Dr Hera Lukman
31-01-2021
Matthew
5:21-26
New
International Version
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.
25 “Settle matters quickly with
your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together
on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may
hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will
not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Prior to this passage in verse 20, the Lord Jesus said to
His disciples with authority (using the word “I tell you”); He said, “For I tell you that
unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of
the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And
later in chapter 23, Jesus told the crowds and His disciples not to do what the
Pharisees and the Scribes were doing because they are hypocrites and blind guides.
They don’t do what they preach. While they piously uphold the letter of the
Law, the Pharisees and the Scribes undermined the spirit of the Law. As such,
the Lord was calling out the inadequate righteousness of the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law who only focused on righteous deeds while neglecting inner
righteousness, the righteousness of the
heart as John Stott put it in his exposition of the Sermon on the Mount.
What really matters to God is the state of our hearts. Kingdom righteousness
must be more than an external show of obedience and faithfulness. Our
righteousness MUST surpass that of the Pharisees and the Scribes.
In verses 21-26, Jesus went into more depth to illustrate
the true intent of the Law by using the 6th commandment, “You shall not murder.” The people
Jesus was speaking to knew the commandment well because they had been taught by
the Rabbis that the act of murder i.e. the act of taking away the life of
another is liable to judgement. To obey this commandment, they are to refrain
from engaging in the act of murder. Jesus corrected the traditional teaching by
emphasising that the spirit of the commandment includes the inner attitude
towards a neighbour. The command “You shall not murder” includes
refraining from thoughts and words of anger and insult towards one’s neighbour.
What kind of anger was Jesus referring to in verse 22?
Surely not all anger is immoral and hence prohibited. After all, we are
familiar with God’s wrath in the Scripture and in Matthew, Jesus’ anger with
the Pharisees and the Scribes was explicitly described in Chapter 23 when He
used words such as “hypocrites”, “blind guides”, “white washed tombs”, “brood of vipers”
etc. God’s anger is always holy and pure for God is good and hates evil. Some
may argue that we too as Christians should hate evil and hence, we too can be
righteously angry. We say “we ought to love the person and hate the sin.” That
is certainly true but how often do we achieve that? When we are angry at a
person’s action, be it unjust, immoral or personally hurtful, how likely are we
to maintain our love for and acceptance of this person? Can we love the person
and hate the sinful act? How pure is our intentions or motives for such
righteous anger? If we are brutally honest with our self-examination, would we
find self-centred intentions or self-centred righteousness disguised as quests
for justice and righteousness?
The anger in verse 22 refers to immoral anger. I would
like to highlight 3 words the Lord Jesus used. “WITH”, “RACA” and “FOOL”. The
Lord Jesus did not prohibit anger at something, a wrong doing or an act of
injustice. He was referring to anger WITH a brother or sister, anger towards a
character rather than a deed. Both the words “RACA” and “FOOL” are words meant
to insult and condemn the person not his/her actions per se. RACA is an Aramaic
word similar in meaning with “empty headed” in the English language. This term
is meant as an insult to a person’s intelligence. The word FOOL is a term of
judgement. Using the term “fool” amounts to condemning the person to hell. All
the 3 words Jesus used describe an anger that has to do with another’s
character and the judgement of that character. Jesus categorically taught his
disciples that having such anger with a neighbour is no different than the act
of murder. Both are subjected to the Heavenly court’s judgement, even though in
the court of man, such anger is not subjected to judgement. We must remember
that ultimately, we are all subjected to God’s judgement.
In today’s language, I think the Lord is referring
specifically to “contempt towards a
neighbour”. Contempt is an emotion that involves despising a person’s character, despising who the person is more than
what they have done. In other words, when we are in contempt with another,
we consider the person as a bad person or someone with a bad character. We
think of this person as inferior to us and tend to evaluate the person as
“stupid”, “incompetent” or “immoral”. As such, contempt motivates us to exclude
or alienate the target of our contempt. Contempt drives us to ignore the
person, gossip about the person and socially exclude the person. Contempt can
occur without outward display of anger or insult. In our Asian culture that
values diplomacy and keeping face, inner contempt is more acceptable than
outward expression of contempt. In
Kingdom principles, both outward and inner contempt are equally unacceptable.
