Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Matthew 5:17-37
Recently we bought a cage to put one of our cats into. He was a feral cat that I brought in from the street about 8 years ago now. And he’s always been very careful about associating with me and almost everyone else except my other cat Zacchaeus. When Carl and I married, and merged our cat families, Jonathan was not very flexible. Zacc and the others learned to get along after a few months, but we’ve come to the conclusion that Jon can’t do it. So he’s got very rigid boundaries now—a cage. But he’s a cat and can’t be reasoned with—though Carl tries.
Some folks think of Old Testament law as a cage—a rigid thing, made to limit choice and freedom. And it can be used that way—almost like a weapon. Religious laws can and have been used to hurt people in that way, taking away instead of adding to people’s lives. One understanding distinguishes the rules of religion from the practice of spirituality. Religion can be about rules—what you believe, what you do. Spirituality is about quality, a connection of the heart. Religion often draws lines. Spirituality sees between the lines, blurring definition, boundary and argument . It isn’t about right and wrong—but it is about making connections. Spirituality includes instead of saying what is wrong with someone else it crosses over and understands.[1]
Sometimes we get our faith and our spiritual practice confused with our religious beliefs—and though they should fit together, make sense together, what I do in my spiritual practice might not be the same as what you do. Our spiritual practice might include meditating in utter silence, never moving and singing out in praise and speak words of prayer and walking and biking and all kinds of activities—or none.
The outer religious expression, however it is done, is less important that the connections that are made with God and with a community of people with whom we are traveling.
We make a spiritual connection with God and with people so that our hearts can be a part of God’s vision—the vision beautiful that moves and guides us in our discipleship.
The series on discipleship continues today as we move farther into Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew. And as we continue this series, it’s important that we look at the law of Moses as presented to us in the First Testament of our scripture. The First Testament—or Old Testament—was Jesus’ Bible. It was integral to his faith and his relationship with God. Today’s gospel lesson integrates his understanding of the law—the Torah—the first five books of our First Testament—into his life and the life of those he was calling to be his disciples.
The text from Deuteronomy helps us to understand the importance of the law—to Jesus and to all Jewish people. In it, Moses is emphasizing what the law does, “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” He tells the people that if they love God and live according to God’s law then they will live and be numerous. He tells them that if they do not, they will die. I’ve heard sermons about this, sermons about God’s punishment on the disobedient, but instead I hear the consequences of breaking the covenant. God built a people, using laws that connected them to each other with love. They were to love God and love one another in particular ways by being honest even with dishonesty would be profitable. They were told to respect one another’s land, animals and other property because it was all God’s to begin with—and it was a loving thing to do. They were told not to kill one another because life was a gift of God. They were told to respect contracts of marriage because God loved them and wanted them to love each other. Life outside the law was chaotic and life inside the law was manageable—as long as it was lived and applied with justice.
In the apocrypha, the book of Sirach says it this way, “God has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.” Which choice that I make will burn (me or another) and which will give life (to me or another)?
As I have said a few times since beginning this series, the model for way in which Matthew tells the story of Jesus comes from Moses and in today’s text, we are given and understanding of Jesus’ relationship with the law of Moses and how Jesus’ relationship with God made him understand the law of Moses.
I began the reading today in verse 17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus’ teaching didn’t take away the law, but made it contemporary to his time—like some of the other teachers of his day. He was teaching about the spirituality of the law—how it built relationship instead of the wall between people that the law had become in some cases.
The Pharisees were intense keepers of the law—they taught that the more rigidly the law was kept, the more they would be rewarded. But in the midst of their often sincere, but ostentatious obedience, they lost track of the purpose in the law. Jesus wasn’t teaching that the law was less important, but that it was more important than rigid obedience made it. Righteousness comes from the heart—hearts made beautiful by God’s love and our love for one another.
Jesus begins with murder—the law says, “You shall not murder.” And Jesus says that disciples also must not hate and disrespect others. It means living life differently, the leadership of Judea, often named as the Pharisees, upholding Rome’s hierarchical and unjust society. Disciples were to challenge this by offering another alternative. Instead of ignoring differences that mattered, Jesus describes a process of reconciliation. He tells them not to worship (in his time, sacrifice) with hatred or vengeance or violence or injustice in the heart, but as his disciples, to go and forgive or be forgiven before worshipping. Murder, in Jesus’ interpretation, was destroying people with public abusive anger and dismissing them. Reconciliation was to be the disciples’ choice. By a change of heart the heart of a disciple becomes the residence of God’s vision of beauty.
