How can you get a righteousness which exceeds that of the most works obsessed Israelites and Pharisees and scribes?
In our Old Testament reading for this week, we have God’s people working hard (58:5) to impress Him with their piety. Perhaps, they were hoping that such fervent works would earn them credit before Him for righteousness (58:3a). Instead, their plan backfires and, in the first five verses of our reading, the LORD confronts the people with their abuse of fasting (Zecheriah 7:4-14), which was to be a time for reflection and repentance of sin (Leviticus 16:29; Matthew 6:16-18).
He begins with the human perspective. Israel is doing what the LORD asked, so they wonder why He is not acknowledging their deeds. But like other abuses mentioned (1:11; 29:13), the people are going through the motions, begrudging the LORD’s Law on their lives. If Israel wants a right relationship with the LORD, then why do they not have a right relationship with each other? When God’s people claim to love Him but disregard their neighbor, both tables of the Law fall. Neither good, nor the Sacraments, nor, in Isaiah’s case, fasting, grant a right standing before God by merely doing them.
In verses 6-7, the LORD calls for acts of justice and righteousness, rather than lip service. Attempts to go around the way of justice and righteousness with liturgical rites, no matter how extravagant and compelling they are, are doomed to fail. They cannot masquerade for true faith in the LORD. In the spirit of Samuel, who declared to Saul, “Obedience is better than sacrifice, the harkening of God to the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22), Isaiah declares that religious observances cannot substitute for moral integrity (Micah 6:6-8). Worship and fasting apart from love toward your neighbor deadens people to the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23) and creates an illusion of certainty.
Which leads right into our gospel lesson for this Sunday from Matthew 5:13-20. If you take Jesus’ teaching at face value, He is asking us to not just keep the letter of His Word, but the spirit of it as well. When this happens, we will reflect the light of Christ to the world. But wait, was that not the problem in our Old Testament lesson? The people were shining a light on their works to show everyone how religious they were. Is Jesus really suggesting that we do good deeds for this kind of purpose?
No, just listen to the end of our Gospel lesson. Jesus says: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (5:20). You see, He is not asking us to copy the pattern of the false, showy piety of the Israelites. He is not asking us to be like the Pharisees and scribes. He is saying, unless we have a righteousness that exceeds theirs, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
In Him, we have a righteousness which exceeds that of even the Pharisees and scribes.
Wait, that is not better, it is worse. How can you get a righteousness which exceeds that of the most works obsessed Israelites and Pharisees and scribes? Well, only in Jesus of course. In Him, we have a righteousness that keeps the righteous demands of God from Isaiah for justice and righteousness. In Him, we have a righteousness which exceeds that of even the Pharisees and scribes. Remember what Jesus said in verse 17 of our Gospel lesson? He has come to fulfill it all, the Law and the Prophets, for you. That is how you get a kind of righteousness that exceeds anything you can earn or deserve. Baptized into Christ, He is our righteousness. He took the justice of God for sin and sinners at the cross, and since in baptism, “We have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:5).
In order to catch the clue to disclosure of the turn in preaching on these texts, you may want to use the Lowry Loop Structure.
“Eugene Lowry, in his work The Homiletical Plot and his revision of such work in The Sermon, suggests that the sermon create a sequence of experiences on the part of the hearers that mirrors the experiences of a typical plot form. The sermon, therefore, moves from conflict through complication to crisis and finally to resolution. Lowry’s The Homiletical Plot depicts this design as having the following five sections: (1) upsetting the equilibrium (“oops”); (2) analyzing the discrepancy (“ugh!”); (3) disclosing the clue to the resolution (“aha!”); (4) experiencing the Gospel (“whee!”); and (5) anticipating the consequences (“yeah!”). Just as in a narrative, the climax of the story often arises from a surprising discovery of a new way of looking at things, so too in this sermon the reversal is something unforeseen by the hearers and, therefore, a surprise or, as Lowry calls it, an “aha!” experience. If the preacher simply moves from trouble to grace without that element of a surprising turn (an unanticipated viewpoint that is nevertheless coherent to the story), the sermon structure is probably a law/gospel/application structure rather than a Lowry Loop.”[1]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 58:3-9a.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Micah 6:1-8.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
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[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/dynamic/narrative-structures/lowry-loop/
