Epiphany 7 Yr A Woodbridge, John Cannell

SERMON A  SS.Simon & Jude Woodbridge  Sun 20 Feb 2011  J.K.Cannell

Lev 19: 1-2, 9-18.   1 Cor 3: 10-17.   Matt 5: (17-37) 38-48

The Six Antitheses of Jesus:  particularly Retaliation, and Loving our persecutors vv38-48

May I suggest we have our bibles open at these pages of vv 17-48.

Father, teach us obedience.  Give us Grace to be effective witnesses to your healing love and mercy, through Jesus your Son.                                           

The OT reading begins easily enough.   The Lord told Moses to say to the Israelites, “Be holy like Me”.   Mmm.   That seems OK though it’s asking rather a lot.  But then it gets a bit provocative.  “When you are reaping your fields or harvesting your grapes, leave some for those who have nothing”.   Not very business-like! Come on! I’ve got a family to feed you know!  “Never deceive or oppress your brother or your neighbour or anyone who works for you or even an alien.   Be careful to be just, not only to your brother and daughter but to any fellow-countryman”.  Now hold it.  It’s not a fair world.   And then it becomes downright arguable, over the top for us reasonable law-abiding folk.  “Never seek revenge.  Never cherish a grudge”, it says!

Imagine:  “Crikey if I behaved like that they’d kick me out of the synagogue.  If old Mordecai did what it says he’d have been the laughing stock of the village.  Remember when silly young Ruben set fire to Mordecai’s  entire corn crop that year!  Mordecai took the matter to the elders and they broke Ruben and his family, just about, with the fines and all, and quite right too.  Doesn’t matter if it was an accident, Mordecai still suffered.  And then silly young Ruben added insult to injury by falling in love with Mordecai’s daughter Miriam.  Lovely girl.  But Mordecai sent his daughter far far away and between you and me he arranged for Ruben to be hurt one night.  I don’t blame him....Where might it all have ended?    Next day that visiting Rabbi started arguing... “God says you must love your neighbour as yourself”.  He said that that’s what Moses reckoned that God said.  Well I don’t know.  Look, give me some good clear rules and I’ll obey them, I’ll stick to the rules.  I’m God-fearing.  I’ll obey the rules.  But when some visiting Rabbis try on a lot of stuff about “loving everybody even the people next door” then where are you?  A man’s got to look after his family doesn’t he, at all costs?  It stands to reason.  God didn’t love the people next door when he drowned all Pharoah’s troops when they came after us, across the Red Sea, when our forefathers were escaping out of Egypt, did he?  Look, the Torah’s our book, Genesis,  Exodus , Leviticus, Numbers and good old Deut.  And fair do’s, we Jews more or less stick to Moses’ rules, The Law as we call it, not the airy fairy Abrahamic stuff with forgiveness and faith and all.  You know where you are with rules!”

That, more or less, is where civilized humankind was then, and mainly is now. 

Now we’ll skip about 1600 years and refer to the New Testament. We open the Gospel of Matthew again.  The Fathers of the Church have compiled this lectionary so that we can hear what Jesus the Messiah, the Christ Himself teaches from the Father’s Heart, in NT and OT.   He who is of God, one with God, eternal with God, mighty above all creation but our friend and brother, Saviour and Redeemer, speaks in the Gospels. 

The main thing about Matthew 5:17-48 is the attitude to God’s Law, rather than man’s.  Jesus says He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.  Some think this means He came to dot the is and cross the ts and make it even more detailed but Jesus makes it clear that that is not at all what He is on about.  Some think He came to abolish it altogether.   In a way, as we shall see, He came to intensify the demands of The Law.  Formal obedience to rules is nothing compared to Gods’ righteousness.  A Pharisee might well have said “Look I have done precisely what is required in such and such a situation.  I didn’t enjoy doing it.  I didn’t want to do it.  But I did it, and fulfilled the Law of Moses, and I’m not going to go one millimeter past that.  I’m making no further commitment”.  And that saddens and offends the Heart of God.  Jesus is not looking for the dreary completion of some legal clause or a demonstration of external rectitude.  Righteousness means being right with God.   Jesus is looking for the response to the Law to be a springboard for a life of devotion to God.   In vv 21-48 He gives a number of examples of the outworking of that wholeheartedness and holiness, in obedience.   He shows that to keep the letter of the old Law while ignoring its spirit, to try to buy merit with God while at the same time breaking laws inwardly, is not on for a Christian. 

