Lenten Midweek III:
“Return to the LORD: Return from False Witness”[1]
March 10, 2021
Text: Matt. 26:57-68
“Return to the LORD your God” (Joel
2:13; ESV). Return from false witness. Our Lord Jesus was the victim of false
witness, false testimony, at the hands of the Chief Priest and Jewish Council,
who had recruited false witnesses from the crowds specifically for the task. They wanted people to come into the trial and
lie about Jesus, to condemn this innocent Man, so they could put Him to
death. And the witnesses were
willing!
Now,
we know the biblical command that no one shall be put to death without the
testimony of two or three witnesses (Deut. 17:6). But even these liars had trouble
making their testimony agree. Finally,
two of them agreed that He had said, “I am able to destroy the temple of
God, and to rebuild it in three days” (Matt. 26:61; ESV), in other words,
accusing Him of plotting domestic terrorism.
But we know from this past Sunday that is not at all what He said. He was speaking of the Temple of His
Body. Destroy this Temple, and in
three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). He was speaking about His death and
resurrection.
The
Chief Priest wants Him to answer for the charges. He wants to know what He has to say for
Himself. And His answer is… silence! He doesn’t say a word. Because, in spite of the injustice of the
whole affair, He will not derail His saving mission, which necessarily
leads to the cross and death. That is,
the Temple of His Body must be destroyed by crucifixion, so that
after three days, He may raise it up.
That is how He will accomplish our redemption. And this is all part of it, this suffering
false testimony and injustice. He
suffers this for our sake.
But
when He is adjured by the living God to confess plainly whether He is the
Christ, the Son of God, even though it will lead to even greater suffering, He
speaks the truth: “You have said so” (Matt. 26:64). Yes, I AM.
And now the whole Council is witness.
And they accuse Him of blasphemy, because He claimed to be God. And, of course, He did. But it wasn’t blasphemy. It is the truth! Nevertheless, the Chief Priest, Caiaphas,
tore his robes and they all declared that He should be put to death. We know from our Old Testament reading (Lev.
24:13-16) that the penalty for blasphemy is death by stoning, and the whole
congregation would have to own the execution by participating in it. But these cowards sought a more excruciating
death at the hands of the Romans, thus keeping their own hands clean. And so He was mocked, and beaten, and abused,
as they prepared to deliver Him to Pilate.
The
Eighth Commandment: “You shall not give false testimony against your
neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not
tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation,
but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.”[2] Now, at its most basic level, this Commandment
is addressing false testimony in court, or in legal proceedings, thus, for
example, Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin.
But so also this applies to those who swear an oath when they take up
political office, to civil servants, magistrates, members of the military,
police officers… even doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath. It applies to pastors who take ordination
vows. Husbands and wives when they swear
faithfulness. You, when you sign your
tax forms. And you, when you promise
faithfulness unto death before God and His people at your Baptism and
Confirmation. In fact, in all of life,
this has to do with keeping your word, telling the truth, speaking good rather
than evil.
My
high school band teacher (who was also my vice principal, and by the time I
graduated, my principal) had a profound influence on my life as a
teenager. He always used to say to us,
“If you say you’re going to be somewhere, you’d better be there, unless you’re
dead! And even then!” “If you say you’re going to do something,
you’d better do it, unless you’re dead!”
(And I could tell you some stories about some students who weren’t there
when they said they would be, and they weren’t dead… yet… but that is for
another time). This is something we
should say to all teenagers, and especially Christian teenagers, and Christians
of all ages. Because, whether he knew it
or not, Mr. McGlothlin was reflecting on the Eighth Commandment and St. James’
admonition, echoing our Lord Jesus, to simply let your yes be yes, and your no,
no (James 5:12; cf. Matt. 5:37). Keep
your word. Tell the truth. Don’t speak falsely, for that is to give
false testimony, and your neighbor is depending on your words being truthful.
And
there are other ways we transgress this Commandment. We gossip.
We slander. We lie. Even sometimes speaking the truth is a
breaking of this Commandment. For God
gave this Commandment to protect our neighbor’s reputation. And while we are called upon sometimes to
give testimony about a neighbor’s wicked deed (for example, in court), those
situations are the exceptions to the rule.
We are not called to serve as our neighbor’s prosecutor in the court of
public opinion. We are not called to
speak evil of people, yet we do it all the time. Dr. Luther gets to the heart of fallen human
nature when he says in his Large Catechism: “it is a common evil plague
that everyone prefers hearing evil more than hearing good about his
neighbor. We ourselves are so bad that
we cannot allow anyone to say anything bad about us. Everyone would much prefer that all the world
should speak of him in glowing terms.
