“What is Righteousness?”
Matthew 1:18-25
What is the first image that pops into your head when you hear the word “righteous?”
Do you think of some fire and brimstone preacher with a red face who points a finger at sinners and declares them guilty in the eyes of an angry god?
Or do you think of angels, harps and clouds?
Perhaps you think of righteous indignation—anger in the face of injustice.
***Put up on the Screen the Picture of the Church Lady***
Maybe the first image to pop into your head is someone who comes off as self-righteous—thinking they are better than others when it comes to morals and character—someone like “The Church Lady” from Saturday night live.
***Take down picture***
Or perhaps you think of a good and virtuous person—someone like Mother Teresa or Saint Francis.
We don’t tend to use the word “righteous” much these days.
At least, I don’t hear it in everyday conversations, do you?
In any event, Matthew describes Joseph as a “righteous man.”
What does Matthew mean by this?
By the time of Joseph the religious system was such that a righteous person was known for their uncompromising strict obedience to Torah, the Law of Moses as it was interpreted by the leading sect at that time—the Pharisees.
This put a heavy burden on people.
A burden with such weight that
people couldn’t stand up under it.
(pause)
When Mary found out she was pregnant she must have told Joseph that she had become pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
It doesn’t appear that Joseph believed her.
Would you?
Joseph thought Mary had been unfaithful to him, and of course this broke his heart…
…and since he was just a human being it must have also made him feel utterly betrayed, humiliated and angry.
He very easily, in his anger and in following the letter of the Law, could have had Mary put to death.
This would have saved his reputation.
But instead, Joseph, did not want Mary publicly disgraced nor killed.
So, he planned, instead, to end the marriage quietly.
And, in doing this, instead of making Mary look bad—Joseph is the one who was about to lose his good reputation.
At first, people would just think Mary and Joseph had a falling out.
But as soon as people started to notice that Mary was pregnant, they would come to believe that before their actual wedding ceremony Joseph and Mary had been intimate and then Joseph dumped her.
Joseph would take the blame.
He would look like the bad guy.
Mary’s dignity would be intact and no one would be put to death.
This tells us that the real meaning of righteousness in God’s eyes is to be merciful, forgiving, loving and willing to lose one’s life for the sake of another.
We have the capacity to be so cruel to one another, so unforgiving, so vicious, but that wasn’t Joseph.
And that isn’t Jesus either.
When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for making friends with and eating with tax collectors, prostitutes and “sinners”—which would have been anyone who broke one of the 613 Laws in the Old Testament Jesus explained Himself to them in this way: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”
When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for allowing His disciples to harvest grain on the Sabbath—breaking another Law—Jesus said the same thing.
God is often depicted as being a moral policeman who is out to get us, and Christianity has been used to judge, condemn and humiliate people and often still is.
Often times, people think God doesn’t love them or accept them if they mess up or sin.
This can lead to self-hatred and can even cause mental illness.
But aren’t human beings humiliated enough?
Don’t we already carry around heavy burdens of guilt and shame?
Jesus came into the world to free us from this guilt and shame.
***Please Put Matthew 11:28-30 on Screen (New NIV)***
In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This is the God I worship.
How about you?
God is not a judgmental and fair-weathered friend.
God is Someone we can trust.
I was once going through a difficult time where I was wrestling with guilt and self-hatred.
I thought that God couldn’t possibly love me because I knew I couldn’t measure up.
And then I came across this passage in Colossians 2:13
***Please Put the following on the Screen***
“When you were dead in your transgressions and sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross…
…these rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use are based on merely human commands and teachings.” –Colossians 2:13-15, 22
This passage of Scripture has been a great help to me.
Righteousness has nothing to do with following strict rules and laws!!!
Jesus Christ has come to set us free from this.
Jesus is the God Who is Love—unconditional and unearned love.
It was because of this love that Joseph had mercy on Mary.
And Jesus is all about mercy.
And mercy is a universal human need.
Do you need mercy, bring your burdens to Christ, He loves you.
Leave them at the bottom of the Cross and don’t take them back.
Jesus teaches that the concern of God is not about how many rules we can correctly follow, but about us reaching out to others with God’s steadfast love and forgiveness .
It’s about loving God and loving our neighbor.
And that’s what this life is all about.
That is righteousness.
Joseph is called a “righteous man” because this is the way he reacted to Mary in the face of what must have been the worst kind of assault to his heart, his life, his ego.
We are told that after finding out Mary was pregnant Joseph “had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…’
…All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).”
And so, God is with us.
And God is Righteous.
This means God is love.
This means God is full of mercy.
This means we need not fear God.
And if we follow and seek to imitate this God, it will transform our lives and the lives of others into something good, merciful and filled with compassion, freedom and love for God and others.
Let us pray:
Dear God, we thank You, that You are not an angry and mean tyrant who is out to get us, but instead, you are on our side.
You love us unconditionally.
Help us to love You and others with the same love You show us.
May it be so.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
