Seek First HIs People

馬 太 福 音 第 5 章：21 - 26 节
Sermon on Matthew 5 : 21 - 26

Today is the 3rd Sunday of the new year. How has it been, so far? In any case, entering into a new year means that we have successfully completed another year of life journey. For Christians, entering into a new year also mean that we have journeyed with the Lord for yet another year. Friends, did we get to know our Lord better in the past 12 months? What would be some words that we would use to describe him, whom we should have gotten to know better in the past 365 days? We would certainly have something to say for anyone whom we had spent time with for an entire year. As for our Lord, I trust that we have in mind words such as ‘good’, ‘forgiving’, ‘holy’, ‘sweet’, and maybe for some, ‘disciplinarian’. Question, anyone here might use the word ‘radical’ as a description for Jesus?

The word ‘radical’ brings to mind people who take extreme measures, an adjective befitting members of religious militant groups and perhaps students who camped on the main street of Hong Kong till the final moments during the recent protest. But ‘radical’ carries also another meaning. The English word ‘radical’ comes from the Latin radix, which means root. The radix is that which is at the beginning, origin or foundation of something. A radical person, in this sense of the word, would be one who wants to bring things back to the way in which it was intended to be in the very beginning, at the root, the start of all things.

Jesus, in this morning’s passage, proves to be just such a person, a radical, because what he is doing here is nothing less than to radicalize God’s Law. In this passage, he makes extreme sounding declarations, and super-duper tough demands. His purpose is to direct listeners back to what the law is saying and aiming to do in the first place; he is pointing to the radix of the law.

And what Jesus has to say here is something we won’t want to skip over, doing so tantamount to giving the kingdom of heaven a miss. What do we mean? Just a verse before today’s passage, we hear a warning that can cause breathlessness. “…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We may have gathered negative impressions of the Pharisees and the teacher of the law as we read the gospels, but let’s not forget that these guys worked real hard when it comes to piety. Their lives revolved around teaching and practicing 613 commandments. And we can imagine that they would have done many things correctly in observing the law and had been praiseworthy in the eyes of the many followers. But, for all the hard work put in, Jesus says, these poor fellows disqualified for entrance to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus then went on to give 6 case studies in verses 21-48 on what is meant by surpassing them in terms of righteousness, and we now tune in to the first one this morning.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” says Jesus. These words must have caused some people to respond with a, “What?! Just some harsh sounding words said carelessly and to hell we go?” The word of our Lord here is so ridiculously hard, if not impossible to keep. But what is he really trying to bring out by radicalizing the commandment in this way?

At the risk of repeating something that we know all too well, Jesus is firstly not condemning anger as an emotion per se. Jesus himself displayed anger when he cleansed the temple in Jerusalem, and chased out the merchants and the animals for sale. Neither does the New Testament as a whole disapprove anger, it only cautions against ungodly and unwanted outcome that can arise from being angry. Hence says Apostle Paul, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (Eph 4:26)

And neither is Jesus trying to stamp out harsh words or calling of names. In Matthew 23, lo and behold, it was Jesus, and not Peter the hot headed disciple, who referred to the Pharisees and teachers of the law as “blind fools”. Jesus used these word on them because for they regarded the gold in the temple to be greater than the temple itself, which was so very wrong. (Matt 23:17)

But we begin to see what Jesus is driving at as we read his reformulation of the commandment on murder. Anger, given time, can develop into hatred, and hatred seeks to kill and to destroy. The first murder case in human history was a product of anger and hatred, and it happened in the very first human family. Remember the story of Cain and Abel?

And if the destruction is not to be something physical and total, then hatred would lead the angry one to crush or puncture the others’ sense of self-worth, self-confidence or dignity. Using day to day language, “time to make that bloke feel really sorry or lousy”, “high time to inject some pain.” And this is exactly why Jesus warns against using the word Raca in anger? Raca means empty-headed, good for nothing, worthless, a waste of our time and resources. Jesus also warns against using the word more in anger. More is where we get the word moron, translated here as ‘you fool’.

Word such as raca and more, when used on someone intentionally and sinisterly, aim at tearing down a person, stripping the person’s dignity and self-worth, and Jesus warns against it because such an action troubles God a whole lot. Why? Because the Christian God is one who values each and every individual, whom he has created according to his good will to live a life characterized by goodness and flourishing.

And here is the fascinating and beautiful aspect of this passage which sounds so tough and demanding. It reveals a God who is deeply bothered and concerned about you and I, whoever we are, and however we think of ourselves. Let me risk saying something here. Friends, if we are not the ‘very self-confident type’, if we are the ones who are angry with ourselves because of how we look, because of our limitations, because our hair is too oily, because our hair is not glossy, because we simply can’t be more than a mediocre no matter how hard we try; Jesus says, do not do harm to your dignity, do not do harm to your self-worth, for our God is deeply bothered and concerned about us, for it is he who has created us according to his good will to live a life characterized by goodness and flourishing.

