Soli Deo Gloria
Turn
it around. Notice what
our Lord does not say in the Beatitudes as quoted in today’s
Gospel Reading from St. Matthew.
He
does not say, Blessed are
the self-righteous, who think they have no need of God’s mercy
and forgiveness. He
does not say, Blessed are
those who don’t grieve over their sinful condition, because they
never think about how they have failed to keep the commandments of
God. He does not
say, Blessed are the proud
and arrogant who are smugly self-secure before God, who think
they’re always right and that God owes them.
Neither
does our Lord say, Blessed
are those who despise the Gospel and have no taste for the
righteousness of God made known in preaching and the Sacraments.
He doesn’t say, Blessed
are those who seek revenge upon those who’ve wronged them.
He doesn’t say, Blessed
are those whose hearts gravitate to illicit pleasures, lust, and
all kinds of sin and unrighteousness, but have no room in them for
the Word of God.
Finally,
Jesus does not say, Blessed
are those who stir up strife by their actions and the cutting
things they say. He
does not say, Blessed are those who are so wishy-washy in their faith that they never
catch flak for what they believe.
And in conclusion, He does not say,
Blessed are you when
you put Me on the same level with false gods and false religions,
when you compromise the truth so that everyone speaks well of you,
and you never experience persecution because of Me.
The
Beatitudes of our Lord Jesus Christ do not say these things.
How comforting for us it would be if they did say things
like that. For then we
could remain snug and secure in our sin, comfortably giving God
lip-service while happily letting our hearts remain far from Him.
We could remain in our sin, pursuing our own way to
self-fulfillment and the good life, and that would be just fine
with God.
But
the Beatitudes don’t allow that.
They paint a radically different portrait of what true
blessedness looks like. They
are the words of an “all-or-nothing” kind of God who does not
accept half-measures, who despises human approximations of the
righteousness He demands, who does not grade on the curve.
100%.
That’s what God demands of us.
100% obedience to His commandments.
100% faithfulness to Him.
100% love toward Him and toward our neighbor.
He will be satisfied with nothing less.
And
we must do it all the time. Every
second of every minute of every hour of every day.
Our whole life long, from the time we draw our first breath
until the last faltering beat of our heart before we die.
God will be satisfied with nothing less than 100%.
What
do the Scriptures say? For
whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is
guilty of breaking it all (James 2.10). Cursed
is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the
Book of the Law (Gal. 3.10).
Whoever
breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others
to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven (St.
Matthew 5.19). Plainly,
the Triune God is not indifferent to His commandments.
He demands that they be observed.
That they be
obeyed. That they be
kept, not grudgingly, not fearfully, but with gladness, faith, and
love.
If
blessedness lies in keeping God’s commandments, and God’s
curse falls upon those who break His commandments, then who
possibly can be blessed? Who
possibly can pass through an entire lifetime without one little
breach of God’s holy Law, one little infraction against the
commandments of God? Who
can pass through a single day?
As the Catechism reminds us, “We daily sin much and
surely deserve nothing but punishment.”
Because of the sins which spill forth from our sinful
nature we deserve, not God’s blessing, but rather His curse.
Today
is All Saints Day, a day in the Church’s calendar when we
especially remember those departed saints who have entered the
glorious presence of the Triune God and await the resurrection of
the body at the last day. You
know some of those saints. They
were your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, your son
or daughter, your cousin, your friend.
You loved them. You
grieved their passing. You
miss them. You would
love to see them again, wouldn’t you?
But
knowing them in this life, you were also aware of one thing: They
weren’t perfect. In
fact, they were sinners. They
broke the commandments of God.
They weren’t always faithful to Him.
They weren’t always loving toward their neighbor.
So how can they be called saints?
After all, if their blessedness consisted of the perfection
they had attained, their fidelity to God, their holiness of life,
there’s no way they could be blessed.
They would have fallen forever under the eternal curse of a
God who hates sin, because they weren’t good enough to meet
God’s absolute standard of perfection.
So
how then can we call them saints?
How can we speak confidently of them that they are indeed
blessed? And how can
we be assured that we too are numbered among those who are blessed
by God, not merely in eternity, but also in this present world in
which we live?
Look
at our Lord Jesus Christ. If
you’re honest about yourself, you’ll admit that you by no
means measure up to the lofty standards set forth in the
Beatitudes, and in the Ten Commandments.
But Jesus, the Righteous One, the holy and innocent Son of
God, does measure up. By
His holy life and by His innocent sufferings and death, He makes
up for the complete lack of righteousness that you and I suffer
from.
Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
What do the Scriptures say about our Lord Jesus
Christ? For you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
He
humbled Himself, laying aside the full use of His power and might
as true God, in order to suffer and die on the Cross for the
salvation of the world. He
did it so that through faith in Him you might receive the
overflowing wealth of God’s grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Those who are poor in spirit don’t trust in themselves.
They know how foolish that is.
Instead, they trust in Jesus.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Do you remember how Jesus wept
at the tomb of Lazarus when He saw what death had done to His
friend? Our Lord knew
that He would bring Lazarus forth from the grave in just a few
minutes, and yet He still wept at how death had ruined our human
race as God’s penalty for Adam’s sin.
