All Saint's Day (November 1, 2009)
By Rev. Bert A. Thompsonl

Happy All Saints’ Day! What is a saint? A saint is a person without sin. A saint is a person who does everything perfectly, every time. Only people who are saints will go to heaven. If you are without sin, you are a saint. So, what does it take to be a saint? In our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells us.

First, you must be “poor in spirit”. “Poor in spirit” means you have the heart of the poor; a heart of total dependence on God, a helpless heart that thanks God for everything, that heart of the psalmist who says “The eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Ps. 145:15) If you are poor in spirit, you know that your intellect, your talents, your job, your paycheck, your possessions, and even your friends and loved ones are not your own, but are only undeserved and unearned gifts from your heavenly Father.

Second, you must mourn. If you have been to a funeral, you have fulfilled this requirement, right? Wait a minute. What is the cause of death? Sin is the cause of death, so you must always mourn when you see sin. The psalmist says “Streams of tears flow from my eyes because Your Law is not obeyed.” (Ps. 119:136) Whenever you see sinful things, you must mourn.

Third, you must be meek. Meekness is not spinelessness. Instead, meekness is strength under control. Meekness is total mastery over your passions at all times. Meekness is a life of always lifting the other person above yourself.

Fourth, you must have an unending hunger and thirst for righteousness. If you are starving, you must find food. If you are starving for righteousness, you search for every opportunity to fill your hunger. If they get in your way, you will push out of your way sports and camping, hunting and fishing, shopping and “sleeping in” – just to be fed with God’s word. You will be so hungry for confession and absolution that you’ll come to worship early so you won’t miss a word. You’ll eat God’s Word daily; that is, you will read God’s Word and memorize it.

Fifth, you must be merciful. Mercy is love set in motion. You must always love your enemies and always do good to those who hate you. You must always bless those who curse you and always pray for those who mistreat you. (see Luke 6:27-28)

Sixth, you must be pure, not partly pure and not almost all pure. You must be pure, period. Look at a bar of Ivory soap. Ivory soap will never be allowed to go to heaven. Why not? Look at the label. Ivory soap is only 99 and 44/100% pure. You must be 100% pure to enter heaven. Ivory soap is not.

That’s enough! Enough of these words of Jesus! Enough of these blessings called the Beatitudes! These Beatitudes of Jesus promise us blessings if we do them, but we cannot do them! All they do is expose our sins and our helplessness. They tantalize us with promises, but everything they offer is out of reach. Enough of them! Why does Jesus tell us to do something we cannot do?

But are you sure, pastor? Are you sure that Jesus wants us to keep these perfectly? Maybe He just wants us to try and that will be good enough. Maybe if we try, we’ll get some blessings and the harder we try, the more blessings we will get.

However, that’s not what Jesus says. At the end of this chapter, Jesus commands: “Be perfect, therefore, just as Your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) There is no way out. There is no such thing as being partly perfect. We must be 100% perfect. It’s all or nothing. Christ commands us to be as perfect as God.

Well, that’s it. You are not perfect. I am not perfect. God is perfect. No one who is even a little bit
imperfect will ever enter God’s perfect heaven. Obviously, you and I are going to Hell.

But, wait! You know the rest of the story! You know that Someone else was perfect in your place. You know that the very Person who spoke those Beatitudes fulfilled those Beatitudes.

Only Jesus is 100% poor in spirit. Only Jesus is constantly grieving over our sin. Only Jesus is 100% meek. Only Jesus is hungering and thirsting for complete righteousness. Only Jesus is completely merciful, to the point of dying in love for those who hate Him. Only Jesus is totally pure; without sin. Only Jesus is our peacemaker, making peace between us rotten sinners and a holy and perfect God.

And what did Jesus get for all that? What earthly blessing was showered down on Jesus for being 100% perfect? What praise and affirmation was given to Jesus? At first, His own family thought He was crazy. He was despised and rejected by the vast majority of the leaders of His own Church. He was a Man of sorrows. He was a companion of suffering. His closest friends ran away from Him in his hour of trial. He was brutally, savagely beaten. People said all kinds of evil things about Him. They told lies about Jesus and then, they killed Him. In this life, Jesus got nothing of what He deserved and He got everything He did not deserve, including Hell itself.

But, because of Jesus, you get nothing of what you deserve and you get everything you do not deserve. Your sin separates you from God. You have earned temporal and eternal punishment, that is, nothing good but only suffering here on earth and then Hell forever after you die. But in Christ Jesus, you receive everything you do not deserve. You receive the forgiveness of all your sins, and eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

Jesus suffered the punishment of all of your sins, so you don’t have to. Jesus suffered Hell, so you don’t have to go there. Jesus kept all of the Beatitudes perfectly, in your place, because you are incapable of keeping them perfectly.

In Christ, you now receive the blessings in Matthew 5: yours is the kingdom of heaven, you shall be comforted, you shall inherit a new earth, you shall be filled with righteousness, you shall obtain mercy, you shall see God, you shall be called the sons of God – and, like Jesus, you shall be persecuted by this wicked world. Rejoice!

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9) Yes, you are still 100% sinners. You are not perfect. You cannot make yourself perfect. But Christ gives you a gift. He gives you His perfection and He covers you with His righteousness. Now, you are 100% saints.

Underneath this white robe, I still have on my black shirt, but you cannot see it, because this white robe covers it. In the same way, your sins are covered with the purity of Jesus Christ. When God the Father looks at you, He sees the sinlessness of His pure and Holy Son. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus.

This is the only way you enter heaven, covered with the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. This is why all the faithful who have gone ahead of us are now in heaven. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Jesus gives us His saintliness.

Today is All Saints’ Day. We remember all who were covered with Jesus Christ who are now safe with Him in heaven forever. But remember: you are covered with Christ right now. When you come up here to the altar, you join angels, archangels and all the company of heaven, all the saints now in heaven – you join them at this altar as you are forgiven and your sins are covered with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In Him you are a 100% saint. In Him you are sinless. In Him you live, now and forever. Amen.