“They Were Astounded”
Matthew 5: 17-48
They had never heard teaching
like that, done with deeply sensed authority and confirmed by the way he lived
his life: “You have heard that it was
said..., but I say....”
These few verses contain the
most extraordinary claim made by Jesus: ‘Do
not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not
to abolish but to fulfill.” That means that Jesus is making the claim
that all of the laws of Moses, all of the covenant with Abraham, all of the
promises of the prophets have come to fruition in his life. His life provides the key to understanding
everything that came before. His life is
the bridge between everything that came before and everything that is yet to
come.
A great many Christians would
like to just ignore the Hebrew scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. Jesus is telling us that he, his
incarnational presence, must be understood in the light of those scriptures,
that covenant, the historical relationship between God and God’s creation. It’s nearly impossible to understand the
impact of these 31 verses without understanding the promises of the Hebrew
Scripture.
In case you aren’t convinced,
Jesus states quite plainly:
“18For truly I tell you, until heaven and
earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the
law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever
breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do
the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them
and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
So much for the notion that
Jesus did away with all that stuff!! So
much for those who would deny the relevance of “that stuff” to our own
Christian faith.
He’s upset with the ways in
which the religious leaders have undermined the intent of God’s word, God’s law
and God’s promises. When he says our righteousness
must exceed “that of the scribes and Pharisees” he’s telling us that we aren’t
doing ourselves – or anybody else – any favors by rationalizing our behavior so
that by some trick of language and stylized behavior we want to appear to be
adhering to God’s law. There’s nothing
wrong with God’s rules for us; there’s everything wrong with what we try to do
to them to make them better fit our selfish lives.
And to bring home the point,
Jesus gives us six dramatic examples.
21 ‘You have heard that it was said to those of
ancient times, “You shall not murder”’; “27 ‘You have heard
that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” 31 ‘It was also said,
“Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” 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.” 38 ‘You
have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth.” 43 ‘You
have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.”
Well, said Jesus, there may
be some kernel of truth in there somewhere, but all of it has gone astray from
God’s intent. God’s law was meant to
describe the life you can live when you love God and love one another. Love, not the words of these interpretations
of the law, was meant to lead you into a life that was described by the
law. The law wasn’t meant to be a set of
do’s and don’t’s: it was meant to
describe what your life would look like if you loved God with all your heart
and all your strength.
Still, some of them – some of
us – sat there shaking their heads, unsure of what he means. And even as he explains it, we try to figure
out how to use what he is saying to our own advantage.
Murder? Murder begins in the heart. Clear your hearts of all hatred and anger and
prejudice and there will be not murder.
Pursue reconciliation with one another just as God pursues you down
through history continually telling you that God loves you.
Adultery? That too starts in your head and your
heart. Just because you don’t act on
lustful thoughts doesn’t make you an angel.
If you love one another you must work to respect one another, the kind
of respect that proceeds from loving one another. God’s creatures aren’t there for your
abuse. Of course adultery is wrong, but
the lustful thoughts that proceed it are no better.
Divorce? This isn’t about the rules to be followed so
that a divorce seems respectable. That’s
what the authorities had done. They
created a great many rules that allowed men to find convenient ways to throw their
wives away. This is about the covenant
of marriage.
From Mosaic law the covenant
of marriage meant that the husband was required to provide food, clothing, and
safe shelter for the wife. He was to
make her a part of his home. They had a
relationship that was based on the model of God’s covenant relation with
Israel, and the covenant was not to be broken.
We have spent a great deal of
emotional energy over the past 20 years in the PC(USA) arguing about
homosexuality. Jesus never mentions
homosexuality, but he makes it very clear that God does not approve of
divorce. From Moses through today,
churches have accommodated people’s needs to have an escape clause in
marriage. Jesus says it’s only because
of humanity’s hard heartedness that such has occurred.
Even here in Matthew, Jesus
seems to be granting some rationale for divorce, but it is not the way God
chooses for us. Jesus was reacting to a
religious community in which divorce had become too readily permissible; a
religious community in which men were not condemned for throwing their wives
out into the world on the thinnest of reasons and leaving their wives with no
means of support.
Today there are people who
enter into marriage with the perspective that if they don’t like the way it
turns out they’ll just get a divorce.
That’s not the basis for the covenant of marriage.
I don’t want to make this a
sermon on divorce. Jesus’ primary point
was about the core covenant of marriage.
What happens when one party destroys the covenant? Just as God has remained faithful to God’s
covenant with us so too it is God’s will that we remain faithful to one another
in the covenant of marriage. There are
many ways in which one may destroy that covenant beyond sexual immorality
including abuse and abandonment, and when that happens a very complicated and
personal crisis takes place and divorce may be the only solution. We are fallen creatures. But it is not what God desires for us.
Honesty and oaths. This is related to the covenant of
marriage. It’s related to all human
relations. Speak simply and truthfully,
and let your word be upheld. It’s all a
pretty tight circle. All of these
things. They aren’t complicated. Love God.
Love one another. Respect one
another. Mean what you say and stand behind your word.
Vengeance. Hatred of enemies. You’re not listening. God created all of you. Responding to life with the very childish
“Well he did it first!” as a rationalization for violence against another human
being is not showing respect or love for one another. In case you haven’t noticed – and I know you
have because you complain about it all the time – God shines his sun on people
we think don’t deserve it. He allows
people whom we think are rats to prosper in this world. They may not be who God wants them to be, but
God loves them nonetheless, offering them redemption if only they will listen
and accept it.
Preachers like to talk about
how Jesus turns the world upside down. We
usually mean it figuratively. Jesus is
very serious. His vision of God’s will
for humankind does turn everything upside down.
Your heart is more important than your outward behavior. BUT if your heart is right, if you are in a
righteous relationship with God, then your heart – rather than a set of rules
and regulations – will lead you to live a life that has already been described
in God’s law.
Jesus said: “17 ‘Do
not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not
to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven
and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from
the law until all is accomplished.’”
The Sermon on the Mount is an
incredibly complete description of life lived now in God’s kingdom. It’s not simple, but it becomes unnecessarily
complicated when we start to
say: he can’t really mean that. He does.
Don’t sell your faith
short. Read the scriptures. Read the five books of Moses (what Jesus
called “the law”) and read the prophets.
Jesus didn’t come to displace what’s in those pages. He came to show us what it means to complete
– to fulfill – the promises of those pages.
Remember once again how the
Sermon on the Mount closes:
25 “Everyone then who hears
these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his
house on rock. ... 26And
everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a
foolish man who built his house on sand.”
28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the
crowds were astounded at his teaching....”
Amen.
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