law, life, and love (a sermon on Matthew 5:21-37)

As the Sermon on the Mount continues this week in our Gospel reading, Jesus adds more depth and detail to his painting of what life in the kingdom of heaven is like. It seems to boil down to one thing - relationships. God cares deeply about how we treat one another, and our relationships with another are inextricable from our relationship with God.

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Relationships have the power to be both life-giving and death-dealing. We’ve all experienced times when our relationships - with a friend, or family member, or spouse - have given us strength and peace. When an encouraging word came at just the right time; when someone close to us spoke a reminder of our worth and value at a time we were feeling worthless and discouraged; when it became clear that we were seen and known and loved even when everything around us was falling apart.

We’ve also experienced the opposite. Betrayal, disappointment, heartbreak. Words that target our deepest insecurities, actions that leave us confused and unbalanced, sometimes even pain and abuse. The times that our relationships bring suffering can leave us feeling dead and despairing.

It is the centrality of our relationships that Jesus has in mind in today’s Gospel reading. In order for this new kind of community to be at its best, we need to expect more - and be willing to do more - than the bare minimum. If the goal is following the law to a T, then, sure, it’s sufficient to refrain from murder or avoid adultery.

But, if the goal is life and flourishing in our relationships and our community, then we approach the law much differently. In this passage, Jesus does not get rid of the old laws, but rather intensifies our understanding and interpretation of them. If we desire life and flourishing in our relationships and community, we have to care about others as much as we care about ourselves.

To be clear, this or any behavior is not what saves us or makes us right with God. Only God’s grace does that. Then, having been assured of God’s promises and filled with God’s love, we are freed from worrying about how to get ourselves into heaven. And, we are freed for life in a community that exemplifies mutual love and care, right here and now.

Jesus’ words about anger and adultery and divorce and swearing oaths probably make us uncomfortable. And they should! But I think part of why they make us uncomfortable is because they bring into focus actions we do without thinking, or behaviors we brush aside as nothing. Jesus’ words hold up a mirror, and we do not like what we see.

We cringe at Jesus’ words about murder and being angry because so often we allow ourselves to be consumed by anger and resentment, and pretend that our relationships with one another have nothing to do with God.

But Jesus reminds us that, actually, God cares a lot about our relationships with one another. This is so much the case that we can’t properly worship God without first mending our relationships and being reconciled to one another. Resentment and anger are their own kind of prison. Words and actions have the power to murder even when the victim is left alive. We can kill one another’s sense of dignity and worth with careless words or sharpened anger. In the same way, we can bring about life and flourishing with words that build up, ask for forgiveness, and encourage.

We cringe at Jesus’ words about adultery because we allow ourselves to treat one another with contempt, and ignore the inherent worth and dignity of those around us. We feel better when we blame victims, because if we convince ourselves that a woman is raped because of how she is dressed or how she behaves, then all we have to do to avoid rape is dress or act differently.

But Jesus reminds us that we are responsible for our actions. If we are drawn to lustful thoughts or actions, it is us who must change, not the ones we lust after. Though Jesus’ admonition to tear out and throw away the eye that causes us to sin is understood to be hyperbole, an exaggeration, his point is clear. In a community where we care deeply for one another, we change ourselves to allow for the safety and thriving of all.

We cringe when we hear about divorce for a few reasons. First, because we often view marriage and divorce in black and white. But also because the way the church has talked about divorce has itself caused pain - by shunning those who are divorced, or by telling people, usually women, that God would rather they stay in an abusive marriage than get divorced.

But Jesus reminds us that marriage and relationships are something God takes seriously, and that God is always grieved when God’s children suffer. While broken relationships always involve pain, sometimes divorce is the best, most faithful way to bring about human flourishing and restore life and dignity to those involved.

We cringe at Jesus’ words about swearing oaths because in many ways our words have become worthless, thrown about to get what we want with no regard for the truth. Promises are quickly broken, and we easily justify that which seems to be good for us, even if it comes at a cost to others.

But Jesus reminds us that words have power. We don’t need to swear by anything in order to keep our promises - because we have no control over those things anyway. Instead, we let our yes be yes, and our no be no. We deal honestly with one another, because community isn’t just about what’s good for me, but about what is good and life-giving for us.

Our relationships with one another are inextricable from our relationship with God, and our love and care for one another reflect the love we have first received from God. In this new kind of community, centered in Jesus, we expect more and do more to show love and care to one another, because that’s what the abundant life that comes from God looks like.

This new community that Jesus describes - the kingdom of heaven - is not just something that happens after we die, somewhere far away. Instead, the kingdom of heaven starts now, even among us broken and sinful people, because God’s powerful love and forgiveness knit us together into one body. We belong to each other because we all belong to God, and it is God’s love that strengthens us to love and care one another.

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