JULY 6th, 2025 PASTOR DON PIEPER
JESUS' KGDM MESSAGE Eph 4:21-32 / Matthew 5:17-26
“WHAT ABOUT THE RULES?”
(blow whistle) Out of bounds! Flag on the play! (throw 'flag' at someone) Foul!
Every game comes with a set of rules, writes John Ortberg, commenting on our text.... No roughing the passer. Play it where it lies. Run inside the base paths. No hitting below the belt. No dealing from the bottom of the deck. Wait for your turn. No false starts. No spitballs and don’t kick dirt on the umpire. Former Mariner Manager, Lou Pinella, always had a hard time with that last one.
Rules make a game work but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a long history of folks bending the rules..., even in an intelligent sport like baseball, isn't that right, Hobbes...?
Hobbes: (Hobbes enters from sacristy, with the words, 'Rules make a game work') It is! It is!
Calvin: Baseball is an intelligent sport. There’s more to it than brute force. It may seem slow, but that’s because it’s a thinking man’s game. There’s a lot of strategy to consider.
Hobbes: Yeah. Especially the way WE play! (both put on funny hats & begin to play ball...)
Calvin: Right! Now, the first person to discover 12th base and then score a tiddyl-wink, gets a ghost point and one free “Get Out of Jail” card…. (Hobbes exits, hopping...)
To be sure, Calvin and Hobbes are not the first ones to find ways around the rules. Sammy
Sosa got caught with cork in his bat, an NBA referee got paid on the side, a couple of Olympic
gymnasts were under age, who knows how many athletes have taken steroids and I heard, some p. k.
got caught once over paying himself from the Monopoly till... (gasp!)
Why is it that we have such a hard time playing by the rules? We even idolize those who cheat
and wind up on top, from films like The Sting, to Ocean 11 to Leatherheads? Rules have a way of
bringing to the surface a deeper issue – the issue of character. If we’re clever enough we may find a
way to bend the rules but in doing so we inevitably compromise our sense of integrity. As Aristotle
put it, the central question is not just ‘What shall I do?’ but ‘What kind of person shall I become?’
(Aristotle)
A conflict erupted while a family was driving in the car. At one point a quivering voice spoke
from the back seat: “Daddy, you don’t think I’d lie to you, do you?”
The father thought for a moment and then said, “Do I think you’d lie? Of course I
do. I’ve lied about my income. Your Mom lies about her age. Everybody I’ve ever known has lied. The most famous story in American history is the story of George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. His father asked him who did it to which George is said to have answered, ‘I cannot tell a lie; it was me.’ That account was written in a biography by Person Weems in the 19th century. He made the story up. The most famous story about not lying was a lie itself.” At that point, it got very quiet in the backseat. Then a meek voice spoke: “Does that mean, 'yes'?”
What about you? Have you ever blamed showing up late on heavy traffic when in truth you just didn’t allow enough time? Ever accuse someone for doing something that you yourself have done or did later? Ever tell your wife that your child left the toilet seat up when you knew it was you? Ever tell your husband that you spent less than you did? Ever tell someone that you were too busy to return a call or show up for an event, (like worship), when you actually made other plans or just slept in?
Ever ignore God’s Word by gossiping or complaining about someone in church, or by refusing to forgive someone, or simply by not rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s?
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Financial experts estimate that 50 % of people who claim to be Christians have cheated on their taxes. The IRS received a letter that read, “My conscience is bothering me because of cheating on taxes, so I’m sending $10,000. If my conscience doesn’t clear up, I’ll send in the rest...”
Most of us genuinely want to follow the rules, but tend to bend them if we can get away with it and if that’s what it takes for us to come out ahead or to look good...
Archeologists have recently excavated a large city named Sephoris, which was largely built by King Herod when Jesus was a boy. It was visible from the Nazareth hillside. It housed a giant amphitheater which Jesus may well have helped construct as a young, Nazarene carpenter.
The actors who put on plays there were called 'hypocritos'. They wore masks so that the audience could identify their characters. Devout Jews did not attend such events because they were considered pagan. Imagine the sting when Jesus used this term to describe the religious leaders who considered themselves devout men of God, men who would never consider going to such a play.
