What we get wrong II

[This is the second part in a sermon series about the Sermon on the Mount and the ways that we misunderstand it or only partially understand it.  We begin and end in small group discussion, and last week it went very well.  It's an experiment that we will keep practicing.  Please keep us in your daily prayers as the weather gets colder and it is more tempting to go home and crawl into bed after classes.  Also, please pray for our new and young students that God would continue to draw them into relationship and community.}

Matthew 5:17-25
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 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.

 “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.’  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.  “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,  leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. “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.

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Whenever we speak, it seems that people hear what they want to hear.  Every time I preach, I pray the quick prayer, "Lord, that thing that you do between my mouth and their ears - do it again today."  It amazes me when I hear people talk about what they learned from a sermon I preached.  Because sometimes someone will get something great out of sermon ... but it totally wasn't what I thought I was trying to say.  I love hearing the way that God uses my sermon in ways that I could never anticipate.

If someone stands in the city center and yells out "Slava Ukraina" - there are perhaps three groups of hearers.

 - perhaps some will hear who share the patriotism who will respond "Heroim Slava"
 - perhaps there will be some who are of a different political position who will hear only nationalistic propaganda
 - and perhaps there will be some foreigners who will just wonder why people are shouting.

When Jesus stood up to speak, the crowd was not all of one mind.  We all love Jesus - and so, it is easy to picture a crowd forming around Jesus of adoring disciples: gently and quietly listening, hanging on his every word.  But this probably wasn't the case.  Throughout the scripture, the crowd surrounding Jesus is painted as more of an unruly mob than a gentle flock.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were brooding with their arms crossed and the fanatics were throwing themselves at Jesus to be healed and perhaps only those who were slightly skeptical were sitting gently and listening intently.

So everyone heard the words of Jesus differently, right?

- The Pharisees heard every word and they looked to find some way to twist it to make it sound like Jesus was going to destroy their religion.
- The fanatics were hoping that Jesus was really going to destroy the old religion and the way that it worked.
- The skeptical hoped for something better, but expected new and different rules.

and Jesus has to take all of these different ideas and unite them behind the truth ... which was different than what each group heard, right?

Many people called the Old Testament The Law and the Prophets.  In this sentence Jesus comes close to saying that, but instead of "and" - he says "or".  And this seems like such a tiny difference that we might skip over it - but it's key to the story.  The Prophets sometimes seemed to say things that contradicted The Law.  You don't get very far into the book of Hosea before reading that God told Hosea to marry a prostitute ... just, to put a radical example out there.  If we just read a book of the Bible like Leviticus, it is really easy to get overwhelmed by rules and regulations - and in the Psalms David calls the law perfect, and then he talks about the Messiah who will come to save Israel ... and this is contradictory because it might seem that it was the laws that kept them clean and kept them close to God.

And the Pharisees they loved to sit for hours and argue over which of the laws were the lightest and which were the heaviest.  Which were most important and which were least important.  It was like a card game for the religious elite.    

When Jesus uses "or" instead of and - he makes a very crucial point.  Sometimes it seems that the law and the prophets contradict each other or have different ideas.  Some of the laws were more important than another.  The point that Jesus makes is that He is the one who brings it all together.

Jesus didn't come to destroy or abolish or remove the law

Jesus came to fulfill the law.  He came to fulfill the prophecies.

Jesus is what holds the law and the prophets together.  Jesus completes all of the law.  The final words of The Law were the words that Jesus spoke on the cross.  "It is finished."

All the rules, all the games, all the arguments about weightiness of laws, all the struggles about the contradiction.  All of the religious games, they stayed up on that cross after Jesus was brought down.  Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. He gave them their full meaning.  Jesus was the "Perfect Law" that the Psalmist had been talking about.

Because the Pharisees had made it their job to dissect and pull apart the laws.  They worked to find loopholes.  They knew how to follow the law to the letter, to walk right on the line and never cross it.

And Jesus takes the line away.

This is the point of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus takes all the arguments and changes and justifications that the Pharisees have made and he tears them apart.

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It's easier to be told exactly what to do.  Rules are easier than freedom.  This is why Islam is growing and some cruel and heartless sects grow - because they are based on rules and regulations and the simple formula of good crossing out bad.  If you do more good than bad then you go to "paradise."

And Christianity completely rejects this idea.  Jesus calls us to live in freedom.

Jesus fulfills the law.  The Old Testament Jews were told to give 10% and Jesus taught the Christians to give generously of all that they had.  10% was mandated by a rule - 100% was the freedom that Christians found in Christ.

In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the commandments that the Pharisees had gotten so wrong and he shows them what was actually meant and he challenges the people to live in a better and more generous way.

And Jesus says, "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 this is so painfully radical, because the Pharisees were good.  Now - they were empty and they didn't understand, but they were good people.  It's easy for us - and I do this all the time - to think of the Pharisees as being bad people.  But they really tried to be good.  Just as good as they had to be.  Jesus is telling the crowd that if these are the most faithful men that you know, you better be a lot more faithful than they are if you want to EARN your way into heaven.  Its not about the rules.   It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ.  If this is confusing - come and talk with me or Volodya or the Ericas or anyone from our servant group and we will try and explain this better.  

The Pharisees were faithful to the rules.  Jesus wanted them to be faithful to God.

There is a huge difference between being faithful to the rules and being faithful to God.  God might call you to break all the rules.  God might call you to marry a prostitute.  You might end up in prison for following where God leads you.  Stranger things have happened.  This is the freedom that Christ asks us to embrace - we aren't asked to be faithful to the rules, we are asked to be faithful to God.

Amen.