Matthew 5:21-37
A couple of months ago there was a
brief controversy on the news about a woman named Justine Sacco. She had her 15
minutes of infamy. She was a PR executive for a media company who make a
careless and racist statement on Twitter right before boarding a plane to South
Africa. Her tweet read: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just
kidding. I'm white!" What a horrible thing to say! What was she thinking?
She obviously was not thinking clearly. She was not editing the thoughts coming
into her brain, and she suffered the consequences. Her tweet went viral as they
say. It was called “the tweet heard round the world.” She was unaware of all
the controversy she was causing because he was on the plane for 12 hours. By
the time she landed in Cape Town, South Africa and checked her twitter account and
email, she had already been fired from her job. Then there was the more
prolonged case of Paula Deen, the American celebrity chef and TV cooking show
host. She likewise lost her job and a lot of business because she admitted to
using the N word to refer to African Americans.
It is obvious that such language is wrong
and should be eliminated from our vocabulary, but the problem runs much deeper.
It is more important that the attitudes be removed from our hearts. That is the
way Jesus approaches this and all the issues he tackles in this passage. In
this segment of the Sermon on the Mount he tackles five sensitive areas.
1. The first is violence and he also
says some things about language in the same section. He says in verse 21-23 “You have heard that it was said to those
of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the
judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a
cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother,
‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall
be in danger of hell fire.”
Violence is a big problem in American
society and in many societie. Gun violence in particular. Gun deaths are on the
local and national news shows every night. They did not have guns back in
Jesus’s day but what he says about murder still applies to today. Jesus looks
at the problem of murder and he sees a deeper problem. He sees that violence
rooted in anger. Anger is the real issue. And he sees anger expressed not only
in acts of violence, but also in violent language. So Jesus takes language
seriously. I think his teachings apply to bullying, which is often done in
words as much as physical acts. Words can lead to violence and death as
certainly as any assault weapon. Words can be used as verbal assault weapons.
That is why Jesus uses such strong language in speaking against them. But he
addresses the real issue much better than our nation does. Our society punishes
the one for using the language. The person is fired and people think the
problem is resolved. It is not resolved. It has just gone underground. The
language was just a marker of something deeper. The deeper issue is not being
addressed.
The deeper issue is a psychological
problem and an emotional problem. We would call it a mental health issue. Personally I think that is where our attention
and money should be directed – in detecting, diagnosing and treating mental
illness. But Jesus sees something deeper than even the psychological. He sees a
spiritual issue. Anger is an issue not just for those who might turn that anger
into violence. It is an issue for all of us. And that anger can be turned to
our family and especially the most vulnerable in the family. This is the source
of abuse of all sorts, and it is fundamentally a spiritually issue that needs
to be dealt with spiritually.
2. Jesus goes on in our passage to
talk about the importance of reconciliation as a way of resolving anger and
conflict before it turns into violence and even legal problems. He says in
verses 23-26:
Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that
your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar,
and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer
your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with
him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to
the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will
by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
Jesus is talking about interpersonal
conflict. We all have interpersonal conflict. As nice as we try to be, none of
us gets along with everyone. But it is how we handle disagreement that makes
the difference. These teenage shooters who open fire on people in cinemas,
schools, and shopping malls seem to have a problem connecting with people and
relating to people and handling disagreements. Their frustration and anger gets
bottled up and eventually erupts in violence.
In this passage Jesus is telling us
to deal with disagreement and conflict quickly. He is refers to Jewish practice
in his day of the daily offering, and says that if during your daily offering –
which for us would be like out daily time of prayer in the morning – if during
that time with God we remember we have a
problem with someone, then we ought to deal with it sooner rather than
later. The longer you wait the more
difficult it is and the bigger the problem will become until it can get blown
all out of proportion. Jesus advice is to solve small problems before they become
big problems. Very good advice.
The apostle Paul gives similar advice
when he says, “Be angry but do not sin,
and do not let the sun go down on your anger.” By that he means it is okay
to feel anger, but do not let the anger fester and grow because it will turn
into a much bigger problem. It is like cancerous and precancerous cells. I get
recurring skin cancer so I go to a dermatologist annually and he removes all
the precancerous cells so they do not turn into cancer. Anger is like
precancer. It is not bad or wrong in itself. Anger is natural; it is not sin.
But if left unattended it can grow into sin. It can grow into the cancer of
verbal or physical violence.
3. The next subject Jesus deals with
is sex. Jesus certainly does not shy away from the controversial topics. He
says in verses 27-28 27 “You have heard that it was said to
those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever
looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his
heart.” Sexual misconduct is a problem in America. It is the cause of the
failure of many marriages. The media has been telling us recently about the serious
problem of sexual assault on college campuses and in the military and military
academies. It is just another aspect of this problem of violence. This is
sexual violence. Jesus deals with this in the same manner. He is saying that
the problem is in the heart. The body is going to feel what the body feels. You
cannot eliminate lust. It is the body doing what the body does. But it is what
we do with our bodies that makes the difference between a loving committed
relationship and adultery or even sexual violence. Then Jesus starts to speak in hyperbole. He
uses exaggeration as a teaching technique and says in verses 29-30
If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you;
for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for
your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of
your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
We are obviously not supposed to take
Jesus literally. He is not advocating self-amputations Some people in the
history of Christianity have taken Jesus literally with devastating results.
