Matthew 5:21 "You have
heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'You shall not murder, and
anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone
who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again,
anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'Raca, ' is answerable to the
Sanhedrin. And anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire
of hell. 23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and
there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,
24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled
to that person; then come and offer your gift. 25 "Settle matters quickly
with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still
together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the
judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
26 Truly I tell you, you will not 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 tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to
stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one
part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if
your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is
better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go
into hell. 31 "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give
her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces
his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to become an adulteress, and
anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. 33 "Again,
you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your
oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.' 34 But I tell you,
do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 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 even
one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply 'Yes' or 'No';
anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Continuing
with the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus now begins talking about individual
issues/commands.
To
begin with, two things pop out at me right away from this passage. The first is
that Jesus (and by extension The Church) calls us to support the IDEAL godly
life. We talk a lot about grace, forgiveness, and the fact that God is the
God of “second chances.” This is good. Wonderful. In our sinful condition, we
need this to be true, otherwise we would despair. However, just because
God is the God of second chances doesn’t mean that God has thrown in the towel
on the ideal. This is probably most clearly illustrated in our day by what
Jesus has to say on divorce.
In
our day divorce has become so widespread that—with the exception of Roman
Catholics and a few others—it seems hardly even considered to be a sin anymore.
It’s just one of life’s little hickups along the way. We trade in our
vehicles all the time, so now we also trade in our spouses. This attitude may
make life seem easier, but it’s difficult to reconcile with what Jesus
says in Matthew 5. Without demonizing either party (or both) in a modern
divorce scenario, I think it is safe to say that if SIN=BROKENNESS, then
divorce is the **result of sin. Certainly there were broken dreams, broken
expectations, broken hopes and broken promises along the way—to say nothing of
other potential examples of brokenness. The point I’m trying to make is
that it is still possible (even commanded) to apply Jesus’ ideal view about
marriage/divorce to our setting today EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN DIVORCED. The ideal
is expressed by Jesus. Perhaps that didn’t work out for you the first
time. We are, after all, broken people tainted by the brokenness of sin.
Regardless, the call then is to devote yourself to the ideal of making the
second marriage (or third, etc.) work. In other words, the fact that God is the
God of second chances does NOT negate the fact that we are called to
support God’s ideal …and not trivialize that which God has declared to be
very important.
The
second thing that pops out at me in this passage is very similar to the first,
and that is that there is both a LETTER and a SPIRIT of the law, and God is
much more concerned about the SPIRIT of the law—as that’s a matter of the
heart.
This
comes out most clearly in what Jesus has to say about murder/anger and
adultery/lust. The point that Jesus is making here is that God is not fooled by
mere outward compliance to the rules. I may THINK that I can be a “good
Christian” AND nurse a hateful grudge against someone else, but Jesus corrects
that thinking. Just as murder is the ultimate breaking of a relationship,
hatred is relationship-killing, and Jesus came to HEAL BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
(first between us & God, and second, between each other). Just as adultery
most often breaks the marital relationship, lust burning in the heart
breaks the bond of affection that should exist between spouses.
In the
end, this is much more than simply a compliance issue. This is not God, the Big
Brother, telling us that in addition to expecting full compliance to the rules
He also constitutes the Divine Thought Police. Rather, what he is saying
is that we cannot be WHOLE individuals by mere outward compliance. Wholeness
comes when the outward compliance emanates from a CHANGED HEART; a heart that
doesn’t want to commit adultery because it’s not lusting; a heart that would
never condone murder because it has hatred under control.
Cheers,
™
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