Sunday, September 20, 2009: Greater Righteousness (Part 1)

Greater Righteousness
Matthew 5: 21 – 26.

I. Introduction.

There is an interesting phrase that is repeated many times in the Old Testament: “Thus sayeth the LORD.” Some Old Testament scholars would refer to this as a “prophetic formula.” That is simply a fancy way of saying, “anytime a prophet speaks in the Old Testament, he begins with the words, ‘Thus sayeth the LORD.’”

I find the prophetic formula interesting for a couple of reasons. On one hand, it shows us what prophecy really is. Prophecy is not primarily about predicting future events. Prophecy is speaking God’s word to God’s people. Old Testament prophecy does, in fact, contain many predictive prophecies. However, the predictive nature of the prophecies has less to do with the nature of prophecy (or prophets) than it does with the nature of the One who originally gave the words to the prophet. God said it; therefore the words can be trusted. God’s word is always true…Even when God’s word contains descriptions of events that have not yet occurred in history. When the prophet announced, “Thus sayeth the LORD,” the people had a clear signal that the words could be trusted.

On the other hand, the prophet never claimed to have authority within himself. In fact, true prophets do not take credit for their words. “Thus sayeth the LORD,” shifts the authority away from a human preacher to the divine source of the words.

In my understanding of prophecy, these are two things that have never changed. Prophecy is simply speaking God’s word to God’s people. This is my role as a preacher. God’s word is the Bible. The church is God’s people. It is my responsibility as a prophet to speak God’s word to God’s people. I do not preach poetry, history or even current events. I am called by God to preach his word. I do not claim to have authority. My only authority is the Bible. If you question my authority, do so by comparing my words with the word of God.

This was also the case in Jesus’ day. Ancient Jewish rabbis did not speak on their own authority. They appealed to a greater authority whenever they spoke. It was common for the ancient rabbis to begin their teachings with phrases like, “Abraham said;” “Moses said;” or “David said.” All the rabbis did this, except one. Jesus did not appeal to a greater authority. In fact, Jesus set himself up as an authority. He spoke like no other rabbi or prophet before him. At times Jesus said, “Verily, Verily (Truly, Truly) I say to you…” Other times Jesus said, “You have heard it said…But I say to you…”

Jesus set himself up as the authority for our lives. Can he do this? Is it acceptable for Jesus to speak with such authority?

Read Matthew 5: 21 – 26.

Last Sunday, we read in Matthew 5: 17 that Jesus came into the world to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. He did not come to abolish (or set aside) the Old Testament. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament.

Jesus kept all the requirements of the Law.
Jesus lived up to all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.
Jesus accomplished the intentions of the Old Testament.
Jesus satisfied the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.

Therefore, as the only person who has fulfilled the Old Testament, Jesus does have the authority he claims for himself. Jesus could have used his authority to tell us to discard the Old Testament. Yet, he did not. Instead, Jesus used his authority to interpret the Old Testament properly and finally. In other words, when Jesus interprets the Bible, he is telling us what the Bible really means AND what the Bible will always mean.

He begins his interpretation of the Bible by describing the true meaning of the Sixth Commandment: Do not murder.

Do not murder is a better translation of the Sixth Commandment than “Thou shalt not kill.” It’s a better translation for at least two reasons. First, the Hebrew of the Sixth Commandment refers to an act of murder, and not to other types of “killing.” Second, the Old Testament does not forbid killing animals for the purpose of food or religious sacrifices. (It is completely wrong to think the Sixth Commandment teaches us to be vegetarians.) In addition, the Old Testament speaks of times when it is acceptable to kill other human beings: war and capital punishment. (The Sixth Commandment addresses murder and is not the appropriate Scripture to use against war or capital punishment.)

I think Jesus began his interpretation of the Law with the Sixth Commandment, because this one is easy. Most people have never intentionally killed another human being. AND, everyone knows if they have or have not committed murder. This is one commandment that does not require a lot of thinking. Either you have murdered or you haven’t. And if you have committed murder, you probably are not likely to forget about it. Of course, this commandment also reveals something about a person’s heart.


II. Minimalist Approach to the Law.

One of the things Jesus speaks against is a minimalist interpretation of the Law. It is possible to be a bad person who has never committed murder. Every parent knows how important it is to “draw lines” or boundaries for our children. Think about a hot stove. We don’t tell a child to touch anywhere on the stove except the hot part. We tell them not to get near the stove at all. When a child first starts riding a bicycle, we don’t want them to ride into the street. But we don’t make the edge of the street the boundary. We set the boundary far away from the street.
The Sixth Commandment is different from the boundaries we set for our own children. The Sixth Commandment says, “Do not murder.” If we draw the line at murder, there’s a lot of ground to cover before we actually get to the point of intentionally taking someone’s life.

