Seek First God's Righteousness

Introduction

Our Gospel text for today from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has a lot to offer us; there are several memorable sayings, and multiple vivid images we could ponder today. But I want to focus in on a single phrase toward the end of our passage today that I think is really going to help us understand this whole reading: “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” What does that mean anyway? And I really even want to focus in on just one word, righteousness, because we can’t know what it means to “seek God’s righteousness” first if we don’t know what “righteousness” means. Righteousness is one of those words that carries a lot of meaning in the Bible, but unless you happen to be either a theologian or a stereotypical California surfer dude, you probably don’t use the word righteous very much in your day to day conversation.

Righteousness is a very broad concept in the Bible, especially in Matthew, and there are a number of possible definitions that are all a part of what Jesus has in mind, it can mean more or less anything that has to do with the words “just” or “right.” But I want to focus on just three possible definitions. I believe each of these definitions will give us a part of the full picture of what it means to seek God’s righteousness. And now I’ll preview for you what those three definitions are: The first is “God’s justice.” The second is “God’s vindication.” And the third is “justification from God.”

Seek the Justice God Requires

The first thing that “God’s righteousness” might mean is probably the simplest and most practical, and that’s good, old-fashioned justice. And specifically this would be the justice God requires, the rightness that he wants to see in his world from the people he rules over.

Now right away I should probably encourage you to just throw out whatever image of justice American culture and politics has drilled into your mind. If you’re of one political persuasion, you’re probably thinking of hardline, retributive justice; John Wayne bringing some old-fashioned frontier justice; where everyone gets exactly what’s fair and if you don’t like it, tough.

If you’re of a different political persuasion, you probably think of justice as restorative and focused on equity. Everyone gets exactly the help they need, the wicked are rehabilitated, and everyone is shown compassion.

Now, I believe that each of those images has a kernel of truth in it, but each is an incomplete and imbalanced picture of biblical justice. Biblical justice is much broader, it can be both restorative and retributive, it boils down to everything being made right and whole and good. That includes evil people being punished (or better, brought to repentance), honesty and fair dealing prevailing everywhere, the poor and oppressed being lifted up and shown love and compassion, tyrants being brought down and humbled, families and communities flourishing, all of it is fair game. It means everyone being rightly related to God’s Law and to their fellow man as God intended.

So the question for us is do we seek God’s justice first? Is your number one priority in life and the goal of your efforts each day to create a more just and beautiful world, the kind of world that God wants to bring about? I think if you’re honest, the answer is no. Your sinful nature is always inclined to seek first your own desires. How much can I get for me and mine? that is the top priority.

Just think about your work life for a moment: can you honestly say that the main thing driving your every career decision, the reason you put in overtime, is to help make God’s world a more loving and just place? I think not. Even if you yourself didn’t have a selfish and sinful nature, our society and economy, our work culture just isn’t structured that way. No, when the rubber hits the road, the bottom line reigns supreme. Jesus says in our text that you can’t serve two masters. Well our world serves only one master, and it isn’t God: it’s mammon, or “money” as it’s translated in our Gospel reading. Oh don’t get me wrong, we pay lip service to ethics and honesty and sustainable practices, we may even be sincere in wanting to make these things a priority, but we don’t make God’s interests the first priority. And when it comes to our own personal career decisions, the righteousness of God takes a backseat to salary considerations, benefit packages, and more convenient schedules. We spend most of our time trying to seek first our own good and then the things of God, to serve both God and mammon, and we can’t do it. We are left having to confess, “I am an unjust man and I live among an unjust people.” According to this first definition, we have failed to seek first God’s righteousness.

Seek God’s Vindication

So then, since human beings have failed to seek God’s righteousness in this sense, and thus rebelled against his rule as king over us, it follows that God has a just accusation to bring against us. God has a right to vindicate himself as our rightful king and reestablish his just rule over all humanity. That brings us to our second possible definition of the “righteousness of God:” God’s righteousness in Scripture can certainly refer to God’s vindication and all creation bowing the knee and acknowledging his right as king. In fact, in a very real sense, that was the focus of Jesus’ earthly mission. That is what it means that Jesus came proclaiming the “kingdom of God.” Jesus was announcing that he had come to establish God’s rule over creation. When Isaiah describes the mission of the Messiah in chapter 42, he says that he will bring forth justice to the nations and establish justice in the earth. And in case you think that is a coincidence, Matthew himself will quote this passage in chapter 12 about Jesus, saying that he will “bring justice to victory.”

As you know, however, many of the people Jesus encountered rejected his proclamation and refused to bend the knee and acknowledge his claim as king. They unjustly accused him and had him condemned and killed. They ended up opposing God’s rule and hindering his vindication. But of course God’s righteousness cannot be stopped forever. God raised Jesus from the dead, proving that Jesus’ claim was just and right. The resurrection of Jesus was the vindication of God and the establishment of his kingdom.

So how then do we seek this righteousness of God? To be sure, if we want to be in the right and on God’s side then we should be glad to see God vindicated, it should be the thing we most desire to see in the world. That would certainly be to “seek first God’s righteousness.”

But we’re still left with a problem. Because, you see, we’ve already established that we ourselves are unrighteous and unjust. We too have rebelled against God’s rightful rule, we find ourselves right there with the crowds shouting for Jesus to be crucified, rejecting their king, saying, “we don’t want him to rule over us.” Each of us in our way contributed to Jesus’ death by our sin and injustice.

And you might think that because I mentioned Jesus’ death and resurrection our problem is solved, but you’re getting ahead of me. That Jesus is raised from the dead and vindicated isn’t necessarily good news just yet. Think about it for a moment: is it good news to her that someone has been raised from the dead if you are responsible for killing them? You probably shouldn’t assume that! Not until you hear what they have to say to you.

Once again we see that we should seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness first of all, but we’re still left wondering if it’s possible for us sinners to do so.

Seek The Righteousness God Freely Gives

Alright then, we need one final definition of God’s righteousness: Righteousness that comes from God as a gift. This final definition comes from what the risen Jesus has to say to you. When Jesus rose from his tomb, vindicated and triumphant over death, he wasn’t out for revenge. No, quite the opposite, he sent his apostles out to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. And now we’ve finally got good news. Even though you’ve been guilty of seeking your own good first rather than the kingdom of God, even though you’ve rebelled against God’s righteousness and been complicit in rejecting Jesus as king, Jesus’ message to you is “I forgive you.”

See Jesus’ vindication is not his vindication only, it is yours as well. He offers you the same verdict of “righteous and just.” In your Baptism, he makes his death and resurrection yours as well. The old, unrighteous and condemned you dies with Jesus and is left in his tomb, and a new you, righteous and forgiven, comes forward to share in Jesus’ reign and kingdom. His promise to you is that if you remain faithful to him, on the last day when he comes again, you will finally leave behind that unrighteous you permanently, you will bow the knee to him as king, and you will live eternally in a new creation where righteousness dwells. Finally, God’s justice, equity, peace, and love will be the first priority. Finally, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Now why wouldn’t you want that? That’s the best news in the world, it’s worthy of being your first priority, the thing you want most. But how can you seek after this righteousness of God? There’s even more good news: It isn’t up to you to seek it out or strive for it. The kingdom and righteousness of God has sought you ought and brought you in. The only seeking you can do in this sense is to recognize that you need righteousness from Christ and trust him to give it to you. Righteousness in this sense comes to you from God like food to the birds and clothing to the grass of the field: independent of your worrying and striving.

Jesus tells us that you can’t add an hour to your life by being anxious. Or it might actually be better to translate it, you can’t add a cubit to your stature by being anxious. His point is that what you can’t possibly achieve by any effort or by worrying yourself sick will come to you anyway in God’s good time at his good pleasure. So it is with this righteousness, this justification from God. All on your own, you can’t possibly make yourself right and just. But when you seek God by trusting him to provide, he will justify you and bring forth your righteousness.

Conclusion

Please pray with me.

Holy and Righteous God, we thank you for bringing us under your kingdom and making us righteous in your sight. Fill us with your Holy Spirit so that we would seek the justice and goodness you want to see in this world, and rejoice to bow the knee to you as our rightful king.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen