Inclusive Love

13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter,^* not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹Therefore, whoever breaks^* one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

As I prepared for the sermon this morning, I was trying to figure out what I could preach on that would be different than what you have already heard about this scripture.  I struggled and struggled to find a way to preach on the salt and light that could be better than what you have already heard.  We all pretty much know and understand what it means to be the salt and light of the world.  We know that salt preserves and lends taste to whatever it is applied to, so this means that we are called to preserve Christ’s love and pass it on to future generations and we are called to show others just how Christianity lends taste and gives meaning to life.  And we know that as Christians, we are called to let the light of Christ’s love shine out of everything we do.  Most of us are familiar with the children’s song, “I am going to let my light shine.”  We already know all of these things, so how could I help us to better understand this scripture in a way that you haven’t already heard?  So this morning, I am not really going to concentrate our message so much on the salt and light aspect of our scripture.  Our focus will mostly be on the rest of the scripture verses 17-20.  I think these scriptures are important for us to look at because it is likely that these verses have gotten left out in most of the sermons you have heard based on this scripture.  

In verses 17-20 we find Jesus talking about the law in this aspect of the sermon on the mount.  When we think of the Law (capital L) we often think that it is referring to the Old Testament in general but there are other meanings that often get overlooked.  Have any of you heard of Scribal Law, or sometimes referred to as the Oral Law?  These were the laws that are derived from the Old Testament teachings.  For example, the scribal law took the command of keeping the Sabbath day holy and went on and on about what that meant.  For the scribes, keeping the Sabbath holy meant not to work so they went on to describe what work was.  They would have very long discussions about the essence of work.  They would argue back and forth about what was considered work and what wasn’t.  They would say that it was work if a tailor carried a needle with them on the Sabbath.  People could not carry milk, wine, or water that was more than one drink or they would break the law of the sabbath.  People could not write more than two letters next to each other on the same page or that was considered work.  You weren’t allowed to heal others on the Sabbath for that was considered work.  When translated into English, these scribal laws took up more than 800 pages and twelve volumes.  So faith was not as much about God as much as it was about keeping all of these laws.  Jesus himself often broke many of these scribal laws so when referring to the law, I do not think that it was these set of laws he is referring to in our scripture this morning.  Jesus says he has not come to abolish the law or the prophets so it is safe to say that Jesus is not referring to the scribal traditions as the law he is referencing.  It is the Old Testament that Jesus came to fulfill for he knew that the lessons of the Old Testament could hold true despite what Jesus was teaching.  Jesus’ idea of God as love instead of a God of punishment was new and revolutionary which led to many Jews to not believe the teachings of Christ.  

I strongly believe that Jesus is making sure that we fully understand the importance of the Old Testament and our need to study it for the formation of our faith.  For example, lets look at the 10 Commandments for this is almost certainly one aspect of the Law that Jesus was referring to.  What is the one overriding theme of the 10 Commandments?  It is reverence.  All of these commandments teach us to have reverence towards God and our fellow man.  We shall not have any gods before God.  We shall honor our mother and father.  We shall not covet our neighbor’s wife or possessions. Etc.  All of the commandments teach us about respecting God and others.   Jesus came to earth to show us what it means to live a life with that kind of reverence towards God and our fellow man.  He came to fulfill that law.  He came to show us what it means to live a life in this manner.  Before a couple beautiful children destroyed our social life, Cheyanne and I really liked going to concerts.  We liked to go to the fair and check out the up-and-coming bands that were on the free stage.  We have seen Luke Bryan and Lady Antebellum before they were famous and we had a running joke that when we would hear their songs on the radio after they were famous that we would say, “we have seen them in real life.”  Well, that is exactly what Jesus did for us.  We can now say, “we have seen God in real life.”   Jesus came to this earth to show us in real life what it means to give to God the reverence and to our fellow man the respect which they are due, which they deserve.  We have seen in real life what it means to love another.  We have seen in real life what it means to sacrifice for your loved ones.  We have seen in real life how God wants us to act as Christians.  We have seen God in real life.  

Verse 19 and 20 were a little difficult for me to understand.  Jesus says that those who break the laws he is talking about will be the least in the kingdom of heaven.  We all know that we aren’t perfect, so of course we will fall short.  Does this mean we will be considered the least in heaven?  At first this kind of hurt my feelings because I did not want to be considered the least, I mean who really wants to be considered the least at anything?  But when you think about it, it is still heaven so how bad could it be?  I give Cheyanne a hard time about one of her classmates because she graduated with Tyler Sash.  Most of you probably know who that is but for those of you who don’t, Tyler Sash went to University of Iowa and then was drafted by the New York Giants.  He only played two seasons for the professional team but in those two years, the Giants won a Super Bowl which makes Mr. Sash a Super Bowl champion which the likes of Jim Kelley and Dan Marino cannot say.  Being a Super Bowl champion is something that relatively few people get to say and that is a title that Sash will forever get to hold.  I don’t know if he was or not, but let’s say that Sash was the least important member on that team, that title of Super Bowl champion still remains.  He has won as many Super Bowls and the great Petyon Manning Brett Favre respectfully.  If Sash were the least important member on the team, and I doubt he was, it still remains that he is a champion.  We too get to say that.  So what if we are the least in heaven, and I don’t think it matters, we are still in heaven.  Just as Mr. Sash wants to continue to play and get better, we too should strive to be great.  It is very easy for us Christians to become complacent but I want to encourage to want to continue to be better.  Verse 20 tells us that unless our righteousness is greater than the scribes and Pharisees, we won’t enter into the kingdom of heaven.  It is tough to preach on scriptures that seem to be “all or nothing.”  This scripture is not the end all be all that it seems though.  We have already discussed the scribal tradition and the Pharisees were those who held most tightly to those laws laid out by the scribes.  So what Jesus is doing in both verse 19 and 20 is showing us exactly how inclusive God’s love really is.  Jesus continually broke the scribal laws and was always arguing back forth with the Pharisees yet God’s love was also intended for them even if their way of worshiping God was different.  Jesus did not say what he did in verse 20 so that it was a hurdle we had to clear to make it to heaven.  Instead, his intention was to show us that if they can be this wrong about their interpretations of the law, God still loves them.  

In closing, I do not want you to think that the being the salt and light of the world is not important because it really, truly is.  The light that Christ brings to our lives is not one that should be hidden and it is our job as Christians to show others just how great having a relationship with God can lead to a flavorful life.  But our most important job as Christians is to show others just how inclusive God’s love truly is.  The best way we can do that by living a life that exemplifies that kind of love.  A love that is inclusive.  A love that God showers us with.  A love that we have seen in real life.  Amen.