Even beyond the detailed contents of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the legalism of the scribes and Pharisees was particularly contained in their accumulated oral pronouncements, which many people memorised.  This was a vast lot of law...the Torah had plenty already (as you’ll see as you read it), but there was much more.  In the 3^rd century some of it was codified in the Mishnah that runs to 800 pages.  Then scholars wrote 12 printed volumes to amplify that, in what was known as the Jerusalem Talmud.  The pettifogging minutae must have been heartbreaking to someone who wanted to live right with God.  For example, to keep the Sabbath holy a new lamp could be moved from one place to another but not an old one.  A donkey could go out on the Sabbath wearing its saddle cloth (if it was fixed on the day before) but couldn’t wear a bell, because it would have to do work to cause the bell to ring.  And people watched closely to see whether these restrictions were ever flouted!  There were thousands of regulations like that, for everything.  All this was to preserve righteousness.  (See The Message of Matthew by Michael Green, The Bible Speaks Today, IVP, Ed John Stott, 2000).  But the rules were not enough.  No wonder Jesus said “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees you will certainly not enter the kingdom of God!” 

The prophets of old used to say “Thus says the Lord”.  But the rabbis who followed were not guided by the Holy Spirit but by the Talmuds and the traditions of men, and we are told that they usually avoided preaching on their own authority.  Instead they liked to discuss the theses and statements of other clerics.  “Rabbi Nathaniel said last year.....and in view of Babylonian Talmud No.563 I will add some observations about that.....”  And in the midst of these layers of confusion and obfuscation and theses concocted by the scribes, comes Jesus!  With immense authority Jesus dismisses centuries of orthodox interpretation and with assurance He starts explaining  the roots of OT teachings with “You have heard it said.... BUT I TELL YOU.....”.   At long last the Messiah has come.  God speaks!   He rips the veil away from God’s Word and suddenly the truth becomes clear; frighteningly clear.

In this discourse of Ch 5 vv 21-48 (our lectionary readings for last week and this week), Jesus presents six antitheses to the rabbi’s theses.  (See Quicknotes Bible Commentary Series Matthew and Mark  Vol8 by Stephen Leston, Mark Strauss, Ian Fair.  Barbour, Ohio 2008).  These contrast the old accumulated law of the elders scribes and Pharisees, all fractured and shot with contradiction, with the new unified righteousness which He proclaims.   The traditional theses are turned upside down by Jesus’ antitheses.   In that way Jesus did correct and complete (or fulfill) the Law of Moses.  In doing so He did not abrogate the ancient Law.  He went behind it to its original function, to the secret purposes of the human heart, and the heart of God.

The first is about murder.  Anger can equal murder!   We begin to see that Jesus’ good news is a matter of life and death.  We are reminded of 1 John 3.15 “anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life in him”.  Jesus adds hard things.   For example, to call someone raca (Matt 5:22) is to use an Aramaic swearword for a ‘blockhead’.  Do not call one of God’s creatures that, Jesus says, and get rid of your bitterness towards your brother and everyone else.    The second is lust equals adultery.   We are warned.    The third antithesis is about divorce, as hot an issue then as it is now.  Conservative Rabbi Shammai insisted that ‘something offensive or indecent’ in Deut 24 meant infidelity but Rabbi Hillel was much more liberal.  He would probably say that burning the toast at breakfast was deserving of divorce for some.  So between these conservative and liberal views a great disparity developed throughout Jewry, which Jesus obviously found distressing.   But Jesus is stricter than Moses.   It must have been shattering for those who took advantage of the Mosaic concession of Deut.24:1-4 to allow divorce, to have heard Jesus setting out God’s original purpose for marriage.   In the kingdom, as at the creation, marriage is meant to be exclusive and lifelong .  (Gentle St.John Chrysostom links Matt.5:31-32 with 5:3-9 of the Beatitudes.  Surely a man of God who reconciles others and is a peacemaker and is merciful cannot cast out his own wife).  The complexities introduced today by mental ill-health and a fallen world make this prime social problem even more intractable.  But Jesus leaves us in no doubt about His views.  Besides, He heals in all manner of hopeless situations.  He forgives and renews, and we have access through His Church as it faithfully continues those works of healing and restoration among those who have faith.

Fourth, Jesus turns to oaths and promises.  An example:  Rabbi Zechariah makes a judgement in the synagogue court:  “Poor Bartholomew cannot be held to his promise to buy Ezra’s land because he swore on the great altar of the Sanctuary.  Had he sworn on the Sanctuary itself it would have been a binding vow, but the altar is insufficient.  So I excuse him”.                    No, says  Jesus, there’s no need to swear;  a good man’s word is enough.  A citizen of God’s kingdom must be utterly trustworthy.  Otherwise he is in sin.  As it was then, so now.

