How can you tell if someone is a vampire? It depends on which version of the mythological monster you’re talking about. But one curious trait found in Bram Stoker’s famous 1897 novel Dracula, and 50 years earlier in a short story by Alexander Dumas is that vampires have no reflection. It’s been a common trope in stories and movies since that vampires can’t be seen in a mirror. And why is that? Well, they’re undead monsters. Maybe they were once human but they aren’t anymore. It’s often explained that vampires have no reflection in a mirror because they have no soul.
One of the best things about fiction is how it can get you thinking about real truths that apply to our real lives. Vampires aren’t real, but introspection is truly a great human trait. In fact, it’s something that sets us apart from every other living creature. We look inside ourselves and examine ourselves and come to various conclusions: what is good, what is not good, what should change, what should stay the same.
The second use of God’s law is the mirror. Last week we heard about the first use, the curb, where God’s law restrains our sinful nature. It threatens punishment against us if we sin, and promises blessings if we keep it. As a curb, God’s law is really no different from any law, except for the fact that it is perfect, complete, and unchanging. These days our godless nation often gets into a tizzy over whether the Ten Commandments should be able to be seen at a courthouse, but the arguments are never really about the legal substance of the commandments, they’re spiritual arguments about the place of religion in civic life.
But on a much more fundamental level, God’s law is not the same as the laws and legal codes of every nation on earth. And that’s because of the way that it’s primary aim is not to justify our outward actions, but to show us the sin in our hearts.
This is something that isn’t necessarily clear just from a cursory glance at the Ten Commandments. And, in fact, many of the Rabbis and scholars of Jesus’ day missed this too, even though they should have known better. When Jesus met the rich young ruler, who is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus told him to keep the commandments and he said, “I’ve kept them all, ever since I was a child.” What was he thinking? “You shall have no other Gods.” I’ve never bowed down to the false gods of the Greeks or the Romans. “You shall not murder.” I’ve never killed anyone. Adultery? Stealing? Giving false testimony? I’ve never done any of those.
He was thinking of the law as only the outward curb. Even there I think we’d all be skeptical. Did this guy really think that he had never done anything to break God’s law? But Jesus knew. And so he turned the full-length mirror of the law around and invited this man to peer into his own soul. “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said, “go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
What was Jesus doing here? Was he telling us that we can all earn heaven if we just give up our earthly possessions? Certainly not. But the man, upon hearing this, went away sad because he had many possessions. Jesus had shown him something about himself. He thought that he had kept all the law in every part. But let’s just take the first commandment. Just that one, you shall have no other gods. He couldn’t do it. His money, his wealth, his mammon was his god. Give it away and follow Jesus? No, he couldn’t do it. But Jesus’ lesson had hit home. He had come to Jesus boasting of his own goodness. He went away sad. He saw himself in the mirror of the law. He saw his soul. And what he saw did not make him proud. It could not boast. What was staring back at him was the ugliness of sin.
But he should have known this, because God’s law always had this use as a mirror. Ever since God called Adam to repentance in the Garden of Eden saying, “Did you eat the fruit I commanded you not to eat?,” God has called each and every one of us to look inside ourselves and ask, “Am I righteous before God?” The Ten Commandments also point to our hearts, especially with the 9th and 10th. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, workers, animals, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” These two commandments are not outward things. They can’t be tried in a court or decided on by a jury. Human courts of law must decide based on actions. But all sin starts in the heart, and God, who knows all things, knows each and every thought and desire. In fact, God cares more about our hearts than he does about our outward actions. He despises those who “honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Is 29:13).
