Thursday, 10^th week in ordinary – Matthew 5:20-26

The text is part of the Sermon on the Mount which encompasses chapters five to seven of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus is making a shift from mere external obedience to the law of Moses to the internal conditions of the heart. He will do this by presenting his disciples with what have been come to be known as ‘hyper thesis’. Today we look at the first of these six hyper theses.

Jesus is pointed when he emphasizes that reconciliation with others is a prerequisite for a right relationship with God. Yet he begins by raising the baseline of righteousness to what seemed a superlative level. He says that the disciple’s righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. If not, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

This was a hard ask! For the masses, the scribes and the Pharisees were known for their strict external adherence to the law. They represented the pinnacle of religious devotion. On the surface, it seemed an impossible ask from simple peasants, uneducated in the Torah. But Jesus was demanding a righteousness that was not merely external but internal; he wanted his disciples to have a heart level purity that goes far beyond ticking the box of liturgical rubrics.

In today’s text, Jesus addresses a spiritual failing that we are all culpable of; anger. While the commandment was emphatic that one cannot kill, Jesus wants us to us to trace the root of murder to its emotional source. For Jesus, harbouring anger, insults or contempt against a brother or sister, violates the spirit of the commandment.

For Jesus, God prioritizes human reconciliation over ritual sacrifice and hence it is important that any ritual action of bringing a gift to the altar to seek God’s favour would be met with indifference from God. God refuses to let us use religious activity to escape the hard, messy work of apologizing and making things right with the people around us.

The Pharisees used religious perfectionism as a shield to hide their lack of love. A clean reputation means nothing if our resentment is dirty. It is terrifyingly easy to use good habits; theological knowledge, strict ethics, volunteer work etc. to camouflage a cold judgmental heart. We cannot lift clean hands to God in worship if those same hands are actively choking a neighbour through malice or silent treatment.

God reads our internal motivation not just our external restrain of not physically killing someone. Jesus is not looking for a spotless external checklist. This begs the question; am I actually a truly loving person, or am I just skilled at hiding my bitterness so that I look good to others? True righteousness is not the absence of bad behaviours but the presence of holy love.

Jesus wants us to focus on the little things that might eventually lead us to grave and sinful actions. From careless gossip to internet trolling, such verbal assassination are serious offences in the eyes for God as any physical violence. Today, the world does not recognize the spiritual crisis that exists, when we diminish the dignity of another human being who is made in the image and likeness of God. Verbal assassinations are just as lethal to the soul as violence is to the body.

Unresolved anger is a ticking clock on the way to the debtor’s prison because resentment has a compounding nature. Anger is a terrible tenant; it eats away at the mind that houses it. Hence conflict must be dealt with quickly or it hardens into malice and paralyzes our spiritual life. We become prisoners of our own making. Do not let today’s irritation become tomorrow’s prison.

In verse 23, Jesus says, “if your brother has something against you..” Notice that Jesus does not say, ‘wait until you have a grudge.’ He demands that you move even if someone else is harbouring hurt. Jesus removes the passive excuse of, “well they have not come to talk to me about it.” We cannot claim to be peaceful just because our rage stays locked inside our mind.

Jesus’ advice for dealing with anger is urgent; do it on the way to court. He understands that anger hardens with time. What is simply a misunderstanding today can become a concrete wall of hatred by next week. The longer we wait to address our rage, the harder it becomes to break out of its prison.

Anger is also incredibly addictive because it makes us feel instantly superior to the person who wronged us. When we nurse a grudge, we cast ourselves as the innocent judge and the other person as the villain. Nursing a grudge makes you a crooked judge in a court of your own making. All that resentment does is to crown you as judge while crucifying your character.

If anger equals murder, then we are all guilty. While this may feel incredibly heavy, we recognize the need for a Saviour. We must then focus on the grace of God for our salvation.