Sermon: The Heart of the Matter (2023)

Delivered at Travelers Rest United Methodist Church in Travelers Rest, South Carolina on February 12, 2023

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The Heart of the Matter

Audio Version

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Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill...

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:17, 43-48 (NRSV)

And I will live
To carry Your compassion
To love a world that's broken
To be Your hands and feet
And I will give
With the life that I've been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your name

From “The Power of Your Name” by Lincoln Brewster

In June of 2011, I attended the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for the very first time, as the lay delegate from Bethel United Methodist Church in West Greenville.  On the last day of the conference, I attended the yearly ordination service.  It just so happened that one of the people being ordained as an elder that year, whom I did not know at the time, was Jonathan Tompkins, one of the pastors of the church I currently attend.  I must admit that, almost twelve years later, I do not remember that service very clearly.  Something I do know is that, at some point before the service, Pastor Jonathan and his fellow candidates were asked, “Are you going on to perfection?”  Because he stands before the church weekly as an elder in full connection, I know that he must have answered, “I am, by the grace of God.”¹

To be honest, it sounds a bit unreasonable to ask people if they are “going on to perfection” and then to expect them to actually answer in the affirmative.  As we all like to say, “Nobody's perfect.”  What if the question is not so unreasonable after all – for an ordained pastor or for any Christian?  Jesus tells us, His followers, to “be perfect... as [our] heavenly Father is perfect.”²  Furthermore, our Methodist forebears evidently believed that it must be possible.

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In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day Jesus ascends a mountain and begins teaching His followers.³  He begins His sermon with the Beatitudes, a series announcements of blessing upon people who would not normally be considered blessed in this world – the “poor in spirit,” the grief stricken, and the persecuted, just to name a few.⁴  One scholar describes the Beatitudes as “Jesus' surprisingly countercultural God-bless-yous to people in god-awful situations.”⁵

Next, Jesus says that His followers are both the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.”  As the “salt of the earth,” we are called to maintain our saltiness, and, as the “light of the world,” we are called to shine brightly.⁶  Christine Matthews, the other pastor of the church I attend, recently pointed out that both salt and light have purposes beyond themselves.  In the same way that salt enhances the flavor of normally bland food, we, as followers of Christ, flavor the world around us with the Presence of Christ in us.  In the same way that lamps and heaters are powered by electricity to provide light and warmth, we, as followers of Christ, carry the Light of Christ within us to people who are lost, hurting, and afraid.⁷

Jesus then makes a rather interesting statement.  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets,” He says.  “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”⁸  When Jesus speaks of the Law, He is referring to the Jewish people's instructions for living, which we can read in the first five books of the Bible.  The prophets of whom Jesus speaks are the brave souls who, in times of rampant idolatry and injustice, challenged the status quo and urged the people of God to live as God had called them to live.

There have been various interpretations regarding what Jesus means when He says that He has come “not to abolish but to fulfill” the Law and the prophets.  Something that is typically lost on us as Christians is the fact that Jesus is using some expressions that would by used by Jewish rabbis like Him.  To “abolish the Law” is to effectively undermine the Law through misinterpretation.  To “fulfill the Law,” on the other hand, is to interpret the Law in such a way those who hear are better able to follow it.⁹  Basically, Jesus is saying that He did not come to dissuade anyone from following the instructions in the Law or the exhortations of the prophets but that He came to properly interpret them.

Jesus goes on “fulfill the Law” in this sense through a series of what Doug Pagitt might call invitations to “Flip.”  A “Flip,” as described by Pagitt, is a sudden, radical change in perspective that has a profound and lasting effect on a person.¹⁰  The invitations to Flip we hear in the Sermon on the Mount are teachings that follow a particular pattern.  First, Jesus references an instruction from the Law, saying, “You have heard that it was said...”  Next, He introduces a new perspective on the instruction, saying, “But I say to you...”¹¹  When we hear these teachings, we might be tempted at first to think that Jesus is simply upping the ante in regards to previously established rules, thereby making them even more difficult to follow.  I would like to suggest that Jesus is actually revealing to us the purpose of these rules and, at the same time, calling us to live according to a standard higher than that of mere rule keepers.¹²  Rules regulate people's behavior, but Jesus is calling for transformation, because the heart of the matter is really a matter of the heart.

