Matthew 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.’ ²²But 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. ²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come 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. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If 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. ³⁰And 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. ³¹“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³²But 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.

³³“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.’ ³⁴But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

This morning is part 3 of the Sermon on the Mount series in the lectionary. Now, there’s no denying that most of Jesus’ sermon is pretty challenging, but this week’s section in particular makes me not entirely convinced that I wanted to respond, “thanks be to God”, or “Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ” when it is over. This is hefty stuff, so let’s break it down and put it into context, which I haven’t yet done as much as this morning.

The first thing to note is that Jesus made frequent use of exaggeration and hyperbole to illustrate his points; today’s reading is a classic example. Jesus does not literally mean that anyone who calls someone a fool will be sent to hell, or that you should pluck your eyes out or cut your hand off if you sin, or that anger is worth 20 years in jail, or that an erotic thought is just as serious as an adulterous affair. BUT, that does not mean that Jesus was not calling us beyond what is comfortable for us. Far too often when dealing with Jesus’ sermon, preachers conclude that it is hyperbole and therefore not worth worrying about. But there is plenty here that we need to allow to confront and remake us.

Now, the context: throughout the Gospel according to Matthew, the writer’s main argument that he’s trying to prove is that Jesus is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah; that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures.  The Sermon on the Mount is deliberately intended to be a parallel to Moses teaching the people from Mount Sinai in the book of Exodus. Just as Moses taught the Ten Commandments, we have Jesus doing the same thing. But the Sermon on the Mount is not Jesus issuing new laws, but rather engaging in the Jewish tradition of faithfully wrestling with the laws and continuing to apply them to ever-evolving situations. The law or Torah was never intended to be a static prescription for right and wrong. No, the core of Jesus’ sermon is this: love God, love your neighbour.

Having said that, when we hear today’s part of the text, we are immediately drawn to the words “adultery”, “divorce” and “murder”… super fun concepts to talk about. And I think there are two major mistakes that can happen when reading a text like this: first, to make it a simple morality lesson.  This interpretation might go something like this:  “Well, Jesus said that divorce is prohibited, so you simply must stay in a relationship at any cost, because to marry again or enter into another relationship after divorce would mean that you are committing adultery.  And adulterers are damned to hell.”  This leads to profound unhappiness in a relationship at best, and at the worst, can create an environment that perpetuates abuse and effectively closes off escape routes for those who experience abuse. It puts up a barrier between the “righteous people” (which is where we would like to see ourselves) and “those other people” (those who are not quite as righteous as we think that we are) – again, the proverbial Pharisee and tax collector.

Another mistake that is just as damaging, although more subtle, would be to read this text as a history lesson: a directive that applies to a different people at a different time, and could not possibly have anything to say to us now.  This interpretation could go something like this, “Jesus lived in a patriarchal society.  Women had no way of providing for themselves and needed to be cared for by men, so divorce would cause a woman to become destitute.  And Jesus didn’t want that, so he decided to prohibit divorce.  But since women are perfectly capable of providing for themselves now, we can just ignore what Jesus is saying.”  Though most of that is true, if we dismiss the text as an ancient legal prescription for how to live, we do not have to hear how it speaks to our lives now. In both of these mistaken interpretations, the text is used to create a barrier between us and the other. And this is exactly what Jesus is commanding us NOT to do.

You know, human nature doesn’t really change all that much over the generations.  The Ten Commandments were given to the people of God very early on in the story of humanity, so that they might be in right relationship with God and with one another.  But mere hours after Moses received the Ten Commandments the people were worshipping a golden calf and killing each other over who is holiest and closest to God. Fast forward many generations, and those gathered around Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount are still fighting with one other, hurting each other, even on their way to the temple. In their efforts to be righteous in the eyes of God, they are neglecting their relationships with one another. Basically the whole sermon of Jesus is calling out those people who are on their way to enhance their personal relationship with God, yet all the while ignoring their broken relationships with others.  Jesus is making the bold claim that it is not possible to love God without loving your neighbour. And how often do we do this too? From the little things…fighting with our spouses in the car on the way to church, but pretending like nothing happened as soon as we walk into the sanctuary, to the much larger things…holding onto a grudge for decades that poisons our relationships with all those around us.

