"Simultaneously Saint and Sinner"
Matthew 5:1-12
11/5/06
Today we are celebrating All Saints Sunday.
All Saints Day was actually the day after Halloween. Halloween,
of course, is the day when kids dress up in costumes. Ive noticed
that the boys tend to like to dress up as monsters and action figures,
while the girls tend to like to dress up as princesses and various
kinds of insects. Its a night when they all get to pretend to be
something theyre not. Its a night when everyone gets to be an
actor, a hypocrite. And thats what the word hypocrite actually
means - one who play-acts, pretending to be someone or something he
isnt.
But we dont have to wait for Halloween to come
around to be hypocrites. We play-act all the time, trying to hide
behind self-made masks of holiness and righteousness, while underneath
we are the vilest of sinners. We love to put on our Pharisee
costumes, which make us appear to be clean and spotless, but which
actually only cover-up the filth that lies beneath. Jesus made
this clear when He rebuked the Pharisees for looking like white-washed
tombs whose insides were full of dead mens bones. They were like
cups that had been washed on the outside but were still dirty on the
inside. Our pharisaical costumes may hide our sinfulness from the
eyes of men, but God sees whats underneath in our hearts. From
there, Jesus says, flows evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, and slanders. Our costumes
dont hide who we really are before God. He sees us exactly as we
are - sinful and unclean.
And so, when we come to the beatitudes here in the
Gospel according to St. Matthew, there are two ways in which we sinners
may respond to these words. The first way is the Pharisaical
way. When we look at the beatitudes in this way and hear Jesus
saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are
gentle, etc. we say to ourselves, Yes! Thats me! Im all
these things. I hunger and thirst for righteousness, Im merciful,
Im pure in heart, Im a peacemaker. Im a great example of a
saint. Therefore, God looks upon me with favor and blesses
me. When we look at the beatitudes in this way, we see them as
requirements for becoming a saint, a goal which we can achieve and
fulfill, if we just try hard enough. Sometimes we feel like we
have already achieved this goal and fulfilled the requirements for
becoming a saint, while at other times we feel we need to work harder
at it. But then sometimes we hear these words of Jesus and we
despair of becoming a saint altogether. We evaluate our lives
according to these characteristics that saints are supposed to have and
we realize that we dont have them - we arent poor in spirit, we dont
mourn over our sin as we ought to, we arent gentle, we dont hunger and
thirst for righteousness, we arent merciful, we arent pure in heart, we
arent peacemakers, and we dont love and pray for those who persecute
us. And the Scripture confirms this when it says that no one is
righteous, no not one and that we have all sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. This way of looking at the beatitudes views Jesus
as another Moses and the beatitudes as another set of commandments that
we cant keep, which leads us to believe that we are condemned with no
hope of salvation. These, then, are the two ways we sinners may
respond if we view the beatitudes in a Law way. As a result, we
either put on a self-made costume, pretending to be a saint, or we
despair of the fact that were not saints and we lose all hope of
salvation.
Adam and Eve found themselves in a similar
situation. After they had eaten of the forbidden fruit, they both
realized that they were naked and they tried to hide their nakedness
themselves using a couple of costumes they made out of fig
leaves. But God saw that their attempts at covering themselves
were inadequate, and instead He clothed them with garments of the skin
of an animal. So, too, in the case of the beatitudes, God is
teaching us that the two ways in which we try take these words are
inadequate - whether we try to use them to become saints by our own
efforts, trying to cover up our sin with our hypocrisy, or whether we
despair of becoming saints, believing that our sin cant be hidden
before God at all.
But there is a third way, and that is the way of God
providing for you the garment of Christ. This way confesses that
the beatitudes speak first and foremost not of you and how you should
be, but about Christ and how He is, and how His characteristics are
given to you. Jesus is poor in spirit - He humbled Himself to be
born under the Law and to die on the cross for your sins. He
mourns over sin and for sinners. He is gentle. He hungers
and thirsts for righteousness, not that He is lacking in righteousness
Himself, but that you are, which drives Him to fulfill all
righteousness for you. He is merciful. He is pure in
heart. He is your peacemaker, not in bringing a worldly peace,
but in making peace for you before God with His shed blood. And
He was persecuted, insulted, and crucified for being who He was - God
our Savior. Jesus is blessed because He is all these
things. But He isnt all these things for Himself. He is all
these things for those who believe and trust in Him. Such people
He clothes with Himself in Holy Baptism, giving them all His holy and
righteous attributes - being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, gentle,
merciful, pure in heart, etc., along with all the blessings of God that
go with such characteristics - the kingdom of heaven, the comfort of
God, the inheritance of the earth, righteousness, mercy, seeing God
face to face, being called sons of God. This is no hypocrital
holiness and righteousness, a holiness and righteousness of our own,
but it is true and genuine - the perfect holiness and righteousness of
Jesus.
