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The news the last two weeks have been disheartening. It would be very easy to condemn the bad guys and move on, but that would be looking outward, and in the context of this church, we need to look inward. We need to see how it is impossible to reach the levels of goodness we are called to, and how we – and everyone involved – need Jesus.
So Jesus here is discussing his relationship to the Law. He himself will follow the Law down to the smallest portion, living out the Law to its fullest extent. Jesus was the embodiment of loving God and loving others, the building described by the blueprints of the Law.
The Law thus fulfilled in its smallest part, Jesus gives a new command. Rather than loving via the written law of Moses, we follow what James calls the “royal law.” The Mosaic law was for a specific culture and context, but the Law as embodied in Christ is universal. The standard of love embodied in Christ becomes our new goal. Did this raise or lower the bar? In Jesus’ audience, the majority of people followed the Law as best they could, but did not necessarily make special efforts.
But the the Pharisees, on the other hand, made following the Law a full time job. They went above and beyond, tithing more than necessary, hedging the Law and following rules even above and beyond the Law. And yet Jesus says that God’s standard is even beyond the example of this Pharisees.
Not even beyond, but simply of an entirely different kind – killing is not just about the end result, but about the moral starting point. Anger, hatred, prejudice, slander and pride all flow from the same spring. And that is difficult to deal with when our anger and hatred are pointed at that prejudice and slander.
So what does God say about anger? Anger should be slow to come. James tells us to be slow to anger because human anger does not accomplish God’s end. Anger should be short lived – do not let the sun go down on it.
Anger should not be a characteristic of our tongue. Again, James says that if we respond with speech in unrestrained anger, our “religion is worthless.”
Responding to anger with anger and hatred with hatred, we accomplish nothing. But the takeaway here is not “five ways to be less angry.”
The takeaway is that we are worse than we thought we were before, we are trapped in cycles of anger and resentment. We are no more righteous than anyone else we have seen.
But there is another path to righteousness. As with Abraham, faith is credited to us as righteousness. The gospel is not just what we go to for our initial salvation, but what we must go back to again and again for confession, repentance and a shift of our focus back to Christ as our model and source of the capability to love.
– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA
Matthew 5:17-22
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