Matthew 5:21-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 31, 2023.
We will continue looking at the Sermon on the Mount today.
We looked at the Introduction that Jesus gives to the Kingdom in Matthew 5:3-16. There he challenged his audience to quit looking at what they don’t have and to start seeing what they do have. God was opening the door to the Kingdom for them in Jesus, in fact, he is The Door to The Kingdom (John 10:1-9).
Jesus then gave them three metaphors to help them see what God was wanting to do through those who entered the Kingdom. He wanted them to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city on a hill. Each of these speak to the spiritual impact believers in Jesus would have on the world around them.
Just like a door is a transitional spot between two different places, so the presence of Jesus brought Israel into a transitional spot between being the nation through whom God was primarily working to choosing to follow Messiah into a new reality.
In verse 17, Jesus begins to develop his first major point by stating his purpose to fulfill the Law of Moses, rather than destroying it. In verse 21, he then points to six places in the Law of Moses in order to show how Israel’s leaders were missing the mark and how they could hit it. Let’s look at our passage.
Verses 21-26 are the first look at the Law, which focuses on the Sixth Commandment of The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. “You shall not murder.”
Before we get into looking at what Jesus says about murder, there are some structural issues to take note of in each of these six case studies.
Jesus will always start out with what they have heard from their teachers in expounding the Law. He will then contrast that with what he teaches them now. Lastly, Jesus then moves to give some “therefore” statements, which highlight the fact that he intends us to think about the implications of what he teaches. The therefore sections flesh out what it would look like to heed his teaching.
In each of these, if we treat Jesus like another rabbi, and if we approach his words like the Pharisees approached the Law of Moses, then we will only be focused on the letter. Jesus would simply be adding more laws to the 613 that they already had. Yet, this is not what Jesus intends. The words that he speak are a representation of him and what is in his heart. They draw us into relationship with The One who spoke them so that we can be led by His Holy Spirit to “flesh out” his intention for us.
Another issue is this. Any honest look at the Law of Moses will see that they are not all of the same kind. There are different types of laws. The most obvious are the moral laws, which say things like, “You shall not murder.” Murdering is inherently wrong, evil. It will always be wrong because we do not have the authority to murder people, any more than to rape them or take all of their things.
A second category are the ritual laws, sometimes called ceremonial laws. These have to do with how the tabernacle, the temple, would work. You will notice in these laws about sacrifices, etc., that there is nothing inherently good about killing a bull in a special way, and in a special place, every time you sin. They were symbolically pointing to greater spiritual truths. This is part of the tutor, or schoolmaster, purpose of the Law. They are only a moral obligation because Israel covenanted with God to do them. Like a parent telling a child what they should do, the moral issue is not something like what time you go to bed, but rather about whether or not you will listen to your parents, even greater, God.
Lastly, there are civil laws that described how Israeli society would operate and the things they would do to set themselves apart from the world around them, whether in diet or dress, etc. Some of these categories have overlaps.
In the first century, Jesus had to qualify his teaching by stating that he is not trying to abolish the Law of Moses. It is interesting to me that most would accuse me of trying to bring people back under the law. This is not what I am doing. To be clear, Christians are not under the covenant of the Law that began at Sinai. Yet, we need to hear the heart of our master here.
There were laws that also talked about manslaughter and what to do in those cases, but let us stick to what Jesus is doing here.
Jesus begins with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said to those of old…” As I said earlier, this points to the teachers that they are hearing in their day. Jesus refers to their teaching in order to set up a contrast with his own teaching.
More than contrasting, he is demonstrating that there is something that these teachers are doing that is in error. On one hand, Jesus will show us how God intended the Law to be followed, and yet on the other hand, Jesus is preparing to cut a new covenant that would require his death and resurrection. This gives us a dual point of how the law should be heard, but also moving on to the new thing that God is doing.
The shepherd of their day are not good shepherds. So, what was their error?
Their teachers have been focusing on the letter of the Law, which over time had accreted a large number of precedents and rabbinical “case-law.” They emphasized the outward conformity to the Law, but ignore that these are the instructions of a loving Father who is more concerned about the moral character that would drive their actions, than simply wanting outward conformity.
Have you ever listened to lawyers twisting every word that is said by someone in order to get their client off, or if you are the prosecutor, to nail the defendant to the wall? To a lawyer, the law is merely a challenge. It simply becomes something to be manipulated to your favor. Surely, God could never be pleased by people twisting His words.
In the case of murder, they simply taught that you would be liable to the judgment if you murdered someone. Of course, it is not bad to teach this. The error is in what is missing, the heart of the One who gave the Law, and the heart of those who were receiving it.
It is interesting that the Bible begins with two chapters about the work of God in making all things “very good.” However, the next two chapters are very bad. Genesis chapter four is often seen as the first murder. Cain murders his brother, Abel. Notice that God sees that Cain’s heart is wrong (i.e., Cain hasn’t murdered anyone yet). Like a good father, God speaks to Cain about what happened and what was going on in his heart. He warns Cain to control himself because sin sought to have mastery over him. Any true father is not content to merely have sons who don’t murder one another. You want sons who have his heart for their brother. He wants us to honor how He feels towards our brother, our neighbor, even our enemy.
By the way, Genesis four is actually a story about two murders. Lamech kills a young man who had injured him, and we see him justifying himself. The chapter ends with violence filling the earth.
Yet, don’t miss that Genesis three is also a story about two murders (or potentially, the murder of the human race). The serpent, the devil, seduces Adam and Even into an action that brings death into their lives. The pre-flood civilizations did not go deep enough. They abused the mercy of God to Cain (not capital punishment) and refused to go deeper into their hearts. In the end, the world was filled with murder because the hearts of men were full of murder. All of this begs the Genesis :26 question, just who were they imaging? It wasn’t their Creator, it was their own murderer, Satan.
