In Matthew's Steps: Impossible!

The First Steps: Read Matthew 5
Focus Verse: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48

Meditation: “Impossible!”
No one is praised more than in their obituary. There the past mistakes are forgotten. The vices are put to rest and the virtues remain to be broadcast to anyone reading them. Obituaries contain such a variety of praises from the simple:

“He was a role model and a friend...”

To the more general...

“She’d do anything for anyone.”

We’d all like to think there’s something good about us. Something to be said to our praise. Some legacy by which we might be remembered. We’ve all imagined and wondered what they’ll say about us at our funeral, hoping beyond hope that the good in us outweighs the bad. That at the end of our lives people remember the good in us and forget the bad.

Praising someone’s virtue at the end of life is never a bad thing, except if you believe or expect that virtue to get you anywhere with God. You see, God’s bar is set high...very VERY high in fact! We don’t have just ten commandments to follow in the Bible. We have hundreds, even thousands. And if you’re expecting to get anywhere on your own righteousness than you’d better consider what you have in store for you.

Christ Jesus in his infamous sermon on the mount in Matthew ups the ante on most every one of God’s commandments. Even the ones most of us avoid.

“You have heard that it was said to people long ago, ‘Do not murder,’... But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgement.(vs. 21-22)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.(vs. 27)
“You have heard it was said... ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.”(vs. 38-39)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’ but I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”(vs. 43-44)

And just in case anyone is still standing up by the end of those verses, Jesus slams us again with two impossible standards:

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”(vs. 20)
And again...
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”(vs. 48)

Are you still standing on your own two feet? Has your own righteousness prevailed? Are you perfect as Jesus demands you to be? No? What do we make of all of these? What do we do with these statements?

The first thing we need to do is admit: We don’t measure up! And we never will! We will never be righteous. No matter how good we are or how good we do, we will never ever ever measure up to a perfect God. God loves everyone! God cares for the wicked and the good alike? Do you? I have to chuckle when I read or hear someone say, usually of someone deceased: “They were friends with everyone they met...” because that statement begs an “except.” Except for who? For Jews? For foreigners? For Jehovah Witnesses? For Muslims? Except for who? Do you really mean “everyone”?

God does! When God “sends rain on the good and the bad alike...” God doesn’t exempt anyone from the blessing. God blesses them all. Rich and poor. Good and bad. Gay or straight. Everyone! Are you ready to get along with anyone? Are you ready to love everyone? Are you ready to lay your life down for even Charles Manson?

The fact of the matter is we aren’t... and we don’t. We don’t measure up! And we never will! Why even our good deeds are tainted with sin. Isaiah says it best...

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags...” Isaiah 64:6

The word for “filthy rags” here is the same word used for used sanitary napkins! That’s what our good deeds are! A dirty, stinking, bloody mess compared to the perfection of what God wants, desires, and expects. That’s our righteous acts. What about our unrighteous ones? What about those? If everything we do, and I do mean everything, drips in sin, than without Christ, we are lost indeed!

So stop pretending otherwise! Quit flaunting your own good deeds and comparing yourself with anyone else. If there’s anything that this chapter of Matthew teaches us is the impossibility of measuring up. Don’t do it anymore. Don’t try to be perfect. Instead just be human.

God is pleased to dwell within our humanity and when we show that humanity to others, when we are vulnerable and compassionate toward others, than we become Christ to our neighbor. Christ has died and given us his righteousness. God’s requirements for life have already been taken care of. Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who ups the ante on the Law, bleeds and dies to redeem us out from under it. And now we’re all together. Now there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, gay or straight, right or wrong, for all have been redeemed by Christ the crucified.

Perhaps we ask our obituary should include something of the truth: “In life they were both a saint and a sinner. They could be the nicest person in the world and the biggest pain in the rear you’ve ever met. They were a sinner of our Lord’s redeeming. But they were loved by God, cherished by Christ, and now they are home. That’s all that really matters anyhow.” Amen.

Questions to Answer
1) What would you like said at your funeral? How might you live into that reality now?

2) What ways do you fail to measure up to the image of Matthew 5? What is Christ trying to get at here?

3) Why do you do what you do? What motivation is behind it?

A Prayer to Pray
Almighty God, even the simplest of your laws are impossible for us to follow. Lavish on us your grace that we might be forgiven of our sins and strengthened in our calling to be your children in the world, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.