Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount continues with a new look at old material.
For Sunday
Epiphany 6A
Collect
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
From Matthew 5:21-37
“But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment;”
Reflection
Jesus uses an interesting phrase: “You have heard it said…but I say to you.” This is a familiar teaching technique. It is essentially: “You were taught this, but I’m teaching you…”
The difference, of course, is that the people didn’t learn this in school. And Jesus isn’t offering them “new math”.
He is wrestling with existing teaching, passed down through Hebrew Scripture and teaching in Synagogues. It really is like he’s saying, all the voices in our culture have told you____ but I’m telling you now ____.
What is different
And the thing that Jesus tells them sounds a lot like, you were taught not to do bad things, but I’m telling you not to even think bad things. Each of the teachings this week ramp up the original teaching. Like he’s in Spinal Tap and cranking the Law up to 11.
Here, of course, we must remember that Jesus just said that he didn’t come to abolish the Law, but fulfill it. So this amping up of the Law really is him trying to teach it.
I suspect that, just as Jesus needed to tell his hearers he wasn’t trying to ditch the Law, or supersede it, we must again temper our own cynical feelings toward the Law. That Jesus isn’t improving on the Law or expanding it, but helping us truly understand what is at the root of it.
relearning
The command to reject murder is not to be seen so narrowly that we think everything short of it is OK with God, because if God really meant it, those Ten Commandments would be way more specific. God would’ve had Moses enumerate all that nuance into those tablets.
Murder is when sin crosses the line into community-destroying behavior. It is not where the sin begins.
Jesus breathes new life into the Law in a way we are inclined to miss. He is naming where liability for relationship health lies. Not in the irrevocable sin of permanent destruction, but in the place that would lead to that permanence if we did not prevent it from getting that far.
By focusing only on the behaviors (and also, perhaps, the motivations!) we might therefore forget why these commandments exist: for the community’s flourishing.
These are commands to improve our relationships. With each other and our neighborhood. Relationships we can protect, not just from murder, but from all manner of sin, abuse, and hatred.