So, this text is not a to-do list for how to be a better person, nor is it to be dismissed as ancient and out-of-date for us. So what do we do with it? We do what we should do with every Biblical text: read it in the light of that (point to cross). Why? Because that event changed everything and everyone, forever.

When Jesus was insulted, he absorbed the venom and returned only love. When Jesus was ridiculed and mocked, he swallowed the barbs and returned only love. When Jesus was dragged before the courts on false charges, he answered their questions, and returned only love. And when Jesus was put to death on a cross, he didn’t curse his killers; he prayed for their forgiveness, surrendered himself to death, and rose from the dead three days later, to continue his offer of forgiveness, reconciliation, and love.

The cross took away the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth version of justice, providing instead a model of unconditional, everlasting forgiveness and grace. The cross was the beginning of reconciliation between us and God, and between us and each other. That, basically, is the Good News.

And yet, it does not deny how hard and scary and sometimes downright impossible reconciliation is. To reconcile with someone means to own your part of what went wrong. It means to be vulnerable and open yourself up to being hurt.  It feels better to hang onto what we perceive to be our righteous indignation, because anger can be useful for us.  It can inspire action. However, it can also be destructive. There is a powerful saying in twelve step recovery programs: “holding onto anger and resentments is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”  And there is incredible truth in this for all of us, not just alcoholics and addicts.  Anger just creates a steel box around our hearts that prevents us from loving fully and drastically reduces the quality of our lives. This is not who we were created to be.

All of the words that Jesus says about divorce and adultery and lying, all come down to looking at the ways that we deeply hurt each other and the ways that we continue to be hurt by others. This command of reconciliation is NOT about never getting angry or impatient ever again or taking the abuse of others in the name of Christian piety. It is about God breaking in to our lives, and loving us so completely that we are able to see Christ in the other.  God gave his own heart to us in the person of Jesus Christ, knowing that it would be broken, yet did it anyway. God’s heart is not clenched in anger against us. This is about God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves, helping us to forgive those who hurt us, make us angry, and God loving us back into wholeness.  This is about having our own hearts freed from the normal patterns of selfish and competitive human nature, to be free to be Christ-like. This is the true freedom of the Gospel – being set free from the stone-heart of anger, or the ache of lust.

Do you know one way that this gets lived out in a practical way? It is the practice of passing the peace before we share in Communion each month. We do this in obedience to this reading, where it talks about going and being reconciled to anyone who has something against you, before approaching the altar of God. This is not just an invitation to shake hands with our friends and talk about lunch plans. This is an invitation to share at a table with others, and so it demands of you that you be willing to set aside any grudge or hostility that would stop you from sitting at the table with these others. The handshakes that really matter are not the ones with your friends, but with those who you are finding it difficult to be in the same room with. Certainly, a quick handshake and smile doesn’t make everything right. But, if the handshake is offered as a pledge of willingness to be reconciled and to work out that reconciliation in reality, then it is a Christ-like starting place. And Christ-like starting places is what this passage is really on about; it is about starting at your core, giving up anger and bitterness before it takes any sort of root or bears any sort of bitter fruit.

And yet, sisters and brothers, this reconciliation is not dependent on us deciding to make it happen.  When Christ tells us all the ways that we are blessed in the beatitudes, and that we are salt of the earth and light of the world, he is saying, you are mine.  You already belong to me.  I live in you.  I know that it’s not always easy to love one another and you are going to stumble along the way, but always remember, I have claimed you and I will give you all that you need.  You are reconciled to God in Christ, no matter what you have done or failed to do, you are saved.  And that’s pretty great news.  Thanks be to God!