‘I’m not a bad person. I’ve not raped or murdered anyone. Everybody makes mistakes. But I’m not evil. I’m a good person.’
Had conversations like that? The question is ‘Why should Jesus let you into his heaven?’ And the answer is ‘I haven’t raped or murdered anyone’. In other words, there are some really bad things that I haven’t done, that others have done. I might not be the best, but I’m not the worst.
It’s not a big step from there to saying, ‘I reckon God would be unfair to say no to me’. And then, it’s not a real big jump to think, ‘Hey, I’m not too bad, God should let me in. If God doesn’t let me in, he isn’t very fair!’
Matthew has already shown us that Jesus’ coming fulfills “the Law and the Prophets”, both the predictions and patterns they had established. The phrase, “the Law and the Prophets” (5:17) can refer to the Old Testament books viewed as a whole, the obligations of which Jesus neatly summarized (7:12; 11:13; 22:40). Jesus did not abolish the Old Testament: it remains God-inspired Christian Scripture useful and able to make us wise for salvation (2 Tim 3:14-16).
Over time, and especially after Israel became a monarchy, the prophets rebuked transgression of God’s law, particularly by the king, and call Israel back to “the Law”, that is, their covenant obligations (2 Kgs 17:13; Neh 9:26; Dan 9:10). The Old Testament prophetic role was not to make a new covenant, as was shown by God’s silence when Elijah returned to Sinai (1 Kgs 19:12-13). The law given under Moses remained, and ‘root and branch’ renewal of Israel would await a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15-19; Acts 3:22-23; 7:37). Over time, this figure was understood during Jesus’ day as “the Prophet” (John 1:21, 25; 6:14; 7:40), a figure distinct from the Messiah. The New Testament regards “the Prophet” as the same as figure as the Messiah, the mediator of the New Covenant, rather than a prophet calling Israel back to the first covenant (Jer 31:31-34; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; Hebrews 8-10; 2 Corinthians 3). As Israel (with few exceptions) grew hardened in unfaithfulness, the prophets increasingly pointed forward to a new figure, an anointed and faithful servant, a king in the line of David.
Jesus here focusses upon “the Law” (5:18). This can refer to the five books of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy), which established God’s covenant relationship with Israel. Israel’s covenant obligations were also itemized by individual commands: Jesus came also to fulfill the “commandments” (5:19) and not only the types, predictions, and promises found in “the Law”. He came to keep and do the instructions God commanded Israel and humanity.
Jesus’ teaching on the Law of God focusses on what we might call the moral law of God. The moral law of God is God’s eternal and unchanging moral will for humanity. Some things have always been and are always good. God made humans with a particular nature and purpose. And some things have always been sinful.
Whether a particular command of the torah should be regarded as ‘moral’ in this sense requires a ‘Biblical-theological’ analysis. This requires considering, in relation to the topic under question, what behaviour conforms to the nature and purpose of humans as God’s creatures. The data for this determination is revealed in the whole Bible throughout salvation history from creation to new creation. The unity of Scripture, God’s progressive revelation through history, and the culmination of his purposes in Christ and his coming kingdom, requires weight to be given to New Testament guidance and interpretation of the Old Testament. After such a ‘Biblical-theological’ analysis is carried out for the various moral issues, we observe that some Old Testament laws express God’s moral will for all humanity universally, but others are limited by the teaching of Jesus and his apostles to their particular Old Testament contexts. This later group of Old Testament laws were traditionally described as ‘ceremonial’, ‘cultic’, or ‘ritual’ (to do with Israel’s religion such as circumcision, the priesthood, temple, and sacrificial system, which the New Covenant regards as fulfilled in the coming of Christ and his work) or ‘civil’ or ‘civic’ (to do with Israel’s government as a theocracy and later as a constitutional monarchy, only having immediate relevance for those situations: for example, ‘Article VII’ of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles). However, laws of this latter type cannot be ignored, and still furnish important principles for understanding the New Covenant and guide moral decision-making. For an outline of this method and some key examples, see Michael Hill, The How and Why of Love: An Introduction to Evangelical Ethics (Sydney: Matthias Media, 2012).
Now, many people love the Sermon on the Mount. People who reject supernatural Christianity and miracles and the organized church, think that after we have cast away all the old fashioned, bigoted, homophobic, harsh, judgmental, wrathful bits of the bible, the residue we should keep is the Sermon on the Mount and a few expurgated, unconnected and innocuous maxims about love and not judging, lest you be judged. But these people who want to ditch the rest of the bible, but keep the sermon on the mount, have they actually read ALL the sermon on the mount? Do you really and truly like EVERYTHING that Jesus says in the sermon on the mount? Do you really approve of the bits of Christ’s sermon that tells you and I that we had better cut off our hands and gouge out our eyes than be sent into the hell of fire? Do you like the bit that say if you are angry with your brother or call him a 'fool', and you are in danger of hell fire? Do you like the bit that says ‘look lustfully on a woman and you are guilty of adultery’? Do you think the majority of our society would like the rule that if you divorce your wife and marry another, you are committing adultery? Don’t you think that all of those bits of the sermon on the mount are harsh, judgmental, hell fire and brimstone? Actually, compared to Jesus, Paul is quite nice and gentle and pastorally sensitive!
