Trinity 6
Mt
5:20-26
7/11/18
“You have
heard that it was said .... But I say you to you….” We hear Jesus make this
statement in our Gospel lesson. And actually this is only the first, of six
times in a row, when our Lord speaks in this way. Now in our world, people assert their own
opinion all the time, and openly contradict commonly held beliefs or those in
positions of authority. They may do so based on facts and expertise. They may
do so on the basis of emotion. But we
are not surprised when people do it.
Things
were quite different in the Judaism of the first century world. There, statements from authorities in the
past were handed down in chains of tradition that delivered them to the present
day. This way of tradition is what had
authority. It was especially true among
the Pharisees who spoke about “the tradition of the elders.” Later in the Gospel of Matthew they ask
Jesus, “Why do your disciples
break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands
when they eat.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus hammers home the fact
that he doesn’t do things in this way.
He speaks with his own authority as he reveals what the will of
God really entails. And unlike our
modern versions of self-assertion that often contradict God’s will, Jesus’
statements are the revelation of God’s true will, because he is the Son of God.
Jesus begins our text by saying, “For I tell you, unless
your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now we think of the Pharisees as being very
strict and zealous in keeping the Law – the Torah. And this is true – but
only true in a particular way.
The Torah – the Law that God delivered to Moses is very
large. However, much of it sets forth
general principles about how a person is to conduct life. It certainly does
also contain specific directions. Yet many of these are illustrative of how
those principles are to be enacted. And even where it does provide detailed
directions, we need to recognize that with the variety and unpredictability of
life, there is no way that any law code can address every situation there will
arise.
Thus, there will always be a need to interpret the law
and apply those principles to situations that aren’t explicitly addressed by
the law. The Pharisees had done this in
their body of oral teaching – the tradition of the elders. But the tradition of the elders did more than
this. First, it added demands that weren’t in the law as it applied rules meant
for the priests to people in every day life.
It also interpreted parts of the Torah in ways that made the law easier
to keep. Yes the Pharisees were very
strict about keeping the law. But they were very strict about keeping their
own interpretation of the law. And many times, that interpretation helped a
person get around the strict requirements of the law.
Six times Jesus states: “You have heard that it
was said .... But I say you to you….” In
each case, Jesus takes up a false interpretation of the Torah that was
present in Judaism of his day. So in our
text he says: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’” This statement quotes the Fifth Commandment,
and then adds that whoever murders will be liable to divine judgment. This is
certainly true. In Jesus’ words that follow we learn that the problem is that
the interpretation stops there.
In this view, “You shall not murder”
means “You shall not murder.” So, if you don’t kill someone, you have kept he
commandment and are not liable to judgment.
I presume that a similar kind of approach to the law allowed the rich
young man to tell Jesus that he had kept this commandment.
Yet as the divine source of the Ten
Commandments, Jesus now gives the full meaning of this statement when he adds:
“But I say to you
that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to
judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and
whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.”
Our Lord says that it is not merely the physical act of murder
that breaks the Fifth Commandment. Anger
in the heart is the source of all physical harm. Anger breeds hatred and contempt,
and hatred does not express itself only in physical ways. Our translation has “whoever insults his
brother.” The Greek text actually has an
Aramaic word here, raka, which means “fool,” quite like the Greek word
in the next statement translated as “You fool!”
The word used here in Greek is the one that gives us “moron.” So to put
it in more colloquial English, Jesus is saying, “And whoever says, 'Moron!'
will be liable to the hell of fire.”
Think about that. Everyone who is angry with his
brother will be liable to judgment – and Jesus clearly means eternal
judgment. Whoever says, ‘Moron!” will be liable to the hell of fire. What does life in your family, or with your
spouse, or with your friends or co-workers look like when measured against that
standard – against God’s standard? Do you get angry with others? Do you
speak dismissive and insulting words to others? When you do – and notice I am
not even going to entertain the idea about whether we do – this is sin that damns
to hell.
Jesus’ words condemn us all. They reveal us to be sinners who
must stand before the holy God. They leave no about the outcome. Left to ourselves, we're on an express elevator to hell, going
down.
Jesus’
words certainly reveal the sin in our life. But their presence in the Sermon on
the Mount do not cause us to despair. They cause us to confess our sin. They
cause us to repent. And they cause us to turn to Jesus in faith.
In
Matthew’s Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount is found just after Jesus has begun
his public ministry. Matthew tells us, “From that time Jesus began to preach,
saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.’” Jesus was announcing that in his
person the kingdom of heaven – which is just a Jewish way of saying kingdom of
God” was at hand. Now this is important
because Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount by saying, “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The poor in spirit are those who know their sin and confess
it. They don’t defend their sin. They
try to ignore their sin. They confess that they have sinned, and that this sin
is against God. As David confessed in the Psalms, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done
what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your
words and blameless in your judgment.”
Our
Lord says that such people – the poor in spirit – are blessed. They have the end time blessing now
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They have received the reign of God.
Jesus’ words are true of you. You are poor in spirit. You know your sin. You know that you get angry with others. You know that you speak words that are
motivated by hatred. However, you are
blessed because the kingdom of heaven – the reign of God – belongs to you.
It does because Jesus brought the
reign of God by dying on the cross for your sins. Just before Holy Week, Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus
Christ suffered and died because you and I are sinners. By that death, he won
the forgiveness of sins for us. Raised
from the dead by the Father he has defeated death. Until Christ returns, sin still brings death.
But in God’s eyes we are freed from sin, and death can never hold on to our
bodies. In the resurrected body of Jesus
we see what awaits us.
Because of our crucified and risen Lord, we have
forgiveness and salvation. Through
baptism we have shared in Jesus’ saving death.
In baptism the Spirit has caused to be born again – we are a new
creation in Christ. Because the Spirit
has done this, he now enables us to live in ways that are true to God’s
will. St. Paul says in our epistle
lesson today, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
In our text, Jesus describes what this life looks like
for those who have received the kingdom of God. He says, “So if you are
offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Our Lord speaks about his first century
setting when the temple in Jerusalem was still standing. His point is that we do not let anger
fester. We do not live in anger. Instead, we seek reconciliation. We
forgive one another. We do this because
God has forgiven us in Christ.
This is true of everyone with whom
we interact. But it is especially true
of the people gathered here this morning – those with whom we are about the
receive the Sacrament of the Altar. We come to the Sacrament confessing our sins
in order to receive forgiveness. But if
we want to receive forgiveness, we must also be willing to forgive others.
St. Paul told the Corinthians about
the Sacrament: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in
the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in
the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many
are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” We learn that the Sacrament joins us together
as the body of Christ. It is the Sacrament
of unity, and as the apostle goes on to teach in chapter eleven, because the
body and blood of Christ join us together as one body, we are not to bring any
division to the Sacrament. There is no place for anger and failure to forgive
among those who commune together.
This fact is announced in liturgy of
the Sacrament by the Pax Domini – the moment when I hold up the body and blood
of Christ before you and sing, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” On the one hand, this is a declaration that the
body of blood of Christ you are about the receive delivers peace with God
through the forgiveness of sins. On the
other hand, it is a reminder that we need to be at peace with one another –
reconciled – if we are to come forward and receive the Sacrament.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus teaches
us that the Fifth Commandment is broken not simply by the physical murder of
another person. We sin against God and
break the Fifth Commandment when there is anger in our heart and abusive words
directed toward others. Because Christ died and rose again to make us sharers
in the kingdom of heaven, we confess this sin and cling to the forgiveness won
by Christ – forgiveness given to us in Baptism and the Sacrament of the
Altar. As the forgiven people of God, we
forgive others as we seek reconciliation.
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