Righteous Sinners

Matthew 9:9-13

When we were kids we had a little rhyme/finger play that went like this. “Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people.” Maybe you know that one too.

Our text for today raises a question that people often ask about all those people, the people in the church. Who are they? The answer Scripture gives us is that they are Righteous Sinners. Now that sounds like an oxymoron, like saying jumbo shrimp. But, just as there are jumbo shrimp, there are righteous sinners, but of two kinds. There are those who think they are righteous and don’t see that they are still sinners, and there are those who know they are still sinners who have been declared righteous by God.

Who are the people in the church? The world would say that they are hypocrites. The world would say that the people who go to church are those who think they are righteous, that they are better than those who don’t go to church, and who look down on everyone else.

Unfortunately, there is some truth to that assessment. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were those who were in the church. They were the kind who never missed a service at the Synagogue, who always made time for prayer, and who kept all the Jewish festivals.

You remember the story Jesus told about the Pharisee who happened to see a tax collector praying in the temple courts near him. Remember what the Pharisee prayed? God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. And then he went on to pray about how righteous he thought he was. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. The Pharisees who approached the disciples with the derogatory question Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’? shared the same attitude. They thought they were righteous, better than those who were not in the church. They are examples of what the world thinks those in the church are like.

This Pharisaic, more-righteous-than-others attitude is the easiest sin for us who are here today to fall into. Like the Pharisees, most of us here could say that we are not like others, robbers, adulterers, cheats. We are not guilty of any big, public sins. Like them, we rarely miss coming to church, and we give generously to support the work of the church. We are not just here on Christmas and Easter, but even on minor festivals, even when we don’t feel well. When we are traveling, we look for one of our churches to attend, or we worship with one of our churches online.

No, we may not be guilty of any big, public sins. Those around us might consider us to be very righteous people. But Satan is just as happy getting us to commit little sins, like greed, pride, and judgmentalism. He knows how it works. As James says, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. God doesn’t say, “be more righteous than others.” He says, Be Perfect, be completely righteous, completely without sin. And the consequence for having even just one sin, of judging yourself better than another even just once, is eternal punishment in hell.

I have a pastor friend who would like to ask people about their golf game, or the size of the fish they caught, but before they could answer he would say, “now remember, you can go to hell for lying.”

Often, what some consider little sins are more dangerous than what some consider big sins because they are easy for us to excuse, overlook, or hide.

Test yourself. What’s your first reaction when a prodigal member, someone who has been away from church and has lived a publicly sinful life, shows up for worship one Sunday? Is your first thought, “what are they doing here?”

What’s your first reaction with you see the news about “pride” celebrations, or you watch rioters in the streets, some even burning churches, or you hear about the conviction of some mass murderer or child abuser? Does the thought pop into your head, God I thank you that I am not like them.

James addresses what can easily happen in the church. He asks if the people in the church treat a poor visitor differently than a rich one. Do you tell the poor one to have a seat on the floor, and escort the rich one to one of the best seats? Or what about members? Do rich members have more say, more respect than poor members?

Satan knows the weakness of our sinful nature. He knows how easily we judge ourselves better than others, just as the Pharisees did with Levi and his friends at the meal he gave for Jesus. We have all fallen for this temptation. We have all been guilty of being Pharisees, of judging ourselves to be Righteous because of the evil things we don’t do, and the good we do in serving God and others.

Jesus says to these Pharisees, and to us, Go and Learn. Not just “go and read,” but actually learn what God means when he says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. He even makes it easy to learn what it means by using himself as an example. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… I have not come to call the righteous (the healthy), but sinners (the sick).

Sadly, there are those in the church still today who think that they are Righteous, healthy, but that way of thinking is a dangerous sin. It’s like saying “I’m perfectly healthy” when the fact is that you have stage 4 cancer. If you think you are healthy you won’t go to the Dr. If you think you are already righteous, you won’t think you need the righteousness of Jesus.

The true church, the invisible church, is filled with those who know that they are not righteous. They know that they have a terminal disease called sin. They confess that, even though they may be in church every week and serving on boards and committees, and setting a godly example in the community, they are still sinners. They see themselves as Paul did – the Chief of sinners. They are unable to look down on anyone because they see their own sins, whatever they may be, as just as damning as anyone else’s sins. They know that God’s standard of judgment is not that they are better than others, but that they are perfect like him. They admit that they have sinned daily in thoughts, words, and actions, by the things they have done, and the things they have failed to do. They confess that, because of this, they deserve only God’s eternal wrath and punishment. They know that they are sick and that they need a doctor, Jesus, the great physician. They admit that they have no righteousness of their own, the righteousness they need must be given to them by God.

What joy and comfort are ours as we come to church and hear that Jesus is the Great Physician, the God who is the only one who can heal the disease of our sin. What joy is ours as we come to church and hear that no one will be declared righteous by observing the law, because no one can keep it perfectly. But a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. He is our Sacrifice of Atonement. He is the one who came to earth to live a perfectly righteous life in our place. He ate with tax collectors and sinners, not because they were worthy, but because he is merciful; not to sin with them, but to let them see that he is their Savior from sin.

We don’t always show mercy, but he always did. As the perfectly righteous Son of God and Son of Man, who could have looked down on everyone else but didn’t, he went to the cross and paid the punishment we deserve for our lack of mercy, our judgmentalism, and all our other sins as well.

That’s why we are here isn’t it? It’s not because we think we are righteous, that we are better than those who are not here. It is because we know that we are not righteous, and that we need a doctor, and that doctor is Jesus.

As we experience the mercy of Jesus in his word and sacrament, we are reminded that we are declared righteous because of Jesus. His righteousness is credited to us and received by faith just as it was for Abraham. Having received mercy, we are now moved to show mercy. When we see how sinful the world has become, we resist the temptation to pat ourselves on the back and look down on others. Instead, we see what Jesus saw, fields ripe for harvest. We see people dying of an illness for which we have the cure, JESUS.

If you had the cure for cancer, would you keep it to yourself? You have the cure for something worse than cancer. You have something that will not just give someone an extended life on earth. You have something that will give them eternal life! Have mercy and share it!

Who are all the people in the church? Unfortunately, there will always be those who think that they are righteous and who look down on everyone else as sinners. But thanks be to God, by his grace and the power of his word you see the truth. You see that you are a sinner who has been declared righteous because of Jesus. As you rejoice over the mercy you have received from God may you be moved to show mercy to everyone else, not looking down on others, but rejoicing over every sinner who comes to repentance and is declared righteous through faith in Jesus.