The good news, however, is this: ‘Blessed are those who are poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.’
But I can also understand why people find the Sermon on the Mount so attractive. It is God's good law. Of course it resonates with at least part of us. God's law should always be attractive to God's creatures. These moral demands are good and right and just and pleasing.
Today, I want to say three things about the law of God in the sermon on the mount. The law of God demands three things: (1) perfection, (2) internal conformity, (3) and performance, not hearing.
The first thing I want to say about God's law is that it demands perfection. God doesn't tolerate the least bit of sin, evil, wickedness, or depravity, and neither does his Law. God’s law demands thorough-going holiness, righteousness, integrity, consistency, indeed, perfection. Come with me to the last verse of chapter 5, to verse 48: Matthew chapter 5 verse 48: Jesus says there, ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect’. The law demands perfection. It is inadequate to say that the word teleios, as it is in the Greek, means 'integrity' or 'wholeness', and doesn't require perfection and sinlessness. In the matter of the law, as James says, sinlessness is required: breaking one command implies that you have broken it all (James 2:10-11). For wholeness or integrity in the moral realm does require perfection, or at least it to be restored in the God approved way. But if the person depends on the God-approved method of restoring wholeness or integrity, they cannot say that they themselves have kept the law or fulfilled its requirements, except in that they have taken hold of its provisions for the case of its breach. Yet Jesus here is exhorting perfection.
[Jonathan T Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, argues that the word teleios in the sermon means "not moral perfection but whole hearted obedience" (p 78), relying on Bowers who distinguishes between tamim and teleios as connoting "blamelessness" not "flawlessness" so that "human righteousness in the OT is to be understood as a perfor76mance target" (p 76).]
What other word would Jesus use to express perfection, if not teleios? Further, what does it mean that God is teleios, meaning that he is whole and has integrity, but is not sinless? Isn't that the point of using God as the example, that God is utterly and perfectly whole, complete, and integrated, and we are called to be likewise?
Consequently, the sermon on the mount shows us what the law is meant to show us: how high God's standard is. You can't get a higher standard than perfection. So our breaking of the law shows us that we are not perfect.
Jesus here, by expounding the law, shows us our many sins. The sermon doesn’t lower God’s standards, but lifts the bar higher than we think. Be perfect. And because it shows us God's real standard, when God’s law comes in contact with sinful people, it shows us how far short we fall. It exposes us for what we really are, that we are sinful wretches, whose thoughts are only evil all the time, that when we want to do good, evil is right there with us.
The second thing the Sermon on the Mount shows us it the law is about internal thoughts as much as external acts.
The Law of God is and has always ever been, about secret thoughts and internal attitudes. Jesus Christ quotes from the Old Testament Law when he tells us the most important commandment: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength' (NIV) That is Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5. And it is all about our internal emotional life. It is all about our loving God, which happens first of all within us.
Clearly the law is not simply about external acts. ‘If I give my all I possess to the poor and my body to the flames but have not love, I am nothing’, says Paul (1 Corinthians 13). I can do external things, but if I don’t have love internally, I am nothing. Love is called to be wholehearted, fully engaged, heart felt and perfect.
Don’t you grieve at how little you love God? I do. I am disappointed at how stubborn and hard-hearted my heart is. Indeed, I could grieve at how little I grieve. I should mourn at how little I mourn. But the good news is, 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.'
Consider the second most important command, Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ (NIV) And Jesus will include enemies as neighbours. Jesus includes everyone around us as neighbours.
And this requires forgiving those who’ve sinned us and wronged us, from the heart. To truly forgive someone who has deeply hurt us is very difficult. Very few actually find it in them to forgive someone from the heart. In fact, only God can enable it. The one who has been forgiven much loves much, but the one who has been forgiven little loves little. Don’t you grieve at how lacking in love or forgiveness you are? Have you ever seen how hard of heart you are to forgive those who have hurt you and wronged you?
The law is not just about external works and outward behaviours only. It is about hidden and secret, internal thoughts and attitudes. It is about our hidden emotions and biases and prejudices. The moral law of God, expressed in the two greatest commands, or the ten commandments, exposes and reveals what we are really like. It is a mirror truly showing us what we are like. The Law of the sermon on the mount cuts through our bluff and bluster and religiosity, and reveals what we are really like on the inside. The law has always been like this.
