Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Beloved
in Christ, something has gone wrong. That is why we are here. We are not the
sort of people God would have us be. We are cold in our love toward God and
toward our neighbors. If we are religious, it is often because we want to “be
praised by others.” If we are going to do any good works, we want to “receive”
the full credit of our “reward.” We are wicked all too often, and
when we are not, we are often hypocrites. And so let no trumpet be sounded
today. For we have “[laid] up…treasures on earth,” and “moth
and rust [have destroyed]” them.
But
how do we get out of ourselves? It is tempting to look for new laws and new
rules and new disciplines that will free us from sin and wickedness. We in
America are particularly prone to this temptation. We have self-help books,
life coaches, and the like, all of which claim to be able to set us free from
ingrained vices. And the law and various rules and disciplines are not without
their value. Our Lord spent the chapter before today’s Gospel exploring most of
the Ten Commandments. Furthermore, our Lord commends the disciplines of
almsgiving and fasting in today’s gospel. And so our Lord does not reject the
law as useless, nor does He reject spiritual disciplines as something useless
for Christians. But our Lord knows that more is required than just the law.
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| A medieval Fastentuch portraying the Passion of our Lord (Fastentuch is a German word referring to a Lenten shroud placed over the retable of an altar to indicate that Lent had begun and it was time for all to fast) |
This
is where we tend to go astray. We like to have seven easy principles or five
simple laws. We try to reduce things to the minimum and then live our lives
based on them. But Christ delved into the Ten Commandments. He didn’t just
treat them as simple rules, but wise precepts that bear investigation and
meditation. He knew that shallow treatment of each commandment makes shallow
disciples.
Similarly,
our Lord knew that His disciples would adopt various spiritual disciplines. The
Ten Commandments do not tell us in so many words to give alms or fast. And yet
the phrase “You shall not murder” implies caring for our neighbor
and the words “You shall have no other gods” implies avoiding
gluttony. In that context, it would be natural to embrace such disciplines as
almsgiving and fasting. But even these spiritual works are prone to be misused.
There is no spiritual discipline that is so good and holy that it cannot be
twisted into something wicked by our hypocrisy, love of attention, and other
vices.
The
law will never make us perfect Christians. The only thing that can do so is the
love of God in Christ Jesus. It is the gospel—the good news that Jesus Christ
is God’s Son and our Savior—that sets us free from our vain selves. And so
during this Lenten season our goal is not to strive harder to be holier, but
rather to steep ourselves in the love of Jesus Christ. We will meditate upon
Christ’s holy life and His innocent suffering and death on the cross. And we
will prepare to celebrate His glorious resurrection from the dead that imparts
His forgiveness to us and guarantees our own resurrection to life and holiness
on the Last Day.
Wherever
this good news is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit is at work, creating faith in our
hearts that trusts in Christ Jesus and all He has done. And wherever the Holy
Spirit creates faith, He also brings other gifts. Just as a healthy tree bears
good fruit, so the Holy Spirit’s presence in us bears His fruit. We call it the
“fruit of the Spirit.” (This Lent we will be looking at the fruit of the Spirit in our midweek services.) Saint Paul talks about this in Galatians
5, where he warns his readers not to do “the works of the flesh,”
but instead to enjoy “the fruit of the Spirit.” Notice the
contrast between the two—and I mean more than just that the one is evil and the
other good. The phrase “works of the flesh” is plural, but the “fruit
of the Spirit” is singular. Wickedness comes in a variety of forms, but
goodness is all related. And so when we think of the various items listed as “the
fruit of the Spirit,” we should understand them as all facets of the
same fruit.
Furthermore,
there is a contrast between “works” and “fruit.” We
don’t say that an apple tree works to produce apples. Instead, we know that if
an apple tree is healthy and is old enough, it is going to produces apples
quite naturally. By the same token, wherever the Holy Spirit is at work
bringing people to faith and steeping them in God’s Word, you naturally will
see such things as “love, joy, peace, patience,” and the other
virtues listed in Galatians 5. Far from being coerced by the law or pummeled
out of us by our spiritual disciplines, these virtues flow naturally wherever
we take the gospel seriously.
Tonight,
then, let us briefly consider the first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit,
namely, “love.” It is the absence of love that creates all our
problems. It is why we turn against God and others. It is why we prefer the
road of hypocrisy, for we really do not want to love God. Even when we seek the
approval of others, we don’t want to love them. No, we just want them to do
good things for us without any obligation on our part to them. In fact, we
don’t even necessarily want to receive their love, for that might mean we might
have to love them in return.
To
break through our loveless attitude, God showed great love to us. He became as
involved in humanity as He could be. The Son of God took on our flesh; the
Father and the Holy Spirit fully approved of what the Son had done and blessed
His ministry all the way. And when Christ had completed His dying and rising
for us, God brought us near to Himself by baptism and communion. Lovelessness
begets lovelessness; love begets love. And so those who have experienced God’s
love in Christ Jesus and know the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit love.
Love is the natural fruit of this gospel of love.
And so, beloved in Christ, as we begin this Lenten journey, do so under the shadow of God’s love. And may that love shape you in the weeks to come to be even more loving. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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