Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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Sermon Notes for Matthew 5:17-24 Key verses: Matthew 5:23-24 “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.”
The passage of Scripture we read today comes from early on in the Sermon on the Mount, a major collection of Jesus’ teachings found in Matthew 5-7. Scholars call this section of the Sermon the antithesis teachings, because Jesus juxtaposes several well-known commandments with a call to live the spirit behind the law. These sayings share a common formula: “You have heard it said...But I say to you…” In these teachings, Jesus calls his followers to a higher righteousness than merely obeying the law; he calls them to love, reminding his followers that the purpose behind the commandments was to be in relationships of love with God and with neighbor.
As Matthew recalled the teachings of Jesus, he also took into account the situation of his community and what they were experiencing. The early Christians that Matthew addressed tended to be Jewish converts, and therefore Matthew emphasized more of the fulfillment of the law and the prophets than the other gospels did. Yet, these Jews witnessed first hand how following Jesus changed the interpretation of the Scripture and they struggled to understand what it meant that everything they had been taught might have to change.
Matthew addressed this fear by recording Jesus’ words that he had not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. However, fulfilling the law did not mean that Jesus supported the status quo, as demonstrated by these antithesis statements. Instead, Jesus’ statement about fulfillment reminded his followers that the law and the prophets pointed to something beyond themselves, to God’s final act in restoring the broken relationship between God and humanity. Jesus embodied that very desire to restore broken relationships that the law had attempted to make right. In other words, Jesus changed the final authority of Scripture from the written words to himself, as the Word become flesh. As Christ followers, then, we read all of Scripture through the lens of Jesus Christ, his life, his ministry, his death and his resurrection, which all point to the mercy and grace of a loving God who longs to be reunited with his children and have them be reunited with each other.
Because of this longing, God gave the law and the prophets as a way to regulate behavior towards each other. Jesus, though, in these antithesis statements, seeks to go beyond the written law which guides behavior, to the heart of the law which deals with inner attitudes. He does not address all of the commandments, but instead sets up for us a model by which to discern the rest of the law. That model asks not simply how to obey the law, as the Scribes and Pharisees focused on, but probes deeper to ask: What desire of God lies behind this commandment? What is God’s heart that expresses itself in this law? By doing this, Jesus radicalizes the law, calling his followers to an even more faithful relationship with God and each other, lived out in both action and in thought.
We see this calling to a higher righteousness in the antithesis we read today. Jesus says that we know we should not murder. Most all of us could stop there with pride knowing that we have not broken that commandment. But, Jesus does not let us off the hook. He says that even our thoughts and our words impact our relationships with each other and therefore calls us to see those thoughts and words through the light of God’s hope and desire. Far from letting any of us slide, Jesus’ words convict us all. However, Jesus also knows that we still live in the between times, the time between his first coming and the final fulfillment of God’s reign. In these imperfect between times, hostility still exists. Not wanting us to be held captive by this hostility, though, Jesus provides a way out, a way of freedom. He says that if we are offering our gift at the altar and we remember that someone has something against us, we are to leave the sacrifice and go and be reconciled. Again, Jesus’ words point to the inner attitude recognizing the limits of our human condition. We will not be able to be reconciled with everyone, but Jesus calls us to make every effort on our part to seek that reconciliation. Questions for Reflection 1—What teaching of Jesus do you remember most? Why is that teaching important to you? What might the importance of that teaching to you say about your life and your relationships?
2—What commandment in the Bible do you struggle to accept or live? What makes it difficult? Ask yourself these questions about it: What desire of God lies behind this commandment? What aspect of God’s heart expresses itself in this commandment? How might God be calling you to live the heart of this commandment?
3—To whom do you need to be reconciled? What steps have you taken toward reconciliation? What prevents you from taking the reconciliation to the next step? Are you ready for reconciliation? What do you need to do to prepare yourself for reconciliation?
4—How did the Holy Spirit speak to you in worship today?
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