Jesus also wept over the city of
Jerusalem
,
when He rode into its gates on the back of a donkey.
He wept over the hardness of heart that led its leaders to
reject Him. He wept
over the sin that had blinded the people to the truth that He was
their Savior. He wept
over the judgment that would be coming upon the city in about
forty years. Perhaps
He wept over how He would be betrayed there, how He would suffer,
and how He would die on the Cross under God’s wrath for
Jerusalem
’s
sin and the sin of all mankind.
But our Lord Jesus Christ would be
comforted. He would be
comforted by the glorification that occurred in His resurrection
and ascension. We too
will share in this comfort. What
is Jesus’ resurrection but the greatest comfort of all to those
who have lost loved ones to death?
What is Jesus’ resurrection but God’s comforting proof
that sin has been atoned for, that sinners have been justified and
reconciled to God because of Jesus.
When your sins accuse you and give you no peace, when you
mourn over your many failings and transgressions, take comfort in
this: Your sins have been taken away by the precious Lamb of God.
You are at peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
You have life eternal in your Baptism into Christ.
What greater comfort can there be for us fallen, sinful,
mortal creatures?
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Who was more merciful than our
Lord Jesus Christ? He
healed the sick, made the blind to see, forgave sinners.
And yet what mercy did He receive?
The hatred and enmity of the crowds.
The scorn of the religious establishment.
Betrayal by one of His own disciples.
Flogging, mockery and death by crucifixion.
Even His heavenly Father showed
Jesus no mercy. For
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God, the Scripture says.
Cursed is everyone who hangs on a
tree, the Scripture says.
On the Cross, Jesus took our sin.
He took God’s wrath for us.
He was forsaken by God because He who had no sin became
filthy with the sin of the world. He who was merciful to all was
shown no mercy at all. And
it happened so that you and I, sinners though we are, could be
shown mercy. Because
Jesus took our guilt and iniquity.
He took our death. He
took God’s fierce wrath and displeasure for our sin.
It’s not on us. It
was all put on Jesus. What
greater mercy could God possibly show us than to forgive and save
us for the sake of His Son? Is
it any wonder then that we Christians gladly show mercy to those
who have wronged us?
I could go on through each of the
Beatitudes showing how they are fulfilled in Jesus.
Suffice it to say, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Righteous One. He came
to fulfill all righteousness for us poor sinners.
The Scriptures even name Him,
“The Lord our Righteousness.”
Now, because of His holy life and His death on our behalf,
we are counted righteous before God through faith in Him.
Because of Jesus, God calls His people “saints.”
Because of Jesus’ righteousness we are blessed.
Jesus’ righteousness is the only righteousness God
accepts. God sees us
through the holiness of Jesus.
He doesn’t see our sin, our failings, our disobedience,
because Jesus took all that away.
He sees the perfections of Christ, graciously imputed to us
as though we had never sinned at all.
Faith in the saving righteousness of Jesus is what makes us
saints.
According to the book of Revelation
those who are in heaven wear robes of fine, white linen,
signifying the righteous deeds of the saints.
The saints’ righteous deeds are not their own.
They are the deeds of Jesus.
Today’s Old Testament lesson says, All that we have accomplished, You have done for us, [O Lord]. So
it is with the good works of the saints.
Only those good works done through
faith in Christ make it to heaven.
The sins of the saints were nailed to the Cross of Jesus.
They were buried in the Baptismal font. Only their good
works endure. Now
it’s true that in this world we still have a sinful nature.
We’re simultaneously saint and sinner.
In heaven, though, we’ll be all saint, for the sinful
nature will be forever gone. For
those in heaven, the book of Revelation says, have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
And
that is what the portrait of the blessed looks like.
It looks like Jesus. Jesus’
righteousness and perfections are credited by God’s grace to us
sinners. We are new
creatures in Christ. That’s why in this world we the redeemed
gratefully seek to keep God’s commandments.
We seek to bring forth the virtues described in the
Beatitudes, to be poor in spirit, to mourn our sins, to be meek
and humble before God and man, to desire the righteousness which
comes to us, by gift, in Baptism, Absolution, preaching, and Holy
Communion. We seek to
show mercy as God has been merciful to us for the sake of His Son.
We strive to be pure in heart by not courting temptation,
but rather by repenting our sins and seeking first God’s kingdom
and His righteousness in our Savior Jesus Christ.
We strive to share the peace of the Gospel with others.
And if God should so will, we are ready even to be
persecuted for the sake of Him who has become our light and
salvation, God’s own dear Son who died for us and was raised
again, so that we might be numbered among the blessed.
For by God’s grace we have an eternal home in the new
heaven and the new earth along with all the saints.
The
departed saints you know are saints because of Jesus.
They’re with God now because of Jesus.
They are eternally blessed because of Jesus.
They were reconciled to God and saved, by grace, through
faith, because of Jesus. That’s
why they are saints. That’s why God graciously names you one of
His saints. Because of
Jesus, through faith in His Name.
In
Nomine Patris. . .
