Loving God, you seek to transform us from the inside out, filling our hearts with your love.  Continue to work in us by the power of your Spirit, helping us to act toward others with the same love that you have for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    Imagine a community where people treat one another with love and respect.  There is no name calling and no trading insults.  There are no angry words or cold shoulders.  Instead, when something happens that produces hurt and anger, the people involved make peace with one another and are reconciled.

    Imagine a community where people are faithful to their spouses, and where both men and women are treated with dignity and respect.  The men don’t lust after other women.  The women don’t lust after other men.  The women are not punished for being seduced or raped, and the men are not allowed to get rid of their wives on a whim.  Instead, healthy relationships are encouraged, and healing and reconciliation are sought whenever possible.

    Imagine a community where people keep their promises and tell the truth.  Husbands and wives love and serve one another.  People honour the covenant relationships they have with one anther.  Nobody needs to swear to tell the truth because honesty and truthfulness are valued and practiced.  Just imagine a community where people treat one another with love and respect.

    Should you be able to imagine all this, you begin to see what God’s kingdom looks like – where each person is loved and respected, and where broken relationships are healed.  At the same time, we begin to see that simply following all of the rules isn’t enough.  God seeks to transform all of us – and that includes our hearts – and that includes our relationships.

    During Jesus’ earthly life, there were people who tried very hard to keep the letter of the law (and more!).  These were the scribes and the Pharisees, and most of them would have thought of themselves as righteous – or in a right relationship with God.  These were the ones who so often got upset when they saw Jesus breaking some of their rules.  These were also the ones who caused Jesus the most grief – particularly when they were more concerned about Sabbath laws than about healing people (Mk. 3:1-6; Lk. 13:10-17).  And so, on a number of different occasions – and today’s gospel is one of these – Jesus makes it clear that keeping the letter of the law doesn’t even begin to reflect the kind of transformation that God wants for us.

    For example, it is not enough simply to refrain from murder.  In fact, harbouring anger toward another person can be just as damaging.  Insults hurt.  Angry words hurt.  Fists hurt.  Where there is anger, it needs to be transformed into reconciliation and forgiveness in order to bring healing.  And so, making peace with one another, and treating one another with love and respect is also part of God’s will for us.

    In the same way, it is not enough simply to refrain from physically committing adultery with somebody.  In fact, it is hurtful to your spouse and damaging to your relationship if you are even looking at somebody else with lust in your heart.  Trust is a fragile thing.  Spouses have a hard time regaining that trust once it has been broken.  And so, anything we can do in our marriage relationships to show our partner that they are loved and valued is so important in terms of having a healthy and life-giving relationship.

    At the same time, Jesus addresses divorce.  The letter of the law states that a man can write a certificate of divorce for his wife if he finds something objectionable about her (Deut. 24:1-4).  So if, for example, a woman burns the bread once too often, her husband could simply write a note saying “we are divorced” and send her away.  The woman would be left without any means of making a living or a place to live, and would be considered “damaged goods” by any other man – no longer a virgin, and thus defiled.

    In essence, Jesus is saying, “Do you really think that’s how God wants you to treat one another?  You can’t just divorce your wife on a whim!  The only really good reason might be if she had committed adultery.”  While many people today read Jesus’ teaching as a rule that says that divorce is never okay, it seems to me that this really misses the point of what Jesus was teaching.  In fact, Jesus was reinforcing the dignity of women in a culture that treated women as property and that punished women for being raped.  Instead, in Jesus’ mission, women were allowed to be disciples and were treated with dignity and respect.

    The final item addressed in today’s gospel has to do with swearing and making oaths.  This is kind of like, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”  Once again, it is not enough simply to keep the oaths that we have made.  In fact, when we are in a right relationship with God, we are so used to acting with honesty and integrity and telling the truth that we don’t need to make a special oath in order for people to believe us.  So we shouldn’t need to say things like, I swear on my mother’s grave that I’m telling you the truth – or, I swear on the Bible.  There is no need to swear at all when people know us to be trustworthy.

    So, given all of this, what is the over-arching message that we hear in today’s gospel?  Is it, “You’d better watch it or you’ll be sent straight to hell?”  Is it telling us how sinful all of us are?  Is it saying to us,”You couldn’t keep the law even if you tried!”  Is it what we hear at the end of Matthew 5: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”?  Or, are we being told how deeply God cares about how we treat one another? (Workingpreacher.org)

    The thing about legalism and following lists of rules is that it is entirely possible to outwardly look as though you’re good, and then treat your family like dirt in the privacy of your own home.  It is possible outwardly to seem faithful, as the scribes and the Pharisees did, but inwardly be lacking any kind of love or mercy.  What God requires of us is not to slavishly try to keep the commandments for fear of condemnation, but rather to keep the commandments for our own good and for the good of the people around us.

    God does care deeply about how we treat one another, and the kingdom of God is characterized by each person being treated with love and respect.  God is all about healing broken relationships and reconciling those who are in the midst of conflict and recognizing the value of each and every person.  Ultimately, none of us could ever be good enough or perfect enough to enter the kingdom of God, and that’s why Jesus came.  It is he who makes us part of God’s kingdom – who washes us clean and sets us free.  It is Jesus who fills our hearts with love and empowers us by the Holy Spirit.  It is Jesus who gives us the gift of life and salvation.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Epiphany 6(A)                                Matthew 5:21-37
February 16, 2014
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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