SIMPLE AND STRAIGHT-FORWARD

Preached by Alex Bois-Bonifacio on February 13, 2010


The gospel text this week seems, on the surface, to be a fairly simple and straight forward text. Jesus talks about anger, lust, and swearing an oath; the first three antitheses of six during his sermon on the mount.


It’s possible that it only appears simple and straight forward because we don’t really notice all hands in the cookie jar. As far as I can count we have three hands in the jar: Jesus – who has the voice in the text, Matthew – the writer behind the text, and us today – hearing the text. Each hand, sometimes called context or point of view, brings a different layer of meaning and understanding to this text.

First we have Jesus. So let me set the scene: we have Jesus up there, on the mount, who is preaching to a crowd. Down below are the crowd, which includes numerous people, Pharisees, and some disciples. They have been listening for a while now and they have no idea when Jesus may be done preaching. The gathering for his sermon on the mount would have been educated in the Jewish religion and would have known the law. But by this point they all would have figured out that Jesus is talking about the law and about God, but what he is saying it not so simple and straight forward.

The crowd would know the Ten Commandments – part of the law of Moses, the law to be followed today. So they would have recognized “You shall not murder” however, Jesus throws in a twist “You have heard it said...you shall not murder...But I say to you..” Wow wow wow! But I say to you? What? Now the crowd are listening fully and probably thinking, Dude don’t you know there are Pharisees here? They know the law. What are you talking about, “but I have come to tell you?!”

Now, we know Jesus a little better, don’t we? We know he was a radical. He turned up dust wherever he went and he got himself into a lot of trouble doing it! We know to expect this kind of behaviour from Jesus. We also know that Jesus didn’t go around being radical for no reason. There has always been a method behind his madness.

So Jesus says to the crowd do not be angry with your brother or sister. If you find yourself angry remedy your relationship so that you may anger no more with your brother and sister. Jesus and the crowd know that the law states you shall not murder, but Jesus has come to tell the crowd it is anger that drives you to murder. Mend your relationships with others, do not hold onto anger, for that way you will never break the law. It is not enough to follow the law if you have the driving force which breaks the law in your heart.

The crowd would also have recognized “you shall not commit adultery” and again their recognition turns to surprise at hearing “but I have come to tell you”. Who does this guy think he is? But regardless of the crowd’s reactions, Jesus continues to speak. Just like the previous antethesis, Jesus starts to say it is not enough to not commit adultery, because it is lust that leads to action.

Here we get a bit lost in translation. When the word “covet” was translated from the Hebrew and the law of Moses into Greek for the gospel of Matthew we lost the original meaning. In Hebrew to covet was to put in place plans to attain that which was desired. So if a man had lust in his heart and coveted his neighbour’s wife he would have had a plan to obtain her and that in turn would have been committing adultery.

Jesus seems to be driving home that obeying the law isn’t all there is. If you have lust it is the driving force behind coveting and if you covet you already have the plans to commit adultery.

And the crowd would have been familiar with “you shall not swear falsely” and probably thinking to themselves, “Well he can’t say anything about this law. It is so straight forward and simple.” But without fail, Jesus had come to tell them more. Swearing an oath would have been the highest outward statement that a person was telling the truth or that they would keep their word. Jesus doesn’t say that a oath would or could stop someone from lying he is saying that a person should not have to swear an oath to be believed or trusted. He says, “let your answer be yes, yes or no, no” in other words, let all of your yes’ mean yes and all of your nose mean no. Become known for your honesty and trustworthiness.

Jesus came to speak to the law, not to change it, but to tell people more about it; to give them understanding into law of God and possibly into the eyes of God. But Jesus isn’t the only hand in the cookie jar, if you remember. What about Matthew?

As we know, Matthew is the gospel writer. But what is important to remember was that Matthew was writing to the first century church. Not only does he pass on the word of God brought to us through Jesus Christ, he brings the word of God to a new church facing real life problems. This first century church would have been fraught with growing pains. The different congregations would argue over what would become tradition in later years. So much was new and unknown that anger was a real issue. Fractured relationships a real possibility and this no longer only occurred in a man’s world. The acceptance of women as sisters in Christ brought a new dimension into the mix. In Matthew’s context women are no longer the seductresses of the time and blamed for causing a man to lust or covet after her. Through the acceptance of Christ women became sisters to brothers, not equal parties, but fellow disciples. And as fellow disciples, women became people. They were no longer objects seen from afar to be obtained.

Matthew was facing real life issues without a simple or straight forward answer. It is out of this context that we get the gospel, built on what Jesus said, taught and how he lived with slight interpretations by Matthew to answer some of these hard life issues.

Finally, the last hand in the cookie jar is ours today who listen to the text as the word of God. At first glance this seems like a straight forward simple text. Jesus is extrapolating upon the law of Moses. What a good thing for us to overhear today! ...

I find it so interesting that we have this text on AGM Sunday. What a text to have! At first glance it appears we have nothing in common with either the people in the crowd or the first century church, but I am not so sure. Of course it is still possible for us to stretch our relationships thin with anger, but we aren’t fighting over any of the issues of the first century. We have a long handed down belief and tradition about what Jesus has said, his life and his teaching. We tend to disagree over where to put the pulpit or how to hang a cross or which banners need to be replace. We may even disagree with our evangelical brothers and sisters. We have a different kind of anger sometimes today and so we can hear what Jesus is saying to the church even now – remedy your anger, rebuild your relationships with your brothers and sisters.

Hmmm.... Adultery. I can hear some thoughts of today... “well that doesn’t happen in the church anymore. That is a personal relationship thing” Of course this is something that still happens in today’s world. But what was important for Jesus was lusting after something that wasn’t yours. And it is possible that this is occurring in our churches today. It just looks a little differently then marital relations. In today’s world the church is guilty of one big lust and it is something we struggle with – we covet after new membership. The church as a whole is declining in a postmodern world and we find it beyond difficult to live into the wide unknown, trusting in God that we may life anew. New membership is an idea we hold onto – it would be the answer to all our problems and we would spread the gospel and good news to others. Jesus never said “you cannot be friends with someone else’s wife because it will drive you to lust and covet and commit adultery” it was lusting after someone or something without any concern of your actions. The difference between lust and friendship is the personal relationships that are developed and nurtured and maintained. Lust was objectifying a women – making her an object to have and own. The same is true today. New membership to solve the churches problems or to rectify the decline of our denomination is objectifying new people into our churches. People are people, with hearts, minds, cares, concerns, desires, and needs.

I started out by saying that this text looked straight forward and simple. Then, that there are multiple hands in the cookie jar – each with a context and a layer of meaning. So this text no longer looks that simple. But there is one thing that these three antetheses and our three contexts have in common. It is simply personal relationships. Whether we are talking about our relationship to our brothers and sisters, the relationship that can be built where lust would grow otherwise, or our trustworthiness and honesty in our everyday relationships – we are talking about relationships!

Jesus came to preach on the mount about the law. He came and reminded folks what they had already know – the law of Moses and the ten commandments – but he also came to say that the laws are about the way we live out our relationships. This is important. Relationships are important. So here is the ultimate question – What is it about relationships that are so important? Why are they important? Why does Jesus concern himself with this?

The answer is simple and straight forward. God can be found in our personal relationships. God’s life, love, grace, mercy and ministry is played out in our personal relationships. If we are angry with our brothers and sisters we are gonna miss God lived out. Remedy our anger, lust, or need of oaths because it is in the getting to know one another, learning to love each other’s uniqueness, and cherishing each other for who we are that we can find God. Relationships, that unique experience we cannot have alone, is special and a gift from God.