Romans 6.3-11 + Matthew 5.20-26
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus teaches us the true meaning of God’s law in today’s gospel lesson. The law, specifically the fifth commandment, teaches, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of judgment.” While the Pharisees—and the sinful flesh—is content with the idea that they should not end someone’s life, Jesus teaches that the commandment applies to the whole person, including the thoughts of one’s heart and the words of one’s mouth. “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” Anger without cause and insults make one just as liable, not only of an earthly court, but of hell itself. Murdering someone is never the first sin. Anger, resentment, and bitterness are already murder in the heart that, if left unchecked, will lead to violent language and acts. The commandment forbids not only physical murder, but the murder that so often takes place in the heart, even that anger that festers and never leads to hurting or harming our neighbor in his body.
Jesus also teaches us what the commandment requires. He says, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” The gift being offered at the altar is a sacrifice, either for sin or for thanksgiving. If the man has begun offering his gift upon the altar and the Holy Spirit brings to mind that his brother has something against him—that he has wronged his brother in some way and not been reconciled to the brother whom he has wronged—he is to leave his offering there. Why? Because God says in Hoseas 6:6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Sacrifices were outward forms of worship which God had commanded. But the sacrifices were to reflect the inward worship of the heart. It would hypocritical for a man to offer a sacrifice—whether for sin or for thanksgiving to God—while he harbors anger toward his brother in his heart that refuses to be reconciled to him. It is far better, Jesus says, to agree with your adversary quickly, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. The commandment, “You shall not murder” touches the whole person, the heart most of all, so that we do not murder our neighbor even with our thoughts, but be merciful and loving.
So, we need new hearts. Jesus says in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies.” The Lord said before and after the flood that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21). Who we are, by nature, cannot live according to the commandment, “You shall not murder,” or any of the commandments for that matter, for each of the Ten Commandments demand the heart fear, love, and trust in God above all things at all times, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Any thought that we do these is self-deception. For the Lord reminds us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, so deceitful that it deceives even itself with the assumption of its own goodness and righteousness. This was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. They imagined they were righteous as long as they obeyed the commandments outwardly. But self-righteousness—which is the best that man, by nature, can muster—will not get you into the kingdom of heaven, because it isn’t righteous before God at all. So, we need new hearts, and by that I mean we need to become new people entirely.
And God, who is rich in mercy, has done that for you. “Do you not know,” Paul asks, “that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” We know that baptism “works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare” (SC IV.2). But it also unites us to Christ’s death. We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Far from being an empty sign as so many teach, baptism unites us with Christ’s death, so that “our old man was crucified with Him.” In baptism, your old man—the sinful heart, the whole man as he is descended from Adam—is crucified and laid in the tomb with Christ. This is why we baptize infants and the aged alike, for baptism is the way that Christ puts to death the old Adam in us and makes us into new men. The new man is the new heart, the new person, who, by the power of the Holy Spirit given in baptism, lives according to God’s will—the Ten Commandments.
The new man, risen from the death of sin, with a new heart, hears the commandment, “You shall not murder,” and does His best to live patiently with others. The new man does not repay evil when he receives evil. The new man, lives peaceably with all men, as much as depends on him. The new man does not avenge himself when wronged or allow wrath to consume him. The new says with the Psalmist, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Pss 4:4). The new man prays, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3). He trusts God who says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Rom 12:19). The new man would much rather agree with his adversary quickly, rather than deliver him over to the judge. Yet, there are times when a Christian—as a citizen—must deliver his unbelieving enemy who refuses to be reconciled to the judge. The new man does so, seeking justice rather than revenge. This is how the new man, risen from the death of sin, hears all the commandments. All the commandments, not just the fifth commandment, serve as his guide so that he avoids what God forbids and pursues what God commands, and all of it from the heart, not just outwardly before men.
The new man must also, however, contend with the body of sin. Paul says, “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” The Old Man is crucified, dead, and buried in baptism. But the body of sin remains. By “body of sin” Paul means the remaining lusts and desires of the old man. We still feel sin in our flesh. We still have its impulses within us, desiring to sin and lusting against the Spirit. These lusts and impulses are sin, but God does not impute them to believers who do away with the body of sin, that is, who resist it, and retain the upper hand against it. We walk by the Spirit, according to God’s law, so that we should no longer be slaves of sin. We walk by the Spirit, trusting that since our Old Man has already died in Holy Baptism, we are freed from sin. We look forward to the day when this body of sin dies altogether and is laid in the ground and look forward to the day of Christ’s return in glory when He raises us to new life in glorified bodies entirely free of sin’s corruption. For now, though, in this life, we live in the baptismal life, reckoning ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord, resisting the body of sin’s lusts and desires, and if we sin, relying on God’s promises made to us in Holy Baptism to forgive our sins and raise us to new life.
Jesus teaches us the true meaning of God’s law. Seeing how the law touches the entire person, we see the wickedness of the body of sin that remains in us. The law shows us the depth of our sinful depravity, so that we do not, like the scribes and Pharisees, imagine we can be righteous apart from the forgiveness of sins and Christ’s perfect righteousness that He gives us through baptism and faith. The more we see our depravity, the more we see our need for Jesus, and the more we give thanks to Him for putting our old man to death in baptism and resurrecting us with Himself to new life. By teaching us the true meaning of God’s law we also clearly see His will for how we live: that we should no longer be slaves of sin, but new men and women, baptized sons and daughters of God the Father, who live each day in the gospel, reckoning themselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. May God grant this to us all. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
