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 passage we’ve heard this morning is a continuation of
the Sermon on the Mount from Luke’s Gospel… and it is tough to hear. It doesn’t
seem to be comforting like the Beatitudes and it is challenging, but maybe not
in the way we think.
§ We might take note that Jesus is not giving a new law but rather
is pointing out a renewed way of looking at the Law. A few verse prior to this
in the text, he says not one stroke of any letter of the Law will be done away
with. What he is talking about here is a radical reading of the Law and the
life that surrounds it.
§ Radical is the right word for what is going on here. “Radical”
come from a word related to “root” and Jesus is getting to the root of what the
Law is about. It reads like a tougher interpretation of the Law and we’d have
to say that it is. It is more radical and takes its base from something other
than obedience to the letter of the Law and a fearful pleasing of God. Rather,
Jesus interpretation is based on relationships and on a community centered
around love rather than power and some sort of self-righteous obedience.
§ I have to be honest with you. This passage is hard to preach on
because it is hard for me to hear. These words of Jesus continually convict me
of my own sinfulness for I have sinned
against (God …and others) in thought,
word, and deed, by what (I) have done and by what (I) have left undone, to
borrow the words of our confession. With this in mind, I can’t point fingers at
anyone because – as Fr. Demetrius, the seminary librarian used to say –
pointing one finger leaves three others pointing back at me.
§ Since this is part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is still
speaking to the poor and those considered to be sinners. To them, he says (as
we heard last Sunday) For I tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven. For some of these people, holding to the letter of the Law
was the point of the Law. They used it as a club to belittle and intimidate
those they called sinners, many of whom could not afford to keep the law
perfectly. In short, many of them used their observance of the Law for the sake
of power. That power built them up while pushing others down.
§ This keeping of the letter of the law is to focus on the self and
how to stay pure and free from what might be called sin. There is even a
possibility to define what sin means. The only relationship involved is the
relationship with the self and how perfect “I” can be. What Jesus is teaching
about is an outwardly focused relationship where the other person is not
exploited for some more selfish purpose. It is not enough avoid murdering
someone, since murder flows from anger within the person. The same goes for
lust and name-calling and oath-taking. The failure and sin is not simply in the
act but in the heart and spirit where the true break with God and with others
can be found.
§ Should we take this message as one of condemnation and despair, we
will have missed the boat. Yes, the bar is raised beyond a collection of deeds
and actions to include the motivation to those actions, whether or not the
thing is done. Yes, we are told that calling someone a “fool” or insulting
someone leads to condemnation. Yes, we don’t like to be told we’ve done wrong,
especially if we haven’t ‘done’ anything beyond feeling or desiring it. If it
is the case that we wallow in despair, we forget the Gospel message of grace
and salvation by grace.
§ We can’t deny we have all sinned some way or another. We also
can’t deny that we can’t save ourselves, but rely solely on the grace of God
for forgiveness and salvation.
§ As hard as this Gospel passage might be to hear, that is the
Gospel of Jesus Christ for us. This is the Good News of God – salvation by grace
and new life through that grace. That grace overcomes all sin and can even turn
things to the better in a flourishing life of grace.
§ To end, I’d like to use a quote attributed to the German
theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed in Flossenbürg concentration
camp. In his written works, he is believed to have said “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about
courageously and actively going God’s will.”
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