Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (A)

February 9, 2020

Text: Matt. 5:13-20

            “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says to His disciples, to you, His Christians (Matt. 5:13; ESV).  What is the good of salt?  Salt is good for flavoring and salt is good for preservation.  So God leaves His Christians in the world to do that… to flavor the world with the taste of what it is to have a God of mercy, a God of love, a God who does His business in the world by the hands of His people, whom He has included in His Kingdom and Household, His Family.  It is to flavor the world with the taste of what it is to have a God who redeems, who forgives, who saves.  And it is to preserve the world.  God holds off His judgment against the world so that His Christians can be in the world, about the business of flavoring the world in just this way.  And “You are the light of the world,” Jesus continues (v. 14), and you know the purpose of light.  To enlighten what is dark.  The world… the world is a dark place, shrouded in unbelief and the deceptions of the evil one.  Christians are in the world to bring the light of God’s Word to every corner and every situation, to every person, confessing the faith, loving and serving and suffering in the Name of Jesus.  There is a reason God doesn’t just snatch us up the moment we’re baptized and take us to heaven.  He leaves us here for a purpose.  There is work to be done.  Fathering and mothering, son-ing and daughter-ing, feeding, clothing, visiting, relieving, teaching, serving, nurturing, delivering.  And of course, confessing.  Confessing Jesus.  Preaching Jesus.  Continually receiving Jesus and continually giving Jesus.  That is to be salt.  That is to be light.  That is what you are in Christ.  That is what you are to do in Christ.  That is your work now that Christ has made you His worker.  Yes, dear Lutherans.  You are to do good works.  That is why you are here, in this world, and not yet there, resting from your labors in heaven. 

            “But I am saved by grace alone,” you reply, “apart from works.”  Yes, absolutely.  Amen.  Works have nothing to do with the bringing about of your salvation.  But they are very much the result of your salvation.  You are saved through faith alone, but as our Lutheran confessors so often teach us, faith is never alone.  As Dr. Luther says, faith is always busy, living, and active, overflowing with good works.  Or as St. Paul put it, “by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).  That is the order.  Saved apart from works.  Saved to do good works God prepared for you to do from all eternity. 

            Why the works, though, if we’re saved apart from them?  Jesus tells us this morning.  So that others may see the good works you are doing and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16).  That is, you do them as a confession of faith, a teaching about Christ.  You do them in the Name of Christ, out of love for Christ, flowing from Christ’s love for you and for your neighbor.  And so Christ is proclaimed.  And you do them because your neighbor needs them, and God loves your neighbor.  And God uses you as His hands to provide for your neighbor’s need.  In fact, the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (and this text is a portion of that Sermon) is about what that means concretely.  We'll get some more of this next week.  What does it look like when the love of Christ that saves you now flows through you to your neighbor?  Well, don’t be angry and vengeful and so murder your neighbor in your heart.  Forgive him.  Be forgiven by him.  Solve your problems.  Reconcile.  Be an agent of peace.  Do not look at another human being with lustful intent, as a thing to be used and abused for your own fleshly pleasure.  That is to commit adultery with him or her in your heart.  Crucify Old Adam.  Kill the lust in you.  Repent.  Your neighbor needs you to treat his or her body as holy, as indeed it is, redeemed by the body and blood of Christ.  Be faithful to your spouse.  Do not divorce her.  Do not leave him.  Be committed.  Love one another in fidelity and truth, for the sake of your spouse, for the sake of your children who need faithful parents they can count on to keep their commitments, for the sake of society for which marriage between one man and one woman for life is the most basic building block.  Keep your word.  Be trustworthy.  Don’t retaliate.  Leave vengeance to God.  Love even your enemies.  Just as Christ loved you when you were His enemy.  Just as He died for you and is risen for you and lives for you and has brought you to Himself to be His own.  Give to the needy.  Pray.  Fast.  Trust.  For that is to be salt, flavoring and preserving the world.  That is to be light, piercing the darkness of this dark world.

            Now, these good works are not your righteousness before God.  We know that.  Jesus Christ alone is our righteousness.  That is what our Lord is getting at when He tells us our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees if we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (v. 20).  You can’t earn that kind of righteousness by works.  Works righteousness is precisely the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, and nobody does it better than they do.  To exceed that kind of outwardly (nearly) perfect righteousness, you need a righteousness from outside of you.  And that righteousness is Jesus Christ.  He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, and He did, perfectly, in our place.  He fulfilled the Torah with all of its instructions and commands, types and promises.  He fulfilled the Prophets.  All the Scriptures.  Not one jot or tittle of the Law has been removed.  It has been done.  Satisfied.  Accomplished.  Completed.  By Jesus Himself.  Outwardly, even better than the Scribes and Pharisees.  But also in a way they could never imagine.  Inwardly, in the heart, in the mind, in the soul.  Jesus is the only One whose outward righteousness is the product, not of external curbs and controls, but of the inward righteousness that is perfect love for God His Father and complete agreement of the will.  That is real righteousness, whole and true.  And do you know who gets the credit for that?  You do.  By grace.  Received by faith.  Apart from your works.  And for all your failure to keep the Law, outwardly and inwardly, for all your failure to love God, your spite and hatred for Him and His Word, your contrary will set in opposition to Him, your utter disregard and disdain for your neighbor, for all of it, Jesus suffered and died.  He did not abolish the Law, He paid the penalty.  You are forgiven.  Your debt is paid.  Jesus suffered your sentence.  And now He is risen.  He lives.  So you live.  Justified.  Declared righteous for Jesus’ sake.  Baptized into Christ. 

            So get to living.  Be who you are in Christ.  There is so often a misunderstanding here, particularly among the Lutherans.  Jesus didn’t die for you so that you don’t have to lift a finger to do any good works.  Jesus didn’t die for you to sit there with your feet up and cover your eyes to the needs of your neighbor and plug your ears to his cries for mercy and help.  The purpose of the Gospel, free forgiveness of all your sins in Christ, salvation and eternal life freely given, is not to be your excuse to break God’s Law all over the place and sin with reckless abandon, presuming on the forgiveness of sins.  Don’t you see?  That is unsalty darkness.  But you are salt and light in Christ.  That is who Jesus has declared you to be.  So do according to who you are.  That is what it is to live by faith, as one saved by grace alone in Christ alone.

            The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ own description of your new reality now that God has broken into His world in the flesh of Jesus Christ to redeem the world, to redeem you by His death and resurrection.  He has brought about an earth-shaking change of cosmic proportions.  The old order of things is passing away.  The new has come.  God is a Man who died.  This Man is risen from the dead and He lives and He reigns.  And you are His agents in this world.  This is not a new bondage, beloved.  It is perfect freedom.  Once you were enslaved to darkness and evil.  Now you are freed to goodness and light.  The old shackles have fallen away.  The bonds are burst.  You are no longer enslaved.  Be who you are.  God’s own child.  Redeemed and whole.  Salt and light.  Kings and Queens.  Sons and Daughters of the Almighty.  Come now to His Table.  Eat and drink.  Love and serve.  Rejoice.  Jesus Christ is the Light of the world.  You are light in Him.  Let it shine.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.