Gospel of Matthew Series: Selected discussion from Chapters5-7

In this post, I have decided to select some passages from Chapters 5-7 to discuss and illustrate the significance of the sermon on the Mount.

Mt 5: 14-16:

Jesus said to his disciples:

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

 

This passage is challenging.  When a person feels hesitant about himself/herself or about the Church, it is tempting to retreat to a private world, where his/her faith is his/her business and no one else’s.  It is safer or so it seems.  It is riskier putting the lamp on the lamp stand as it might fall and break.  But the risk has to be taken if the lamp is to give light…. God’s light.  But radiating God’s light is not just an end in itself.  We need to radiate God’s light, so that others may give glory, not to us, but where the glory truly belongs- Your Father who is in Heaven. 

 

Mt 5:17-19:

"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.   For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.  Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

  

In the Gospels, Jesus talks about God’s mercy and love.  However, we can tend to forget that He is also a God of justice whose laws we must obey.  God doesn’t want us to follow his commands out of a fear of punishment, or out of a desire to make him happy with us.  The call to obedience goes much deeper.  It has to do with our dignity as the crown of His creation.  God demands our obedience because He has a plan to fulfil, and he has called us to be co-workers with Him in bringing that plan to fruition. 

 

At creation, God told our first parents to ‘fill the earth and subdue it and to have dominion over creation (Gen 1:28).  As heirs of this commission, we are called to make this world – and our heart into a fit dwelling place for the glory of God.  We are called to manifest His character to the world and bring His love into every aspect of life on earth.  The commandments of God are not just chores to which we must diligently apply ourselves.  They are part of our heritage as a royal people (I Peter 2:9)

 

Mt 5: 20-26:

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to the men of old, `You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.'  But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire.

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.    Make friends 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; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny".

 

Forgiving and being reconciles with those who have hurt us is probably one the most challenging thing we face in life.  On the one hand, we want to be free of our hurt.  Yet, at the same, time, we feel justified in our anger because we have been wronged.  In many cases, if left to our own resources, we would never be able to bring about true reconciliation. 

 

We need to ask ourselves though, who delights in divisions and broken relationships more than Satan, the ‘accuser of the brethren’ (Rev 12:10). Here, spiritual warfare with Satan can be quite strong.  In his relentless attacks again the people of God, the evil one constantly seeks to accuse us to each other, to remind us of our own and other people’s faults so that we will suspect, blame and accuse them ourselves.  Jesus however, told us to make peace with our accuser (Mt 5:25).

 

We can ‘make peace’ with the devil- and so silence his accusations- by agreeing (to a point) with the thoughts he suggest to us.  When he reminds us of how deeply someone has hurt us, we can say ‘Yes that is true.  I have been deeply hurt.  However, I know the power of the Cross-.  Jesus has forgiven me and has forgiven that person as well.  I have been hurt, but Jesus is my healer and he can restore this relationship.’ 

 

Or when the devil brings up our own sins- either of the distant or the recent past- we can take a similar approach.  ‘ Yes, I have done wrong. You’re right; I’m not worthy of God’s love.  But He loves me anyway and he sent His Son to free me from guilt and condemnation.  Thank God I’ve been forgiven. The evil one when tempting Jesus used Scripture.  We too can use Scripture as our safeguard and strength in his attack against us.

 

The whole truth, therefore, includes not only our sin, but also the blood of Jesus that has overcome sin for everyone.  If we want to experience peace and freedom, we need to start by accepting God’s forgiveness for ourselves on a very personal level, and then it is more possible to forgive others as well.  Each day we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us as we start taking steps to forgiveness.  Even if they are small, Jesus will pour out unexpected blessings on us.

 

Mt 5:43-48:

"You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.   For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.”

 

Loving one’s enemies can be daunting but Jesus is not telling us to have warm feelings towards everyone who has ever hurt us.  In some cases, that would be truly impossible!  Love is an act of the will, not a matter of emotion.  Loving our enemies is a matter of reigning in our bitter thoughts, refusing to be mastered by resentment, and consciously choosing to offer people goodness and kindness.. It means choosing to pray a blessing on them, especially the right blessing of eternal life with God. 