Consider the Tenth Commandment, 'Do not Covet'. You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manervant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour'. (Exodus 20:17 NIV)
I could break that commandment without you even knowing it. I could be up here, in the pulpit, delivering a great sermon, but breaking this command. In fact, I have. The sins I’ve committed in my head in the pulpit are enough to damn me to hell. I could be thinking to myself, ‘Boy I wish I had his house. She's a bit of alright!
Bang, broken the tenth commandment. Do not covet. Do not want. Do not wish for it or want it, don't think your life would be better with it. Don't lust or desire or long for it. Don't even think about it. And as James says, 'For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it' (James 2:10).
You ladies think men can only do one thing at a time. I’m telling you it is possible to preach a sermon and covet your neighbour’s wife. And all of this is wicked, damnable, horrid sin.
The sermon on the mount is painful. Not because it is bad, but because it is good and I am bad. The only way to avoid the pain is to cut bits out of it before it cuts you. That’s not Christian. So Jesus says to cut the bits off you that cause you to sin.
The third thing I want to say is that the law is and always was a matter of works. It is not a matter of hearing and believing, but of doing and obeying. Do this and you will live; don’t do this and you will die. If you want to get to heaven by being good, you have to keep and do the law, all of it, every last bit.
It is no good being a hearer of the law. Nor is it any good doing only part of the law. That doesn’t save anyone. For the one who does the whole law yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all. Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Do you know why sailors say ‘Aye Aye Sir’? The first ‘Aye’ says, ‘I’ve heard you captain’. And the second ‘Aye’ says, ‘And I will do it’. One ‘Aye’ only says ‘I’ve heard you, but I won’t do it’. And sadly, I am sure we have all be ‘One Aye’ sailors, as far as God is concerned, at least at one point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aye_aye,_sir
Should we be happy with this level of obedience? No. We should be poor in Spirit, so the Kingdom of heaven might be ours. We should mourn, so that we will be comforted. We should be humbled and meek, so that we inherit the earth. We must hunger and thirst for righteousness, so that we should be filled.
And so the sermon drives us with our sins to take our sins to Christ, who will deal with our sins. For his name shall be Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The sermon drives us to Christ. And the sermon drives Christ to the cross, to take our sins for us. Jesus came not to abolish God’s good law but to fulfill it. And so, the demands of the sermon on the mount are fulfilled by Matthew’s Passion Narrative. For Christ brings in the new covenant, in his blood, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. And the Law of God in the sermon on the mount was fulfilled by Jesus' Holy, God-pleasing life. He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. And Jesus will go on fulfilling all righteousness, by his holy, sinless life. And that righteousness Christ obtains through fulfilling the law for us, on our behalf, he will also give to us as the righteousness which comes to us by faith.
But since the sermon as law shows us our sin, it also shows us how to live as the people of God’s kingdom. For the law not only sends us to Christ so that Christ might be our righteousness, and His cross might justify us, so that we be forgiven by his blood. No, the forgiveness of the cross and our Christ sends us back to the sermon on the mount, and the law of Christ, that we might truly be Christ’s disciples, and members of his kingdom in both name and nature. ‘I am not free from God’s law, but am under Christ’s law’, says Paul. As a Christian, I don’t want to sin, I want to please my Lord. God has written the law in my heart. So as a Christian, justified by faith, I return to the sermon, to the Law, to learn to live to please my Lord.
So the righteousness that we require must exceed that of the Pharisees in two ways. First, it is the righteousness of Christ that fulfills the law – and thus the sermon on the mount – by his sinless life, sinbearing death and death-defeating resurrection. Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. And his fulfillment is for us, because he came to save his people from their sins. Christ is our righteousness. And he gives us righteousness, he reckons and imputes to us righteousness, as a free gift. So says Paul. And we depend on Christ for our justification and righteousness.
But second, we must not be satisfied with the righteousness achieved by the Pharisees. An outward, hypocritical legalistic righteousness that loves the praise of men rather than God is not the righteousness of the Kingdom. And so our righteousness – our conformity to the law of Christ – must and indeed will exceed that of the Pharisees. The new Kingdom that Christ will complete in his second coming has broken into our world in his first coming, and the sending of the Spirit. And so we are called to exhibit that righteousness that Christ saved us for. This is our sanctification, our inherent righteousness, our holiness of heart and action, that comes by the Holy Spirit’s renewal of our hearts.
So there are three characteristics of the law. First, it demands perfection. Second, it involves internal attitudes. Third, it involves works, doing it, not hearing it.
And Jesus demonstrates and exemplifies these three characteristics of the law of God with three examples. The three examples are, ‘anger is heart-murder’, ‘lust is eye-adultery’, and ‘divorce is legalized adultery’.
