Scripture reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20.
Sermon text: Matthew 5:17-32.
Most Christians would admit they have 3 areas of their lives they pray their pastors will
never discuss: Social justice, anger, and lust.
Most pastor would admit they have 3 areas they pray they never have to discuss: Social justice,
anger, and lust.
If you remember, last week’s sermon covered social justice. Guess what this week’s
sermon text involves?
We don’t want to think about our failures regarding these topics. Yet, I can think of no areas of
our society more desperately in need of authentic Christian witness than social justice,
anger, and lust. I challenge anyone to mention any other areas of our society where believers
should hold higher standards, especially in the latter. You’ll find many people from across the political and religious spectrum who believe in caring for the poor. However, nothing can provide more opportunities for the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself in our lives than our behaviors regarding anger and lust. Believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can honor God more with our behavior in these areas than in nearly any other part of our lives, primarily because our societal standards regarding anger and lust have fallen so low.
First, I want to assure you: This sermon will not stray into non-kid-friendly areas. We won’t need to call for an impromptu children’s church session today. Remember that the crowd to whom Jesus spoke on the hillside in Galilee most likely included several hundred children among the thousands who heard Him speak.
I also want to clearly state one other point before beginning this sermon. In the Sacrament of Confession from the ancient liturgies, the priests would end the session with the following words: “pray for me, a sinner.” I humbly submit myself as a sinner in these areas myself, one constantly in need of God’s forgiveness and who cannot judge another when I remain constantly aware of my own shortcomings. So, as I pray for you today, I ask that you pray for me also, a sinner forgiven by God and reconciled to Him by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, my Lord.
It helps us to see that Jesus, in the passage today, covered what we consider part of the Ten Commandments. Specifically, Jesus covered the last of the Commandments, the ones directed at our relationships with one another. Jesus’ teachings remind us that we cannot claim we love God without allowing that love to govern our relationships with one another.
This passage comes from the teachings often called “The Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus had already taught in the synagogues throughout Galilee, but on this occasion, He taught several thousand people in one sitting. As He taught, Jesus addressed several issues that affected His society and that continue to affect our societies today.
Some people had apparently begun to accuse Jesus of downplaying or reinterpreting the “Law” and the “Prophets.” In the Jewish Bible, the Law referred to the books of Moses. The Prophets referred to the historical and prophetic writings. Jesus said in response, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus then began addressing the major issue of humanity: Our desire to reinterpret God’s laws in our own way to justify our own desires. As I wrote once in a paper, “Like Satan, every sin we commit begins with the proud assumption that we are above the rules ordained by God; of all creation, we alone believe the rules do not apply to us.”
Jesus’ next words would have startled His listeners: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The “scribes and Pharisees” referred to the sects who claimed to uphold the Mosaic Law more faithfully than anyone else in first-century Judaism. The scribes had learned the Law through their copying of the sacred texts. The scribes had leveraged their familiarity with the texts into an authoritative role in Jewish society. The “Pharisees” referred to a group of Jews who had opposed Hellenism and tried to maintain traditional values in Jewish society. The Pharisees had attempted to insure their conformity to Moses’ Law by clarifying almost every point of the Law. This resulted in a list of 613 additional rules the Pharisees claimed to uphold and then tried to force on everyone else.
Jesus confirmed what the crowd already knew about these groups, primarily through pointing out the truth of the additional rules. The scribes and Pharisees had left the spirit of the Law and tried to redefine righteousness solely based on their actions. In other words, the scribes and Pharisees had departed from the truth of the Law — faithful obedience caused by a love of God and others — and replaced it with a works-based righteousness. In case you’ve missed the point in previous sermons, you need to recall that we can never work our way into God’s favor. We must rely solely on God’s grace and come to Him believing that He loves us, a love demonstrated by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Jesus then turned His attention to the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not murder.”
On the face of it, most of us can rightfully claim that we’ve never broken this commandment. I doubt that any of us here today has ever murdered another human. Jesus went beyond the killing act to address the attitude that often leads to murder.
“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
I doubt that any of us here has lived our entire lives without expressing anger in some way or other. Someone hurts us, and anger overwhelms us; someone disobeys us, and anger drives us to action; someone offends us, and we immediately and angrily defend our rights. Anger ranks as one of the most basic human emotions. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t expressed anger; I’ve also never met anyone who could exercise proper control of themselves when anger takes hold.
Christians, Jesus’ message is simple: We must control our anger. Why?
Anger gives us power, or at least the illusion of power. When we express anger, we automatically place ourselves in a position of authority that we often cannot rightfully claim. The unfortunate target of our anger finds himself in a position of humiliation, and pride often rears in response. Anger makes us think less of one another; anger makes us look down on another.
I know you’re thinking of the verses that say, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Psalm 4:4, Ephesians 4:26) and may well believe that you can express anger at another person without sinning. I’ll admit that I cannot, and I’d bet that you can’t, either. Anger tempts us to demean one another, to belittle one another, and to denigrate a person made in God’s image. We have no right to think less of another human being, no matter what he has done to us. That person on whom you’re prepared to unleash your fury matters greatly to God, enough that Jesus died and rose again for his salvation as much as for yours. You may have a right to express anger, but you must not exercise that right unless you can properly control that right.
