"THE SUFFERING
SERVANT BLEEDS AND FEEDS STRENGTH”
Saint Matthew 5.
20-26
6th Sunday after Trinity: 27 July Anno +
Domini 2014
Fr Jay Watson
SSP
In The + Name of
Jesus
“The
Lord is the Strength of His people!”
You are not your own strength. Your good
works and commendable deeds are not your salvation. Your prayers and devotions
are not your sanctification. Unless your righteousness exceeds, is better than,
is superior to, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not go
heaven—you will not be saved.
Jesus restates the Torah, the Law of God:
to be saved you must be perfect. To be righteous, i.e. to be “right with God,”
you must obey all the Law, all the time, all the way.
The scribes and Pharisees were the “cream of the crop” of “religious Israel.” They read and “knew” what the scrolls said. They didn’t just read, they studied,
memorized, recited, and made commentary upon Scripture. They “knew” the Hebrew texts, insofar as they
sinfully interpreted God as rules, regulations, lists, and responsibilities. But
they were only surface skimmers with an ocean of superficial knowledge a few
inches deep. They had lost faith. They had lost the truth of blood sacrifice,
of sin—their true “old Adam” sin.
They were all hypocrites and most of them were not even believers in The
suffering servant Messiah that the Holy Prophets (e.g. Esaias) had foretold.
So, for your status with the Lord being
right and acceptable (“righteousness”)
and surpassing scribes and Pharisees it will do you no good to study Scripture “better,” or to know the teachings and
doctrines of the Creeds and the Confessions more thoroughly. Jesus tells you,
you modern day “wannabe scribes” and
contemporary Pharisees, that YOU trespass daily and that you DON’T obey the
Commands of God to the letter! Later in Christ’s
“sermon on the mount” He says “be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect” [Mt 5. 48]. With the Law, the 10 Commandments, it’s all or
nothing; it’s obey or die, be holy or be damned: “whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all.” [Ja. 2.10]
Jesus says in verse 28 “whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart.” [v.28] When
you break the 6th Commandment you break the other 9 as well!
If you are angry with your brother without a
cause you are in danger of the judgment; the judgment of hell for “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer;
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” [1 Jn.
3.15]
Do you always go and try to reconcile with
your brother who “hath ought against
thee” before you come to Church, or before you fall asleep, or before you
simply “block it out” in
self-righteousness? Repent! Hell will be
filled with the self righteous for only “The
Lord is the Strength of His people!”
Your failure to obey and your weakness to
sin and to damn yourself find its only solution in Christ Jesus. When you refuse
to set your “gift” down, to let go
your golden calves, mammon Baals, and bloated egos, before worshipping yourself
and your own deluded image of a “safe”
Jesus…the radical, authentic, and real God/Man Jesus comes to do what only He
can do: Redeem, Save, and Strengthen you IN HIM!
“The
Lord is the strength of His people.” He was the strength of Adam when
exiled from paradise. He was the strength of Noah and the church of 8 aboard
the ark. He was the strength of Abram in
all his fears, dislocations, and struggles. He was the strength of Moses and
the Children of Israel during their Exodus in the desert. He was the strength
of Jeremias and the deportees to
Babylon as well as Nehemiah and the returnees from Babylon. He was the strength of the “12” during their ministries and martyrdoms. He was the strength of
the Apostle plagued and buffeted by a “thorn
in the flesh” a “messenger of Satan.”
That great disciple was assured, and so are you: “My Grace is sufficient for thee; for My Strength is made perfect in
weakness.” [2 Cor. 12. 9a]
It is there, HERE, that you have your
righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
Their non-belief and rejection was manifested in their self-righteous rejection
and idolatry of the “rules of religion.”
Your righteousness is HE WHO IS THE RIGHTEOUS ONE. Jesus is Godly “right” with the Father in all His words; His obedience in
Law-Keeping; His atoning suffering and death for your anger and adultery; His
Body given; His Blood shed; His Words spoken in Peace to give Peace!
Jesus’ Strength is not His omnipotence but
His love. His miracle is not walking on water or healing lepers but in His
Incarnation from the Virgin and in His substitutionary life and death as the
Lamb of God for all of you. His Strength is made perfect in His own weakness
(perceived weakness) His “state of humiliation.”
It is never a “Game of Thrones” but
a “crown of thorns!”
You hate your enemies. You refuse to
forgive and reconcile with your antagonists. Repent! Jesus loved your
adversaries and all enemies of His Father—of The Trinity—He loved you when you
were an enemy and even dead. He raises you to life and eternity by burying you
+ with Him in His own death. His love
was at the Cross and His Strength was in His crucifix for it was there His Body
and Blood won you. His Grace flows this love and forgiveness to you now at His
altar and pulpit and in His Holy Chalice and Ciborium where that self-same Body
and Blood is given and shed for you
to eat and drink—and believe!
He brought the only and real “gift to the altar” when He let Himself
be led to the High Altar of Calvary. He reconciled all of you to The Father in
His enthronement on the wood. The gift was God’s own Son. You are free from
prison, from eternal death and hell because Jesus paid the “uttermost farthing” when He hung His sacred head and gave up the
Ghost.
Receive that Ghost, that Spirit of Sonship
and royal-priesthood once again. Come and be placed into your dwelling
place—the Tabernacle of His side; His holy Church. Come ye righteous and eat
and drink the God/Man, the Righteous One.
In The Name of
The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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