START WITH SCRIPTURE:
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OBSERVE:
Jesus continues to lay down the new “law” of the Kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount. In a sense, this is a continuation of the tenth commandment of the Decalogue of Moses. Here’s what I mean — covetousness covers the motivations behind many of the sins prohibited in the Ten Commandments. It might be said that adultery and theft begin in the heart, with covetousness.
Jesus is expanding the logic of this concept — that all sin begins in the heart. As he says later, in chapter 15:
But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies (Matthew 15:18-19).
However, Jesus is also establishing his own unique authority as the giver of a New Covenant:
You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times …. But I say to you….
Jesus repeats this phrase six times, addressing murder/anger, adultery/lust, marriage/divorce, oaths, retaliation/mercy, and how to treat enemies.
The most serious example of a human sin against other humans is murder. The ancient law is established by the Law of Moses in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13). Jesus delves beneath the surface of murder, and addresses the roots of murder — anger and dehumanization.
He recognizes that an attitude of hostility and dehumanization precedes violence. Anger, insults, or calling someone fool — which is to say that someone is useless, stupid and godless — is extremely serious. Those guilty of such attitudes are liable to judgment, and even the hell of fire. They have cut themselves off from their brothers and sisters, and they have cut themselves off from God.
Jesus offers the solution to such a breach in relationship — seek reconciliation:
So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
An underlying message here has to do with worship. Along with the prophets of the Old Testament, Jesus understands that worship is not merely a matter of ritual. It is not enough for the worshiper to focus vertically, on his relationship with God; he must also be focused horizontally on his relationship with his brothers and sisters.
Jesus also addresses lawsuits as he stresses the importance of reconciliation. He advocates settling with an accuser out of court, as it were, in order to avoid the risky uncertainty of an arbitrary judge. Jesus is not only concerned with healing relationships — he is also very pragmatic and realistic about justice in an unjust world:
your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Jesus then takes up another key relational law from the Ten Commandments — adultery. Again, he looks beneath the surface at the motivation of adultery:
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
As with anger, the seeds of the sin of lust are sown in the heart long before they are manifested in action. Like anger, lust is dehumanizing and objectifying.
His advice concerning the eradication of lust is radical. The eye and the hand are potential agents of lust, and he advises that the eye and the hand must be ripped out or cut off if they endanger the soul. Better that:
than for your whole body to go into hell.
Jesus then departs from consideration of laws from the Ten Commandments, and addresses the issue of divorce. He cites the law given by Moses that permits a man to divorce a woman, from Deuteronomy 24:1-4. The grounds for divorce given by Moses were fairly light — she could be divorced if the husband found something objectionable about her, or if he merely disliked her.
Jesus has a much higher bar for divorce. For the disciple, divorce is only permissible in the event of a wife’s unchastity. Remarriage to a divorced woman was also regarded as adultery.
What this suggests is his high estimation of marriage. Later in the Gospel of Matthew, the tension is building between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees push him concerning his teaching on marriage, and his strict view of divorce, and they ask him if divorce is lawful for any cause. In that highly patriarchal, male dominated culture, a man could divorce his wife if she displeased him in any way. All of the power lay with the husband.
Jesus first defends the sacred nature of marriage. First he quotes Genesis 1:27, which establishes the fundamental equality of men and women, who are both created in the image of God:
Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ (Matthew 19:4).
Note that he is citing their own Scriptures to establish this principle of equality between male and female.
Second, he cites Genesis 2:24 to demonstrate the unique sexual and emotional union that exists in a marriage between a man and a woman:
‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate (Matthew 19:5-6).
When he is challenged by the Pharisees, who cite Moses’ law permitting divorce, Jesus tells them that this law was a concession to their sinful natures:
It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so (Matthew 19:8).
Jesus makes it clear that true, inward holiness must exceed mere external observation.
Finally, Jesus addresses the issue of integrity in relationship to oaths and promises. He cites the law from Numbers 30:2 concerning vows made before Yahweh. He is criticizing a culture that has developed escalating levels of vows — by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem. These oaths are used in order to convince others of the oath-makers’ sincerity. This would suggest a culture that has developed a lack of confidence in honesty.
Jesus insists that the disciple’s integrity shouldn’t be based on things that are beyond his or her control:
And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
Instead, vows are based on the honesty of the individual:
Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Again, as with the other examples of righteousness, Jesus stresses the inward integrity of the disciple.
APPLY:
In a culture like ours, these words of Jesus may be hard to hear. We have become accustomed to excusing our weaknesses and failings. Anger and name-calling have become political rallying cries. Pornography and sensuality have become mainstream indulgences. Divorce statistics suggest that Christian marriages are no more stable than non-Christian marriages — even among pastors and bishops. Promises are merely words — “alternative facts.”
The truth is, Jesus’ standards for righteousness are far higher than the Mosaic Law. Christians have grown accustomed to “dumbing them down” or explaining them away. But it is impossible to find any excuses in the teaching of Jesus, the Sinless One.
Except this. When Peter asks Jesus whether he should forgive his brother seven times, perhaps expecting to be praised for his mercy, Jesus says something very surprising:
I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22).
Jesus doesn’t mean that our forgiveness is limited to 490 times. Seven is a number denoting perfection in Scripture. Seventy times seven likely means that we are to forgive perfectly, even infinitely. We are to forgive as we are forgiven. (See The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:12, 14-15.)
In other words, the only way that we can apply these teachings about anger, lust, divorce and marriage, and vows is through God’s grace revealed in Christ. The standards of holiness and righteousness are not relaxed for the Christian — in fact, they are intense. But they are also impossible …. unless …. we submit to Christ who has fulfilled the law and the prophets on our behalf, and then imputes and imparts his grace to us. It is God’s Spirit, working in and through us, that empowers us to live the holy life that we are taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
I quote Paul, as I have so often before:
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).
What God commands us to do he will give us the grace and strength to obey.
RESPOND:
The difficulty of living out the demands of the Gospel lead us so often to moral failure.
Are the expectations of Jesus impossible? Yes, if we try to live them out in our own strength and according to our own standards. But no, not if we surrender our lives and will to Christ and allow his Holy Spirit to work in and through us. And if we remember that if and when we fall, we can turn to Christ for forgiveness.
Lord, your standards for righteousness are so high I cannot achieve them. I get angry over silly things. I find my eyes and my mind wandering in lust at times. Although I’ve never been divorced, marriage has sometimes been tough. Keeping my promises can be challenging. Thank you for your mercy and forgiveness; and thank you that you call me to holiness, and that you are the one who makes that possible. Amen.
PHOTO:
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