What Jesus said he was going to do was offer teaching about how the Torah is fulfilled and so if you have something that’s fulfilled, you have something that’s real, but also it’s pointing to some greater, more full reality, realized in some way. Jesus used the commands as pointing to some way of life or way of living that is bigger and more expansive and deeper than just the words of the command itself. Jesus is modeling a relationship to the commands of the Torah that he wants his followers to emulate, to see in them the wisdom of God, what is the kind of human life and relationships that fulfill the deepest intention of these commands, it fulfills the Torah. Jesus expects that his followers will be persecuted, but what he also expects is that people will respect their way of life and the way they relate to each other within their community.
Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus says whoever was angry at his brother or says to his brother you good for nothing and you are presenting your offering and you, oh yeah I was angry at and insulted my brother and he has something legitimate against me, I called him a good for nothing yesterday. And now you’re going to the God of Israel, surrendering your everything to him as if you and God are on good terms, but you wronged your brother. So don’t go up to Jerusalem and waltz into God’s presence thinking you’re automatically on good terms because you’re bringing an offering. No, things are not right in the Kingdom of God, God doesn’t care about your offering if you have this other thing here. The point is, it’s so important, do it as soon as possible, you don’t want to face the judge when you’re in the guilty position. You call someone an idiot, Jesus says you’ll be guilty before the court, before the Sanhedrin, before the gehenna of fire, you don’t want to show up to court guilty, you want to show up to court having settled matters.
Don’t murder, one of the 10 Commandments and notice what Jesus does, he doesn’t say, you’ve heard that it was said in the Torah, don’t murder, but he says whoever commits murder will be guilty by the court. Jesus is going to talk about what God’s will is being revealed in the Commandment, but at a base level, ending the life of another human is punishable by the court. But Jesus wants to then invite us to see that there is something deeper, there’s some value that’s at work here underneath the command driving its heartbeat. If I’ve gone through my whole life never having murdered someone, does that mean I automatically have lived by the will of God and that’s where Jesus would say, no. But what if everybody your life hates you, because you belittle them and devalue their contributions at work and you think you’re better than everybody else. In Jesus’ mind, that is a human being who’s just as distorted and it’s just as punishable by the courts and this matters to God, just as much as murder.
Jesus says everyone who is angry with his brother is guilty before the court, but in Kingdom reality, what if you knew you would be held as equally accountable for an expression of anger, that’s his point. What kind of anger is Jesus getting at here, there’s anger and there’s anger and he is going to have three examples that unpack anger. Whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing or empty one. Contempt, that’s the second one and then the third one, whoever says you idiot. Notice that the description of the misbehavior actually gets less intense, you go from murder, to anger, to insults, the action decreases in what we perceive as intensity, but notice the consequences increase, from court, to the Sanhedrin, to gehenna of fire. Notice this, it’s surely a clever inversion by Jesus, as things get less intense in what we perceive as less significant ways of being angry, Jesus is ratcheting up the consequences.
Jesus seems to intentionally want to completely scramble our sense of values and to force you to really think underneath the issues here. Contempt, a relational posture towards somebody, who I sit in the seat of the evaluator, I have evaluated your life, the way you live, what and who you are in the world and I declare, you are good for nothing, you don’t matter. Let’s get underneath it, when you murder someone, whether you think about it or not, you’re making a public declaration that this person’s existence has no value. I will take it upon myself to sit in the seat of saying this person has no value, I erased their life. Jesus’ point, why does he go to anger and then not just anger, but particularly contemptuous anger, it becomes clear, not just that you don’t value the life of another person, you are happy to declare to the world that you are the judge of their value. A great example of wisdom teaching, where Jesus forces you to go ponder what he’s saying, what does anger, contemptuous insult and murder all have in common, it puts me in the evaluator seat of this person’s dignity and worth and value.
The year of the “VAV,” the year of connection, not hype, not date setting, not fear, but discernment.
Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus says whoever was angry at his brother or says to his brother you good for nothing and you are presenting your offering and you, oh yeah I was angry at and insulted my brother and he has something legitimate against me, I called him a good for nothing yesterday. And now you’re going to the God of Israel, surrendering your everything to him as if you and God are on good terms, but you wronged your brother. So don’t go up to Jerusalem and waltz into God’s presence thinking you’re automatically on good terms because you’re bringing an offering. No, things are not right in the Kingdom of God, God doesn’t care about your offering if you have this other thing here. The point is, it’s so important, do it as soon as possible, you don’t want to face the judge when you’re in the guilty position. You call someone an idiot, Jesus says you’ll be guilty before the court, before the Sanhedrin, before the gehenna of fire, you don’t want to show up to court guilty, you want to show up to court having settled matters.
Don’t murder, one of the 10 Commandments and notice what Jesus does, he doesn’t say, you’ve heard that it was said in the Torah, don’t murder, but he says whoever commits murder will be guilty by the court. Jesus is going to talk about what God’s will is being revealed in the Commandment, but at a base level, ending the life of another human is punishable by the court. But Jesus wants to then invite us to see that there is something deeper, there’s some value that’s at work here underneath the command driving its heartbeat. If I’ve gone through my whole life never having murdered someone, does that mean I automatically have lived by the will of God and that’s where Jesus would say, no. But what if everybody your life hates you, because you belittle them and devalue their contributions at work and you think you’re better than everybody else. In Jesus’ mind, that is a human being who’s just as distorted and it’s just as punishable by the courts and this matters to God, just as much as murder.
Jesus says everyone who is angry with his brother is guilty before the court, but in Kingdom reality, what if you knew you would be held as equally accountable for an expression of anger, that’s his point. What kind of anger is Jesus getting at here, there’s anger and there’s anger and he is going to have three examples that unpack anger. Whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing or empty one. Contempt, that’s the second one and then the third one, whoever says you idiot. Notice that the description of the misbehavior actually gets less intense, you go from murder, to anger, to insults, the action decreases in what we perceive as intensity, but notice the consequences increase, from court, to the Sanhedrin, to gehenna of fire. Notice this, it’s surely a clever inversion by Jesus, as things get less intense in what we perceive as less significant ways of being angry, Jesus is ratcheting up the consequences.
Jesus seems to intentionally want to completely scramble our sense of values and to force you to really think underneath the issues here. Contempt, a relational posture towards somebody, who I sit in the seat of the evaluator, I have evaluated your life, the way you live, what and who you are in the world and I declare, you are good for nothing, you don’t matter. Let’s get underneath it, when you murder someone, whether you think about it or not, you’re making a public declaration that this person’s existence has no value. I will take it upon myself to sit in the seat of saying this person has no value, I erased their life. Jesus’ point, why does he go to anger and then not just anger, but particularly contemptuous anger, it becomes clear, not just that you don’t value the life of another person, you are happy to declare to the world that you are the judge of their value. A great example of wisdom teaching, where Jesus forces you to go ponder what he’s saying, what does anger, contemptuous insult and murder all have in common, it puts me in the evaluator seat of this person’s dignity and worth and value.
The year of the “VAV,” the year of connection, not hype, not date setting, not fear, but discernment.
