21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
· We often read Jesus’ statements in the Sermon on the Mount –“You have heard that it was said…” followed by “But I say to you…” — as replacing Jewish teachings with his own. We must take care in such contrasts, for Jesus neither erases nor discounts the teachings of the law (“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law,” verse 17). He uses the traditional teachings on murder, adultery, and prayer as essential grounds for building his case for righteousness. Jesus intensifies and radicalizes them for his listeners, extending these teachings into almost every area of life. In this way, Jesus does “not abolish but fulfill[s]” the law (verse 17). No longer do the teachings on murder and adultery apply strictly to acts of murder and adultery. Instead, they become doorways into the examination of many internal dynamics as well as external behaviors of one’s life: anger, derision, slander, etc. The point seems clear enough: You may never murder someone but there are many ways to kill a person.
· So, Jesus is trying to create space to point us toward the root of hatred rather than the fruit of it. Murder is the culmination of hatred, abuse, and the dismissal of another’s dignity, and not the beginning. Jesus wants to explore how one gets there. What are its sources? But, before we move too quickly, what is actually being condemned here? Is Jesus saying it’s a sin to be angry?
· What are we to avoid? What is being overturned? A few translation notes can be important: 1) First, the root of the term “anger” in Greek used here has an interesting etymology. It originally referred to the fermentation of rotting fruit. 2) Second, the verb used is a “present participle” indicating continuous action into the present. So this is not so much a flash of temper as something that over time festers, is stoked or even nurtured. In fact, to capture the nuance of all of this, the NEB version of the Bible translates vs. 22, “Anyone who nurses anger.” What images do you get when you think of nursing anger? Is anger your baby? Are there other Scriptures will help us understand this?
· Jesus was angry. – Illus. Angry Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: Mark 1:41 – “Moved with anger, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean.”; Mark 3:1-6 – a man with a withered hand comes to be healed on the Sabbath and Jesus asks (in vss. 4-5), “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger, he was grieved at their hardness of heart . . .”; Mark 10:14 speaks of Jesus being “indignant” at the disciples who wish to keep children away from Jesus. Jesus rightly points us to a positive or useful vision of anger as a response to sin which keeps people away from God and others, keeps them wounded, keeps them bound, keeps them afraid – child abuse, racism, exploitation, disease.
· Paul commands anger. The Sermon on the Mount must also be placed against the background of other Christian interpreters, Paul in Ephesians writes: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on the your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Paul literally states an imperative, a command, “Be angry.” The NIV will seek to soften this by stating, “In your anger,” or other translations “If you are angry,” What have been the consequences in the church of people thinking that being angry was sinful?
Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.
· The word “Raca” is not
familiar to us. It’s an ancient onomatopoeia, an Aramaic word, which meant to mimic
the clearing of one’s throat to spit. It meant “worthless” but was also
something akin to: “I spit on you.” In the ancient world, when someone wanted
to express his utter contempt for someone, he would spit on him, usually to his
face. The term “fool” is a parallel – an act of name calling that names a
person, labels them as “less than.” Both reflect a demeaning of another and, we
will learn, a contempt that harms us socially and spiritually. When we rename
someone, we give them a different story. When I yell at
someone who cuts me off, perhaps even yelling “Idiot!” – I know, can you
believe it? – my wife often corrects my story, like “Dear, she's not an idiot. She cut you off
because she’s trying to get to the hospital. She’s having a baby.” She doesn’t actually
know but it’s a far more gracious story than the one I was supplying and I didn't know either any way. Your story should match the One who made the person whose name your changing.
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
· Jesus’ reframing of righteousness exposes the easy truces we make. We can pat ourselves on the back for not committing murder while we ruin the reputation of a coworker through our words–we even call it “stabbing someone in the back.” Friends, let’s be honest, church folk can kill with the knife of niceness better than anyone I know.
· But there’s a further rub. How would you expect vs. 23 to be worded? If I were going to offer this teaching I would have said, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that you have something against your brother or sister.” Such a reading allows me to be in control, for me to define the problem, for me to set the borders and boundaries of offense. But that’s not what Jesus says. Jesus says that our responsibilities in a manner of offense are determined by others and not merely ourselves. The notion that we must reconcile with anyone who has something against us before we can give our gifts to God, stops us in our tracks. There is no easy, private relationship to God in these words. Resentment, alienation, and estrangement from others, prevent me from even giving my gifts to God.
· Jesus doesn’t allow us to discern whether the “something” is religious or not, or whether we are utterly at fault or not, but disarms our means of shielding ourselves from the ways that our intent might help us escape responsibility. We are not given the out: “But Lord, I don’t have to go. I didn’t mean it.”
· Our denomination just did this by the way. The Evangelical Covenant Church just held its Annual Meeting and left our gift at the altar because we remembered that someone had something against us. On Friday, after a long process, our denomination adopted a new resolution which repudiated the doctrine of discovery. The Doctrine of Discovery was a set of legal and theological principles derived from a series of papal decrees in the 15th century. These ideas and documents provided theological justification for European monarchies to “discover” and colonize lands inhabited by non-Christian peoples and define them as subhuman. Much horror and devastation followed for indigenous peoples which continues into the present. The legacy and residual impact of the Doctrine of Discovery also gave rise to federal policies that led to genocide, assimilation, removal, the Indian reservation system, reorganization, termination, and relocation. In response to this devastation and our own complicity in these practices, the denomination adopted a resolution which outlines our confession, acknowledgement, lament, and action steps to redress the wrongs down. We agree with Jesus that reconciliation is not first and foremost as our about our rights, our privileges, but by becoming responsible for helping heal the hurt of others. Friends, we listened and accepted that our many indigenous brothers and sisters had “something against us”. And Jesus doesn’t say – “well, that’s their problem” but at the very least demands that we leave our gift and go as a healing agent.
· Who you are as a disciple is not just about you, but about you as a disciple in community, with others. When we remember that God is with us, not just that God is with me, we begin to realize we are not simply members of community but shapers of community and are shaped by community, all of which tells a critical theological truth—our God is a God of community. If we ignore another brother or sister who is hurting, we become estranged from their maker, our maker, who made all of us to be one.
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