The olympic games are right around the corner and people are finalizing the competitions so they might qualify for the games. In a 2016 article, they looked at the probability of a U.S. swimmer getting an opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games (https://www.yourswimlog.com/what-are-my-chances-of-going-to-the-olympics/). For the 2016 games in Brazil, 362,320 swimmers registered to compete. Team U.S.A. sent only 49 of those swimmers. That means that the odds of one of those 362,320 swimmers that started out making the team was .0013%. In comparison making it in the NFL is a .03% and making it to the NBA is a .02%. The standard is so high, because the US team is only looking for the best, and if you’re not the best, then better luck next time.
And it’s this idea of an impossible standard that brings us back to our summer series in Matthew, where we’ll be picking it up again in chapter 5, starting in verse 21. And as we open to Matthew 5:21, lets refresh ourselves with what we’ve gone over so far in the Matthew series.
In the first nine chapters, through Jesus’ life, Matthew has helped us understand his identity. This was done through the proclamations of the Magi, John the Baptist, and God the Father. This identity was then challenge by devil, when he tried to change Jesus’ purpose. But Jesus rejects the temptation of the devil, and we see Jesus reveal his identity and purpose in his calling of the first disciples.
Once Jesus’ identify as the Messiah, Son of David, Prophet like Moses, and Unique Son of God, is establish, we get, what is referred to as the Sermon on Mount. Jesus’ sermon opens up with his identity being reaffirmed by his taking the position on the side of the mountain, and it’s his identity that sandwiches the identity of who his disciples are. Within who Jesus is, those who become his disciples are those that will come to an understanding of their righteousness is not good enough. Jesus’ disciples are those who understand that they are righteously bankrupt compared to God’s standard. When they come to this realization, then they will be those who are poor in spirit.
It’s this idea of coming to this realization, that all fall short of God’s standard, that we continue with Jesus into the first point of his sermon.
Let’s turn and read together Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 21.
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. 23 Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. 25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In the first point of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus ties several topics together in a threefold pattern. He uses, one phrase to bring up the topic, one phrase to deepen the topic, and then gives a short application of what he’s talking about.
For the first two of the threefold pattern, Jesus uses the phrase, “You have heard it said…,” and adds to it, “But I tell you…” We have said it before that these phrases speak to Jesus’ divine nature. That, as John puts it in the opening of his Gospel (John 1:1), Jesus is the Word of God. Here, Jesus is fulfilling that role of the Word; he does this by taking the teachings of Scripture and revealing the depth of obedience that is required.
In each of the topics that Jesus covers, the word “heard” is key. “You have heard it said.” The Pharisees and teachers of the law would teach God’s law and the people would hear it. But paraphrase and devotional type of application by rabbis had convoluted the meaning of it for the people. Jesus’ intention was to bring the people back into a right understanding of the Scriptures. Therefore the people will not hear second hand, but instead, are being told directly from God himself on the matter. In these phrases, we see the divinity of Jesus working itself out. If Jesus wasn’t God, then he should have said something along the lines of, “Thus saith the Lord.” Yet, Jesus doesn’t and either reveals that he is blaspheming or is indeed the Word of God made flesh.
And so the Word of God, Jesus, reveals that murder isn’t just the act of killing someone without justification, its anger lodge against another. Adultery isn’t just the act of having sex with someone outside the biblical marriage covenant, it’s desiring someone sexually that isn’t your biblically defined spouse. Oaths are not a way to add weight to your word, instead our word should be good enough. Retaliation isn’t us getting our way, but rather we are to give grace even when we are put into very hard situations.
Jesus’ examples of the law and of what is truly required of us, grabs, what seems to be, our natural desires and reveals that we cannot even hold anger, lust, or vengeance in our heart. If we even hold these, we have failed to meet the standard of the law.
Following each revelation of the fuller and clearer look at the law, we see the third part of the pattern that Jesus uses. In each we have a mini application.
Are you holding anger? Go and reconcile with the person. In the case Jesus gives, a right relationship with others is necessary for a right relationship with God. Later on in chapter 6, Jesus will connect the forgiveness of God with our forgiving of others. The two relationships, us and God and us and people, are linked in righteousness.
