6th Sunday after Trinity + Matthew 5:20-26

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The fifth commandment is deceptively simple: Don’t murder. Most hear the commandment and say that they’ve done that, or rather that they haven’t done that, and so fulfilled the commandment. While most aren’t murderers, many in our day openly support and defend murder and even call it a right. Abortion, the murder of a child in its mother’s womb, is now acceptable and defended in the public square as a woman’s right. In recent months this selfishness has reached new heights as politicians publicly defended infanticide. Years ago it was euthanasia, the “right” to die, to kill oneself rather than trusting God to remove you from this life when and where it pleases Him, who is the author of life. Murder has been around since Cain slew his brother Abel in the field. As our society becomes increasingly paganized and more people reject the natural law that God has written into their hearts, it becomes all the more necessary for the Church to hear these words of Christ and proclaim this commandment to the governing officials and anyone who supports others in their taking of life, even to the point of calling the murder of others or self a right.

But the commandment is also directed toward the church, toward you and me and all who believe in Christ. We are not to murder. We’re not to take the life of children, our neighbor, or ourselves. But it’s more than that. Jesus teaches the law, not just the law as an external restraint on wicked human behavior, but the law as an internal restraint on wicked human thoughts and desires as well. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgement.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in the danger of hell fire.” The Pharisees were concerned with righteousness on the outside, with being visibly righteous. According to this sort of thinking all this commandment required was that you not kill your neighbor. But the law deals first and foremost with the heart and then then hand. Being angry with your brother without a cause is just as bad as murdering him. Calling him a fool is just as sinful as taking his life. The commandment forbids murder but also hatred, which is the bitter root from which murder grows. Cain hated Abel first and that hatred led to murder. Hatred in the heart is forbidden by the commandment; even as love and care for your neighbor’s life is required.

This is how all the commandments are to be understood. They most certainly forbid the external act. But in forbidding the external act they also forbid the sin in the heart that leads to the external act. Murder stems from hatred. Rebellion against parents and authorities arises from self-centeredness. Adultery stems from lust. Theft stems from discontent. False witness and slander from hatred. Covetousness from distrust and disbelief that what God has given you is enough. All of it stems from the human heart. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19). The Law is God’s eternal will for mankind. It shows us His righteous standard. It shows us what righteousness truly is, and it’s not just external for everyone to see.

That was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. They thought that if they didn’t murder they had fulfilled the commandment. They didn’t see it as condemning the hatred in their hearts. This is why Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The righteousness that is only external and visible, that deals only with the outward act, is no good. That’s what the Pharisees have. If you want to enter the kingdom, you need a better righteousness. And of course we can’t do this. The external righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is the best mankind can muster. We can refrain from murder, adultery, false witness, and theft. But We can’t always refrain from hatred and anger, from lust, from frustration, from discontent and selfishness. All of those sins characterize the Old Man in us, the Old Adam, our sinful nature. The righteousness by which we enter the kingdom of heaven is something that is entirely out of our reach.

So Christ gives it us. He earns it for us first. The eternal Son of God takes on our human flesh and lives a completely human life except He lives that human life perfectly under the Law. Jesus Christ is the only man who has ever fulfilled the fifth commandment, and all the commandments, each day of His life. He’s the only man whose love God the Father with His entire body, soul, strength, and mind. He’s the only man whose truly loved His neighbor as He loves Himself and done so continually and habitually. He fulfilled the entire law, not only the ceremonial law with its diet and fasts and festivals, but moral law of the commandments as well. He earns a perfect righteousness and He offers to everyone in the Gospel. He dies to atone for the sins of the world, not just our external sins, but all our sins, including the sins of the heart that only God knows because He is all-seeing and all-knowing. To those who repent of their sins and flee to Him for mercy in faith, Jesus forgives their sins, taking them away. He also then gives them the perfect righteousness which He earned in His innocent life. He takes away our sins. He covers us with His righteousness, the only righteousness that will get anyone into the kingdom of heaven.

In today’s epistle lesson St. Paul teaches us about Holy Baptism. Baptism unites us with Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is one of the means by which God forgives our sins, uniting us with Christ’s atoning death. It’s also a means by which God covers us with Christ’s robe of righteousness. Baptism saves because it’s God’s work which He works upon us. It’s not out work which we offer to Him in obedience. He washes us with water and His Word to cleanse us from our sin. He raises us to new life, the life of Christ, which then live in each day by faith. Baptism forgives your sins and by it God the Father adopts you as His own dear child. Since you have been united to Christ’s death and resurrection, St. Paul says you should walk in newness of life, that you should no longer be slaves of sin and your passions. Since you have died with Christ and been raised with Christ in Holy Baptism, “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This newness of life is the life of faith that trusts Christ each day for the forgiveness of sins. This newness of life looks back at the law, the Ten Commandments, begins to fulfill them from the heart. It begins to fear, love, and trust in God above all things even as it begins to love neighbor as we love ourselves, not just in deed but in truth.

This is the righteousness that’s better than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. The righteousness of Christ, which is yours by faith and sealed to you in Holy Baptism, that’s the righteousness that avails before God. The world will only get worse until Christ returns. It needs the rebuke of the Law to condemn and restrain its murderous desires. But for all who believe, it is God’s will for the new life which you have been given by faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.