A sermon on Matthew 5:21-37 by the Revd Chris Barnden

A video recording of the whole liturgy, including this sermon, is available here.

I’ve never preached on this passage before, and when I read through it, I can understand why!  At first glance it seems clear, but on looking more carefully it’s very challenging indeed!

My son has a dog, a Japanese Spitz called Petey.  While at home Petey has the run of my son’s house.  But when she stays with us she knows she’s not allowed to go beyond the vinyl in the kitchen!  We’ve modified her behaviour to obey our rules.  And she’s pretty good with that.

In this part of his sermon about life in God’s kingdom, Jesus is not just talking about modifying good and bad behaviour by drawing attention to obeying the rules.  If that’s what we thought being a disciple of Jesus is all about, well, Jesus has just well and truly ‘upped the ante’!

Because, as we know, being a Christian is not simply about limiting or changing behaviour.  If it was then, I dare say, this teaching would be impossible!  

No, it starts much further back than that.  

It’s not about changing behaviour, it’s about changing life!  It’s about transformation of the inner me – it’s about becoming a whole new person!  It’s about being changed at our very core so that our inner motivations and attitudes are transformed.  

Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome – “..let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think,” or, let God transform you “.. by the renewing of your mind…”

This is nothing less than a major reconstruction of our central world view, our heart-centred motivations that Jesus is calling for!  That’s what being part of the Kingdom of God is all about.  It’s just like being born all over again!

He says that the current interpretations have missed the whole point of God’s law.  The focus of the Law is not the Law, it’s people.  

The focus of the Law is helping us change our attitudes as to how we regard those around us who are part of every aspect of our lives, so that we’re able to live positively, healthily, and constructively in community.

And that doesn’t happen by simply changing our behaviour.  If I still hate my next-door neighbour because he’s so annoying, regularly thinking of a dozen things I wish I could do to him, but because the law says I can’t knock him off I won’t do so, it doesn’t mean I’m cool because I’ve obeyed God’s law not to kill.

We often hear politicians or people in authority, when accused of something, claiming they have done nothing wrong.  Meaning they haven’t broken the letter of the law.  But we know they’ve taken their behaviour or their words right to the edge of the law.

And we know that’s not right – that’s not the intention of the law.

Colloquially, we talk about decisions or actions ‘passing the pub test’, or ‘not passing the pub test’, meaning that we all have a general understanding of what the intention or what the effect of particular laws or stipulations or actions are meant to be, and we therefore have a strong sense of when that is not fulfilled.

It’s like when Jesus was talking with Nicodemus about the new life in the Spirit, he said it’s not just about doing right things and not doing wrong things.  But, he said, it’s just like being born again, and when you’re born of the Spirit you learn to see differently, you learn to hear differently.

And this fundamental inner transformation that the Spirit accomplishes in us, and that Jesus is talking about here that transforms our attitude to obeying God’s Law leads on to the second factor I want to highlight this evening.

In all of these statements where Jesus begins by saying, ”You have heard that our ancestors were told, …. [B]ut I say, …” he’s talking about our interactions with other people, our friends, our neighbours, our work colleagues, our family members, our marriage partners, even our adversaries.

So it seems to me, the common ground for these teachings of Jesus is relationships – the importance of relationships within the community of the Kingdom of God.  

Jesus illustrates us this by saying that if we’re coming to worship and we remember that someone has something against us, don’t just continue on to worship as if nothing’s up.  Go and first reconcile your relationship with that person before coming to worship God.

Can you imagine we’re all standing in line at the temple with our sacrificial goat or lamb ready to offer on the altar in worship, and we suddenly remember we have a broken relationship back home.  

We can’t say to the next person in line, “Here can you hold my sheep, and hold my place, I’ll be back,” and then head off back to Galilee for three days to put things right!

Jesus’ illustration is hyperbole, but he makes the point – this is how important relationships, especially healthy relationships are in God’s kingdom.

And his second picture of settling a dispute with your adversary while still on the way to court also emphasises God’s priority of restoring relationships when they’re broken – don’t leave it till it’s too late because there could be unforeseen consequences that prevent the relationship from ever being resolved and life is diminished.

So, the importance we give to relationships with others is an indicator of how well we understand and embrace life in the Kingdom.  This is the renewing work of the Spirit within.  And as I read these words of Jesus I see two very important factors that should govern relationships in the Kingdom.

The first is respect, and the second is related to it, integrity.

Jesus says all our relationships in the kingdom ought to be respectful – in the way we think about other people, in the way we treat other people, especially our marriage partners, and in the way we speak to other people.

 There are a couple of ways we can understand this.

Jesus told a story about a servant who owed his master a huge amount of money – a debt he would never be able to repay.  Incredibly, the master forgave his servant the debt.  That same servant, having just been forgiven an unpayable debt, came across a fellow servant who owed him a couple of dollars.

The second servant begged for time to pay the debt, which was not given, and the first servant threw his fellow into jail until the debt was paid.

Now, there are other truths to be had from that story, but I quote it here to illustrate that many of our relationships are not equal, in that there is a power differential.  It could be a work context, a family context, a church context, a gender context, where one party in the relationship is perceived to have greater power than the other.

The temptation is for the more powerful person to disrespect the other, to look down on the other, to take advantage of the other, to call the other ‘fool’ or ‘moron.’ The temptation is to disrespect women by looking inappropriately at them because of some perceived societal or gender power somehow giving them the ‘right’ to do so.

In those times a prime example of a power imbalance was between a husband and wife, enabling a husband of that time to send his wife away by divorcing her for whatever reason just because he could.  Jesus specifically addressed that instance with some very strong words to husbands about respecting and valuing their wives.

A power differential exists in many relationships.  However, the Christian ought not to take advantage of that.

The way to prevent it becoming destructive in the ways Jesus seems to be illustrating is to ensure we treat all the partners in our relationships with respect.  If that’s our motivation, we’re less likely to insult others, less likely to belittle them and make them feel stupid, or less likely to gossip behind their backs.

We’re less likely ourselves to feel insecure about what others might think of us, we’re less likely to want to hold a grudge because we know we are respected in our relationships.

This is why Jesus prayed for us so intensely in John 17 that we are one – that despite all our differences of personality, preference, prejudice or orientation, we will strive to remain one by remaining in relationship with each other through our common life and faith in Jesus.

We can differ in lots of things but none of them should come between us because we’re one in Christ, sisters and brothers in him.  Our life in Christ is expressed in our life in community with our fellow Christians.

Paul also spent a lot of time instructing his readers in how to maintain relationships of respect and integrity with one another.  For example, he wrote to the Colossian believers:

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³ Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. ¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

¹⁶ Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. 

Echoing the teaching of Jesus in his sermon on the mountain, Paul encourages us all into relationships with each other characterised by integrity and respect.  

It’s a timely message for us today, with our community seemingly becoming more polarised then ever in our opinions and views of each other.  It’s especially timely in the church as we face issues between us we never thought we would ever have to face.

As Paul speaks further of this transformation within us by the Spirit of God, and I finish with this, he says,

… now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behaviour, slander, and dirty language. ⁹ Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. ¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. ¹¹ In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. (Feel free to insert your own categories by which we segregate, ostracise, and disrespect others) Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Our very first relationship – to know Jesus.