Have we ever evaluated a brother or sister in Christ as
unspiritual, immoral or worthy of the fires of hell because we consider his/her
particular behaviour or thinking to be ‘ungodly’ e.g. the way the person
speaks, the way he/she dresses, his/her choice of music or his/her worldview on
various issues; particularly the more contentious ones like sexuality,
abortion, science, miracles, healing to just name a few. In the last year or
so, we see the world divided in support for Trump and more recently on whether
one should take the covid-19 vaccine. These issues are hotly debated and
disputes have amounted to more than war of words. Many people are
disillusioned, in despair and many have lost their lives as a result of
worldview differences. The Church is not spared from such sorrows. Christians
are as divided in our perspectives on many issues. We may not experience an
all-out war of disputes in our Church, but we may have an inner contempt for
someone in our community that lurks inside us, sometimes under our awareness.
Have we ever been angry with a brother or sister because he/she doesn’t see
eye-to-eye with us on certain matters? Instead of seeking to understand this
person’s perspective, do we think lesser of this person, despise or judge this
person as less spiritual? Instead of engaging this person to know him/her
better, do we avoid this person because he/she is just not worthy of our time
and our energy?; do we walk the other way when we see this person in Church? Do
we look down on our neighbour because we think we are better than them?
Proverbs
16:2
New
International Version
2 All a person’s ways seem
pure to them,
but
motives are weighed by the Lord.
What would the Lord see in our hearts? According to
Kingdom principles, how would we fare in the keeping of the 6th commandment? Would
we be guilty of murder? The Lord has shown me that I am guilty as charged.
Contempt encourages pride, vanity, hatred, malice and
revenge. It can prevent us from developing the characters Jesus asked His
disciples to foster when He gave them the beatitudes at the beginning of His
Sermon on the Mount. When we think of our neighbour as more inferior to us or
lacking in character, we are not being poor in spirit. We think of ourselves
better than what we really are. We overlook our own inadequacies and ignore the
blemishes in our own character. Contempt puffs us up and makes us proud of
ourselves rather than being humble and contrite in spirit, mourning for our
sins.
Luke
18:11
New
International Version
11 The Pharisee stood by
himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other
people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
How can we be in contempt with our brother or sister and
at the same time hunger for kingdom righteousness. That is self-righteousness
and being hypocritical. In contempt, how can we think about mercy let alone be
merciful when the aim of contempt is to remove, exclude or assassinate our
brother’s or sister’s character. Ultimately, contempt leads us away from
reconciling with our brother or sister. Contempt breaks peace rather than
encourage peace making. Contempt not
only destroys another’s character, it ultimately annihilates the godly character
Jesus wants His disciples to be. “Thou shall not murder”.
Have you
(and I) kept the 6th Commandment?
Immoral anger can lead to discord and hurtful
relationships. Jesus continued in verses 23-26 to provide the disciples a
practical way to reconciliation. He instructed them to seek reconciliation
because true worship is not about an external act. True worship is not in the
gifts we offer God at His alter while we harbour deep wounds and conflict with
our neighbour. Faithfully attending church, prayer meetings and serving the
Body of Christ when we hold our neighbour in contempt is not a worship that is
acceptable to God. True worship of God requires us to be right with God AND to
be right with our neighbour. Love God and Love Man, one cannot exist without
the other. True worship requires us to be radically consistent in our being and
doing.
I would like to emphasise three words in verses 23-25
that the Lord Jesus used in his instruction to his disciples. The words “Remember”,
“Go” and “Quickly”. These words describe the nature of
reconciliation. Reconciliation is an
active process that must not be delayed.
