Shifting the Focus

Matthew 5:17-48

Matthew is writing, remember, late in the 1st Century, so the stories of Jesus’s life and teachings had been circulating for about 60 years when he put pen to paper and wrote them down in an effort to respond to the doubts and questions of people who grew up Jewish and were drawn to know more about this Jesus. Was he really the Christ? Was he the one toward which the Scriptures pointed? Could a faithful Jew embrace this movement? How was this movement that they called The Way related to its Jewish roots now? That is the question that the Gospel of Matthew is answering.

So, the thesis, the main section of the Sermon on the Mount, is the relationship of Jesus’ teachings to the Law and on how the Law leads to God’s Kingdom. Remember, there were Pharisees hanging around in the crowd following Jesus, and their whole goal was to reach God’s Kingdom by perfectly following the law. They thought that if every moment, of every day, you had a rule about how you were supposed to behave, and everyone in the community did too, you would experience the life God intends, the life of wholeness, Shalom, that is the kingdom of God. And, Jesus didn’t follow their rules. He healed on the Sabbath, and he let his followers glean grain on the Sabbath as they were walking through a grainfield and were hungry, and Jesus didn’t perform the rituals of ceremonial hand washing before a meal when he was a guest in the home of a Pharisee! So, just what was his angle? Why did he NOT follow the rules? And if he didn’t follow the rules, what does that say about his allegiance to the Law?

Jesus responds brilliantly to the Pharisees in the crowd, “I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Not one cross on a T or dot on an I will be erased until God’s Will is fully accomplished. In God’s realm, those who follow God’s law are lauded triumphantly. In fact, unless you follow the Law much more rightly than the Pharisees, you will never enter God’s realm.” Can you imagine what the Pharisees in the crowd thought? They were there to watch and gather intelligence on HIM. HE was the one not following the Law…and he was making a dig at THEM? Now, they are listening…

And he addresses six laws, expanding each one…“You have heard it said, but I say to you…”
You have heard, you shall not murder, but I say that includes anger.
You have heard, you shall not commit adultery, but I say that includes lust.
You have heard, divorcing a wife requires a certificate of divorce, but I say that a reason is required too.
You have heard, you shall not break an oath, but I say your word should be trustworthy.
You have heard, an eye-for-an-eye, but I say to you, “turn the other cheek, give them the coat off your back, go the extra mile.”
You have heard, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you love your neighbor and pray for your persecutor.

Do you hear how Jesus shifts the focus of the law? When the Israelites were wandering in the desert after they escaped from being slaves in Egypt, they needed rules to form them as a community. So, God gave the laws to Moses to guide them.
They used those laws to set up courts and they guided judges in deciding cases brought before them. Jesus says, you have heard and understood the way the law creates boundaries. But, I am telling you that the laws are about more than creating lines of protection. The law is about forming you. Presbyterian preacher and scholar Tom Long says Jesus is saying, ‘Here is what the law says, and I am going to the heart of that law to show how children of the kingdom of heaven live out its deepest meaning.’
The purpose of the law is to transform our hearts, not just restrain our actions.

Tensions were high in Jesus’ day; there was a lot of unrest and animosity. The Roman Empire claimed pax romana, but the only peace was the peace of oppression and suppression. There was deep resentment between the Jewish people and the Roman authorities. The Jewish people despised Samaritans. Within the Jewish community, the schisms were like fault lines between the Herodians, who were supporters of Herod and the Roman government; Zealots, who were Jewish nationalists and wanted to overthrow the Roman authority; the Essenes, who were really concerned about ritual purity and lived sort of a monastic community life; the Scribes, who were the teachers in the synagogues and over the centuries of being the official keepers of the Scriptures had become elitist bureaucrats; then you had the Pharisees and Sadducees – who could not stand each other – in fact, about 85 years before Jesus was born there was a civil war between the two groups. The Pharisees took their name from the word for ‘pious’ and the Sadducees took their name from the word for ‘righteous.’ Like I said earlier, the Pharisees were concerned about carrying out every tid bit of the law perfectly…so much that they added rules and practices on top of the law and were constantly concerned about enforcing them. They controlled the synagogues, the local gathering places for worship. The Sadducees meanwhile controlled the Temple in Jerusalem. They were wealthy, politically active (and friendly with Rom) and they were Scriptural literalists. They did not believe in spirits or resurrection or an afterlife. These groups lived with a smoldering anger that divided towns, synagogues, and even families. Jesus says, this smoldering anger is murder – you are killing yourselves and your relationships. Reconcile. You can’t come and truly worship together and harbor this churn within you. Eventually, one of you will make the other so angry that he will take you to court. Don’t go there. This kind of animosity will cost you everything.

