February 21, 2010 Sermon

Impossible Standards
Matthew 5:21-32

Here in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continues to lay out a series of impossibly hard statements.  Anger leads to hell.  Just looking lustfully at another person leads to hell.   Divorce leads to hell.  By these standards nobody could possibly qualify for heaven.  And that is precisely Jesus' point.  Nobody can qualify for heaven.  Yet God does not relax the standards.  How, then, can we hope?  Jesus does not compromise the perfect righteousness of God's law.  We must try to live holy lives.  Yet we do not draw near to God through our own holiness.  God draws near to us through Jesus.  God offers us grace, not compromise. 

Grace, not compromise.  As Reformed Christians (that is, as Christians participating in a Presbyterian Church, one of the historic reformed denominations), we do not hold to a literal interpretation of scripture.  Instead, we believe that the Holy Spirit works with us to help us find God's truth in the Bible.  With God's help, we find the Word with a capital W, the truth of the Gospel, in the words of scripture.  We look then at the words Jesus spoke in his sermon.  “You have heard it said,” he begins this passage, “you shall not murder.”  He refers here to the Jews' own scripture, the Old Testament.  He refers specifically to the fifth of the Ten Commandments.  He adds that the Commandments threaten murderers with judgment. 

We would have no problem had Jesus left it there.  We want murderers to get judged.  We long for murderers to get punished.  The penalty phase of trials has become popular.  After a guilty verdict comes down victims and their relatives testify to the pain and suffering they have endured because of the criminal's actions.  They beg the judge to let 'em have it.  Give 'em the maximum.  Many will remember the trial of the Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents some fifteen years ago.  During the penalty phase the prosecuting attorney played home movies of the murdered parents.  Mrs. Menendez' brother testified he woke up screaming from nightmares that included her.  The prosecution and the family had every right to pursue the case as vigorously as possible.  But outside the courthouse crowds of people who had no connection at all with the family chanted “Give them the needle.”  (Their state, California, uses the injection method of capital punishment.)  A lust for vengeance had overtaken the mob. 

But what happens when we are the guilty parties?  How madly do we long for the maximum punishment for ourselves?  Jesus continued, “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister you will be liable to judgment.”  In case we still do not understand the gravity of our situation he says insults and thinking of others as fools qualify us for the maximum, for the fires of hell.  How many times a day do we become angry?  How many times a day do we think badly of others? 

Jesus knew full well that his words convicted every person who heard—and hears—them.  He did not intend to be taken literally.  He did not mean that once you have become angry with one person you are doomed to spend eternity in agony.  How can I make such a presumptuous statement?  I can because he continues to speak.  “When you offer a gift at the altar, if you remember that a brother or a sister has something against you,” he begins.  He speaks to a crowd composed mostly of Jews.  They understand “offer a gift at the altar” as a reference to going to worship God.  For us, therefore, the message is that we must not go to worship God if a brother or a sister has something against us.  We need to reconcile first.  Jesus would not bother to say this if nothing we do could free us from the fires of hell. 

Having gotten his audience's attention with an overblown threat (if you are even angry you will receive eternal punishment) he now gets to the meat of his message.  Do not presume to try to worship God when you are angry.  Confess your sins to one another.  Ask for forgiveness.  Then go worship God together.  Every church suffers from grudges among its members.  Every church loses people because of unresolved anger.  When (not if) we have conflict, resolve it.  I once parked at a church at the same time as a friend.  As we walked inside he would not even look at me.  I asked him what was wrong.  He stopped, and hesitated a few seconds before saying, “Mike I have a lot of anger for you right now.”  He went on to make an accusation against me.  His story was untrue.  I proved it to him.  We reconciled.  But I must add the sad side to the story: his wife never believed me.  She did not want to.  Battles she was fighting with others prevented it.  I found myself angry with her.  And I still carried anger against her husband for believing the worst about me, if only temporarily.  I sinned, too.  When somebody has something against you, or you against them, go to them.  Clean the wound so it can heal.  Then worship God together.  Sadly, though I went to their home to try to work through this situation, this family never reconciled with me or our congregation.  It remains one of the most frustrating experiences of my ministry.