Let’s now look at the consequences of the outworking of anger. In each clause of verse 22, we see words such as ‘subject to’, ‘answerable to’ and ‘in danger of’. These are translations of the same word used in the original Greek text. A word meaning ‘liable to’. In other words, punishments issued by a court of law are in view. So the logic goes this way: be angry at a brother and the next thing to happen would be judgment by a law court. Sounds kinda odd doesn't it, for where do we find a court of law on earth that would issue a sentence against someone being angry? The court of your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend may issue something, but not any court of law. Even more curious is the last clause, scold someone “You fool!” and a law court on earth will sentence the offender to hell of fire.

Whatever seems to sound odd and curious, is Jesus’ way of bringing across a point by way of a hyperbole, or if we prefer, an overstatement, an extreme exaggeration. A hyperbole is like a sentence that goes, “I am so hungry I could eat a horse” or “he is as skinny as a toothpick”

Jesus by using hyperbole makes demands that are simply impossible to meet. But there are at least 2 good reasons for choosing this mode of communication. One would be the shocking effect that a hyperbole produces would make people who never ever thought that certain habitual actions can be a big problem to pause and ponder. Second, much as strict keeping of all of the commands concerning anger, lust, retaliation and so forth is not a real possibility; yet, by formulating it using such extreme ideas and images, an honest and attentive listener would not just pause and ponder, and thereafter do nothing. The seriousness of the message is meant to compel. In other words, the hyperboles here aim at producing positive effects, producing actions, and that is what Jesus is trying to do here.

By equating anger with murder, Jesus is therefore saying that anger which can lead to hatred and become destructive is not just any human shortcomings among others, but something like a grievous sin to be exorcised at all cost. 1 Jn 3:15 is instructive, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

So what’s the antidote to anger, and what should be the Christians’ way forward. Jesus as a good teacher teaches by giving examples and applications, and we find 2 of them in the reminding verses.

The first example cum application concerns a worshipper, who was encouraged to patch up with a brother before performing the act of worship; the second concerns a debtor encouraged to come to terms quickly with his creditor to avoid imprisonment.

In the first case, it’s clear cut that the worshipper wasn't angry, he did not even think of the person angered by him till he was in the temple. In the second case, the one who was using someone else’s money was obviously not angry. And here we have the surprise of it all. Having given to the disciples such harsh warnings concerning anger and its ramifications, the examples and applications turn out to be not about the disciples - not about their own anger management - but about managing the anger of another brother or sister, or one’s adversary. In short, the antidote to anger, according to Jesus, is reconciliation.

Friends, the basic reason for God giving the laws found in the Old Testament is not to achieve fairness when there are disputes, or to set them up as warning signs to prevent someone getting himself or herself and others into trouble, or to show that God himself is the greatest moral judge of all. The radix, the original and fundamental intent of the God’s law, is, as we have mentioned earlier, to help mankind, whom God has created according to his good will to live lives characterized by goodness and flourishing, which is possible only when mankind is not killing each other but building one another up. And in our world where relationships easily fall apart, reconciliation – although can be a challenging thing to do – is simply necessary. Friends, this is our calling as Christians. And C. S. Lewis the wordsmith again says it so very well, “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.” [1]

And so we see what surpassing the Pharisees and teachers of the law in righteousness is about, at least in light of the reformulation of the commandment on murder. It is to be as radical as Jesus by staying with and living out the radix. It is doing what we have heard a zillion times over, to love our God and our neighbors. And we are to be dedicated in both areas. We are very familiar with the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God”. But the application of the 1st example, where the worshipper is asked to postpone worship till reconciliation has been accomplished, is telling us to also ‘seek first the people of God’. Well, we know what Jesus is getting at here, not that worship should ever take a 2nd place, but worship of God only truly make sense when we exercise purity in human relationships.

There is one more thing that we are reminded in this morning’s passage concerning reconciliation. The debtor in the 2nd example is asked to go quickly and make good with his adversary, before the unstoppable wheel of justice is propelled and it will be too late for anything. Translating this to our life settings, Jesus’ disciples, Christians, are to have a daily urgency concerning building and achieving healthy relationships. And it goes without saying that we should be doing so for people within and outside our spiritual community, because healthy relationships bring glory to God - the chief example being the work of reconciliation done at the cross.

Our year, sad to say, opened with 2 freak accidents, the sudden lost of lives on board QZ 8501 and some who visited the Bund at Shanghai on new year’s eve. Sudden losses as such, so untimely, so unpredictable, can’t help but make us see that we and our work of reconciliation are all time and opportunity bound. Jesus is right to stress on urgency when it comes to reconciliation, which is challenging oftentimes, but let’s go get our hands dirty and feet wet.

[1] C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Address, repr. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 14-15.