How important is this area of our lives? Jesus told the crowd, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” This teaching proves the point. Most of us will think, “I may not express my anger, but I’ll hold onto the resentment I feel.” We cannot worship rightly in God’s presence if we have a grudge against someone else, a grudge that often began with hot anger and then settled into a slow simmer of resentment. How many of us would have to leave today if we needed to reconcile with someone to worship God with a right attitude? I encourage you to make things right with those you resent today, especially if your list includes someone in your congregation. In fact, I encourage you not to leave the church today until you’ve restored a relationship with your family member, a person who, like you, has experienced Jesus’ redemption from sin and adoption into the family of God.
Jesus also recommended a far better solution than grudges and resentment. “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.” You may not face jail over your resentment, but addressing the matter at the proper moment can save you a lot of pain. I’ve seen the results of grudges and resentments in my own family; I have relatives who have suffered for over 3 decades now because they refused to forgive someone and live in the joy of forgiveness. We cannot forget that Jesus forgave us of our sins at our confession of Him as Lord. We must forgive others.
Next, Jesus turned to lust. I want to open this part of the sermon with a story and then a moment from history.
I recall reading the following story about Pope John XXIII, one of the most influential popes of the twentieth century.
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“When he was sixty-four years old (1944), an age when most men are thinking of retirement, [Archbishop Angelo] Roncalli was chosen by Pius XII for the difficult post of nuncio to Paris, where he worked to heal the divisions caused by the war. He travelled widely. A nuncio, where they exist, has the rank of an ambassador. While in Paris, Roncalli once said: ‘You know, it's rough being a papal nuncio. I get invited to these diplomatic parties where everyone stands around with a small plate of canapes trying not to look bored. Then, in walks a shapely woman in a low-cut, revealing gown, and everyone in the whole place turns around and looks -- at me!’” — Source: James Kiefer’s Christian Biographies, http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/06/04.html
Then, the history. I remembered a treatise I read several years ago entitled, “On the Dress of Virgins.” Do you want to guess when its author wrote it? St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote this treatise in the first half of the third century A.D. Does that give you any indication of how long the Church has struggled with the issue of lust?
Jesus surprised the crowd with these words: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
This sounds extremely serious; it also sounds extremely troubling. Perhaps some man in the congregation today has managed to avoid lustful thoughts for his entire life, but I confess I haven’t. And, I must admit that I’ve learned over the years that women, too, face this temptation. I was stunned a few years ago to find a study that of those addicted to pornography, 28% were women.
You may ask, “What’s wrong with a look now and then?” Again, as with anger, the problem rests in our inability to handle “the look.” Some people can’t stop with a look; the look leads to a desire, the desire leads to danger, and some people fall for the danger. That’s why Jesus went on to address divorce. Some people find themselves unhappy with their spouses and think the person for whom they lust can fulfill their desires better than their spouses. I assure you the problems you have in your marriage will not be solved by swapping for a new spouse, because you’ll take your share of the problems into the new relationship. Besides, I promise you as someone who works and teaches in a college atmosphere: You’ll always find someone more beautiful, more vivacious, and willing to go into the danger zone with you if you’re stupid enough to travel with them. I also promise you, as someone who has seen the wreckage others have left in their lives, that the trip’s not worth the cost. Solomon — yes, the Solomon who had 700 wives and princesses and 300 concubines — wrote, in one of his saner moments, “rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Proverbs 5:18).
I’d say the problem goes further. When we view someone else in a lustful way, as with anger, we’re placing ourselves in a position of authority that we cannot rightfully claim. Lust makes us think less of one another; lust makes us look down on another. We objectify a person made in God’s image, a person for whom Christ died and rose again.
Is there a way to tie these teachings together? Of course; Jesus gave it to us. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We cannot unleash our anger on someone we love, humiliating them and degrading them; we cannot lust for someone we love, degrading them into merely an object for our pleasure. We must treat everyone we meet — and see — as a person who either already belongs to Christ as a member of our family, or as someone who should come into our family. We cannot humiliate or lust after others if we’re concerned with their eternal souls. Christian, remember that Jesus died and rose again for the person you’re trying to objectify. That person isn’t an object; he or she is an immortal, made in the image of God and created for His honor and glory.
You may say, “Can I find any hope in getting away from this? How can I free myself from these failures?” If you’re looking for a short and simple answer, one that will fit in the usual 22 minutes of a 30-minute TV sitcom, you won’t find it here. I’ll tell you only this: Jesus calls us to love God and to love each other. When we love each other as we ought, we’ll find we’re far less tempted to objectify one another. For some of us, learning to love each other this way will involve a lifelong war, not a momentary battle.
I’ll also tell you what St. Paul told the Corinthians: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ….” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). I think a lot of us — with emphasis on the us — would find ourselves much more able to resist the temptations to anger and lust if we controlled our thoughts, redirecting our minds from danger zones into the truths of Scripture and our faith.
As I said, our society today seems to glorify anger; watch any of the latest blockbusters over the past few years, and you’ll see what I mean. Our society today glorifies lust; we have generations of citizens now how think nothing of treating someone else as an object for pleasure, through pictures, movies, or worse. Imagine how the Church could impact our society if believers exercised forgiveness instead of anger. Imagine how the Church could impact our society if believers looked at physical beauty and realized the soul of that person will live forever, either in eternal joy with us and God, or in eternal separation from the Creator who died and rose again to give all humanity a chance at reconciliation and love beyond imagining.
Do you think our actions and motives would change the world? If so, live like it. Forgive someone today; resolve today that you’ll see eternal beauty and not fleeting physical attractiveness. Pray for forgiveness when you fall, and look to God and the Church for help in changing long-held attitudes and habits. And, as always: Pray for me also, a sinner.
