life or death. talking and acting like Jesus.

Matthew 5:21-37.  Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Life and prosperity, death and adversity.  No less than life and death are on the table in the Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy. As we listen to the Scriptures, as we consider what the Master Jesus is teaching us, we recognize that this word was about matters of life or death.  For the Jewish community, life and death hang in the balance.  The seriousness of the law makes me think of God as a powerful judge and Jesus as a high power district attorney.  Are we the defendants, the disciples the twelve jurors, our neighbors, our accusers? There is a way in which these texts can be heard in that context.  What would the heavenly court say about us?  Do we not stand condemned according to our sins?  Does Jesus raise the bar in order to accuse us, to show us how weak we are, to expose our misbehavior?  Do we stand before God then, accused, convicted, sentenced to death?  We are happy with the grace-filled, merciful and loving Jesus.  But ethical Jesus challenges us to think about what we are doing, what others are doing in our world. As God’s blessed ones, how do we live, how do we behave?

Jesus’ “you have heard that it was said, but I say to you” is a way of acknowledging that we think we know right from wrong.  We have been taught it since we were young, hopefully.  Along the way we have heard the rules.  Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness against your neighbor.  The second half of the ten commandments is all about living in the human community without causing harm to others.  Those commandments teach us how to treat others. It speaks of the way we use our bodies and treat other people’s bodies.  It speaks of the way we treat property and the way we use our words. We sometimes joke about a friend who was teaching their child by saying “we do not hit”, as she slapped him on the hand.  Talk about a mixed message.  Jesus’ message is nonviolence. 

In a world that sensationalizes the behaviors that the commandments reject, we are desensitized to the gravity of these acts.  The media glorifies the very things we are called to avoid doesn’t it?  Murder and Adultery.  What drama on television is not about one or both of these things, every night of television? A child will see 8,000 murders on tv before leaving elementary school.  By 18, a person will have seen 200,000 acts of violence.  Some people argue that seeing violence and acting violently toward others are not connected.  Others argue for a direct correlation between them.  Is exposure to violence ever a good message for people?  Living in a bubble is not living a human life either.  We have to become aware of what is real.  But I fear that television has not made us more awake, but has put us to sleep about these things.  So much so that we take violence, the mistreatment of women and children, and the lies of public figures for granted.  Who cannot name some celebrity exposed for lying and adultery? 

In the sermon on the mount Jesus extends acts of violence to include anger toward others.  What Jesus knows is that acts of violence often stem from unresolved anger.  Unresolved anger is the cause of a lot of pain.  Misplaced anger leads to tension, conflict, and broken relationships.  Sometimes we are angry about one thing, but take out our anger on someone else, often someone we love.  Jesus knows this.  Jesus also connects anger and the violence that emerges from it to one’s relationship with God, as demonstrated by the offering of gifts.  How often do we come to church, worship, give offerings, and go home with so much unresolved baggage, anger, pain, fear, etc…it doesn’t go away on its own.  Time does not heal all wounds.  God does.  Jesus says that giving an offering to God without reconciling broken relationships is like standing unapologetically in court before your accuser and your judge.  Saying “I’m sorry” to another person can go a long way toward reducing tension and dealing with unresolved anger.  Letting go of the hurt someone has caused us, seeking to make amends, forgiving others, these are the ways to embody good human community.  We share the peace before we give our offerings here.  Sharing the peace is meant to be a time of reconciliation and forgiveness that frees us from anger toward others.  

Jesus rejects divorce on the grounds that the man causes the woman to commit adultery.  In his world only the man could divorce the woman.  These were not irreconcilable differences.  This was misogyny, abuse of women, who were considered male property.  In rejecting divorce, Jesus is protecting women’s human rights, her dignity as a person, and her value as a child of God.  So too in his re-definition of adultery as lust.  To treat a woman’s body as sexual property pollutes the body.  So Jesus talks about the bodies parts as members to cut out or off in order to restore purity.  Why? Men mutilating and disfiguring women is still a common practice in parts of the world, further dehumanizing the woman, making her useless to others, reducing her market value, causing her family shame.  According to Jesus, who ought to be disfigured and mutilated in the case where violence has been done against a woman or she has been treated as a piece of meat? 

What Jesus teaches about words and speech and vows and integrity ought to be practiced by every politician and pundit out there.  Instead there is hyperbole and violent language used to characterize political speech, so that we are manipulated by extreme views and opinions, becoming more and more uncivil toward our neighbors.  I say stop listening to them.  Turn them off.  They do more harm than good.  They do not awaken your conscience.  They manipulate it  These blind guides foaming at the mouths.  They seek to maintain an unjust status quo, because they have benefited from it; while others suffer.  The promises they make are fulfilled for the and  them alone, while others face insurmountable obstacles and a lack of daily bread. 

Rabbi Jesus teaches that a higher law must govern human relationships, higher than any ancient moral code.  This higher law respects human life, protects women, reduces violence, establishes honor and integrity with our speech. The higher law is love. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”  The law is not merely an objective set of moral obligations one must follow in order to remain pure.  The law teaches us how to love one another.   King also said It may be true that the law can’t teach a man to love me, but it can teach him not to lynch me and I think that’s pretty important.” Teach us how to love by devoting ourselves to the health, life, and prosperity of others.  Amen.