Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen, our text today is the Gospel lesson that was read earlier. Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Have you ever accidentally swung a hammer down upon your finger, crushing it instead of driving the nail into the wood? It is painful. It hurts. It makes your whole body cringe. It’s not something we want to happen often. It’s not something we enjoy. Friends, sometimes the word of God acts that same way. Sometimes the law that is in God’s Word comes down upon us like a hammer, crushing us underneath its power. It too hurts. It too is unpleasant and makes our bodies cringe. But it is something that needs to happen. We need to be crushed under the law, so that we might hear and believe the Gospel that God also proclaims.
In our text today, Jesus is the one swinging the hammer. And each swing that Jesus swings hits us squarely and fully. We are crushed by the law that Jesus speaks. The words of our text are difficult to hear, aren’t they? Let’s look at our text. Jesus says, “You have heard it said, “You shall not murder.”” It is something we have all heard, it is something that we think we haven’t done. After all, I know that I have never shot anyone, or that I have never stabbed anyone. I have never murdered, I have never taken another human beings life. Let’s move on, obviously Jesus is talking to someone else, and not to me.
But friends, Jesus is not speaking of someone else. Jesus is speaking to you. For if you have been angry with your brother or sister, if you have called them a name, or said “you fool” Jesus is talking to you. God forbids us to keep anger or hatred in our hearts against our neighbor. And if you are angry or hate, Jesus says you are a murderer. What’s more, Jesus says we should do everything in our power to help our neighbors in Christians love. And failing at this also makes you a murderer. Friends, we are a congregation of murderers, each and every one of us. We are judged. The hammer of God’s law has come down upon us just like a gavel in a courtroom.
But Jesus goes on “You shall not commit adultery”. On the surface it seems like we have kept this one, doesn’t it? We’ve been faithful to our spouses, right? But here too, Jesus is swinging the hammer of God’s law down upon us. Because in our text Jesus says it is more than just coming into sexual contact with someone who is not your spouse. It is more than sleeping around a little bit. Yes, these things are wrong, but they are only the tip of the ice berg. For in our text Jesus says, “If you so much as look at a woman or a man with lust,” you are guilty.
Be honest with yourself. Have you ever thought sexually suggestive thoughts about anyone? Have you ever looked at something you shouldn’t have? This includes pornography, a huge epidemic in our world today, or even . Or dirty jokes or language. This includes marriage, and how in our world today we no longer hold it up as a sacred gift of God, but instead we abuse it with divorce and homosexual marriage. If we hear what Jesus is saying, we know that each one of us here is guilty and that we are judged. God’s judgment, the hammer of the law hits us again. We are all adulterers.
And friends, as if these things were not enough, as if these hammer blows had not struck us and bruised us deeply enough, Jesus goes on. It was said, You should not swear falsely, but Jesus says, do not swear at all. For as you cannot truly make one of the hairs on your head grow black or white, you cannot truly keep your promises. We lie, with little white lies. We act differently around different people to try and get them to like us. We avoid saying awkward things to those around us, but instead say them to our friends and family behind their backs.
And friends, all of us have broken promises. All of us have fallen short of our aspirations, and our big words. Each one of us has promised something that we just cannot do. Jesus swings the hammer down upon us a final time in our text, and tells us, we are liars.
And so we see that our sin defeats us, and beats us bloody and bruised. These hammer blows could go on and on and on. The law that Jesus preaches kills us. It destroys our own life, because we know, each one of us, that we are guilty, and in our guilt death is what we have purchased.
Friends, we cannot ignore what Jesus is saying. After all, Jesus is the son of God in human flesh. What he says is the truth. And so as Jesus speaks these words to each and every individual here today, we listen. And so we must ask Jesus, What do we do Lord? How can we change, because we know that on our own we will continue in this sin. On our own, we don’t want to change because we really like who we are. Oh Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life, and I don’t live up to their demands.
Friends, the hammer must fall, the punishment deserved by sin, the punishment brought about by our own selfishness, and our own weakness needs to be accounted for. Someone must be killed by the hammer of the law. Someone needs to die and be buried because of the things we have done. And that someone is Jesus. Jesus, the only one who has not murdered, because he cared for all, even the most foul and disgusting sinners like you and me, must die. Jesus the one who has never committed adultery, because he didn’t look at people with eyes that were full of lust, must be nailed to a cross on behalf of all adulterer who ever lived, from David and Bathsheba, to the woman at the well with seven husbands, to you and to me. Jesus, the one who never broke a promise, the one who never lied will die…to keep his biggest and his best promise to each of you. The promise of eternal life. The promise of forgiveness. The promise of rescue from the trials and tribulations of this world. Jesus has kept his promises to you, and it has cost him his life.
Dear friends, Jesus’ words today in regards to our sin are hard to hear. They are hard to hear, because we don’t like to think about our own shortcomings and sin. It is painful. It makes us cringe. It is easy for us to sit here and think, Oh Jesus is telling that person down the pew that he is guilty. Jesus isn’t really talking to me. But friends, the truth is, Jesus is talking to you, because Jesus has come for sinners, like you and like me. Jesus comes to sinners, he comes to those who are beaten down by the law, beaten down by their sin and says to them, “I love you, and I will give up my life to rescue you. I will bear the wounds you deserve. I will be crushed for your iniquity; I will be pierced for your transgressions on a cross outside of Jerusalem. The punishment you deserve will become mine. By my wounds, you are healed.”
Friends, Jesus comes to sinners, people like you and me who are beat down by the law. And upon them, and upon us, he pours out forgiveness in his blood. In him, there is forgiveness for murderers. In him there is forgiveness for adulterers and liars.
Where you have been beaten down, Jesus pours out healing upon you. He wraps your wounds, and gives you the medicine of life.
JESUS COMES, AND THE HAMMER BLOWS OF THE LAW ARE PLACED UPON HIS SHOULDERS, SO THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE PEACE IN HIS NAME.
Amen.
