You Have Heard It Said . . . But I Say to You 2-12-23
You Have Heard it Said . . . But I Say to You
Deut 30:15-20; Mt 5:21-37
Deut 30:15-20
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Mt 5:21-37
“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 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. 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. 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. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 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. 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. “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 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. “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.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Prayer – Gracious God, here we are again, hoping to be blessed by your presence, expecting a word that will offer us comfort and reassurance. Yet, sometimes when we listen to you, when we really listen, when we resist the temptation to do all the talking and allow you to speak to us, sometimes we hear words that are commanding, demanding and challenge us to live our lives differently. Today you interpret for us through your Living Son, Jesus the Christ, how we are to live faith-fully and we realize that faithful living isn’t always a walk in the park. Give us the courage, the determination to be steadfast and faithful followers, to live a Christ like way of life – amen.
When a parent asks their child, “Are you contradicting me?” there is really no right answer, believe me I tried when I was a kid. If the child says, “no,” they are contradicting them. If the child says “yes,” they are contradicting them. Is Jesus contradicting the Law? Jesus’ antitheses’ answer to that question is “Yes and No.” In our gospel passage this morning from Matthew, Jesus offers us a series of 6 antitheses or contrasts – ‘You have heard it said . . . but I say to you . . .’ I wonder if Jesus’ teachings in contrast to traditional teachings of Hebrew Law, distinguish his way from other ways. The kingdom of heaven that Christ is calling forth with the Sermon on the Mount is different from the world’s kingdoms.
What does this contrasting kingdom that Jesus is offering look like? Jesus uses these antitheses as a starting point letting us know that his reign will be nothing like current kingdoms – and he does it by saying what this reign will not look like. ‘You have heard it said . . . but I say to you . . .’ Note that Jesus doesn’t give a new set of rules and regulations but rather points us toward the nature of his coming reign. In fact, Jesus directly states that he hasn’t come to do away with the law and prophets rather to bring them to fulfillment. Jesus is interpreting the laws and what the prophets had to say and in doing so, is pointing us towards a new way of living.
These verses from this morning’s gospel passage contain the first four of what are called the ‘six antitheses,’ where Jesus will posit what has been said or written in the law, and then answer with ‘but I say to you . . .’ interpreting what that looks like in the new kingdom of God. The question that these antitheses collectively raise for me is, ‘what does it mean to be faithful to Scripture?’ Jesus’ radical re-formulation – with these words, “You have heard it said . . . but I say to you’, demonstrates that faithfulness to Scripture does not mean ‘God said it, I believe it, that settles it!’ In fact, Jesus treats scripture not as an ending point that ‘settles it,’ rather as a jumping off point for reforming the meaning of the text.
In Exodus, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. But that was followed by 27 chapters of do’s and don’t’s in Leviticus and 34 more chapters in Deuteronomy, which then morphed into 6200 pages of Talmudic law covering every aspect of beliefs, behaviors, diets, customs, ethics and attitudes. In this week’s gospel passage, Jesus tells us there is another way . . . a better, simpler way . . . to be in harmony with the will of God.
Jesus is quick to tell us that he has not come to contradict the law, even though to a degree he does. Rather he is here to give us a fresh perspective on God’s law, as only God himself could do. Instead of governing our lives by constant reference to an encyclopedic canon of regulations that no one could maintain, Jesus would have us look for God’s love in all things. In Christ, our focus shifts from the do’s and don’t’s, to actively embodying his love as a way of life, looking not only to the letter of the law, but to the spirit of the Lord.
Jesus would have us live more active and more complete lives of virtue . . . as defined by love of God and love of neighbor. He is raising the bar – You have heard it said, but I say to you – calling us to elevate our game. He is telling us that the state of our souls is just as important as the actions of our bodies. To be consumed by revenge and seething with anger is as wrong as acting out that anger. To indulgently wallow is lust without even moving a muscle is no different than adultery. To openly disregard God’s desires for us is an obvious affront to God. It is no more sinful than the hidden heart that embraces vice and crowds out love.
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me as a minister, “Is it right to . . .?,” “Is it wrong to . . .?,” I could retire and play golf everyday. There is something about human nature that wants to be told. “Do this, don’t do that!” It is the path of lazy and infantalised religion. I never grow up if I never have to figure out the rules, or even better, a way of faithful living, for my own context, for myself.
It is frustrating as a pastor who believes at the core of my being that my job is challenge myself, to challenge you to live Christianity as way of life only to have a member or friend leave for a church where the new church just tells them what to do, what to believe and everything will be alright – ugghhhh.
I suppose I am amused by the ironic circles of history. The essential teachings of Jesus, the Jewish Jesus, challenged the way the Pharisees had replaced the essential interiority of a relationship with God and covenant written upon the heart of his peoples, not in stone, but with external legalism and ritual observances. The church took the gospel of those challenges by Jesus and made them into external observance once again. On the one hand it is funny, and the other hand is not just sad but caustic as I’ve seen more than one life ruined by church rules and expectations, the way the church has hurt those who particularly come looking for grace and forgiveness.
At first glance, it seems that Jesus is making it even more difficult to follow his way of life. However, the teachings of Jesus in our gospel passage for this Sunday are not intended to create more external laws, thereby deepening our own self-loathing and despondency about ever being good enough or getting over the bar. He is showing us the way to transcend legalism – You have heard it said, but I say to you – and perhaps live out of love for self, the other, and God rather than by a bunch of do’s and don’t’s.
These antitheses give us specific instances of the ways in which we are to live a faithful life and at first glance they are not easy to do – don’t even get angry at another; keep your promises to your mate, and others; be willing to endure wrong being done to you rather than do wrong to another; love your enemies and pray to God on their behalf. Can Jesus really be serious about this new way of life? To fulfill such demands, one would have to radically reorient in the world. One would have to live in a whole new way that’s very different from the way they have been living in the world. It feels almost like a contradiction, doesn’t it?
But isn’t that what happens when the Word enters into the world? All of the rules and regulations that we think we need to do to count in the eyes of the institutional church, are blown up to a degree by the still-speaking Word known as Jesus. The church set laws, rules, regulations for holiness which have served as a guide for maintaining right relationship with God, neighbor and self are reinterpreted by Jesus, perhaps because all of those ‘should’s’ have become ritual, routine and rudimentary.
With Jesus’ re-interpretation we are invited to live the righteousness of God, to be a holy people. All too often we use a legalistic approach to try and achieve holiness and righteousness that tends to result in a check-list approach as a way of living – an either/or proposition filled with ‘should’s’ rather than a commitment to becoming. Just as faith is not measured by a set of beliefs, rather as a matter of trust; righteousness isn’t attained by reducing our sin tally to zero, rather through our connection to the Righteous One. We are holy, we are beloved, we are faith-filled because we are claimed companions of a Holy God.
The Sermon on the Mount and these divine contradictions were given to a crowd by a person with a message, but I say to you, most importantly, the Person is the message. Reconciliation is a way of living . . . a way of being. When our lives are centered around and in a relationship with God, the law – all of the rules and regulations and should’s are fulfilled. We can heal and be healed. We can repair and be repaired. We can restore and be restored. We can reconcile and be reconciled. Jesus is reminding us that human goodness is not just an action, but an attitude, an intention, a way of living. You have heard it been said to live a holy life, but I say to you, you are holy – thanks be to God – amen.