In the same way, Jesus shifts the focus on the law against adultery from protecting others who would be caught in the web to focusing on the heart of the individual. You know how you get good fruit on a tomato plant? You have to go out and pick off all the little would-be stems that are growing in the elbow of the main stalk and the main branches – they are called suckers. You have to pluck them off before they take the resources of the plant because in the end they do nothing but weaken the plant. That’s what lust does to us – it’s a sucker.

On divorce, Jesus says not only do you have to give a certificate of divorce to your wife if you want to kick her out – remember that women were property of their fathers and then their husbands and marriages were arranged with the father providing a dowry along with the bride. The only way women could own something was to be a widow. So, if they were kicked out without divorce papers, they couldn’t remarry. So, unless their father took them back in, they had to become prostitutes to support themselves. At that time, men were free to have many wives and patronizing prostitutes was not looked on unfavorably. Women could not divorce. What Jesus says is not only must you give a certificate of divorce, you have to have a reason for the divorce. The only possible reason in a culture where marriage is strictly a contractual agreement is the breaking of that agreement. So, unless she has committed adultery, Jesus said, husbands are bound to keep the contract with their wives.

On oaths, Jesus is taking the commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain and saying not only should you not swear on the name of the Lord and then lie, you should not have to swear on the name of the Lord in order for someone to believe you. The heart of the law is that you are to always be honest and trustworthy, so that people know that your “yes” is a true commitment and your “no” is reliable.

The Scriptures of what we now call the Old Testament, set perameters for court judgements so that the punishment would fit the crime – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and not more. The law is set to keep people from being unjustly punished harshly in court. In everyday life, Jesus says, go beyond demanding a net zero outcome. Justice is deeper than a simple exchange, act to protect your dignity, your individual worth. Most people are right handed, so to slap you on your right cheek, they have to backhand you, which was an insult. It was how superiors reprimanded inferiors – husbands over wives, fathers over children, owners over slaves. Jesus says, offer the left cheek.
Offer to let them slap you again, this time as an equal. If you are in court being sued for your shirt, give them your coat too. Jesus says, if someone is willing to sue you to collect a debt and all you have are the clothes you are wearing, and they are still willing to go through with insisting on payment – give them your coat too and stand there naked. You can’t win, but you can show him what he is doing. And go the extra mile – Roman soldiers were allowed to force a civilian to carry their equipment for up to 1 mile. I love how NT Wright explains Jesus saying to keep going a second mile, “Turn the tables on them, advises Jesus. Don’t fret and fume and plot revenge. Copy your generous God!…astonish the soldier (and perhaps alarm him – what if his commanding officer found out?)…there is a different way to be human, a way which doesn’t plot revenge,…but which win’s God’s kind of victory over violence and injustice….Whatever situation you’re in, you need to think it through for yourself. What would it mean to reflect God’s generous love despite the pressure and provocation, despite your own anger and frustration?”

This is the blueprint for life. The blueprint Jesus followed all the way to the cross. The blueprint to show the world what God is really like. Love your neighbor, and pray for your enemy. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. This is the pattern to follow. Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. The Law is not about how to behave, it is about how to live. The word translated “perfect” is “teleios” in Greek, closely related to the Latin “telos” – it means complete, mature, having reached the goal, the end, the purpose fulfilled, like a plant bearing fruit.

Our goal is to live so that the image of God in which we were made is evident, like a light shining from within us. May that be our focus. Amen.