As if the anger issue were not tough enough, Jesus continues to the topic of lust.  If we define lust broadly enough not one person can escape his words.  Two magazine-related incidents from the seventies illustrate this point.  For Christmas in my 13th year my mom gave me a subscription to Sports Illustrated.  What a great gift, I thought, especially when February came around and with it, the swimsuit issue.  My mom had absolutely no idea this existed and I probably did not either.  But I loved that issue.  Was I lusting after those women?  You bet I was.  And I have always felt Jimmy Carter got an unfair reaction when in his interview with Playboy Magazine he said he had looked at many women with lust in his heart.  In fact, he got it right.  He stated that Christ set impossible standards and that he forgives us when we confess our sins.  But here was a presidential candidate granting an interview to Playboy; then telling that magazine that he had lusted after women “many times”. 

Jimmy Carter was being honest.  He went on to state he had never acted on any of his lustful impulses.  In the world's eyes he had remained faithful to his wife.  But he knew better.  He knew that God requires perfect righteousness and we cannot deliver it.  And Carter pointed out a secondary sin: that many Christians presume to think they are holier than others if they have not had extra-marital affairs.  We are all sinners.  You are a sinner.  I am a sinner.  All of us fail to meet God's perfect, impossible standard.  All of us rely utterly on the grace of God for forgiveness.

Jesus does not emphasize the relief grace brings us in this section of his Sermon on the Mount.  No, here he hammers away at the uncompromising perfection of God's standards.  As a preacher I could legitimately do the same.  After we studied this passage last Tuesday morning, one of our Bible study members asked, “Well, Mike, are you going to light them up this time?”  No, I do not want to light you up.  I want to light us up.  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  Those who have not had a physical extra-marital affair have very likely committed adultery according to Jesus' standard.  Those who have not physically committed murder have very likely harbored anger against brothers and sisters.  We must therefore confess our sins and throw ourselves upon the mercies of our gracious God.  It is our only hope.

Jesus will give more examples of God's impossible standards in the areas of divorce, and taking oaths and revenge.  His message throughout remains the same: grace, not compromise.  God shows us love not by relaxing his standards, but by forgiving us when we fail to meet them.  Let us do the same.  Let us hold ourselves to God's perfect standards.  When we harm others, let us confess our sin.  (I note in passing that Jesus does not advocate going to a brother and sister to confess the sin of lust.  For that one we go straight to God alone.)  When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will forgive us.

This week we start the church season of Lent.  In America today Lent is known primarily because Fat Tuesday—an excuse to let the good times roll—precedes it.  Roman Catholics used to give up red meat for Lent.  But Lent should go much deeper than merely giving something up for a few weeks.  Lent is the season of self-examination and above all else, repentance.  Repentance literally means to turn.  It's time to turn away from sin and to turn toward Jesus.  We will still sin.  Yet when we confess our sins we perform a spiritual turnaround that God helps along. 

John Newton wrote Amazing Grace after experiencing the power of God's forgiveness.  Newton had captained a slave ship.  I had a seminary classmate who had turned his life around after experiencing God's forgiveness while doing hard time in the California State Penitentiary.  The Apostle Peter caught fire for spreading the Gospel after Jesus forgave him for denying him three times.  We can experience the same power of forgiveness.  Use Lent to develop the habit of confession.  Understand that God never compromises.  Yet in Christ we know the loving power of God's forgiveness.  If a brother or sister has something against you, go to him or her and ask forgiveness.  Confess your sins to God whether they be lust, anger, envy, or whatever. 

Every elder, deacon and pastor has sinned.  Every church member has sinned.  The question is, what do we do about that?  Kick everybody out?  Does God kick everybody out?  No—despite what a surface reading of the Sermon on the Mount might suggest.  No, God’s grace forgives us every time we confess to having broken His impossibly high standards.  Praise God!  Confess, receive grace, and get busy.