First, Jesus calls to mind one of the Ten Commandments,¹³ saying, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.'”  He then flips the proverbial script,¹⁴ saying, “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire.”¹⁵  Notice how Jesus takes our focus off a forbidden action, namely murder, and turns our attention to a root cause of said action, namely anger.  The commandment that prohibits murder requires us to keep our tempers under control just enough to not kill the people who make us angry.  Anger, truth be told, is inevitable in this life, but Jesus calls us to people who refuse to allow anger to fester into things like bitterness, contempt, malice, and hatred – things that, given enough time, might motivate us to act destructively.

Next, Jesus calls to mind the very next Commandment,¹⁶ saying, “You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'”  He then flips the script yet again, saying, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”¹⁷  He goes on to speak of a related instruction from the Book of Deuteronomy,¹⁸ saying,
It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'  But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.¹⁹
Even though, at this point in the sermon, Jesus' words are tailored to men living in a very patriarchal society, the underlying principles apply to all of us.

Once again, Jesus takes our focus off an action forbidden by the Commandments and turns our attention to a root cause.  The commandment that prohibits adultery requires us to be faithful to our own marriage covenants and to respect the marriage covenants of others.  By turning our attention to lust, Jesus calls us to consider how we look at other people.  He calls us to be people who view other people as human beings and treat them accordingly and not people who dehumanize other people by viewing them as objects meant to satisfy our desires.  When Jesus places limits on the provision for divorce, He is not trying to lock people into abusive or otherwise toxic marriages.  Because we are to view our partners as human beings and not as mere objects, we must not selfishly discard them when they fail to live up to our every expectation.²⁰

Jesus then starts to call to mind instructions from other parts of the Jewish Law.  He says, “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.'”²¹  In Jesus' day, people sometimes took this instruction a little too literally in order to give themselves loopholes.  If a person invoked the name of God when making a promise, then she was intentional to do what she said she would do because she had effectively made God a party in the agreement.  On the other hand, swearing by Heaven, by the Earth, or by one's own head was not unlike a child's crossing his fingers behind his back in our day.²²  Jesus then says,
But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.²³
Jesus is essentially telling us that we are accountable to God for anything we say we will do.²⁴

Nowadays, people somewhat flippantly invoke the holy when they want to emphasize that they are telling the truth, using phrases like honest to God, I swear to God, and I swear on a stack of Bibles.  People don't usually make actual solemn vows unless they take the witness stand and “solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” or stand before a clergyperson and vow “to love and to cherish” another person “till death [they] do part.”  All that said, we do tend to be more intentional about doing what we say we'll do if we use the phrase I promise.  Jesus says, “Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no.”²⁵  In other words, He is calling us to be people who can be trusted to do what we say we will do without having to make promises, vows, or oaths.  If you have to swear on a proverbial stack of Bibles to get people to believe what you say, then, to borrow some terminology made popular by Facebook, the “status” of your relationship with the truth might be “complicated.”

Jesus goes on to say, “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'”²⁶  Jesus is referring to the lex talionis, the law of retribution, which requires that a punishment fit the crime.  This law, which sets the standard for retributive justice, is nearly as old as human civilization, and it serves as the foundation of the Code of Hammurabi, which is one of the world's oldest legal codes.²⁷  It is also echoed throughout the Jewish Law.  For example, in the Book of Leviticus we read, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.”²⁸  For example, if someone broke your arm, you would not be permitted to kill him in response.  The most you could do is to break his arm.  The lex talionis effectively places a necessary limit on retribution so that people don't end up in escalating cycles of violence.