The word “Remember” is an
active verb. To remember i.e. to recall, requires intentional effort to think
about an event, specifically in this passage, to reflect on the state of our
relationship with our neighbour. The first step towards reconciliation is
acknowledgement, not only the acknowledgement that there is a conflict between
us and our neighbour but also our acknowledgement of our part in the conflict
i.e. what are the things that I have said or done or neglected to do that might
have (intentionally or unintentionally) contributed to the conflict. Without
self-awareness and without acknowledging our role in the conflict, we may not
see the need to reconcile. The attitude of blame: “it is your fault and not
mine” and the excuses we make: “I didn’t mean to hurt you” perpetuate hurts,
discord and justifies our decision against reconciliation. A knife wound bleeds
regardless if it is an intentional cut or not. It is the wound and the welfare
of the wounded that matter more than the intention of the cut. We need to
acknowledge the hurt and how we have hurt another if we want to reconcile.
The word “Go” is another
active verb. It is not sufficient to reflect on the conflict with our neighbour
and be remorseful before God alone. The Lord Jesus asked us to “Go and be
reconciled; then come and offer your gift”, a clear and definitive instruction
to engage our neighbour rather than sweep things under the carpet. Being right
with our fellow man is necessary if we want to be right with God. The essence
in the instruction to “Go and be reconciled” is not to apologise in order to
justify ourselves but to apologise in order to resolve conflicts or come to
terms with our neighbour.
My husband said that I am very bad at apologizing. For
those of you listening, you would have realised that I said “MY HUSBAND said”
rather than I THINK I am very bad at apologising. You can still hear this hint
of reluctance to acknowledge my limitation! God help me! Yes, my husband said
that I am very bad at apologising and after almost 25 years of marriage, I am
beginning to think he is absolutely right! I am a WIP-WORK IN PROGRESS! When I
apologize (which is not often at all!), I am 10 8 11 5 very defensive. I will
say “sorry”…begrudgingly…and I will say things like “I am sorry for leaving the
room… BUT (there is always that word BUT) BUT I did it because I had to….. or
“I’m sorry that I left the room because YOU made me upset and therefore I left
the room…indicating that it was his fault in the first place… I tend to take
the defensive position when I apologise because I need to defend my self-worth.
It is an ego thing. I feel more worthy and my self-esteem is less wounded if I
justify, blame another, make excuses or minimize the wrong I have done. I need
to learn how to go and be reconciled as the Lord Jesus has asked his disciples
to do. I need to acknowledge that I have hurt someone, ask for forgiveness and
if need be, offer what I can to repair the damages I have caused.
Maybe some of you are like me, preferring not to talk
about conflicts because it is uncomfortable, embarrassing and because admitting
my limitations makes me feel small. Maybe some of us think that making the
first move to reconcile is unthinkable, I am the parent, how can I apologise to
my children? I am after all the older generation. I eat salt more than they eat
rice! The younger ones need to respect me! I am the teacher, how can I
apologise to my students? I know more! I am a leader, how can I apologise to
someone under my care? etc…or maybe some of us think that initiating
reconciliation is to admit defeat. I don’t want to lose!
If we have those thoughts, we are more likely to delay
reconciliation; more likely to wait for the other person to start the
reconciliation process. The Lord has clearly instructed us to initiate the
reconciliation and to do so QUICKLY. The word “Quickly” indicates
an urgency in reconciliation as urgent as dealing with cancer cells in our
body. We need to be quick to reconcile for 2 reasons, lest the anger with
another becomes something uncontainable and lest we be destroyed because we
refuse to acknowledge our sins and because we refuse to forgive our neighbour.
“What can
I do to reconcile with my neighbour?” Remember and Go Quickly.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us come before the
Lord to ask Him to reveal to us the faces of our neighbour that we need to
reconcile with. This person could be someone very close to us and whom we
treasure but something is amiss between us and them. Words of anger uttered or
not may have hurt the relationship we have with this person. The history of
this hurt may be from long ago, festering and eating at us and at our
relationship with this person. Offer this to the Lord, for a broken spirit and
a contrite heart, the Lord will not despise. Allow His Holy Spirit to give us
the insight, courage and willingness to seek reconciliation with this person.
Reconciliation can be absolutely liberating. It’s never too late to be liberated.
The truth will set you free. Are we free, my brothers and sisters?
Jesus said to His disciples, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly
not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
To be a disciple of Christ is liberating but it is also
costly. May the Lord enable us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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