Whole-Person Righteousness

Introduction

Set up the Sermon

(Shape of Matthew) Jesus is David, he’s Moses, he’s Israel, he’s YHWH - HE is the voice on the mountain!

But what is he saying? Something different than what he said before?

YHWH wants you to flourish! - Heeding the wisdom and instruction of God/Whole-person allegiance to our Good King leads to human flourishing, being fully human (what Adam lost, what Jesus is!)

Psalm 1:1–3 LEB

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked; nor does he stand in the way of sinners; nor does he sit in the assembly of mockers. Instead, in the law of Yahweh is his delight, and on his law he meditates day and night. And so, he is like a tree planted by streams of water that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf also does not wither. Therefore all that he does prospers.

As Jesus proclaims divine wisdom and instruction from this mountain we see him not as a tyrant-King, but as a sage-king. Wisdom that leads to flourishing is gushing out of him!

As he constituted a people for himself at Sinai - To be a priestly nation, a light to the world. So now, he’s re-constituting a people, his people, to a people of light, life, and wisdom in a dark, dead world of foolishness.

Matthew 5:13–16 LEB

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, by what will it be made salty? It is good for nothing any longer except to be thrown outside and trampled under foot by people. You are the light of the world. A city located on top of a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and place it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it shines on all those in the house. In the same way let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

5:17-20

I have come - Jesus has come as Moses (prophet), Israel (priest), David (King), and especially as YHWH, returned to Zion!

NOT abolish the Law or Prophets, but to fulfill. This means that the Scriptures where pointing to something! Jesus is the embodiment of that something. Jesus accomplishes and is accomplishing the Law and the prophets. The story God is telling finds its climax in the person of Jesus. He’s bringing the OT to its true and full destination. The law and the prophets are always straining forward towards something eschatological something beyond themselves.

As Jesus stands in the place of YHWH, giving divine wisdom and instruction, people could say, wait what about the OT, what about the Torah?

I have rules in my house. Rules that lead to thriving and flourishing (not arbitrary rules). When you’re 7 you can’t touch the stove. When you’re 17 you’ll be cooking. As my girls grow in to new phases of life, the rules will take new shapes. Don’t pour boiling water on your face still stands either way as my intention underneath the rule.

HERE’S THE WHAMMY! (vs. 20) Righteous - is doing the right thing. In the biblical context it is covenant loyalty. An embodied whole-person allegiance to our divine King. People who live their lives disregarding God’s wisdom and instruction, disregard the way of life and goodness. This righteousness Jesus is speaking of is not just some right-standing with God that doesn’t have feat on the ground, it is behavioral. How you live. Look at vs. 16!

Pharisees are the religious conservatives (history of idolatrous Israel). But they’ve slipped into fundamentalism (surface/outward oriented) White-washed tombs. Their “righteousness” their embodied covenant loyalty is only half-embodied! This is what makes someone a hypocrite. This leads to death not life!

They are trying to tell the 17 year old that they’re not allowed to touch the stove, when Jesus is ready for his people to cook meals for the poor!

5:21-48

The inner person. Heart (cf. Mt. 15:1-20) LOVE. (the entirety of the Law and Prophets - Mt 22:36-40)

Matthew 22:36–40 LEB

“Teacher, which commandment is greatest in the law?” And he said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

6 examples of “Greater righteousness”

NT Scholar JP argues: Not “antithesis” but “exegesis” - explaining true intent of the law.

Whole-Person loving loyalty to Jesus

Murder - ANGER (heart)

Adultery - Lust (“in his heart”)

Divorce (hardness of heart)

Oaths (what comes out of your mouth/heart)

Retaliation - Heart adjustment! Toward serving.

Love Your Enemies

Perfect = “Whole” or “Complete” - Whole-person righteousness, not just external.

Conclusion

We can avoid the inner realities of our heart. We do this either by focusing on our outward behavior, or, (especially prominent now because of advances in technology) by escaping into alternate realities…which leads to inward AND outward deterioration.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 LEB

And I will give a new heart to you, and a new spirit I will give into your inner parts, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give to you a heart of flesh. And I will give my spirit into your inner parts, and I will make it so that you will go in my rules, and my regulations you will remember, and you will do them.

Jeremiah 31:31–33 LEB

Look, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day of my grasping them by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them,” declares Yahweh. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they themselves will be to me people.