Challenging our retributive notions of justice, Jesus says,
But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.²⁹
The lex talionis served its purpose by keeping people's desire for revenge in check, but Jesus calls us beyond retributive forms of justice to something more redemptive.³⁰

Jesus instructs us not to seek retribution when we are wronged but rather to bring wrongdoings into the light in such a way that wrongdoers have to rethink their actions.  Imagine for a moment that you lived in Jesus' day.  If someone struck you on your right cheek, then, provided he was using his right hand, he would have backhanded you, meaning that he considers you to be inferior to him.  To offer him your left cheek is to invite him to hit you once again – as an equal.  If someone sued you and took your coat, giving him your shirt as a bonus would leave you naked and destitute.  Your exposed body would expose his greed.  If a Roman soldier ordered you to carry his equipment for a mile, he would only be exercising his legal right as a soldier.  Insisting on carrying his stuff for a second mile would put him in a rather awkward situation, for it would be illegal for him to require you to go any further than one mile.³¹  When we're wronged, the world says, “Don't get mad; get even”; however, Jesus instructs us to get creative.

Jesus then says, “You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'”³²  In the Book of Leviticus, we read, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”³³  Conventional wisdom is what tells us that not everyone is our neighbor and that a person is either friend or foe.  In response to our conventional wisdom, Jesus says,
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous...  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.³⁴
Though our modern ears tend to associate sunshine with happiness and rain with sadness, Jesus' original audience would consider both sunshine and rain to be blessings from God since their crops need both to thrive.  In the same way that both rain and sunshine fall upon people without discerning who is worthy or unworthy, Jesus calls us to bless people with our love and our prayers without discrimination.  Enemies are not typically people we love, so perhaps He is going so far as to call us to not even think of people as enemies.

To live as children of our Father in heaven is to love all of our heavenly Father's children, regardless of how wayward we think they are.  A wayward child of God is still a beloved child of God.  To be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect is not to achieve a state of flawlessness or to keep the rules impeccably but to love fully and indiscriminately.  I think that, with this last flip of the script, we have reached the heart of the matter in regards to all religious instructions.

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At the very beginning of the Bible, we read a poem that describes a God who speaks into existence the world and all life that dwells upon it.  Having created the lifeforms that inhabit the land, the sea, and the sky, God creates a special kind of creature who will serve as the caretaker of everything God has already created.³⁵  The ancient poem tells us,

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.³⁶

As human beings, we bear the Image of God, meaning that we resemble God in some way.  According to one early Christian theologian, the God whose image we bear is love itself.³⁷  No doubt you've heard the immortal words of St. Paul, that “love is patient,” that “love is kind,” that “love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude,” that love “does not insist on its own way,” that love “is not irritable or resentful,” that love “does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth,” and that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, [and] endures all things.”³⁸  I would add that love does not merely exercise self-control around others with gritted teeth, for love desires the good of others and even works for it.

St. Augustine once said, “Love, and do what thou wilt.”³⁹  He was not suggesting that, as long as we remember to love, we can do whatever we want.  He was saying that, if we truly loved as we were created to love, then we would never want to do anything harmful to others or to ourselves.  We were not created to follow rules; we were created to bear the Image of the God who created us.  We were given rules to follow because so often we don't look very much like a God of love.  Rules generally do not come out of nowhere.  There would be no commandment forbidding theft if people weren't already stealing from each other.  There would be no commandment forbidding murder if people weren't already solving their problems through bloodshed.  There would be no commandments forbidding the worship of idols and false gods if people weren't already committing unspeakable acts a God of love would never ask them to do.  We weren't created to follow rules, but we were given rules to follow because far too often we fail to love as God created us to love.

