Jesus' Righteousness Makes Us Right With God - Matthew 5: 10-20

Are you afraid? If you were listening carefully to Jesus’ closing words in today’s Gospel, you probably should be. I know am. There Jesus says, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” If that doesn’t frighten you, let me tell you something about the righteousness of those Pharisees and teachers Jesus is talking about, the righteousness that the Son of God says you and I must surpass to enter heaven.

James Tissot
The Pharisee & Publican

For one thing, the Pharisees and teachers of the law knew their Bible cover to cover, backward and forward, inside and out. One of the kids asked me if  knew Psalm 83. I said, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and darkness hovered over the face of the deep.” A wise adult standing nearby said, “That’s Genesis 1:1; she asked you for Psalm 83.” I said, “I know…I’m getting there.” Pharisees needed no such running start. If asked for Habakkuk chapter 4 verse 7, or 1 Kings chapter 5 verse 18, he could do it without having to look it up. That’s how righteous the Pharisees and teachers were: righteous enough to know their Bible that well. Jesus says that unless our righteousness surpasses theirs, we cannot enter heaven. Does your righteousness surpass theirs in the field of Bible knowledge? Mine neither.

Another example... the Pharisees and teachers of the law gave a full ten percent of their income to their church, at a minimum. That’s how righteous they were in their giving. Jesus says that unless our righteousness surpasses theirs, we cannot enter heaven. Does your righteousness surpass theirs in the area of generosity? Mine neither.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law would not be caught be dead anywhere near any display of immorality. They would never set their eyes on anything dirty or impure. Jesus says that unless our righteousness surpasses theirs, we cannot enter heaven. Does your righteousness surpass theirs in the area of purity? Mine neither. And that ought to make us afraid. And Jesus says we have to be even better than that – we have to surpass their righteousness and be perfect – to enter the kingdom of heaven.

But in this Gospel Jesus has more to say; and what else he says takes away our fear and restores our hope of entering heaven. He says, “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.” You and I are not perfectly righteous in our knowledge of God’s Word, but Jesus was. He knew every command in the Word of God. He knew exactly what it took to live a perfect life.

And while you and I are not perfectly righteous in our generosity, Jesus was. He was so generous that he gave all of himself. He gave himself completely by coming into this world to fulfill that Word of God, to do all that his heavenly Father requires. While you and I have not been perfectly pure, Jesus was. He kept every single one of God’s commands, and he did it for us. He laid down his righteous life on the cross, and he did it for us.

Has our righteousness surpassed the Pharisees in the knowledge of God’s Word, in generosity, and in purity? Have we been perfect in those areas, so that we can enter the kingdom of God? Certainly not. But we have a Savior who knew God’s Word perfectly. We have a Savior who showed perfect generosity in giving himself for us. We have a Savior who lived a pure life that he then sacrificed for our sake.

And because we do, we do not need to despair of our hope of entering heaven. Because Jesus came knowing God’s Word, and in pure generosity to us fulfilled every word of God’s commands, we know that heaven is ours. Through faith in Jesus, we have righteousness before God. We have righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees and teachers of the law. We have the holiness of our Savior Jesus. And with it we have the promise of heaven.

Yes, Jesus has made you righteous through faith in him. That’s what he tells you today. And he also tells you this: Since he has made you righteous in God’s eyes, spend the time between now and the day you enter heaven living in the righteousness Jesus has given you.

Jesus makes that command using two different pictures. First he says: “You are the salt of the earth.” Later he says, “You are the light of the world.” Notice, Jesus does not say, “You are like salt,” or “You are like light.” You are the earth’s salt. You are the world’s light.” Jesus has made you righteous; he has turned you into something special: the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It’s what you are.

So, Jesus says, live like the righteous person he has made you. Live as the salt that you are. Live as the light that you are.  

Jesus has made you righteous; he has made you the salt of the earth; so go out and be what you are. Do good things for whatever you touch in the world, just as salt does good things. Add some flavor and preservation to this world by walking in the Commandments. Make your world different. Give it the flavor of righteousness. Your world is wasting away, rotting from sin. Preserve it by showing others the God-pleasing way to live.

Be the righteous person Jesus has made you; be the salt of the earth. Be the light of the world. Your world is a dark, dreary place full of angst and anger. Be someone bright. Let the joy of your forgiveness show in the way you speak to others. Respond to sarcasm with something genuinely nice. Answer selfishness and self-centeredness with thoughtfulness and kindness. Break the darkness of hate with the light of love.

You are different than the world around you. It is bland with all the same flat and tasteless sin; it is wasting away with rebellion against God. It is dark and mean and cruel. But you are not. You are righteous in Christ. And when he made you righteous, he made you salt and light. Go out and be what you are; the world will be better for it.

Today, we give thanks to God for the Lutheran Women’s in Mission, the LWML. Since 1942, Lutheran women have been serving the Lord with gladness, serving others in His name as salt and light. Although not chartered nationally until the 40s, the first organized gathering of Lutheran women took place right here in Oklahoma in 1928. For over 80 years, Lutheran Women in Mission have been proclaiming Christ, supporting missions, equipping other women in service, and in using their own, unique gifts to care for one another and other Christians from our neighborhood to across the globe.

Today is LWML Sunday. The stereotype is that the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League is nothing more than a group of women who sit around, drink coffee, and chit-chat the time away. The LWML is much more than that. The heart of the LWML is a love for Jesus and a desire to spread His message of hope and life. 

Several years ago, back in Victoria, we were hosting the Zone rally. Unfortunately, our Zone president, who was also a member of my church, was not in the hospital, unable to be with us. After doing the opening devotion, I excused myself and went into town to see her. She was very disappointed because she had helped with the planning, selecting the theme, and the service project for the event. But, she wanted details – how many ladies were there, how was it going, was there enough food, so on. Then she asked me what my devotion was about. I smiled and said, “Jesus.” She grinned at me and, after scolded me for being a smarty-pants, she nodded and said, “Well, that’s what it’s supposed to be about, isn’t it?”

Her comment embodies the entire mission and ministry of the LWML. We thank God for the faithfulness of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League in serving the Lord with gladness and sharing that word of Hope and encouragement, to be salt and light to a saccharine, dark world.

Whether you are part of the Women in Mission League, or if you have never heard of them until today, you live as the salt and light of the world Jesus has made you to be. He will give you opportunities to tell others about His love. If you want the world around you to be attracted to what you believe, if you want your friends and neighbors to see something different in you, be what Jesus has made you. If you want them finally to have to ask what makes you different, live like the righteous person you are. If you want your opportunity to tell someone, “It’s Jesus – he has won my forgiveness, he has made me righteous. He’s for you, too. Trust in him,” then be salt and light.

The Wicked Tenants and a Patient Landowner - Matthew 21: 32-45

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Gospel reading from Matthew 21.

Another parable; another story about the reigning of Jesus. This one, however is different than most others in two distinct ways. First, it’s a parable that is more about what is to come, not what is happening or has been. Second, it’s a parable that does not end well – not for the main character (the son) or for the tenants whom the son was sent to work with. Thus, the parable is unsettling – for both reasons.

The parable is easy enough to understand. Jesus calls them tenants. In the South, we would call them sharecroppers, working the land and sharing the crop to pay the rent. Whether sharecroppers in the south who refuse to share the crop, or tenants in ancient Israel who refuse to pay the rent, there is another, simpler name to use to describe such people: thieves.

The Parable of the Wicked Workers of the Vineyard
Andrey Mironov

To collect what’s due, without the benefit of constable or sheriff, the landowner sends his own emissaries: a series of servants. It doesn’t go well.  Number one gets smacked around; Number two gets the stuffing knocked out of him; Number three, sadly, is murdered. Can you imagine being part of the servant corps, hoping – praying – that your lottery number isn’t pulled for the draft? No thanks!

Now, at this point, I hope you are asking some questions, questions like, “What in the wide, wide world of sports is the landowner thinking?” We can understand sending the first, maybe even a second servant to collect the rent. But after the second incident, evidence is mounting that the sharecroppers aren’t going to play nice. With workers’ comp payments skyrocketing, what kind of landowner sends yet a third servant? None who understand any kind of risk management, no one who have any value for life. So, why would the landowner continue to send servants when the chances of a peaceful resolution are falling faster than water tables in the Panhandle?  Because the landowner, at heart, is kind and merciful and he wants to give those tenants every possible opportunity to stop their foolishness, to stop being thieves, and instead return to a faithful relationship with the master.