And so, with Christ, we recognize that anger in the heart is heart-murder. Calling someone ‘idiot’ or ‘blockhead’ or ‘fool’ shows us that the heart of the murderer lives within us. From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Such name calling is mouth murder. For the hatred that drives one person to murder, also drives another person to be angry with another human, to hate them in our hearts, to call them names like ‘idiot’ and ‘stupid’ and ‘fool’. And you and I know that those names are the mild end of the spectrum, the ones fit to repeat in church.
To be angry with another human is not a crime against the criminal law of NSW. But it is a crime against God. God has thought-crime, as in George Orwell's 1984, even though the law of Australia does not. And it is a wicked crime deserving of hell to be angry with another human being in your heart. Stick and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. But they might hurt the name caller, into eternity.
'But, but, if you only knew what he did to me! If you only knew the pain and suffering that person has caused.'
I don’t need to know. God knows it all, more than you do. And God still says, ‘Love your enemy, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you’. And Jesus, as he goes to the cross, looks at the people who are torturing him to death, and says, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing’. That’s what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.
Likewise, secondly, lust is adultery. It is not ‘eye candy’, nor is it that ‘you can read the menu but you have to eat at home'. The law of God is, ‘You look at a woman lustfully, you’ve committed adultery in your heart.’ It is eye adultery. That has always been God’s law. It was built into the tenth commandment.
So, you ask, how is it that I, your minister, can come into church today with two eyes, and two hands, being the lustful coveteous eye-adulterous sinner that I am. I have my eyes and hands and feet because Jesus is using hyperbole. The way you gouge out your eyes is to turn the TV off. The way you cut off your hand is by putting them in your pocket if you are tempted to pick up that pornographic magazine in the servo or news agency. The way you cut off your feet is by not using them to see ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ or whatever other movie that will tempt you to lust, but by running the other way when you are tempted to see it. Flee sexual immorality. Use those feet while you’ve still got them, by running away from adultery and fornication.
Friends, the solution to lust is not the Birqa. The Birqa says that the problem lies out there, with the woman. But Jesus says the problem is in here, in the heart of the lustful man.
Sisters, of course you can help your Christian brothers by dressing with modesty. Ladies, if you spent one day in the brain of your Christian brothers, husbands, or sons, it would be very educational for you, perhaps even shocking. And perhaps, if you have a second look at what you are wearing before you leave home, maybe men won’t take that second look.
But after saying that, I also want to say, ladies, it is not your fault that men lust. It is the fault of sinful men, and our sinful hearts.
And Jesus goes on to point out that divorcing your wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, is legalized adultery. At the time of Jesus, divorce was relatively easy, as it is in our culture. Sick of the old model? Well, simply trade up to a new one. She’s younger and prettier. And she understands you. And the certificate of divorce makes it all legal. What a wonderful system of legalized adultery. The man gets the new trophy wife, ditches the old one, and was accepted in polite society as well.
Jesus says to all this, ‘No’. Divorcing your wife in such circumstances, and indeed, in all circumstances except sexual unfaithfulness, is just legalized adultery. Life-long faithfulness in marriage is what the law calls for. And it is still called for by the Law of Christ. So friends, do not divorce your spouse. Don’t do it. Marriage is for life. We are meant to be different, salt and light.
The person who hopes to get to heaven by their good lives and behaviour says, ‘Well, at least I haven’t raped anyone’. But the one who understands the law says, in the words of the band U2:
‘Don’t believe in skid row, don’t believe in rape. But every time she passes by wild thoughts escape’ (I Believe in Love)
The one who looks down on others says ‘Well, at least I am not a murderer’. But the one who understands the sermon on the mount says, ‘I may not have murdered anyone, but I’ve called them “idiot” and “fool” and so I deserve hell'. And they mourn and are poor in Spirit as a result.
No flesh will be justified in God’s sight by works of the law. Rather through the law we become conscious of sin (Romans 3:20).
But the good news is for the poor in Spirit, the meek, the merciful, the mournful, broken hearted. There is righteousness that will fill you. It is found in Christ, in being in Christ, who is our righteousness. Christ gives righteousness as a free gift to all who hunger and thirst for it. Christ is the end of the law, so that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.
And not only is there imputed righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, for the believer, but Christ also gives the believer the Holy Spirit and regeneration and renewal. Christ will not leave us where we are. But in our constant war against our flesh, our sinful nature, God and his Christ will sanctify us through and through. One day our battle against the world, the flesh and the devil will be over. We will not have those sinful thoughts, the mouth murder, the eye adultery, to continually battle against, any more. So now, we need to keep our eyes pure, to turn off the TV, not go to that movie, not leer at that lovely girl made in God’s image, but treat younger women as sisters, with absolute purity (or whatever the female equivalent is). We men need to rethink our thinking, and make a covenant with our eyes not to look lustfully on any girl. We need to be different to our sex-soaked, throw away society, and be faithful in marriage, in both body and soul. That is the way we will be salt and light. And it forever and always remains the law of Christ.
Let’s pray.