If Our Hearts Are In It

*Post 3 in a 4-post limited series on the Sermon on the Mount*

We’re on part 3 of our look at the Sermon on the Mount.  In my first post I talked about Jesus giving us a new standard to live by called the Beautitudes--messages of supreme blessedness.  Last week Jesus called us salt of the earth and light of the world—that is, we are to be the ones to preserve goodness and shine the light of God’s love and mercy.  We closed last week with Jesus telling the crowd that he has come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  This week he unpacks that statement.

'Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”'

--Matthew 5: 21-37

Jesus recounts the Law to the people; in fact, he tells them things that they already know.  You shall not murder (6^th Commandment).  You shall not commit adultery (7^th Commandment).  A man may issue a certificate of divorce (Deuteronomy 24: 1-4).  You shall not swear falsely (Leviticus 19: 12).  So he starts from a place of familiarity.  You can almost see everyone nodding their heads in agreement.  But then he digs in deeper.

It’s not enough to just not murder someone, you shouldn’t even harbor a grudge toward them.  It’s not enough to not commit adultery, but you shouldn’t even look at someone with lustful intentions. You shouldn’t get divorced, even though Moses said it was ok.  And while the commandment says don’t swear falsely, Jesus says don’t swear at all.

So what is Jesus doing here?  Is he completely redefining the Law?  No, he’s not.  What he’s doing is redirecting the people to what the function of the Law really is.  Those who followed the Law to the letter, who obeyed every rule on the outside but inside didn’t even think about them were what we might call fundamentalists. These folks acted like humanity had been made for the sole purpose of following the Law.  In reality, it was the opposite; the Law was made for people.  Jesus is not redefining the Law, but he’s breaking it open and getting at its subtext, at its deeper meaning, rather than just what it says on the surface. 

This is an exercise that we call exegesis. It’s the process by which we take something and we break it down into not only what it’s saying, but how it’s saying it. We do this with Holy Scripture, and all good biblical scholarship is grounded in this practice.  Rather than look at the letter of Scripture, we try to get at its spirit:  who wrote this passage, to whom, when, where, and for what purpose?  Such an exercise keeps us from having the same rigidity about Scripture that those fundamentalist Scribes and Pharisees had about the Law; after all, we weren’t made for Scripture, but it was made for us.  That’s what Jesus is doing here, breaking down the Law, stripping away everything on the surface, in order to get at the spirit, the heart of the Law.  And what is it that is the heart of the Law?  As we said last week, it’s relationship.  And each of these “new” commandments that Jesus gives is about calling the people back into relationship with each other and God.

If you don’t murder someone, but you harbor a grudge, you’re poisoning yourself and the community—that’s why Jesus says not to come to the altar of God with your offering until you and that person reconcile.  In our tradition we follow Jesus’ interpretation of this Law by saying that a person should not come to the Communion rail if he or she is harboring such a grudge.  You can’t possibly get right with God until you’re right with each other. But Jesus, others would argue, Exodus 21: 24 says “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth.”  Well that doesn’t work because if that were the case we’d all be blind and would be on a liquid diet.  Jesus knew that it was about more than than just the letter of the Law. He knew the commandment about not murdering is about nourishing a healthy relationship.  Sure, you can follow the commandment and not kill someone, but if you hate them so much, then you might has well have murdered them in your heart.

If you don’t commit adultery but you lust after someone else, that’s poisoning your relationship with your spouse.  You may have not done anything wrong on the outside, but on the inside you’ve broken the Law.  So you can’t really say that you’ve abided by that commandment if you’ve ever thought about someone in a lustful manner, Jesus says.  The letter of the Law may be obeyed in such a situation but not the spirit.  

As for divorce, yeah it was legal.  But folks in Jesus’ time divorced for any reason that the man felt was ok, and the woman had no say whatsoever.  The result was she was left homeless and destitute.  If you divorce someone, yeah, you’re not disobeying the letter of the Law, but you are disrespecting the spirit of the Law. If you're writing divorce certificates left and right because you're upset with the smallest of things, then you're forgetting why Moses gave you that Law in the first place.  Thus, the relationship with both your wife and God has been damaged.

Finally, the Law said not to swear falsely.  That makes sense; after all, you shouldn't swear to do something if you don't intend to do it.  But Jesus takes it a step further.  Don’t swear at all. It had become all too common for folks to take an oath when one was not necessary, or to take an oath and then back out from it.  Just don’t take those oaths, Jesus says, and you won’t risk damaging the relationship you have with your neighbor or God.   If you’re still swearing and taking those oaths, you’re not understanding the spirit of that Law.

It all comes down to relationship.  That’s what is the spirit of the Law.  And where is it that relationships begin?  The heart.  That is where relationships are forged, and that is where they are mended.  We can follow all the laws to the letter, but if our heart isn’t in it, what’s the point?! 

Once again, Jesus redirects us.  The world judges by what we do on the outside, right?  Well, not God!  God judges by the heart, and isn’t God’s judgment the one that we should be most concerned about?  We can go to church on Sunday, be uber-pious and put on our fanciest clothes,  and we can hide how we really feel in our hearts from each other, but we can’t hide our hearts from God, who sees us naked with all our sins exposed.  Those who follow the Law to the letter and not the spirit, Jesus had a word for:  he called them hypocrites, people who outwardly appeared to obey the letter of the Law but let their pride get in the way of actually honoring the spirit.  Jesus’ new standard kills all of our pride!  If we hope to be his followers we must let go of that pride, let go of the anger that broods, that refuses to be pacified, let go of all that plagues our heart and let God truly come and take up residence.  Only then can we be in right relationship with God and our neighbor.  Only then can we truly love God and neighbor, those two commandments on which Jesus said all the others hung. 

I told you early on in this series that Jesus would spend his time on that mountain both praising the people and admonishing them.  He praised them—and us—for our blessedness and for being salt and light.  Today he admonishes those of them—and us—who speak peaceably with our lips and follow the Law and Scripture to the letter but in our hearts curse and revile one another and show no respect for their spirit.  I also told you that Jesus would call those folks—and us—back to being the people that God intends; that is, a people of right relationship.  If we really want to follow Jesus, then we live by his standard.  We must follow the spirit of the law, moreso than the letter. 

It's about what's in our heart.  It doesn't matter what we do on the outside if on the inside we just don't care.  Jesus invites us this week to examine our hearts and spirits.  What's in there?  Why are we really doing what we do?  Why do we really come to church?  Let us look deep in our hearts to find that reverence for God, respect for our neighbor, and relationship with the two.  That is, after all, how Jesus lived his life.  He was grounded in those three things, and he knew that what was in a person's heart was much more important than what they did on the outside.  That is how we can say that he fulfilled the Law.  

If we examine our hearts, then maybe we'll be those peaceamakers that Jesus talked about--those that he called 'children of God.'  We can plant the seeds of the Kingdom, but only if our hearts are in it.