The servant can breathe easier when the draft is stopped and the landowner strategizes to send his son instead. You should be asking more questions, now, questions like, “Is this guy mad? Has he gone coo-coo for cocoa puffs? Sending his own son even as he’s still paying disability and funeral benefits for his other three servants? If this happened to servants, what makes him think the son will be treated better? This makes no sense! Who would do such a thing?”

Who, indeed? And, why?

What kind of master would continue to send servants down the highway to the danger zone when recent history shows no reason to expect anything other than further rejection? If that’s true of servants, why would he determine to send his son as a debt collector with such a risk of his being rejected – perhaps even killed?

This, friends, is a parable that tells us something about the mercy of God towards sinful mankind – even at the risk of His own servants, those who speak on His behalf….and even at the risk of His own Son. 

Isaiah 5 helps us paint the picture to understand the parable. The vineyard is the nation of Israel and the plantings, that is the vines themselves, are the people of Israel. The tenant farmers represent the Jewish leaders. The parable, then, illustrates the rejection of God’s authority by the Pharisees, et al, openly defying His word, His gifts, His promises. They have been doing it for quite some time. To call these people to repentance, God sent His servants, called prophets, to call the tenant-pharisees to repentance and properly care for God’s own. Prophets represent God by speaking on His behalf: “Thus saith the Lord.” Don’t try to identify who the servants specifically represent. The three collectively represent all of the prophets who were physically hurt, ignored, and killed for His name’s sake, culminating with the martyred John the Baptizer. So, if God’s people reject His messengers, His prophets, His spokesmen who proclaimed His call to repentance what else could God do?

A moment ago, I said that in the parable the landowner was kind and merciful, wanting his tenants to repent. If that is true in a parable, it is infinitely more true of the Father in Heaven. His greatest desire for Israel (and, again, for all mankind) was repentance, that they would turn from their foolish, arrogant, selfish sinfulness and live. With them rejecting His prophets, God chose to send the Word made flesh, His Son, His only-begotten Son with a simple message: repent, for the Kingdom – the reigning of Jesus – is here.

I also said that this parable is unique in that it foretells something. This parable is speaking about the rejection of Jesus as the tenants plot the murder of the landowner’s Son. “We’ll gain the inheritance,” they foolishly thought in the parable, as if the father would surrender what is rightfully his to murdering thieves.  Their rejection of the master’s kindness and mercy, rejecting his servants and, finally, his own son, was full and complete folly. What kind of fools would do such a thing? Then again, the landowner’s sending his son was folly, itself.  There was no reason, no evidence that the tenants would change their unfaithful stewardship after going oh-for-three with his servants. Yet, the landowner sends his son to the rebellious tenants to give them a final chance to repent – that is, to pay the balance owed and become favorable sharecroppers, again. We know that doesn’t work, though. They foolishly murder the son.

In much the same way that Nathan used the story of a rich king and a poor neighbor’s pet lamb to gain the empathetic response from King David after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, Jesus’ parable has garnered an empathetic response his Pharisaic listeners. He brings the story to them by asking, “So, what’s the landowner/father going to do to those rebellious tenants?” There was a question hidden in His question to them, as if He’s asking, “Do you get what I’m asking? Are you going to repent or keep killing those whom My Father sends to you?”

They don’t realize that they answer prophetically, judging against themselves by saying, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in due season.”

Jesus minces no words when He agrees with their assessment. It’s no longer a story, though. It becomes a first-person narrative addressed to them.  He goes back to Kingdom talk: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” It’s as if He is saying, “Those whom you find undesirable, they will be the ones in the Kingdom because of faith and repentance. Meanwhile you all, so worried about your own appearances and façades, will be left outside the kingdom. That which was once yours will be taken. 

There was no reason for Jesus to hope the authorities would change their disbelief in hearing this story. So, why does He tell the story? Why does He continue to speak to the Jewish leaders who are rapidly tiring of His Messianic work?

The same reason as in the parable: as the landowner sent his son to give them the opportunity to repent, God sends His Son to give the people an opportunity to repent, believe, and trust in Christ alone for the mercy and grace of God.

We know this parable is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ crucifixion, that the Jewish leaders will take the Son outside the Vineyard, outside the city walls of Jerusalem, and crucify Jesus. They reject Him, His authority, His divine Sonship. They can’t stop the Father’s plan of rescue, though. He uses their sinful jealousy, taking what they intended for evil and using it for the salvation of the world.