Throughout life people will make you mad,
disrespect you and treat you bad.
Let God deal with the things they do,
‘cause hate in your heart will consume you too.[2]
Jesus takes on the touchy issue of adultery and divorce. In Jesus’ day, men could divorce their wives by walking away. It was the male’s choice to be there and his choice to walk away. Jesus interpreted the law’s prohibition against adultery to curb male predatory behavior. It’s hard for me to imagine the culture of the time, a certain kind of male impunity to the consequences of some laws—like this one. Jesus wanted them to be aware of the temptation, the source, the seed where adultery began. Avoiding adultery was about seeing the other person—the woman, as a person in relationship with God, not just as an object of desire.
And the next prohibition against divorce was given for similar reasons—and remember that it is spiritual rather than religious. The law allowed for divorce—and Jesus acknowledged that, but saw that the practice was abused. When women were dismissed/divorced at a whom they were branded, ostracized and often impoverished. Jesus stated that a man didn’t have unlimited power to walk away from a wife. Marriage was to be built around just treatment of another human being. We understand marriage from an even broader perspective—as women and men gain and understanding of equality with one another, the relationship changes.
Both of these prohibitions make us aware of Jesus’ teaching was to bring people into a loving and just community—and honestly, I have to say that sometimes divorce is loving and just, you know that, too. So many people I’ve known have been trapped into a situation where divorce was the only loving answer for both parties.
Even Jesus’ teaching from the mountain top, as Matthew reveals it, is received as we continue our journey of growing understanding of God and our relationship with God and one another. In an understanding of our spirituality and our discipleship, we can see how our hearts are changed and made more beautiful and more open to God’s presence and guidance.
The final teaching concerns lying or giving false witness—as the commandment says. Jesus wants to simplify the idea. It’s not just lying if we have sworn on the bible or given an oath to God, but in a community of integrity and “right” or just relationship an oath is unnecessary. This particular prohibition comes from the use of oaths to evade the truth. So, if one didn’t swear an oath, one was not responsibility to the truth.
Jesus’ teaching on the mountaintop was given to deepen the understanding of the law of Moses. It was meant to emphasize, reemphasize and restate—just as the First Testament often did—that God’s word was for the purpose of life, not for that of stagnation and promoting the status quo. God’s word was alive, is alive and meant to address the situation of each life that it touched. God’s truth, carried forth in Jesus’ life and into the lives of his disciples was given to change our hearts—and not just our minds—so that our decisions are governed by the love that God has given us and, and, and, and, and, the love between human beings which is called forth by the love of God. One cannot and does not exist without the other.
What has been your experience of learning to live faith from the heart, rather than relying on external religious rules and expectations? Living faith from the heart—the heart that knows God’s love, everlasting, forgiving and eternally understanding—means that not only can I be forgiven, but that I can forgive myself and so I can forgive others. God’s love, everlasting, forgiving and eternal understanding means that when I see love in another’s heart, I recognize God, even if we don’t agree about God and religion and the words we use to describe them. Having a beautiful heart—making my heart, your heart, the heart of this community a home for God means that it’s got to be a big heart.
And that kind of heart is not a cage—as the law is not a cage—and Jesus’ teachings are not a cage—they are like a nourished garden, giving what’s needed to grow. The text challenges us to see the world in a new way. "In each of the scenarios Jesus is calling for an entirely new way of viewing human relationships," [Charles Cousar writes.] "Behind the prohibitions lies the vision of a restored humanity" (Texts for Preaching Year A).
They are about what we can be—and what God has created us to be as we journey in our discipleship. When we have beautiful hearts we are inviting God in to live with us and in us—as we interact with each other, those we love and those we don’t love yet.
Rather than giving us cages, we are given the freedom to live in beauty with each other—knowing the limits and confessing sin—and with God’s love in our beautiful hearts.
To the glory of God. Amen.
[1] By Brian Woodcock from This is the Day, edited by Neil Paynter copyright © 2002 Wild Goose Publications, paraphrase.
[2] Just the Two of Us, Will Smith (sung to his son)
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