A PRAYER TO START
This prayer is for the passion of Jesus’ way to continue to fuel us today, and has be adapted from a portion of Psalm 119. Begin your time praying it 3xs…
Father keep generously showing me your way! I won’t take my eyes of what you show me for even a minute! Show me more! Show me the wonders of your way, the amazing realities of life on your path. Let these revelations bring with them the excitement of a new adventure, a fresh way of living. I cannot get enough of your way! I am insatiable for your nourishing commands. Though I may be mocked for my ravenous hunger, gossiped about, humiliated, passed over, even forgotten; I will be like one immersed in the depths of your words who is deaf to the sounds above the waters. Your sayings are my delight and my life. I will listen to them like I do a good friend. Amen.
DIVING INTO THE DETAILS
Jesus is not an ethicist; that is, a philosopher who advocates a particular set of principles governing right and wrong conduct. No, Jesus is revelation: the one who makes God known to us and allows us to know ourselves and others in relation to God. As revelation, and similar to the book of our bible with the same name, Jesus often uses hyperbole to awaken us to a reality we are prone to miss.
These deliberate overstatements of Jesus are not merely for show. They are meant to grab our attention so that we might be forced to consider something that Jesus recognizes as important in this world of God’s. So, when Jesus says “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away”, he is not being literal; yet he does want us to recognize the brutality of the division and destruction fostered by a lustful heart.
Nearly all of the six antithesis statements in Matthew 5:21-48 contain some hyperbole for the purpose of garnering a response of those listening to him. While there are certainly many ways that we human foster division and destruction of our relationships with one another and God, these six we have not been outgrown even in our modern day. Let’s look at each one and draw out the attention seizing moment.
The first breakdown in relationship stems from our propensity to be angry towards another in a manner that takes something from them; whether a life (murder), their reputation (insult), or even their image-in-God (‘You fool!’). Such anger is indeed hatred, even if we do not like the term or feel that way constantly towards the one on whom we unleash our passion. The overstatement in this first point of tension is found in the consequences of such anger. Murder gets you the full force of the penal system, insult too finds you liable to governing bodies, and to call someone a “fool”, well that gets you divine wrath. What? The judgement for murder makes sense, and the consequences for insulting, while severe, could at least be a deterrent from people slandering one another; but an emotional response like “You fool!” awards my soul’s destruction?!
The severity of the repercussions prepares us to grasp the enormity of the exhortation that follows in verse 23,
So if you are offering your gift at the alter and there remember that your fellow human has something against you, leave your gift there before the alter and go. First be reconciled to your fellow human, and then come and offer your gift.
Sounds straight forward enough to you and I, except that Jesus was speaking to people who were Galileans, and thus had to travel some distance to Jerusalem to make their offering. It would be impractical, if not impossible, to drop their gift, return to their community, reconcile, and then return the same day to find their gift where they left it and complete their act of worship. So which is more important, religious routine that is good (like Sunday gatherings, tithing, bible study, prayer, etc.), or making relationships right, whole? Jesus seems to be saying the latter is more important. In fact, commentator David Garland (77) notes, “The assumption behind this teaching is that one approaches God through one’s neighbor, and Jesus uses hyperbole to make that point.”
The second tendency that leads to the breakdown in relationships is our propensity to let our desires or appetites dictate our actions; whether that be a sexual or emotional partner other than our spouse (adultery), or day dreams of people to use for our pleasure (lustful intent), or whatever else our eyes might be drawn to and our hands might reach out for that is not good for us or others. When we let ourselves long for such things, eventually we will let ourselves find those very things. The hyperbole here is not subtle, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” The reality is that when we are ruled by our appetites people become objects and objects become obsessions. Relating to people and things in this manner is destructive, physically and eternally. With the same devastating force of lust, should we seek to view people and things as God does—not for the pleasure of consuming them, but for the enjoyment of their flourishing.
The third tendency that leads to the breakdown of relationships is our propensity to destroy the gift of unity. Marriage was given to man and women in order that they might help one another become fully all God intended for them to be, individually and together. In turn, the apostle Paul says, marriage is a gospel picture of our relationship with Jesus; a union that allows us to be all God intends for us to be. Yet, in Jesus day, as in ours, marriages where often sought to be dissolved. When a certificate of divorce was granted, the bill would read something like “Behold thou art permitted to any man” thus freeing both husband and wife from any infidelity moving forward. They were clean. Rid of one another and a fresh start. However, Jesus’ intentionally dramatic phrase “whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” is meant to perk the ears of the listeners so that they might recognize the sacredness of marriage, this always and forever relational bond that shines a light on the bond God shares with them through Jesus. Such relationship is worth fighting for, forgiving in, and sacrificing to ensure unity and blessing. Same for unity of the bride of Christ.
