First, a few of Jesus’ words from His Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:21-24
21 “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.’ 22 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. 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
I’ve always felt that I’ve had this instruction locked up. I don’t have an anger issue with people (“a brother or sister”). I do, though, have a frustration issue with gas pumps that don’t spit out receipts. Or website pages that crash after you’ve entered all your profile info. Or food marts that mislabel the price (to their advantage).
I’ve long felt that this type of frustration is free and clear from the anger Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5 as part of the Sermon on the Mount. Upon further review, however, I’m not so sure.
1. Jesus in contraposition
Jesus was doing more than expanding the law; He was holding Himself up in contraposition to the law. In the little phrase “But I tell you” Jesus emphasized Himself as the subject. Verbs in the Greek language, like other languages, supply the subject and often a sentence will carry no other pronoun. But if the writer or speaker wanted to emphasize the subject, a pronoun was added. To the first listeners of these words it may have sounded like “But I, ‘I, I say!’ , tell you that anyone…” Jesus is leaving no doubt that the Law will now be defined through Him.
2. Infusing Law with Love
The Old Testament Law had become a meaningless ritual. The religious leadership of the day had created an extra set of rules to keep from breaking the Law and they were more proud of their rule keeping than obedience to the Law. They had figured out how to keep the rules but still be able to hate a brother or sister. Jesus’ entire ministry and work on the cross was a cosmic infusion of love. His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount integrated the internal with the external. His kingdom was to drive us from the inside to the outside. The fuel for the drive is love. This makes it impossible to obey without love.
3. Daily positioning for the Gospel
Jesus’ references to “raca” and calling someone a “fool” give specific indicators as to how we are to treat people around us. Not only are we to avoid anger, we are to avoid insult and dismissiveness. To drive the point home, Jesus showed us what to do when we’ve done something to hurt: leave church and go be reconciled. Think about that: quit doing the very thing that we know pleases God (worship) and go be reconciled. In a nutshell: quit playing church.
Back to gas pumps, websites and price tags. The world around us is looking for God’s people to take God’s kingdom seriously. They are looking for “non-world” reactions to “world” problems. God’s kingdom is to drive us from the inside out. If my inner being is infused with the love of Jesus, then my outer being needs to react accordingly.
I need to keep myself in a position to share the message of the Gospel, in both word and deed. As Peter said in 1 Peter 3:16, I need to stay ready to give an answer for the hope I have in Christ. It’s hard to do this when I’m grousing about receipts, websites and price tags.