What is your quest? What is your favorite color? What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? All important questions. But the real question is: who are you following?
Matthew 5:21-27; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Psalm 119:1-8; Deuteronomy 30:15-20
The book of Deuteronomy is really quite fun. It’s essentially a really long sermon — Moses’ last words to the people of Israel while they were hanging out on the banks of the Jordan River getting ready to head into the Promised Land. He reminded them that God brought them to that place out of slavery in Egypt. He summarized the Law to them. Finally he left the people of Israel with a choice, and that’s what our reading is today.
Moses says to the people, “You have a choice today: life and prosperity or death and destruction. If you love God, and walk in His ways, you will be blessed. But if you turn away, then it’s not going to go so well for you. So, make your choice. I’d suggest you choose for God.” Strangely enough, Deuteronomy doesn’t record the people’s response, but to a similar question in Joshua, the people insist that they will only and ever follow God, even with some stern warnings about it. Then we have the book of Judges to show us all how well that worked out for Israel.
The choice Moses sets before the people of Israel is not unlike the choice that Jesus sets before his disciples during the sermon on the mount. It’s not quite so obvious as what Moses says to the Israelites but the idea is still there. The basic question is: who are you following? Are you worshipping the Law or the Law-giver? You see Jesus saw in the ways the Pharisees interpreted the Law that they were more concerned with the letter of the law and not the intent. In the traditional interpretation, external action was what mattered: murder, adultery, taking oaths, and the like. But Jesus switches things around. It’s not just about the actions, but also what goes on in our thoughts.
The commandment isn’t just about committing murder, but also about being angry with another. The commandment isn’t just about committing adultery, it’s also about lustful thoughts. Jesus makes clear that God isn’t just worried about the things we say and do, but what goes on in our minds as well. It’s not good enough to just follow the things in the Law, you have to follow God, and God has a bigger expectation of us than just what’s in the Law.
Of course the standard is set impossibly high. A little while later in the Sermon, Jesus says, “Be perfect… as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In last week’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees… you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And remember the Pharisees were pretty darn righteous.
I want you all to really pay attention to what Jesus said here: “Unless YOUR righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” I don’t know about you, but I’m really glad I don’t have to rely on my own righteousness for salvation. If I were trying “earn” salvation, I would have absolutely no hope, because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be more righteous than the Pharisees, and I definitely wouldn’t be as perfect as God. Lucky for us though, someone else is.
There is one person I can think of whose righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, and who is as perfect as God. Any guesses who that is? It all comes down to what I said two weeks ago — the Sermon on the Mount brings us to the place where we realize that we cannot earn our own salvation, and instead need Jesus to do it. And that’s the choice that we always have before us: do we do things our way or God’s. Do we trust that God knows what is best for us or not? Our way leads to destruction, but God’s way leads to life. To quote Moses, “Choose life, so that you may live, and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”