The fourth tendency that leads to the breakdown of relationships is our propensity to play God to get what we want. Oaths are not common today, but in Jesus’ day swearing oaths was a way to show devotion, or demonstrate the intensity and veracity of a claim or promise, or even as a means of creating debt. Most often such oaths were sworn on holy things, like heaven or Jerusalem, or on one’s own life. The hyperbole of “at all” in verse 34 is often missed by you and I because we rarely make promises on things completely out of our control simply for things we want (that’s sarcasm by the way!). The striking statement of removing this culturally accepted practice from its use entirely, is meant to awaken the listeners to the condemnation of what lays behind our propensity—“anything more than this comes from the evil one”. Who plays God other than God? There is no more sure way to destroy relationships than to try and take on God’s role.
The fifth tendency that leads to the breakdown of relationships is our propensity to fight violence with retaliation in kind; whether that be physically, through legal action, through begrudging compliance or taking it out on others you view lesser than yourself. Each of the statements in verses 39-42 are intentionally extreme. To react to the violence of a slap (an insult of one’s person) by giving the offender the chance to do so again seems outlandish. Likewise, so too does the notion of being sued for an outer coat and in response to strip naked and give all your clothes to the party suing. Such actions seem absurd in relation to what is expected for a person of dignity in those situations to do. In turn, what we have reduced to “go the extra mile” in verse 41, has much deeper cultural implications. Often Roman soldiers would compel Jewish citizens to carry their packs through the land—similar to the manner in which they forced Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus’ cross (Lk. 23:26). So to go twice as far as the oppressor asks you to go, would be unimaginable for a people so bent on dignity. The final statement in verse 42 seems strange for us, but not really if we think about it. What do people who are beaten down often do to others, they beat them down too. If we cannot overcome the oppressors, we tend to become the oppressors ourselves. So, Jesus' statement to give to one who begs and do not refuse the one who borrows, is a exhortation to be; as in each of the other statements, one who is generous not one who is violent. To overcome offense and oppression through generosity, rather than retaliation, seems a bit of an overstatement in and of itself; at least to many of us.
Jesus’ final exhortation towards our tendency to contribute to the breakdown of relationships focuses on our propensity to only love those who we like and condemn those we do not. There is no hyperbole here. Jesus makes no over dramatic statements, except that what he says is so drastically counter intuitive to his listeners who have a deep love for one another but just as deep a hatred for the secular society in which they live: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. But why? Because that is what it means to be a child of God, because that is the way that God acts towards you and I, and all those whose lives and words are animated against him. Such a statement would cause the audience to wake up to the reality that God’s kingdom and God’s way is not going to be the way they had been thinking, hoping, even following. Loving those who are like us but not those who are against us is no big thing, no God thing. Yet, to love while being oppressed, hated, persecuted, ridiculed, forgotten, devalued, etc.; now that is something different indeed.
DEVELOPING DISCERNMENT
It seems that how we relate to one another, and especially in the difficult times with the difficult people, has a lot to do with how we live this life of faith. None of these actions that Jesus proposes are “natural”. Quite contrary, they require a new nature, from one who walks a new way, and finds residence, purpose, and kinship in a new kingdom. Don’t skip this part. Information is of little use in quickening a transformed life if we are undiscerning people. Take the time to thoughtfully answer these questions, and maybe use them as conversation starters in Gospel Community, at work or in your home. Doing so will pay dividends in the long run!
- What do we learn about the character, nature, and mission of God from Jesus’ emphasis on relationships and seemingly “over-the-top” exhortations about how to strive for whole, flourishing ones?
- In what ways are all of the actions and reactions Jesus confronts “normal” or accepted by our culture today?
- What about each of the actions and reactions Jesus proposes for us to follow would make them be considered unnatural or abnormal?
- In what ways would relationships in which you believed and behaved in these ways be impactful in you work place, home, neighborhood and Gospel Community?
- Jesus would want people to see our behavior towards one another and them and say, “That’s not normal.” Can they say that of you? How about our faith family? Why or why not?
A PRAYER TO CLOSE
Psalm 67 offers us a prayer in response to the God who has dealt so patiently and sacrificially with you and I. To our Father who is perfect and perfectly loves, we pray…
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine up us, that His way may be known on the earth, His saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O Father; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God shall bless us. God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear You!