Imagine this conversation…How did things go today? Well, first I got mad; then I started calling him names; then we broke into a fist fight. But I feel really good about myself, because I didn’t kill him.

If that is what your relationships look like, then you have set your standards too low. Sure, you have not broken the Sixth Commandment. But, what about all the other things you did? Jesus has higher standards for his followers. Jesus does not ask us to view the Law as the minimum… “At least I didn’t kill anyone.” Jesus draws the boundaries farther away.


III. Intention of the Law.

If God told us in the Old Testament not to murder each other, I think it is safe to assume that God doesn’t want us to murder each other. But, Jesus seems to teach that God had another idea in mind. Murder might be a symptom of another problem, or even the result of an ongoing issue in our hearts. It is possible to be guilty of an underlying sin problem before it manifests itself in murder. Jesus said that underlying sin problem is anger.

However, this raises an interesting problem. There are at least three places in the Bible where Jesus demonstrated anger.

In Mark 3, Jesus entered into a synagogue on the Sabbath. There was a man present who had a “shriveled hand.” The Pharisees watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. Mark 3: 5 says, “(Jesus) looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’…”

In Mark 10, we read the famous story of people bringing their children to Jesus. The disciples “rebuked” the children and their parents. Then Mark 10: 14 says, “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant…”

Then Mark 11 tells the story of Jesus’ driving the money changers out of the Jerusalem Temple, because they had turned God’s house into a “den of robbers.”

Is Jesus here condemning himself? Or is Jesus setting up a standard for his disciples that Jesus himself did not meet?

The answer can be found in the reasons why Jesus became angry. He was angry at injustice (the Pharisees cared more about the Sabbath Law than the needs of a suffering human being); preventing people from encountering Jesus; and perversion of worship. Jesus held the Kingdom of God as his highest priority. Anything that prevented the spread of the Kingdom of God angered him.

Does your anger live up to this standard? Most of the time, our anger is the result of not getting our way. That has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. That is selfishness. Selfish anger is the root of the problem.

Selfish anger leads us to attack other people. Sometimes we attack physically. Other times we attack verbally. Jesus condemns both kinds of attacks.

The first kind of verbal attack is to call our brother “Raca.” This is an Aramaic slang term for an “empty-headed” person. It would be similar to calling someone an “idiot” today.

The second kind of verbal attack is to call anyone a “fool.” Don’t call your brother an idiot; and don’t call anyone a fool. This sounds like the exact same thing in our twenty-first century ears. But, do you remember what the Old Testament says about a “fool?” Psalm 14: 1 says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’…”

The Old Testament definition of a fool is a person who does not know God. A fool is morally corrupt and outside of the community of God’s people. In other words, a fool is someone who is lost and going to hell. Jesus says that if you tell someone they are going to hell, watch out! You might be in danger of hell yourself.


IV. Relationship Problems Affect Our Worship.

A common thread running throughout each of Jesus’ illustrations about selfish anger is the reality of broken relationships. Broken relationships are a fact of life. No one has ever made it through life with all relationships intact.

Jesus tells us that our relationships with other human beings affect our relationship with God. Your relationship with your husband, wife, children, boss, employee, friends, etc. will affect your ability to worship God.

Offering a sacrifice on the altar is an expression of worship. We don’t offer animal sacrifices in our worship today, because Jesus has satisfied the sacrificial requirements. However, we do offer sacrifices. Financial offerings are one form of sacrifice. Worship through song; prayer; and participation in a Sunday morning service are other expressions of sacrifice. And, if you are here today with a broken relationship, you cannot offer your best to God in worship.

Notice what Jesus said in verses 23 – 24, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Notice that Jesus did NOT say, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that you have something against your brother…”

Jesus is not talking about the people who have offended you. Jesus is talking about the people you have offended.

Are you here today with a broken relationship? Maybe you are not responsible for the brokenness. But, maybe you ARE responsible for the brokenness.

Jesus gives us two very important instructions in this Scripture.

First, don’t murder. But to make sure that you don’t murder, draw the boundary far away from murder. Don’t be so selfish that you become angry at others.

Second, when you fail in this regard…when you get angry…when you call people names…when you are responsible for broken relationships…fix it. Reconciliation is an important part of living a Christian life. Reconciliation is Christ-like and a quality we ought to imitate. Reconciliation is important to worship. When you can’t get along with your brothers and sisters, you can’t get along with God.


V. Conclusion.

In Matthew 5: 20, Jesus said, “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.”

Jesus requires his followers to have a righteousness that is greater than the righteousness found in the rest of the world.

It’s not enough simply to resist the impulse to murder. We have to address the matters of the heart—anger and reconciliation.