Moses came down from the mountain and said: the good news is
that there are only ten commandments, the bad news is that adultery is still
in!
Jesus is on the mountainside, and he is teaching the
people. As Robert reminded us last week,
Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. Rather, he has looked at the over the top
efforts of the Pharisees to keep every regulation and has ruled them out. We will have to do better than that. Unless our righteousness surpasses that of
the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, we will certainly not enter the
kingdom of heaven. We need to be so
immersed, so baptised, into God and his kingdom that we find ourselves
instinctively living his way.
Jesus gives examples of three of the commandments, and how
they apply to us.
First, we are not to murder.
But this means more than refraining from pulling the trigger or sticking
in the knife. If angry and scornful
thoughts come from within us, we are on a downhill slope that will lead us in
the same direction as murder. At
funerals we say “He did not suffer fools gladly”. This means he was proud, arrogant, and not so
far from being a murderer in God’s sight.
If we suspect that someone has something against us, Jesus says that we
are to take the initiative in putting things right. The NIV says that we should “settle matters
quickly” with our adversary on the way to court, but the Greek word really means
something like “be well disposed to” or “be on friendly terms with” our
opponent. Be positive in your love and
goodwill.
Second – adultery.
Again, Jesus goes way beyond the letter of the law. You are not keeping this commandment merely
by avoiding going to bed with someone who is not your spouse, if instead you
are having sinful thoughts about them.
This is not necessarily about young men going phooaah! (like Sid James in a Carry On film) This
strays over into the tenth commandment – to look at someone with desire, to
want to possess them, to regard them almost as an object to meet our
needs. We can all do this. How often to hear someone say “Oh so and so,
she’s good value!”? God’s agape love
reaches out to each of us out of his grace, as Sarah reminded us a few weeks
ago; we on the other hand tend to value others for what they can do for us. It’s all about relationships.
We cannot escape from the fact that Jesus holds us to high
standards in the area of sexual ethics.
We must take this very seriously.
Yes, Jesus says, the custom had arisen of permitting divorce. But Jesus also says that the only ground for
divorce is if the other party has been unfaithful. The Message offers a helpful
translation: "If you divorce your wife, you're responsible for
making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual
promiscuity)."
But then note that the Greek word Jesus uses does not
naturally mean divorced, but actually means "freed" or
"released." It is interesting that Jesus used this word here --
if you marry one who is freed, you commit adultery. It is also
interesting that the woman is not seen here as the one committing
adultery. I find it powerful that the word for divorced is
"freed." Many divorced people might find a glimmer of comfort
in this!
The main point is that divorce is about the breaking of a
relationship and Jesus is all about healing and reconciliation.
Third: oaths and truth telling. It is not simply about what we say but about
what we do. Our actions should justify our
truthfulness. If we live a truthful
life- then there is no need for oaths.
The message seems to be that we should not try and bend the rules or
find loopholes in the commandments.
Rather, if we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness (6:33), we will find
ourselves walking in his ways.
The snippet that we have been looking at
this morning has not been easy. We read
it as part of the greater whole, the Beautiful Attitudes from the beginning of
the chapter. So we come to see that the
poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers, these are
the ones who will act positively with gentleness, with purity and with truth.
Discussion Starters
- Is the Communion table a place for the reconciled to
come or a place to become reconciled?
- How does the church become a place of reconciliation?
- How to we hold people accountable to their oaths while
at the same time allowing for grace when the oaths are broken?
- If we take these words too literally- then don’t we fall
into the same legalistic trap as the Pharisees? What is the Spirit of
Jesus words? (Reconciliation and right relationship?)
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