Like a Halloween costume that hides whats underneath
it, this garment of Christ also hides whats underneath it - your
sin. But unlike our self-made costumes or attempts at hiding our
sin ourselves, this costume is given to you by God as a gift, and
therefore it alone can and does cover your sins, so that you stand
before God in Jesus as perfectly holy and righteous people under His
blessing. When God looks at you now He doesnt see the filth of
your sin. Instead, He sees Jesus.
So, then, the beatitudes are descriptions of the
saints, of those sinners who have been clothed with Christ. They
arent telling you how to become a saint, nor are they telling you to
try harder at being a saint, they are telling you who you are now in
Jesus. You are a holy people before God, washed clean in the
waters of your Baptism, spotless and blameless without any wrinkle or
blemish before God.
Martin Luther gave us great insight into this
mystery when he stated the paradox that a Christian is simultaneously
both a saint and a sinner. A Christian is at the same time both
holy and corrupt, righteous and wicked, blameless and defiled. He
is simply a sinner who has been declared holy, righteous, and blameless
through faith in Jesus Christ, clothed with Christ at Baptism.
Luther described Christians as clumps of dung covered with the pure,
white snow of Christs righteousness. Next time you read the
beatitudes think of that, and realize that none of these
characteristics are yours by nature. They have all been given to
you in Jesus. They are what are called an alien righteousness, a
righteousness thats not your own, but one that comes from someone else
- from Christ.
Now, as these attributes are yours in Jesus, will
they then begin to describe your behavior more and more?
Yes. As the Holy Spirit works in you through His Word and His
Sacraments, you will become more like Jesus, more poor in spirit,
humbling yourself before God and men. You will mourn, repenting
of your sins more and more. You will become more gentle, more
merciful, more pure in heart, more of a peacemaker the more the Word of
God has its way with your mind, emotions, and will. And dont be
surprised when the devil, the world, and your own flesh persecute and
insult you for becoming more and more like Christ, because if they
persecuted Him, they will persecute you too. But dont use this
becoming more like Christ in your behavior as a barometer of your
holiness before God. You cannot improve on how holy you are
before Him, because Jesus is your holiness before God, and that cant be
improved upon. Your holiness before God depends upon Jesus alone,
not your behavior. But when we are talking about how to live as
Gods holy people, His saints, before others, then we can talk about
improving our holy living with the help of the Holy Spirit as He works
through His means of grace. But when you find that you fail on a
daily basis in living out your holiness, when it looks like you arent
getting better and better, thats when you look again to Jesus,
crucified for your sins, whose blood washes away your sins and cleanses
you from all unrighteousness. See yourself in Him again, and you
will see yourself holy and blameless under Gods blessings.
Thats Gospel way of looking at the beatitudes.
How can we take them as Law, when each of them begins with the Gospel
word blessed? And because God blesses no one apart from faith in
Christ, it is only in Jesus that you are under Gods blessing. You
were put in Him at your Baptism, where as Paul says you were clothed
with Christ. You are no longer now naked before God. He
doesnt see your sin anymore. Instead, He sees His Son, who is
your righteousness, holiness, and redemption before God. And so
you no longer live under Gods condemnation and wrath, but under His
grace and mercy.
We the baptized live in this life as saints and
sinners simultaneously, living by faith in Jesus who forgives us our
sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. But the day is
coming when sin will be no more, when we will only be saints and not
sinners. That day will come at the resurrection of the dead on
the last day. In the meantime, live under the promise of Gods
blessings in Jesus, that to you who are poor in spirit belongs the
kingdom of heaven, that you who mourn will be comforted, that you the
gentle will inherit the earth, that you who hunger and thirst for
righteousness will be satisfied, that you the merciful will receive
mercy, that you peacemakers will see God, and that you who are
persecuted by the devil, the world, and your own flesh will be called
sons of God, all for the sake of Christ, your great reward, who has
made you saints, His holy people. Amen.