Yet we cannot bear that the best is spoken about others.”[3] Why is that, by the way? Because in our twisted understanding of
justification, if I can know and declare my neighbor to be unrighteous, that,
in my mind, makes me more righteous. It
justifies me. Gossip, slander, is always
an exercise in self-justification.
And
even when we don’t speak it, we think evil of our neighbor in our
minds and hearts. This is, in fact, the
most common way we give false testimony, when we judge our neighbor in our own
opinion of him. When we do not extend
charity toward him in his words and actions.
When we fail to put the best construction on everything. Now, I’m not talking about judging things as
true or false, right or wrong, according to God’s Word. That we should do. But I’m talking about when we fail to judge
ourselves by the same standards we use to judge our neighbor, refusing to even
see the log in our own eye, much less remove it, so that we can help our
neighbor remove the speck from his (Matt. 7:1-5). This, too, is really an exercise in
self-justification. And this is what
Jesus means when He says, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (v.
1).
Now,
you have transgressed this Commandment. You
know the guilt of it. And you have
suffered the transgression of this Commandment against you. You know the pain of it. And the answer to that guilt and that pain is
not to justify yourself over against your neighbor by thinking or speaking evil
of him, which is just more of the same guilt and pain. Repent of all of that. That is not the justification you need. The justification you need is always and
only the justification that comes from Jesus’ bearing the guilt and pain of
false testimony to the cross, where He puts it to death. For your forgiveness. And for your neighbor’s
forgiveness. See, He doesn’t speak evil
or think evil of you, or of your neighbor. No, He speaks you righteous. Forgiven.
Beloved. And that is how He
thinks of you. And He speaks your
neighbor righteous. Forgiven. Beloved.
That is how He thinks of your neighbor.
And that is how He judges us.
Because He has taken away all our transgressions of this Commandment,
and every Commandment, and given His faithfulness to us in exchange. He has kept His Word. He was where He said He would be. He did what He said He would do. Even though He died! In fact, in His dying. The Temple of His Body was destroyed. And in three days He raised it up. And He is still where He said He would
always be for us: in His Word and in His Sacraments. And He is still doing what He said He
would always do for us: Forgive our sins and give us life.
Jesus
is our Example in this, and He is also our Substitute. His active righteousness is credited to our
account, and His suffering and death accomplishes the forgiveness of our sins,
as St. Peter says: “to this you have been called, because Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his
steps. He committed no sin, neither was
deceit found in his mouth. When he was
reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten,
but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1
Peter 2:21-24).
You
have been healed, as St. Paul was, to be now a good and true witness. That is, our Lord’s suffering as a victim of
false witness, and His taking that false witness into Himself to atone for it
and bury it forever, changes how you now regard and speak of your
neighbor. Now you speak well of him,
defending him when he needs defending, saying only good things about him,
guarding his reputation, and promoting him to others. And you speak the truth to him, especially
regarding Jesus and His Word. And when
you give your word to him, you keep it.
You let your yes be yes, and your no, no. And you look upon your neighbor now as he is
in truth, as God looks upon him… as one beloved by God, created in His image,
for whom Christ died, forgiven and righteous for Jesus’ sake. You don’t read into his words or
actions. You clarify where necessary and
seek reconciliation. And where he is
weak or has sinned, you forgive, you pass over his iniquity, knowing that love
covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
That is putting the best construction on everything.
In
fact, let me challenge you with this tonight, as those freed by the
blood-bought forgiveness of all your sins in Christ the crucified. Engage in good gossip. Actively seek to say good things… true, but
good… about your neighbor. Do this for
all… for each one… but especially when you notice a neighbor whose reputation
needs a little boost among your brothers and sisters. You can do this, and believe it or not, it
won’t kill you. You’ve already died with
Christ, and you live with Him. His life
is in you. Speak of your neighbors as
Christ speaks of them. And speak to
your neighbors about how Christ speaks of them: that for Christ’s sake,
they are righteous, forgiven, and beloved.
They are created by God in His own image, redeemed by God to be His own,
precious to Him. That is the opposite of
false witness. That is God’s truth in
all its fulness. In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
[1] The theme and many of the ideas for
this sermon are from Eric Longman, Return to the Lord: Resources for
Lent-Easter Preaching and Worship (St. Louis: Concordia, 2020).
[2] Catechism quotes from Luther’s
Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986).
[3] LC I:264, McCain.
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