The fifth and sixth antitheses, about retaliation and love, are at the heart of this great treatise of ‘The Sermon on the Mount’.    (We come at last to the verses set for today: 38-48).   The teachers of The Law taught “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.  But Jesus says, “Don’t resist (possibly ‘engage with’, ‘fight’) those who do wrong to you.  (Guthrie, Motyer et al say that in the context this applies to wrongs done to you; it does not prohibit the defence of others).  “Don’t retaliate.  “Offer the other cheek as well.  “Give to anyone who asks.  “Don’t resist those who wrong you.”   (Jesus is not talking about global pacificism or the abolition of police forces and the rights and wrongs of war.  Paul talks about the responsibilities of states in Rom 13). The teachers of The Law said “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy”, although a command to hate your enemies appears nowhere in the bible.   Jesus said “What I say is pray for your enemies and those who hurt you!”   “There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly father’s goodness knows no bounds.”    Jesus says that private revenge can not be part of a christian’s life.  

Now friends, it is normal for us to try to rationalise and qualify hard biblical teaching, and water it down to stuff more socially acceptable to modern man.  But this is the Gospel of God.   As my friend Bp. Howell Witt of NW Australia used to say, “Don’t muck about with it”.    

This teaching is rubbish to a ‘man of the world’.  Of course I will retaliate when cheated, hurt, wronged.   And the practice of the Rabbis was legalistic and retaliatory.   Here is the greatest contrast of all between the old Law where punishments fits the crime and the Christ-way of forgiveness, from the OT and the NT.    Listen to Leviticus 24:20.  If anyone injures and disfigures a fellow-countryman, it must be done to him as he has done...fracture for fracture, etc.  Or Deuteronomy 19:21  You must show no mercy: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.  Much of that stuff is still observed in Muslim Sharia law.  But Jesus will have none of it.   Jesus’ understanding of these Mosaic laws is that they were intended by God to restrict excessive retaliation rather than empower retaliation.  Now His precious Son, Christ the King, teaches that kingdom ethics permit no retaliation at all!   Much the same teaching is given in 1 Peter 2:18-23 and in 3:6-9 and 14-17.  

It’s interesting about guilt and grievances.  Verse 23 is often misread.  Read it.   If you are presenting your gift at the altar and suddenly remember that your brother has a grievance against you, leave that gift there and go and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift.  Instead of getting all hot under the collar about what I think he has done to me, I should go and talk with him about what I did to him, and beg his pardon.

Michael Green talks about his conversation on vv 40-42 with a black Christian leader in South Africa.  It may have been The Revd. Desmond Tutu when a young man, before he was consecrated bishop, though I don’t know.  “How did you respond on the many occasions you were humiliated by whites?”  He replied “When I was unjustly forced into some menial action, I completed it, and then turned and asked my ”boss” whether there was anything more he would like me to do to help him?  This always took the wind quite out of his sails.”  It’s what the bible calls heaping coals of fire upon his head.  I guess that’s when Satan quietly excuses himself and instead gets stuck into some other situation involving retaliation.  He can make trouble out of that much more easily.  That’s the point.  Members of the kingdom, you and I, can cause utter amazement by the way we respond to insult and hurt.   Then we can help bring about healing and renewal and repentance.  There should be such generosity of spirit about us that we give and give, just as God has given to us.  That’s the principal way we are to be His ambassadors in human kingdoms.    So now we can add another layer to this Jesus teaching about not retaliating, because it disarms evil and greed to dispense with grudges and debts and it makes our own lives so much simpler!  It helps to heal people, to forgive them when they have sinned against us, and it heals us too.  Ultimately it avoid wars.  And although it’s God’s business, it brings others to repentance as nothing else can.

So there’s plenty of human justification in not retaliating.  But the main reason for acting generously with prayer and without bitterness towards those who hurt us is that’s what Jesus commands!     But there’s more: God’s generosity in NOT making our punishments fit our crimes, but in forgiving the penitent and making us co-heirs of his kingdom is the example we follow.  His kindness and compassion lifts us out of our misery and darkness into His marvellous light.  In having taken it upon Himself to pay the costs of our selfishness and sin, we sinners can stand before Him, justified, for goodness’ sake!  Man, that’s generosity!  That’s Grace!

Dr. John Macquarie the theologian visited Hobart years ago.  In his Bishop’s Lecture he reminded us that at no time in the terrible suffering of the betrayal, passion, trial, scourging and crucifixion did Jesus cry out in cursing or vengeance or anger against his enemies and torturers.  He the sinless could have retaliated.  He did not.  So, said Macquarie, although Satan must have tried as he had never tried before, he never found a foothold, a chink, an opportunity at which to enter into the life of the great High Priest who was also the Lamb of God, and so pollute the perfect sacrifice.  So he lost the day.  He lost his only chance.   God triumphed.   That’s reason enough to live according to Jesus’ antitheses in the teaching of Matthew 5, to act generously, forgive love and pray for those who hurt us, avoid retaliation.  Jesus knows people will argue about this for centuries but His last word on the matter is this:- “There must be no limit to your goodness”.  

You mean me, Lord?

Amen