Tag: God

Red Letter Year: 3/18

Matthew 5:21-32

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.

You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’ But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.”

Comments

Interesting that this is our Red Letter Year reading on the same day my other post is about God not being about rules the way religion is. I promise I didn’t plan that out. I wrote the other one first before even looking at today’s passage (probably should cross check beforehand next time). But perhaps it is fitting because this passage has been overused quite a bit in the rule production racket. The last one here on divorce has especially been used against people when they are already suffering. Hard to imagine Jesus wanting us to use his teaching to kick a person while they’re down. So what are we to do with these commands?

I find it interesting that very conservative, religious folks want to post copies of the Ten Commandments all over the place. I never hear of anyone wanting to post The Sermon on the Mount up instead. I think that’s because the Ten Commandments come off as kind of easy. Don’t kill anyone? Okay, I can do that. Don’t steal? Got it. Don’t bear false witness? You mean like officially, don’t say untrue things that get people in legal trouble? Sure, I can handle that. I’m not saying I have kept them all perfectly my whole life, but I probably have good stretches where none of the Ten gets broken. You probably do better than me.

But this stuff, what Jesus says here? No way. I can’t do this stuff. It’s March Madness, I know for a fact before it’s over, some ref is getting called names by me (whether out loud or in my head – same thing, Jesus goes inside the head!). Gouging out eyes and cutting off hands? What? And that’s just the point Jesus is making. We reduce the commands of God to things we can keep ourselves. We often apply uneven standards, harder on some, easier on others, but for the most part we interpret them in ways that guarantee we can adhere to them. So Jesus explains just how far we really are from keeping them at all, how utterly dependent we are on him to save us from our sinful condition and enable us to obey God in a real, meaningful way. We want to make it so we aren’t dependent on the Holy Spirit to obey, but Jesus won’t let us have that because He knows our own efforts at making an keeping laws always end up in slavery and suffering. Only obedience on his terms leads to freedom and joy.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Red Letter Year: 3/13

Matthew 4:12-25

12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 13 He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.”

17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.

21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

23 Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 24 News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—he healed them all. 25 Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Comments

Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Matthew is about to give us a lot more of Jesus’ teaching, but he begins with this as a summary statement. The Sermon on the Mount is an explanation of what it means to repent of our sins, what it means to turn to God, what it means to live with the Kingdom drawn so close. If you look back to Matt. 3.2 you will see that this is word-for-word what John said there, the message is the same as both (for Matthew) are the culmination and fulfillment of all God’s promises and prophecies to Israel. The command comes in two parts, repent of your sins and turn to God, but they describe one motion. Repenting literally means to turn away from, in turning the direction of your life from pointing to sin and self to pointing to Jesus, you have undergone the turning-away-and-toward action and are ready to live according to the Great Sermon that is about to begin, ready to live in the truth that the Kingdom is very close, ready to embrace the fullness of the calling, which is always a call to discipleship, always a call to follow and fish for humans. You don’t have to recite a specific prayer or swear allegiance to any certain creed, but you do have to take that first step, actually more of a basketball pivot, turning around, pointing your compass Jesus-north, and then commence following Jesus. And don’t be fooled, a lot of people who call themselves Christians and consider themselves “saved” have never done this. Jesus did not come to make converts, Jesus came to make disciples, followers, doers. And what do these followers do? Read verses 23 and 24 again. That’s what followers do.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.