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.
Mathew 5:21-22
July 2024
Rules matter. When I drive Isaac to school the speed limit changes from 40 mph to 25 mph at the edge of town because there is a sports complex adjacent to South Prairie elementary school. The speed zone changes to keep children safe. The sign alerts me to the possibility that kids chasing errant soccer balls might come running into the street.
Rules can’t change my heart. The point of a speed limit sign is to encourage safe driving. But a sign can’t make me a safe driver. I can drive recklessly at 25 mph just as easily as I can at 40 mph. I might follow the law to avoid paying a fine and to keep my license but that is different from following the law because I desire to be careful.
The Civil Rights legislation of the 1960’s was necessary to ensure black Americans had equal protection under the law. The rules matter. People had to sacrifice their lives to ensure these rights were granted. But the rules don’t have the power to change hearts. A diner owner could serve black citizens lunch at his lunch counter because the law forced him to do so, and he could still be a racist.
Rules matter and, in many cases, they matter a lot. But rules aren’t enough.
In the next section of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21-48), Jesus gives six case studies on what it looks like to live lives that go beyond the “righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.” Each of these case studies begins with the phrase, “You have heard it was said…” and then Jesus quotes from the Old Testament law. Then, Jesus gives a deeper interpretation of that law. Simply following the rules isn’t enough. Jesus goes after our hearts.
Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder…’ but I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.”
We will look closely at anger in the next article. But for now, notice what Jesus is doing. Often these six case studies are described as Jesus’ intensifications. Jesus (seemingly) intensifies the law. Not only does Jesus want us to not murder; he also wants us to root anger out of our hearts.
I have often used that term - intensification - when talking about the Sermon on the Mount. However, I’m not sure it is the right way to think about what Jesus is doing here. Jesus isn’t intensifying the Old Testament law; he is showing us what the law was always intended to do. God didn’t somehow change his mind once Jesus arrived as if it was okay to simmer with anger before as long as we didn’t kill anyone. God always wanted our hearts to be filled with peace, patience, joy, long suffering, and love.
I am currently rereading a book by George Ladd called The Gospel of the Kingdom. It is an older book but really helpful in understanding Jesus’ most frequent subject - the Kingdom of God. I came across this quote yesterday: "The life which Christ came to bring us is the life of God’s kingdom.”
Jesus didn’t just come to make more rules for us to follow. He came to empower us to live out the values of God’s kingdom here on earth. One of the results of that new power is the ability to follow the rules but it won’t seem like rule following. Instead, it will seem like the most natural, wise and fulfilling way to live.
Darrell Johnson says that when we first read the Sermon on the Mount it seems like what Jesus is telling us is impossible. But then Johnson says that the more Jesus’ life and death and resurrection become a part of who we are, we begin to see that the teaching in Jesus’ Sermon is the only possible way to live. A life driven by anger or lust or contempt or revenge or coercing or manipulation or any of the other things Jesus addresses in Matthew 5-7 is really no life at all.
When God’s kingdom is fully here, we won’t need any more rules. I will drive safely (if we have cars in the new heavens and the new earth) not because the sign tells me to or a $150 fine threatens me. I will drive safely out of love for my neighbor. When God’s kingdom is fully here, the 10 commandments will no longer be needed. Not because we will be allowed to murder in the new heavens and the new earth, but because it would never occur to us to do so.
The incredible idea of the good news of Jesus is that we, with God’s help, can begin living that future kind-of-life now. Yes, learning the life of Jesus will mean following Jesus’ “rules.” But it won’t feel like rule keeping. It will feel like we are finally, actually living. Jesus is inviting us into real life.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Doug
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