Jesus is using the literary technique of hyperbole to tell us that this is
serious business. I think the problem with sexual assault and sexual abuse is
that we have not taken it seriously enough. I think that most people do not take morality seriously.
They certainly do not take spirituality seriously. They consider religion to be
a hobby, and church like a social organization. Jesus is using the most
forceful language he can to tell us that we need to take morality seriously. It
is not just a matter of personal opinion or personal choices. What we do with
our bodies effects our souls and our relationship with God.
4. Now if Jesus has not tackled
enough controversial topics in this passage, now he deals with divorce. He says
in verses 31-32, “Furthermore it has
been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce.’ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except
sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman
who is divorced commits adultery.” Here is Jesus speaking in hyperbole once
again. We have to get comfortable with Jesus’ style of teaching. Jesus was not
a legalist. He was not a religious lawgiver like Moses. He is a grace giver. The
whole point of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was to present an alternative to Moses
Sermon on the Mount – Moses giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Jesus starts off
with nine beatitudes which are supposed to remind us of the Ten Commandments. Our
section here today deals with some of the Ten commandments like “Thou shalt not
kill” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and “Thou shalt not bear false
witness.” Jesus is reinterpreting them here.
Jesus is presenting an alternative to living a religious life based on
law. He is presenting a spiritual life based on grace.
That is how he approaches divorce. The
Mosiac Law allowed divorce and men took advantage of it to the harm of women
and children. Divorce was common in Jesus’ day and it was easy. At least for
the husband it was easy. Not so easy for the wife. All a man had to do was
write on a piece of paper that he was divorcing his wife, and give it to his
wife in the presence of two witnesses. That was it. On the certificate of
divorce he could give any reason he wanted. It could be a trivial as burning
his breakfast that morning. A man could divorce his wife for any reason at any
time. That put the woman in a very serious situation. It was very difficult for
women to survive financially without being part of a male-led household. After
divorce, if a male relative did not receive her into his household the woman
was homeless, and so were her children. The dirty secret of the society at that
time was that a lot of women who were divorced were forced into prostitution.
Today we talk about sex trafficking. That existed in Jesus’ day as well. That
is what Jesus was referring to when he said, “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except
sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery.” He is saying that a man
is forcing his ex wife to sell her body just to survive.
Jesus is speaking against the abuse
of women. Men used divorce as an excuse to get rid of one wife so he could
marry a younger woman. Often it was to advance his career or get a rich dowry.
We cannot take Jesus’ words and apply them legalistically to the 21st
century American phenomenon of divorce. It is not the same thing. If we want to
apply Jesus’ words to day, we should see Jesus supporting marriage and in
particular caring for women’s standing in society. It is certainly true today
that single-parent household headed by women account for a disproportionate
percentage of families living in poverty. Divorce still today harms women and
children much more than men. So if we are going to apply Jesus’ words about
divorce to today, we need to see him as trying to protect marriage and
particularly protect women.
4. The final subject Jesus deals with
in this passage is about oaths, which brings us right back to the subject of
language once again. Jesus says in verses 33-37, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do
not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth,
for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great
King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white
or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is
more than these is from the evil one.”
Again let’s not make Jesus’ words
into a rigid rule. There are religious groups that take Jesus’ words literally
as law and will not take an oath of political office, or an oath to tell the
truth in court, or an oath to defend the country by joining the military, or
even recite the Pledge of allegiance to the flag. These religious groups
believe that all such oaths violate Jesus’s teaching here in the Sermon on the
Mount. That is legalism, and a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words. Once again,
Jesus is speaking “over the top” as it were. He is trying to make a point by
exaggeration. It is a well-known teaching method used at that time used by
religious teachers.
Jesus is telling us that we should
not need to take an oath, or to swear to God, to tell the truth. Truth should
be our natural and normal way of speaking. Unfortunately it is not. Not even in
court. Oaths taken in court have become meaningless. People perjure themselves under
oath in court all the time, especially when they take the stand in their own
defense. Even the plea “Not guilty” is a lie most of the time. No one takes
that statement seriously. Jesus is telling his followers to make honesty an
everyday practice. “But let your ‘Yes’
be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil
one.” Let your tongue speak the truth.
More importantly we need to search
our heart and see why we are so reluctant to tell the truth to others or even
ourselves. The problem with lying is self-deceit. The problem is lying to
ourselves and lying to God. People live a lie. Jesus is teaching us to live
truth. Live his way. Follow him. He is the Way , the Truth and the Life. To sum
up this passage, Jesus is trying to get us beneath the surface of life. It is
not just about changing outward behavior, as much as it is about what causes
the behavior. When the heart is changed, the behavior will change. That heart
change comes from God. It is an act of grace.
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