Epiphany 6A

Sixth Sunday of Epiphany, Year A

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Luther’s Works, Volume 21 (The Fifth Chapter of St. Matthew)

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.”Here [Jesus] begins the correct explanation of several of the Ten Commandments, and He shows that all the Pharisees and scribes did in teaching, explaining, and interpreting them was to take the words as they stood and to apply them merely to coarse outward deeds. In the Fifth Commandment, to give one example, all they saw was the word “kill,” which they took to mean “strike dead with the hand.” This was all they taught people, as though this commandment forbade nothing beyond this. Thus they gave themselves a magnificent way out: they would not be guilty of murder if they handed someone over to another person to be killed. When they delivered Christ to the Gentile Pilate, they did not want to defile their hands with blood and wanted to stay pure and holy. They even refused to go into the judge’s house (John 18:28), and yet it was they alone who were bringing on His death and compelling Pilate against his will to kill Him. They pretended to be completely pure and innocent, and they even objected to the apostles (Acts 5:28): “You intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” It is as though they were to say: “It was not we but the Gentiles who killed Him.” So the story is told in 1 Samuel 18:17 that King Saul did not like David and would have liked to kill him; but since he wanted to be holy, he decided not to kill him himself, but to send him among the Philistines to be killed there, so that his hand would remain innocent.Look at this beautiful Pharisaic holiness! It can purify itself and stay pious as long as it does not kill with its own hand, though its heart may be crammed full of anger, hate, and envy, of hidden and evil schemes of murder, and though its tongue may be loaded with curses and blasphemies.

This is from Luther’s commentary on Matthew 5. Luther brings in several additional examples to help make Jesus’ point: simply being outwardly righteous does not make one blameless, sinless, or righteous. It goes far deeper. The commandments that God has given us are aimed directly at our hearts. Jesus takes us from “You shall not murder” to if you call your neighbor “you fool!”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. On the outside, it would seem that those two actions would be worlds apart. In your heart, however, they are remarkably - even frighteningly - similar.

As I studied this passage this week, one of the very senior pastors in our group made the statement: “At times we all need to go back and be reminded of the basics of our faith.” That’s exactly what Jesus is doing here. “You have heard it said...” he begins. In other words, he knows that the people listening have been taught about this. But he also knows that they have an improper understanding - either because the teaching was inadequate or faulty - or because they misunderstood the teaching. Likely it was a combination of both. Either way, it has become a twisted version of what it was supposed to be.

As Luther says - the Pharisees know that they cannot kill the carpenter’s son from Nazareth, no matter how much blasphemy he’s committed. If they kill him, they’ll be violating the 5th Commandment. But if they get their Roman leaders to do it for them, then THEY, specifically Pilate, will be responsible for Jesus’ death. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what they thought when Pilate washed his hands in the public square? That was his public statement that the blood of this Jew from Nazareth was *not* on his hands. He was putting that squarely back on the Jewish leaders and everyone who yelled and screamed for Jesus’ execution. Now, they were all to bear the responsibility for his death, even though none of them actually physically touched him at all. This sin was in their hearts.

And yet, these were the kind of people who believed themselves to be God’s chosen people. They went to worship on the Sabbath. They kept the food laws. They thought they were doing what God commanded. And Jesus stood in front of them and told them they had it all wrong. They didn’t “get it”. The secrets sins of their hearts were, in fact, known by God and were going to doom them to judgment…possibly even “the hell of fire.”

Since the very first occurence of sin, humanity has been in conflict with God and with one another. And God’s work ever since then has been to reconcile that conflict. God wants to reconcile us to Him and to our neighbor. Our worship reflects that. When we start our worship service we seek reconciliation with God by confessing our sins. That reconciliation is completed when you hear that you are forgiven because of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Later in the service, we seek to reconcile with each other when we exchange the Peace. This is not merely a greeting, but a gesture to those around you to say: “whatever conflict there is between us, it’s over now. Please forgive me if I have wronged you, and I forgive you, so that we can come to the Lord’s Supper in Christian unity and love.” To be perfectly honest, when we exchange the peace, we should be looking for anyone else in the sanctuary that we might be angry with, or have had a disagreement with and walk across the room to find that person and exchange the peace with them. Verses 23-24 tells us that we should be seeking reconciliation with each other before we come to the altar. We should be getting our hearts right before we come to God’s Table.

Humanity has had a very hard time getting our hearts right. It’s something we haven’t been able to do well throughout all of our history. The Old Testament tells us that many times over. The reading from Deuteronomy today seems really clear: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil...” Sounds like an easy choice, doesn’t it? Why would we choose death and evil? I heard it said recently that Satan doesn’t tempt us with what he wants; he tempts us with what *we* want. And when we give into that temptation, it leads us away from God, and that brings conflict of some sort - either between us and God or between us and our neighbor (whoever that might be). But it will result in conflict. Sin always does.

This weekend I took part in a retreat for a group of Lutherans who are trying to figure out what God is calling them to. Some of them will likely become pastors in the next few years. We spent a lot of time talking with each other and talking about this “calling”. It was remarkable how many people in that gathering were troubled by their sins. So we had a service of confession. The other pastors and I declared God’s forgiveness to them. We laid hands on their heads individually and pronounced forgiveness to them. We anointed them with oil. It was a powerful moment. And there were quite a few tears in the room. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know my heart was a good bit lighter when we were done. God’s forgiveness definitely makes the load lighter.

For me, that’s a big first step in getting my heart right. Maybe it’s not the *first* step for everyone, but it is for me. Confession and forgiveness. That sets us free. We get to hear that we are forgiven even when we don’t deserve it. Only because of what Christ has done for us is it even possible. (Insert “AMEN” here.) I think of this as going down a road where eventually you come to a fork in the road. To the left is the good, healthy path, and to the right is the bad, sinful path. To the left is life and good, to the right is death and evil. Once we’ve confessed and been forgiven, it’s like a road block is put up on the right - now we know the way we should go. And it’s a good and healthy way. It’s the road to life. When we’re forgiven, we’re free to take the path to life. We don’t *have* to go the other way. We’ve been guided to the good path.

If you want to know what that good path looks like, read that lesson from Deuteronomy again: obey the commandments, love God, walk in his ways. The more you do this, the more your heart will be where God wants it. And when your heart is where God wants it, then He can truly bless you.

Where is your heart now? Is it where God wants it to be? Is there room for your heart to be closer to God? Of course there’s room for that. There will always be room for us to be closer to God than we are now. If you want to improve that, spend more time in His Word. Spend more time in prayer. If you need help with either of those, let me know. If you are carrying guilt from something, I can help with that, too. God wants all of your heart, and He will keep calling for you to come closer to Him. He’s still at work - doing what must be done to achieve the reconciliation He wants for all of us. I think that sounds pretty wonderful. I’ll take God’s reconciliation over the conflict the world is filled with. Wouldn’t that be a nice change?

Where’s your heart? Mine needs some work. I still fall prey to things that tempt me, and pull my heart away from God instead of toward Him. And that’s why my time of confession takes so long - I bring it back to Him and ask for His help and His forgiveness. Isn’t it awesome that we’re allowed to come back for forgiveness more than once? Isn’t it awesome that the Creator of the universe has a heart to forgive us? Isn’t it awesome that the God of the Old Testament sent his own Son to fix what we broke, and made reconciliation possible, so that we now actually are able to love God and obey him? I, for one, am forever glad that our God loves me and you enough to make that possible. I pray that my heart will be open to the work of His Holy Spirit.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.