Jesus, toward the end of His earthly ministry, rides into Jerusalem on a donkey and begins stirring up what one might call a holy ruckus.  At one point, His detractors start asking Him loaded questions in an attempt to trap Him with His own words.  One scholar of the Jewish Law, approaches Jesus and asks Him which commandment in the Law is the most important.  Jesus replies, “'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”  Jesus then says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”⁴⁰  In other words, every instruction in the Law and every exhortation of the prophets is meant to teach us what it means to love God and to love one another.  To John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, a person who truly follows the two great commandments has gone on to perfection.  Wesley defined perfection as “the humble, gentle, patient love of God, and our neighbour, ruling our tempers, words, and actions.”⁴¹

In the end, we will be judged not by how well we followed the rules but by how well we loved.  Loving well means, among other things, working through our anger so that it doesn't fester into something harmful, seeing other people as human beings and not as objects, being true to our word, working for redemption instead of seeking revenge, and regarding all people as our neighbors and not as our enemies.  Love fulfills the requirements of the Law.⁴²  If we had loved as we were created to love, we never would have needed legal codes or prophetic voices in the first place.

Jesus was not interested in regulating anyone's behavior, for He had come to transform hearts.  Humans were created to bear the Image of God, and Jesus Christ, who is called “the Image of the Invisible God,”⁴³ came to show us what it means to be truly human.  He came to fulfill the Law, through His teaching and through His life.  He showed us what it means to love one another: He befriended the friendless, showed mercy to those who were suffering, spoke the truth to those who thought they already knew everything, and gave His life for us on the Cross.  “This is my commandment,” He said, “that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.”⁴⁴

The Jewish rabbis counted 613 instructions in the Law.  Jesus teaches us that all of these instructions are rooted in the commandments to love God with everything we are and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  These two simple commandments are a lot easier to remember than the 613, but they are, by no means, easy to follow.  Christ has provided us an example, and He invites us to abide in Him so that He may abide in us.⁴⁵  We can love, knowing that Christ loves us.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. “An Order for Admission of Clergy Candidates to Membership in an Annual Conference.”  The United Methodist Book of Worship.  p. 720
2. Matthew 5:48 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 5:1-2
4. Matthew 5:3-12
5. Frederick Dale Bruner.  Matthew, a Commentary: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12.  2004, Eerdmans Publishing Company.  p. 165
6. Matthew 5:13-16
7. Christine Matthews.  “When It Is OK to Be a Little Salty.”  Travelers Rest United Methodist Church, 02/05/2023.
8. Matthew 5:17 (NRSV)
9. Lois Tverberg.  “What Does It Mean to 'Fulfill the law'?”  En-Gedi Resource Center.
10. Doug Pagitt.  Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God.   2015, Convergent Books.  p. 7
11. Pagitt, pp. 18-19
12. Matthew 5:20
13. Exodus 20:13
14. The use of the idiom flipping the script is a nod to a previous sermon series at Travelers Rest United Methodist Church on the Sermon on the Mount.
15. Matthew 5:21-22 (NRSV)
16. Exodus 20:14
17. Matthew 5:27-28 (NRSV)
18. Deuteronomy 24:1
19. Matthew 5:31-32 (NRSV)
20. My interpretation of this particular teaching of Jesus was influenced by a sermon Pastor Sylvia Watson preached in 2017 at Bethel United Methodist Church.
21. Matthew 5:33 (NRSV)
22. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume One.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 183-184
23. Matthew 5:34-36 (NRSV)
24. Barclay, pp. 183-184
25. Matthew 5:37 (CEB)
26. Matthew 5:38 (NRSV)
27. Wikipedia: “Eye for an eye”
28. Leviticus 24:19-20 (NRSV)
29. Matthew 5:39-41 (NRSV)
30. N.T Wright.  Matthew for Everyone, Part 1.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 51
31. Wright, pp. 51-52
32. Matthew 5:43 (NRSV)
33. Leviticus 19:18 (NRSV)
34. Matthew 5:44-45, 48 (NRSV)
35. Genesis 1:26
36. Genesis 1:27 (NRSV)
37. 1 John 4:8
38. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NRSV)
39. St. Augustine of Hippo.  Seventh homily on the First Letter of John.  Section 8.
40. Matthew 22:34-40 (NRSV)
41. John Wesley.  A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.  Section: “Brief Thoughts on Christian Perfection.”
42. Romans 13:8-10
43. Colossians 1:15
44. John 15:12-13 (NRSV)
45. John 15:4

The Sermon on the Mount was painted by Carl Heinrich Bloch in 1877.