Jesus’ meaning is clear. He uses the term as a word picture to convey a behavior in which the person in question puts on a mask, pretending to be something other than what they are, or to put it in modern terms, who do not practice what they preach…:
“What sorrow awaits you…hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy – full of greed and self-indulgence! Outwardly you look so good but inwardly your hearts have gone sour, filled with hypocrisy! You’re so blind! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too!”
(Matthew 23:25-6, 28)
Ever heard anyone talk about a hypocrite? Sadly, it is the most frequent accusation made of church going Christians by those outside the church.
Why is that? Are we also guilty of wearing masks? John Ortberg defines hypocrisy is the pain that actors feel when the applause dies away. Certainly Christians are not the only ones wearing masks, but it is particularly painful, tragic even, when we do!
I read of a woman who went ballistic in an intersection because the guy in front of her hit the brakes when the light turned yellow. While she was in mid-rant, venting her rage and frustration, someone tapped on her window. Before she knew it the policeman at her window had collected her from her car, handcuffed her and taken her down to police headquarters where she was searched, fingerprinted and put in a cell.
A couple of hours later she was released and as the arresting officer handed her back her things, he said to her, “I’m very sorry for the mistake, ma’am. I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, cursing and making profane gestures. I noticed the ‘What would Jesus do?’ bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, and the Christian fish emblem on your trunk, and I naturally assumed you had stolen the car.”
We all tend to bend and break the rules, we violate God’s will and rationalize our unchristian behavior. But by breaking them we become the kind of people who are increaseingly incapable of the gratitude and purity of heart that makes lasting happiness and deep connection with God possible. In a strict sense, I cannot break the rules. They endure, whether I keep them or not, for they reflect the way things really are. I can only break myself against them.
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The greatest talk ever given on what this purity of heart looks like was delivered by Jesus in what is called the Sermon on the Mount. His intro sets the stage: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” and so on. People love that. We print those words on plaques and hang them in our homes. (Matt. 5:3-4)
Then Jesus described a redeemed humanity, a people with a purpose: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13-14) We love that, too. We put that on magnets and put it to music and sing it in our cars and at church.
But then Jesus goes on to say, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law, (to do away with the rules). No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)
Strange but I’ve never seen those words printed on a plaque or on a CD rack. What is Jesus driving at? If the legalistic approach of the priests and Pharisees got under Jesus’ skin, their rigid cry to not break the rules, how can Jesus so forcefully reinforce the need to obey God’s rules himself?
Martin Luther unpacked Jesus’ message as well as any one ever has when he talked about Jesus’ message being one of law and gospel, of a focus on God’s rules and God’s amazing grace. That is, the law or rules of Scripture reveal our brokenness and sinful nature – our desperate need for help from our selves. The law or rules of God serve as a mirror revealing who and how we really are. They point us to Christ – the Savior and embodiment of God’s grace.
My problem, in other words, is not just my lack of character, it is that I can’t even see how badly I lack it. Wehumans have an almost limitless capacity for self-deception.
We explain our bad behavior in terms of mitigating circumstances; we explain other people’s bad behavior in terms of character defects. If I yell at my child in the store it’s because her behavior would try the patience of Job. If you yell at your child its ob-vious you’re an anger management problem waiting to happen. If I get a speeding ticket it’s because the police needed to fill their quota - they should’ve been out catching criminals! As for you, you got a ticket because you think you’re speed racer or something!
Such is our capacity for self-deception that U.S. News and World Report ran a survey in 1997 asking people, “Who do you think is most likely to get into heaven?”
79% said Mother Theresa would, 66% said Oprah would, 65% voted in Michael Jordan, and 19% gave O.J. Simpson the nod! Only one person managed to top Mother Theresa with an 87% chance of reaching the pearly gates. You know who that was? The person doing the survey!
We all clearly need God’s help to see the truth about our lives and character.
If we are to live lives free of those ancient masks of self-deception, if we are to achieve the kind of integrity that remains when no one is looking and reflects, if even ever so dimly, the character of Christ himself, we must recognize anew our desperate need for grace…and courageously cling to the Grace Giver himself so that eventually, ultimately His light will shine within and through us as we “let (our) good deeds shine for all so see, so that everyone will praise (our) Heavenly Father!”
(Matthew 5:16)