 

By ourselves, we cannot measure up to Jesus’ call to perfection.  But we are not alone.  Christ is in us, and He is our hope of glory.  Ultimately, the call to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect rests in the hands of God. Only He can bring the changes in our hearts that will enable us to fulfil such a high calling.  Our task is to cooperate with His transforming grace.  Jesus was crucified not only for us, but also for those we resent.  If we ask Him to fill our hearts with His mercy, He will bring us closer to His perfection by empowering us to choose to love and bless at all times.

 

God loves all people.  He wants His gospel to come to each person- even our enemies.  When He set us free from our sins, he commissioned us to bring the Good News of His freedom to others.  Through our decisions to forgive and to love, the Holy Spirit will move freely in his world that so desperately needs him.  The Spirit will enable us to pray for those who have wronged us.

 

Chapter 6:5-15:

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.   But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.   And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come;       

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

 

There are many aspects of this passage, but underpinning it all is that Prayer renews.  Deep silence leads to acceptance.  A Person who prays is one who stands with his/her hands open to the world.  He/she knows that God will show Himself in the nature, which surrounds him/her in the people he/she meets, in the situations he/she runs into. He/she trusts that the world holds God’s secret within it, and he/she expects that secret to be shown to him/her. Prayer creates that openness where God can give himself to man/woman.  Indeed, God want to give Himself; He want to surrender himself to the human He has created, He even begs to be admitted into the human heart.

 

This openness however does not simply come of itself.  It requires our confession that we are limited, dependent, weak and even sinful.  Whenever we pray, we profess that we are Not God and we would not want to be, that we have not reached our goal yet, and that we never will reach it in this life, that we must constantly stretch out our hands and wait again for the gift which gives new life. 

 

However, without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life.  Solitude begins with a time and place for God, and Him alone.  If we really believe not only that God exists but also that He is actively present in our lives- hearing, teaching and guiding – we need to set aside a time and space to give Him our undivided attention.  Solitude is one the most necessary but also most difficult disciplines for the disciple.

 

Mt 6:24-34:

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.”

 

This is a particularly challenging one for our society today  and it  could benefit from this Scripture passage.  Living tomorrow instead of today is enslaving and more enslaving than our occupations, are our pre-occupations.  To be pre-occupied means to fill our time and place long before we are there.  This is worrying in the most specific sense of the world.  It is a mind filled with ‘what ifs’.  Much of mankind’s suffering is connected with these pre-occupations. Preoccupations can make people feel anxious, fearful, suspicious, greedy, nervous and morose.  This prevents them from feeling a real inner freedom.  Since the person is always preparing for eventualities, they seldom fully trust the moment.  Much human energy is invested in these fearful pre-occupations.

 

Mt 7: 1, 3-5:

“Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?   You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

 

Jesus warns us that once we begin to play God, we begin to play judge.  When we judge others, we let it be know that we have not even begun to come to grips with sin in our life. Once we begin to see the truth of our own sin, we stop playing God.  Then we can see clearly- clearly enough to forgive.

 

Mt 7: 24,26-27.

"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

 

Jesus is telling us that we must build our lives on and in Him who is the rock, the cornerstone.  The prophet Isaiah also reminds us of the same concept-

‘ therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation  a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:  `He who believes will not be in haste.'(Is 28:16).  I Peter 2:6-10 also is worth noting in this regard.

‘For it stands in scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.  To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner, and "A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall"; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.”

 

The rain and the flood always come when we least expect.  It seems so much cheaper and easier to build on the sand. Perhaps we think it is nicer and it is close to the sea, with a superb view.  It would have been so much more costly for his listeners to build up there on a rock and so much harder.  But like them, he tells us that we would still have a house if Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.

 

During this coming week, you may wish to focus your attention on one or more of these scripture passages and work out your action plan that is relevant for your Lenten journey and your life right now.

Next week we will move forward in our discussion of Matthew's Gospel and focus on the next intervening chapters (chapters 8-9) before moving on to the second major central theme in chapter 10.

May your inner work on these chapters sustain you through this coming week.