Matthew 5:21-37
21 "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient
times, "You shall not murder'; and "whoever murders shall be liable
to judgment.' 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or
sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister,
you will be liable to the council; and if you say, "You fool,' you will be
liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar,
if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave
your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your
accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand
you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into
prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the
last penny. 27 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall not
commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with
lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye
causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose
one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if
your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better
for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 "It was also said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a
certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife,
except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever
marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33 "Again, you have heard that
it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not swear falsely, but
carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I say to you, Do not
swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the
earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair
white or black. 37 Let your word be "Yes, Yes' or "No, No'; anything
more than this comes from the evil one.
you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times… But I
say to you…
·
The Gospel
reading today has some of what are called “the hard sayings of Jesus” – stuff
we’d rather not hear. A number of situations are mentioned specifically, but what
is said here really does hit us all in the face. I can’t deny it, and I imagine
you can’t either. Relationships are subverted by things that are overtly legal.
Angry words damage and murder the human spirit. Things hidden in the heart can
poison the whole person. The talk of cutting off limbs and plucking out eyes is
disturbing. It’s also not something I wish to do. How about you?
·
Jesus
appears to be saying that his disciples are called to a “higher standard” than
the external compliance demanded by the Scribes and Pharisees who made a great
show of their observance.
·
Now all
this sounds like Law and we want to hear Gospel. The Law is hard and seems
deadly; the Gospel is brighter and life-giving.
·
In
proclamation, we prefer hearing of forgiveness to hearing about sin, especially
our own. Sin is fine to talk about in the third person (His sin, her sin, their sin.) We can even deny our own
need for forgiveness. But words such as these call us back to know our need.
·
In classic
Lutheran theology, this is referred to as The Second Use of the Law – by which
people “thereby may be led to the knowledge of their sins."
·
What Jesus
speaks of in the Gospel reading we heard are all things we are willing to point
out as sin… but usually in others. In cases like this, I chalk my sin up to
“personality quirks” or “necessity” or “life choices.” Actually, to anything
but sin.
·
We could
ask why would we want to know this? What good is knowing of our own sins… over
and over again? Surprise! The answer is straight-forward: Knowledge of sin is
meant to lead to knowledge of the need of a saviour; to realize that we do not
and cannot save ourselves.
·
One of the
hardest things I face (and maybe you do too) is the drive to “do it myself”; to
save myself and make my perfection a gift to God. That really is something to
laugh at!
·
The weekly
Confession we recite before the Service starts is a good lesson on this. How
does it go? Most merciful God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot
free ourselves… For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. We
cannot “do it ourselves” and we can only ultimately live under the reign of
grace in Jesus Christ.
·
Jesus
Christ came among us to save us. He did not come to us to teach morality or to
found an institute of perfection or to introduce a new set of rules. He did all
he did –life, death, and resurrection- to restore our relationship with the
Father, a relationship that had been broken by sin. That is the reality. The
entire Hebrew Bible – the Old Testament- is witness to that.
·
The words
of today’s Gospel reading tell us that what Jesus wants of us goes far beyond
the external observance of a Law to a far more interior motivation. We have an
ultimate example to remember. What is Jesus’ new commandment? “Love one another
as I have loved you.”
·
What this
means for us is freedom. Not freedom to have our own way –“because I can!”, but
freedom to do what God wants for us. Grace works in us –often times slowly but
no less thoroughly – to make us over in the image of Jesus. We are baptized into
his death and therefore, his risen life.
·
We are forgiven because God
forgives for the sake of Jesus. We are not forgiven because we are so great or
so lovable or so worth it. Our relationship with God has nothing to do with our
own actions and everything to do with Jesus.
·
As a pastor, I have no
special power or authority to forgive sins; indeed, each of us has the power to
forgive each other. What I do have is the peculiar ministry of declaring and
proclaiming out loud to all that God forgives them. This is the reason for
the words of the Absolution after our Confession: In the mercy of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us
and, for his sake, God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained
minister of the Church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to
you the entire forgiveness of all your sins…
·
Grace – the unmerited favour
of God – is the deciding factor. This grace frees us to follow Jesus and
permits us to be who we are. It carries the message to us that the messiness of
our lives does not keep God at arm’s length (or further!) from us. God loves us
with and in all that we are – the good and the bad, the straight and the bent,
the solid and the broken. By God’s grace, we are free – free to be who we are
and free to be what God wishes us to be.
·
All that
we’ve heard in the portion of Matthew’s
Sermon on the Mount, as troubling as it might be, is an invitation to accept
the reality of God’s grace in all the aspects of our lives – even, or maybe
especially in the broken parts.
you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times… But I
say to you…
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