Are you lusting? Remove that thing from your life. In this case, Jesus uses dramatic language to speak about getting rid of those things that cause us to lust. He is not implying mutilation of the body, but rather, his words speak to the necessity of getting rid of the things that cause us to lust. So, get off that computer, set up boundaries for your relationships, avoid situations that you know would cause you to lust and therefore sin.
Do you need to add a “by heaven” or in our modern day, “on my parent’s life” to your yes or no? Jesus’ application here is to either do what you said you were going to do, or do not agree to something you know you cannot fulfill. If you fulfill your yeses, and no’s, then your word will be good enough and you do not need to try to add the weight of God or something else to it.
Do you feel the need to retaliate? Isn’t it natural to want to get back at someone? To be the winner, to have the last word, to one up, and show your superiority? Let’s be honest, it feels good. But feelings are not what are to be fulfilled here. Jesus points us to the fulfillment of the righteousness that is required of us, and that means, our desires may not always be fulfilled. Therefore, Jesus call us to do good beyond anyone’s requirements, and pray for those that you would rather punch in the face.
Jesus calling us to realize the depth of what is required by God, because it isn’t us who are the standard, but rather God. Jesus ends this section with the words, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Which gives us a second bookend moment in this sermon.
If you remember back a fews weeks, right before this passage we’ve covering today, Jesus transitions from the fact that he is fulfilling God’s Word with this statement, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
What Jesus just shared, in this first topic of his Sermon on the Mount, is the surpassing righteousness that is required from all people. The law of God is required to be kept perfectly. This is what James says in the second chapter of his letter, “8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker (2:8-11).”
The righteousness that is required, and that Jesus reveals here, is a righteousness that is beyond anything that any of us can do. In the closing statement of this first section of his sermon, Jesus’ shows just how far our righteousness needs to surpass that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Jesus reveals that we are to, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
It is God, not man that our righteousness is compared to. The surpassing standard of righteousness leads us to the very person of God; it’s him we are compared to, not each other. And who can hope to match the perfection of God? The answer is, nobody. This is why Paul writes those famous words in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Because the righteousness of God is far beyond the standard that humanity can achieve on its own.
And there it is, the standard of righteous, and we must ask ourselves, just in these four areas, of anger, lust, truthfulness, and retaliation have I met the standard of God? Because if we have broken even one, held on to anger, looked at someone a little to longingly, told that white lie, or defiantly told someone ‘no’, we have not met the standard. And I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we realize that we haven’t. We all have fallen short.
But that’s a good thing to understand, because it puts us into that place of Jesus’ opening words of this sermon, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
As Jesus brings our understanding of righteousness deeper, as we allow the Word of God to reveal his perfection, we can begin to understand our need to come before God without any notion that we bring anything to the table. That we are utterly hopeless, and must fully rely on the grace of God. Because in that place of being poor in spirit, we can find that the righteousness of God is placed over us. Jesus fulfills this righteousness and imparts it to us. And all we have to do is accept it, following him where he leads us.
Jesus isn’t revealing this deeper understanding of the law to bring us to despair in our inability to attain it. No, the opposite is true. When we understand our position clearly, then we can seek to remedy it. And that remedy is found only in person and work of Jesus.
And so this week, I want to challenge you to walk through each of these four topics, anger, lust, truthfulness, and retaliation, not only to see where you struggle with and fall short, but also to see how to rectify it. Not in the sense of being righteousness enough, I hope at this point we have realized that it’s not possible in ourselves to achieve that, but rather, to rectify it in a way that Jesus calls us to apply these things. Though we fall short in meeting the standard, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, he still calls us to right relationships. If we are holding anger, let us seek to fix the relationship in forgiveness. If we are lusting, let us remove that object of lust from our lives in a healthy way. If our word is not good enough, let us work to either fulfill our yeses or our no’s, so that our word alone will be enough. And if retaliation is consuming us, let us extend grace to those we want to retaliate against by doing something good for them.
God has called us to the realization of our need for him. That his standard of perfection is unattainable outside of trusting in Jesus as our Savior. Let us therefore move forward, not in our own abilities or strength, but in reliance of Jesus. The one who brings us ever deeper into a right relationship with God. Amen.
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