All or Nothing :: Matthew 5:13-20
Was Saint Paul just a poor student, or was he a bad teacher?
Had Paul failed to grasp what Jesus was saying, or was he flat out disregarding it as he wrote to the Corinthians?
In listening to our Epistle and Gospel lessons this morning, did you sense a problem? Did you hear something in the words of Jesus and Paul that just didn’t seem to jive? Listen again, very carefully. First, from our Gospel lesson, the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot ... a “jot” or a “tittle” ... will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. (vv 17-19a)
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
We certainly agree with that, don’t we?
Every word of the Scriptures is true and vital.
But did you hear what Saint Paul wrote in our Epistle? First Corinthians 2:2: I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Not anything except Jesus and the cross? What about every other jot and tittle of the Scriptures? What about the Law? What about making the choice between life and good, death and evil? What about obeying every commandment, all the time?
What is it? Did Saint Paul not understand what our Lord Jesus Christ was talking about? Or was he ignoring it?
Well, we don’t like either of those options, do we? We know there’s got to be a better explanation. There’s never a contradiction in the Bible. So ... what is the better explanation?
HOW CAN WE RECONCILE CHRIST’S WORD WITH PAUL: EVERY LETTER OF THE LAW OR NOTHING BUT CHRIST CRUCIFIED?
To begin, Jesus upholds every letter of the Law. I can’t stress this fact enough. Not only did our Lord live a life of active righteousness, obeying every law every day of his life, he holds the Law in high esteem. He doesn’t add to it. And he doesn’t minimize it.
The world around you would like nothing more than to simplify what God has to say. Mobs of people today just flat out deny the truth of certain teachings of Scripture:
They say Creation didn’t happen in six days. They say, Joshua didn’t really stop the sun and moon. They say Peter didn’t really walk on water. They say, Jesus wasn’t really born of a virgin. They say, Jesus wasn’t really God in the flesh. They say, Jesus didn’t call himself God.
Yes, mobs of people all around you say too much.
Other people deny that certain teachings of Scripture still apply today. Some try to deny that God’s word declares that only men are given to be pastors. Some say you can find God in your heart, or that you can find access to God through your personal efforts. Some think you can achieve contact with God through the clarity of your observations or the consistency of your logic. And perhaps most prominently today, some think that the way God feels about you is measured by how good your life is right now.
Yes, a lot of people say way too much.
More often, people simplify God’s Word. The world around you loves to ignore passages that seem a little too tough when temptation strikes: Those words about adultery, homosexuality, sex before marriage, arrogance, ungratefulness, and pride ... those can’t really apply to me.
Yes, we like to say too much.
A lot of people, even Christians, think that too much has been made of sin. Sin is thought of as illicit fun, something just off the mark of some dumb rule made up by religion. And stupid rules are meant to be broken. We’re really in love, we say. We’re going to get married, so it’s OK to live together first. ... There’s no romance anymore, we say; therefore, we shouldn’t stay married. ... Nobody will see what I do by myself in the privacy of my own room with my own computer, we say.
It’s all really very simple, the world says. God loves me just the way I am.
The problem is, Jesus says, that’s not true:
Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not one dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. (vv 18-19a)
Anything that lowers God’s standards won’t work. Keeping the Law only 17 percent of the time won’t work; neither will keeping it as much as 99 percent of the time.
You are the salt of the earth. Now if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world … Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (vv 13-14, 16)
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that’s not optional; it’s a command.
We must be salt to season the world around us. We must not taste like the rest of the world. We must let our light shine ... we must live like Christ. We must speak of Christ. We must not be silent and blend in. We must obey every jot and tittle, every letter of the Law.
Jesus does not give us the slightest leeway.
If it weren’t Jesus speaking, we’d probably think this was the worst kind of legalism. Pay attention to every word, every letter, every tiny detail of the Law. It’s what Jesus said.
On the other hand, Paul knows nothing except Christ crucified: And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:12).
Paul says the cross is the whole message. Sounds as if Paul would have done great children’s messages ... nothing fancy, always simple, and the answer to every question would be “Jesus died on the cross for our sins.”
Truth is, next to Christ, Paul was probably the most brilliant and complex theologian of all time. But he says that the old, familiar, simple message of Jesus crucified is IT, Jesus crucified is ALL of it; there’s nothing more.
We say it every Sunday: Jesus suffered and died on the cross to save sinners, to save you, to save me, to save the world. Jesus was beaten for you, he was nailed to a cross for you, he died for you, he was buried for you. Jesus’ death saves me.
Is that really all were supposed to preach every Sunday?
Is it possible that says it all?
Yeah, but is that what Jesus said? Until heaven and earth pass away, not [one jot or tittle] will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Sounds as if Paul is guilty of a thing called Gospel reductionism ... that is, reducing God’s Word to a few simple soundbites, like the cross of Christ, and ignoring everything else in Scripture, declaring you can do whatever you want, live however you want, deny any other part of the Bible, all because Jesus died for me.
It sure sounds as if Paul is contradicting Jesus, doesn’t it? How can the two be reconciled? The answer: ... Christ crucified is the fulfillment of every letter of the Law.
Proclaiming Christ crucified proclaims the whole Law. It is just like saying the Ten Commandments can be summed up by saying we must love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Christ crucified proclaims the whole law.
The cross shows how binding the Law is. That’s the Son of God hanging up there! He who knew no sin ... because he never did sin, because he wasn’t born into sin ... he who knew no sin became sin for you. He took that sin, your sin, my sin, the sin of the entire world to his cross and made sure that your sin was punished.
The cross shows us how God the Father turned his own Son over to hell and damnation over one piece of fruit eaten in a garden long, long ago. ... Over one thoughtless word that you spoke yesterday. ... Over one vow that you broke last week. ... Over the one word that should be spoken tomorrow to tell someone about Jesus, but won’t be. Every sin, every shortcoming, every failure of man was crucified on the cross of Christ. As Paul writes, The natural person does not accept these things. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The cross shows that God’s standard can never be lowered. Sin must be punished, God declared. Sin has no place with God. The Law requires 100 percent compliance ... that’s it! No excuses, no letting off the hook. In Christ crucified we see that every transgression of every letter of the Law must and will be punished and to the full extent of the Law.
When we see our sin hanging on the cross ... when we recognize our need for a savior ... then you understand what Isaiah wrote ... that his light breaks forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily.
Knowing Christ and him crucified is knowing that the whole Law has been fulfilled: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (v 17). The full extent of the Law has been executed! Christ has been crucified! The demands of every jot and tittle have been met. Every letter has been fulfilled. Not by us, but for us.
That’s Paul’s point.
Jesus is no legalist. He’s not driving us to keep the Law. He’s promising to do it for us, and through us. It all begins in your baptism, when he unites his life-giving word and promises with the water and drowns your sin and raises you into eternal life. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you who have been baptized are living the eternal life now. Through baptism, he pours out His Holy Spirit upon you and gives you faith ... faith that all of God’s promises find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
In the same way, Paul wasn’t dismissing the importance of every other word of Scripture, including every demand of the Law that tells you love the Lord your God and your neighbor. He was proclaiming them all when he said “Christ crucified.”
Therefore, let your lights shine ... be salt of the earth. Tell the world about Jesus and what he has done for you, for me, for the world. When we know Christ and him crucified, we are fulfilling the Law too. The more we know the one thing Paul knew, the more we’ll love doing everything the Law demands.
Paul was neither a poor student nor a bad teacher. Quite the contrary. So beautifully did he learn the whole message of God that he was able to teach it all in one phrase: Jesus Christ and him crucified.