We can be introspective even without God’s law. God made us in his image, with a conscience that knows right and wrong. That’s why we doubt very much that the rich young ruler truly believed he was righteous. Surely he was just telling himself that, trying to ignore his aching conscience, and he probably went to Jesus hoping for praise and confirmation, not for a call to repentance. But God’s law is a perfect mirror, with no scratches or smudges. It shows clearly what God wants and where we have failed. And the more we look at this mirror of the law, the worse the picture is. I’m not just seeing a little bit of dirt. At first the commandment “You shall not murder” seems easy to keep, “but look closer.” God’s word says. This commandment is about loving your neighbor by honoring and protecting and cherishing God’s gift of life. Have you been angry with your neighbor without a cause? Have you insulted your brother? Have you neglected to care for and pray for someone who is sick? Have you taken care of your own body and life as a gift from God? Always? Perfectly? You know you haven’t. And what of the first commandment? Perhaps you haven’t worshipped other gods, but like that rich young ruler what have you loved more than God? Look in the mirror! Don’t avert your eyes. You know what you’ve done. And when God comes to you as he did to Adam in the Garden of Eden and asks you, “Did you break my commandment?” You won’t be able to lie to him.
And so God’s law as a mirror condemns us. We’d rather see nothing than what that mirror has to show us. There’s a Chinese version of vampires that, instead of having no reflection, is terrified of its own reflection. Indeed, the mirror of the law terrifies all of us, because it shows us how very far from righteousness we are. It tears down all our delusional facades and shows us who we really are right down to our souls. And so our natural conclusion is that we can use God’s law as a curb to lead to proud Pharisaism, or we can use the law as a mirror to lead to despair.
But God says that the law is our chaperone to lead us to Christ.
A chaperone or pedagogue in the first century was part tutor, part childcare. We might think of a nanny or au pair today, but this was different. They had something like that for the youngest children, but when they got a little older, especially the boys, that’s when a well-to-do family would assign him a pedagogue. In the Roman Empire these pedagogues were often slaves, but they were the most educated and trusted slaves in the household. Their job was an important one. In addition to teaching various subjects a pedagogue was a constant companion and a bodyguard. They were philosophers who gave advice for all aspects of life, and they were typically known—and expected—to be very strict.
The Apostle Paul makes this comparison to the law in Galatians 3. When we look at how we often use the law, either for boasting or despair, and then consider how even God says that the law cannot save us, we might naturally conclude that the law is a bad thing. But that’s not it, Paul tells us. The law has the purpose of revealing transgressions. The law holds and imprisons us in custody, until Christ comes.
The most important purpose of the law is to prove that we can’t save ourselves. I can’t boast like that rich young ruler, because I haven’t kept God’s law. And I should despair, except for God’s promise, the promise in Jesus.
Jesus didn’t look like anyone all that different or special. Isaiah says that there was nothing about his appearance that made us desire him (Is 53:2). If there hadn’t been angels singing on that first Christmas night no shepherds would have paid attention to the baby in the manger. But what God the Father saw in his only-begotten Son was true righteousness and holiness. “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well-pleased.” And this is the righteousness that Jesus came to bring to you and me. This gleaming holiness and sinlessness is what he gives us by his own grace, a free gift, with no cost. He paid the price on the cross and he rose again to live with us and for us and to distribute his righteousness to us by Word and by Sacrament.
The mirror of the Law says, “you have sinned.” But then hear the Gospel of Jesus, ‘Your sins are forgiven.” And go back and look again in that mirror to see his righteousness. The mirror of the Law says, “You should die for your sins.” But then recall your baptism and look again in that mirror. You did die, when you were buried with Christ in baptism. But you aren’t without a reflection or without a soul. Instead, what you are is a new person, created in Christ Jesus. The mirror of the Law says, “You deserve to spend eternity in hell.” But then think on Jesus’ promise to you in his Supper. He gives you his own body and blood. Look again. Who are you? You are Christ’s member, joined to him, your head, and where the head is, there his body will be.
At this our loving Lord smiles. The Law, our chaperone, has done his job. Don’t search that mirror for your own righteousness. It shows you your sin and your need for a Savior. And that Savior is here! Rejoice in his salvation—a new life, a clean heart, a pure soul—a gift to you by his grace. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson