Matthew 5:21-26 “You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ (Worthless) will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.
Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
“You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’” Why does Jesus begin this next teaching with the phrase “You have heard..”? By this point, many of the Jews were relying solely on the rabbis and other religious leaders for interpreting the Torah. Many of Jesus’ hearers had little knowledge of the actual scriptures and were depending on “they say-they say.”
The scribes and Pharisees were teaching literal obedience to the law without understanding the spirit of it. Now Jesus is saying that there is more to the law than mere letters and that people must guard their hearts and not just their mouths. The professional religious leaders were teaching that you could think anything you wanted to about someone else just as long as you didn’t actually physically murder them. But Jesus is pointing out that despising someone in your heart is where murder begins, that it is equivalent to murder and must be avoided at all costs.
In the excellent book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life, Lois Tverberg points out that traditionally, Jews taught that men were created in God’s image; to murder anyone was to destroy that image and so demonstrate extreme disrespect to God. In the same way, when we call someone else an idiot or worthless, we are also insulting God’s image. Very few people wake up one morning and think, “I believe I’ll kill someone today!” Generally, murder begins when we cultivate disdain for someone; hence, calling anybody an idiot or a fool actually is the first small step on the road to homicide. People in the southern United States say that everyone is good for something; some people are good for serving as bad examples. It’s best to remember that and allow them to do so.
“Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Uh oh! Jesus has quit preachin’ and gone to meddlin’! Here we were feeling all kinds of superior-after all, WE would never use a pejorative name on anybody. But now Jesus is throwing down a much more difficult challenge: true confession and repentance. OUCH!
Notice the scenario. A nice observant religious person has entered the temple and is even offering his/her gift at the altar. Suddenly God reminds this individual of something hurtful done to another person, something for which the worshiper has never sought forgiveness. What to do? What to do? If the worshiper leaves the gift at the altar and runs back to reconcile, everybody in town will know exactly what is going on. On the other hand, if the worshiper fails to make amends, that gift at the altar will be useless. Remember, God knows our hearts better than we do.
Notice what Jesus does NOT say: Jesus does NOT say “If you remember that someone has hurt YOU, first go accuse them to their face and force them to apologize.” Many years ago, I accidentally offended an elder in our home church. (Part of the down side of being a doctor is that some people expect me to be stuck up and proud and judge me on that basis; meanwhile, in my mind, I am still just a kid off a Midwestern farm. I’m not impressed with myself. The elder in question was a factory worker and may have felt disrespect where none was intended.) While I felt the incident was a minor one, this man was harboring a grudge against me, a grudge he felt impelled to dump on me just as communion was beginning, so that he could take communion with a clean conscience. In fact, had this man been following Jesus’ teaching, he should have gone to me as soon as the incident happened and discussed it, so that I could have apologized and he could have stopped being resentful.
Then Jesus carries the analogy even further. Two people are on their way to court, one is guilty and the other is suing the first person. Jesus is advising to reconcile quickly while there is still time before lawyers or judges get hold of the suit; otherwise, the plaintiff’s council is going to go for your jugular and you may be thrown in jail, not to mention losing everything you own, as well as your reputation. Evidently, even in Jesus’ day, once lawyers got hold of a case, their drive to win at all costs might blur truth and justice. And not all judges are honest, hence Jesus’ story about the unjust judge in Luke 18. When Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny,” many people in the audience are nodding in agreement, having barely escaped a similar fate.
True reconciliation means that both parties must be willing to confess their faults to each other and truly seek forgiveness, not merely go through the motions. When someone in our community was too easily offended, my mother used to say that they had their feelings hanging out like an old cat’s tail waiting to be stepped on. May God help us to be willing to confess our faults and seek forgiveness
quickly, so that we may live in harmony with others.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to confess swiftly and forgive swiftly as well, knowing that You are the only One who truly knows our hearts. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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