After laying out what they were being taught, Jesus turns on the phrase, “but I say to you…” Jesus does not have the kind of credentials that their teachers had. Just who does he think he is? Well, he is the One sent from God, and thus, he has credentials that none of them had.
Jesus gives three statements. The first is about being angry with your brother. The version that I have been using adds the phrase, “without a cause.” This phrase is debated because there are some early manuscripts that do not have it. The question then becomes, was it added or was it taken out? There doesn’t seem to be a good reason to take it out. But, if it wasn’t there, putting it in would soften a harsher statement. I would simply say that the apostles would later teach us to be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26 quoting Psalm 4:4). Anger isn’t so much the problem, as it is the source of our problem. Anger has a lot of power and our flesh tends to use the force of anger in order to push us into sinful actions. James 1:20 tells us that “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
So, even if my brother did something that I am rightly angry over, I am still in danger of sinning. I will come back to deal with the warning Jesus gives.
This first one had to do with internal thoughts and feelings of anger. Jesus then moves to two outward actions that show contempt for our brother who has angered us. Calling someone “Raca” was essentially calling them an empty-headed person, a numbskull, a dunderhead, an idiot, and I could go on. It is contempt for them intellectually. Calling someone “You fool! (the Gk is from the word where we get moron) also had a sense of poor intellect. However, for Hebrews this word also had spiritual connotations (it generally doesn’t for us). The fool is a person who willfully ignores the teaching and ways of God in order to make their own way. Yes, it is foolish, but it is also a rejection of God. There is a immoral component to it. Thus, this is to have contempt for your brother intellectually and spiritually.
Notice that as Jesus moves through these three things that he starts with them being liable to the judgment, and then to the Council (the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem), and finally to the “Gehenna of fire” (my version says hellfire). No human can put you in the Gehenna of fire, which was a phrase used to speak of God’s judgment. This then begs the question of what judgment and what council he was speaking about before? Regardless, something as small as calling your brother a name is coming from a dark place that God will not put up with. They were definitely not thinking that they were in danger of God throwing them into Gehenna for calling their brother a moron.
They should have gone deeper, but under the New Covenant that Jesus would cut with God at the cross and give to his followers, we do not serve as if following more stringent laws. We follow and serve the purposes of Jesus by the help of the Spirit of God in order to do the spirit of the law. We see this in Romans 7:6; 8:2,4; 9:29; and 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
In verse 23, Jesus moves to his first therefore statement. Notice that he has repeated the word “brother.” It is reminding us of that first actual slaying of a human being, which was done between brothers. Like Cain, our contempt and anger can push us to do heinous things against our brother, whom God loves.
This very same God desires us to reconcile and make things right. Cain needed to see that he wasn’t imaging God and turn back from anger. Even if there had been cause to be angry (in Cain’s situation, there wasn’t), Matthew 18 would later deal with what to do if you had cause to be angry. You will notice there that Jesus is promoting the same thing that he does here, reconciliation. We cannot come before God and pretend we are worshipping him while we know we have done our brother wrong. Jesus actually puts the onus on the brother who did the offending.
We can’t force reconciliation, but we can do what Romans 12:18 says. “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men…” Then verse 21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This is why Jesus boils the whole law and the prophets down to having a heart of love for God and our neighbor. Such a heart of love will express itself in actions of love. Yes, that is a hard task, but Jesus has done two huge things to help us. He has removed our sins and their judgment from over our heads, and he has given us his Holy Spirit to help us battle sin in our life. We first die to our own righteousness and then we die to our flesh. We try to make things right with all who would have ought against us before approaching God in worship.
Jesus ends this section with a second practical therefore statement, even though he does not repeat the word. People who are angry do not always think well. They are not as innocent as they may deem. In such a case, you can end up getting yourself in a pickle. Jesus envisions two angry men going to a judge and one of them is going to be shocked. Jesus thus brings up the idea of settling out of court. Would I push the issue if I was brought into court every time I became angry and ran the risk of a penalty? Imagine how many times we become angry with people and don’t give it a second thought. Yet, this is the turn of this small parable in verse 25. Just who is your adversary? Ultimately, your adversary is the devil. He seeks to prosecute you before God. You are even now on your way to the Judge of all men, the Lord Jesus. Jesus is no respecter of persons. You may win some judgments regarding your anger, but will you win them all? Wouldn’t it be wiser to make your peace with your brother in this life while you can, before you end up at the judgment seat? If something is settled out of court, then it seems that Jesus will not judge it.
Just as the fires of Gehenna were the danger earlier, here the danger is to be thrown into the prison. The prison, the holding place of wicked spirits, is not a good place to go. Some will point to the phrase, “you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny,” as hope that Gehenna is not without end. Be careful of that. It doesn’t say that you can pay it off. Rather, it emphasizes that you won’t get out until you have. This begs the question. How does a person pay off a debt when they are in prison? If the price for removing my sin was the perfect Son of God dying on a cross on my behalf, then it seems very unlikely that I will ever “pay it off.” This is intended to scare the anger out of you, or at least, wake you up to the true dangers you face.
None of us would survive such a judgment. Our only hope is to try and reconcile with our brother and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, which is merciful to those who have shown mercy.
Instead of using the lack of a murderous action as a cloak, through Jesus, God is calling us to overcome evil by dying to our righteousness, and coming alive to his righteousness. This is that righteousness which laid itself down that we might live.
May God fill us with repentance, and then with His Holy Spirit, so that we can live out the righteousness of God.