, the devil, and your own sinful flesh – come to the fountain of grace! To use the words of St. Paul from Romans 6, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Rom 6:1 ESV)”, so come to this fountain of grace in the daily remembrance of your baptism, and in the receiving of the Lord's Supper.
Conclusion: So relax – but only in the forgiveness of sins, not outside of it. Don't relax and lessen God's Law or abuse God's Word. Don't get ahead of yourselves that now you have become perfect and you're not even in heaven yet. Do rejoice that full forgiveness is found in Jesus. Rejoice in it together. Amen.
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