Proper 4: Deuteronomy 11: 18–21, 26–28; Psalm 31; Romans 3: 21–25a, 28; Matthew 7: 21–27
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
This morning, we hear yet another harsh statement from our Lord. It hits us in the face with the sting we might feel if a branch whipped across our face as we walk through the woods.
Perhaps that was Jesus’ intention: to wake up his calloused, indifferent Jewish audience.
It could have been Matthew’s intention, as he recorded these words of Jesus, as well.
Surely, these words are a “wake-up call” to God’s people.
They call us to examine every area of our lives, and to ask some difficult questions: They all have to do with the inclination of our hearts.
- What is the inclination of my heart toward God?
- What is the inclination of my heart when I am present for worship?
- What is the intention with which I do the things I do everyday?
And, most importantly, how does my inner disposition connect with my outer actions?
So, let’s turn out attention to Matthew’s text this morning, and then we may draw some conclusions from Jesus’ teaching.
We should remind ourselves that we are in the very last part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. For nearly three full chapters, beginning with the Beatitudes in chapter five, Jesus has been turning the conventional religious world of first century Judaism on its head. For example, He reverses almost all conventional understandings of the way the world works.
Consider this example from the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” Jesus says. (Matthew 5: 5) But our response to this statement might well be, “No, the meek get stomped on by the powerful, and all they inherit is six feet of earth when they die.”
You see, that’s the way that the world worked way back in Jesus’ time, too….The weak and the meek got trampled, either by the Romans, or by the power structure of Jesus’ day, or by economics, or whatever other forces we might name.
Or consider this example: To the issue of religious worship, Jesus says we should practice our piety in secret. Listen to these words of Jesus, “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6: 1)
“But wait a minute”, Jesus’ hearers might have said as these words fell from Jesus’ mouth. “Wait a minute,” they might have retorted, “Temple worship is all about a public display of our love for God.” (After all, Temple worship in Jesus’ day was essentially liturgical worship. The form of the service and the activities that took place there were organized events that followed a pattern, time after time.)
How about this example? Jesus raises the standard of behavior, linking inner thoughts and desires to outward actions. Hear these words, “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.” (Matthew 6: 21 – 22)
You see, Jesus was speaking to an audience whose religious practices observed all the right, outward forms and actions. In fact, the Rabbis of Jesus’ day spent hours and hours debating such minute details as how far a person could walk on the Sabbath day, or what sort of activities they might do that day. Life in its totality was methodically examined down to the last detail, so as to apply the Law of Moses to every aspect of daily life.
The Rabbis had a term for this view of God’s will and its focus on daily life. It comes from the Hebrew verb meaning “to walk”, and is called halakah. Halakah literally means something like, “the way” or “walk” with God.
Halakah is very practical in its focus. It seeks to take the worship and love of God out of the realm of the heavenly and bring it squarely into the earthly. It seeks to focus on the physical, so as to be able to apply the spiritual.
Matthew, in his Gospel account, follows this tradition quite closely. That shouldn’t be surprising, given that Matthew was most likely a Jew, writing to a church that was composed at least partly of Jews who had become followers of the great Rabbi, Jesus (for that is how Matthew portrays Jesus). Moreover, Matthew seems to be locked in deep combat with the Jewish establishment that existed in his own time, possibly late in the first century.
Apparently, not much had changed in the 60 or so years since Jesus attacked the Scribes and the Pharisees, for though the Temple and its priestly caste was gone following the Jewish – Roman War (66 – 70 AD), these two groups, the Scribes and the Pharisees remained. And Matthew might have seen the same disconnect between the inner inclinations of the heart and the outward actions that Jesus did.
But we shouldn’t be too hard on the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the priestly caste who took such harsh criticism from our Lord. You see, all people, in every time and in every place, are subject to the same temptations these groups were subject to.
That temptation is to begin to focus on the concrete, objective aspects of religious worship and in everyday life, at the expense of the inner life and walk with God.
Then, worship becomes disconnected from life. Ritual practices take on an importance and a life of their own. The focus falls on the rules which govern worship, and the beauty of it, rather than on God.
But, you see, the forms of worship, the rules which govern it, and the beauty of it are all meant to point beyond themselves to allow us to see God in these outward forms.
But how can we avoid this pitfall in our own walk with God, and in our worship of God?
For the answer, let us return to Matthew for a moment. Notice Jesus’ comment, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’….” Implicit in the title with which Jesus is addressed is belief in Him. To call someone “Lord” in Jesus’ day was to acknowledge that person as a great teacher (again, Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus), and it was also a title which was applied to God. And so, in this title, we hear both meanings, I think, and belief in Jesus as Lord seems to be clearly intended.
Matthew does not ignore the issue of belief. It’s implicit in his entire Gospel account.
What Matthew seeks to do is to connect outward observance with inner belief and disposition toward God.
For Jesus seems to link a personal relationship with Him as a prerequisite for right action. He says, “I never knew you, depart from me, you evildoers.” (Matthew 7: 23) Those who claimed to be doing all the right things, even in Jesus’ name, didn’t have a real relationship with the Lord they claimed to be following!
When we hear the phrase “personal relationship” when it is applied to personally knowing Christ, we might be tempted to think of John’s Gospel account. For John emphasizes the spiritual aspects of knowing God, while Matthew emphasizes the daily, practical, walk with God.
Much of the Christian family makes such a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus the focus of its teaching and preaching. We must be “born again”, they say. Such an emphasis draws heavily on John’s Gospel, for the phase “born again” appears in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, John, chapter three.
On the other hand, much of the Christian family, by contrast, focuses on the practical, everyday duties of living the Christian life. This focus seeks to do good works, acts of love and charity toward others, particularly those in any need or trouble.
But each Gospel account contains both elements, even if the focus of John differs from the focus in Matthew.
A genuine, deep, and personal relationship with God through the person and work of Jesus Christ is the foundation for all that we do and for all of our worship. Matthew would affirm that, I feel safe in saying. John would also affirm that, for he records Jesus’ teachings that often mention “doing the will of my Father in heaven,” or “keep my commandments.”
A final comment: We Christians who worship in the liturgical tradition can be particularly prone to the same religious disease that Jesus confronted in His own day….we can become outward observers of correct and proper liturgical worship. Don’t get me wrong, liturgical worship and particularly its beauty is a great gift that we have inherited, and a rich legacy that we can share with other Christians whose worship practices would be greatly enriched by sharing in this treasure that comes down to us from the early centuries of the Christian community.
But, we must pray for God’s Holy Spirit to assist us in our inner dispositions, for we cannot pull ourselves up by our own religious bootstraps through our own actions and deeds to gain God’s favor. No, you see, the truth is that we be so easily fooled into thinking that all the right, outward stuff will earn us some favor with God.
The exact opposite is true: lowliness of heart, and an understanding that we are entirely dependent on God’s ability to cleanse our hearts of impure motivations is the starting place for being able to genuinely please God, and to do those things that are good to be doing, that will be fully pleasing to God.
May the Holy Spirit open our eyes, cleanse our hearts, and direct our paths, that we may serve God with pure intent and with acts that are pleasing to Him.
AMEN.
