MT 5:21-37

Matthew in the Margins…Epiphany +6…Revised 2020 

Jesus is giving a kind of revision lesson on His ‘Sermon on the Mount’. It’s also a bringing-together of the heart of Jesus’ teaching throughout His life as the New & Greater than Moses. He assumes His hearers know what it is from the past He’s building on. They hear it often enough in their synagogues. These days, should we  probably not assume too much knowledge of either Testament, by our hearers? 

Jesus moves on from the ‘Letter of the Law’ as it’s been passed down from Moses & interprets it anew. One of our jobs as preachers is interpreting how all this applies (or, in some cases, may not apply, today. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says somewhere¹ ‘Jesus was crucified so we don’t have to crucify each other’. The Nazis eventually ‘crucify’ him as ‘pay-back’ for his constant refusal to have anything to do with their evil ways. Are we ever conscious of ‘pay-back’ of any kind, hopefully not so drastic, in response to our preaching Gospel? If we’re not experiencing at least the odd push-back, may we have a few questions to ponder regarding our effectiveness? 

At the heart of today’s passage is Jesus’ awareness of the damage done to everyone involved when relationships - family / neighbourly / community / world - are broken. In His new community, what we know as ‘Church’, we’re all family, & suffer when relations are broken. It’s then that violence is freed to break out & feed on itself, damaging or destroying people whether church members or not. None of this can be solved by enacting tougher & tougher laws. Does Law do much except fill our gaols? Jesus is offering us a different kind of law here; a Law of love as strong as His. Is Jesus implying, too, that YHWH’s honour is at stake, as Head of the world family, not simply the Church, when people dishonour Him in any way?

In an age where ‘data-bases’ have become so vital (= life-giving!) is Jesus giving us here an alternative, very person-to-person, ‘data-base’ living on, living out, Godly relations?

What issues can we find that we need to interpret anew in today’s Church & where that Church is in our world? Does today’s world often turn its back on us because it recognises our failure to re-interpret Ist C teaching in 21st C. terms? Until we do this, & do it effectively, how many are missing out on the powerful reality to be found in the Rule of God on earth!?

Brian

Afterthought: To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer once more, ‘In Christ crucified & in His people, the extra-ordinary becomes reality’.

¹ Quotes from Bonhoeffer are from ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, SCM, London, 1964