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Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Matthew 5
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.


If someone is going to insult you, better a poet for the job.

Take our friend Wm. Shakespeare, for example. Knowing, perhaps, that school children might be forced one day to learn this stuff, he added just enough content that only a 12 year-old can truly appreciate:

Henry IV, Part I: “Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish!”

And what a gift to the teacher—simply explain what each of these items are, let them giggle for a few minutes, and eventually the bell will ring. Next thing you know the hallway is filled with Shakespearean invective and the kids are demonstrating the power of applied learning.

Some of his insults, of course, seem to have lost their edge. If I tell you that my friends “wit’s as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard” (Henry IV, Part 2) you may be a bit confused. While others (“Thine face is not worth sunburning”) are quite clear and may come in handy when sailing resumes.

And of course, the internet is filled with Shakespeare insult generators, but the good folks at MIT have gone one better: a simple three-column chart, take a word from each, add “Thou” to the beginning and you’re there. “Thou artless base-court apple-john” may seem as thick as Tewkesbury mustard, but it’s fun to say.

And just to prove that none of this is new, I give you Matthew 5.22. Jesus shares one very common insult (“you fool”) and one that the New International Version gives us in Aramaic (“Raca”), a word that scholars are still debating. They are certain on one thing—and they would be quick to tell you—that “Raca” is a hapax legomenon, a word that appears only once in the Bible. So it’s a rare insult, whatever it means.

It likely means “empty one” or “empty-headed,” but somehow our friends at the NIV felt it was best left untranslated. As obscure insults go, it’s right up there with Tewkesbury mustard, but if you use it around here, we’re all going to know what you mean.

So why is Jesus repeating all these insults? What is he trying to say? Listen again to verse 21 and 22:

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

The first thing to note here is Jesus’ use of intensification, something he uses throughout his teaching. “You have heard it said” and then “but I say to you” is a standard formulation for Jesus, underling the question of authority we will look at in a few minutes. But it’s also something he found in scripture. We know that Jesus loved the psalms and quoted them most often, and in them we see the same device:

Happy are those who keep your decrees,
who seek you with their whole heart.

We recite these words, and the meaning is clear, but we often miss that they are meant to elevate us, to draw us close to the truth and therefore closer to God. “If this is so, then how much more is this so” and on it goes. And as the psalmist is expert at drawing us closer to ultimate truth, so much more is the Son of the Most High.

So the form is intensification, but the content is equivalency. When Jesus says “you have heard it said” and “but “ say to you” when can expect that one will be more than the other, when in fact he is saying they are equal. “You have heard it said ‘you shall not murder’ but I tell that anyone who is angry is subject to judgment.” Again, Jesus intensifies the message just to be sure we hear:

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

In some ways this is just another of his ‘hard sayings,’ those verses that would have us taking an eye out of lobbing off a limb because some part of our body is causing us to sin. These are words we take seriously rather than literally, since it would be a terrible burden on the health care system of believers were in the regular practice of gouging and lobbing.

Again, seriously rather than literally. Jesus wants to make it clear that what resides in the human heart is just as important as the actions we undertake. Beginning with Cain and Abel, we know that anger is at the root of that most serious of crime, and when we learn to control our anger the world will be a better and safer place.

So by what authority does Jesus share these teachings? It’s a common question, one that the religious establishment were quick to ask when Jesus entered the temple courts and began to preach. At one moment it seems he will answer then, then famously he won’t answer them (Mark 11), all the while letting the people decide. “They were amazed at his teaching,” Luke says, “because his words had authority.” (4.32) Or perhaps the more familiar: “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.” (Mark 1.22)

Of course this is ironic, since Jesus was first and foremost a teacher of the law. His disciples called him ‘rabbi’ as did many others. And like the teachers of the law he followed many of the customs that would come to be associated with power of the rabbis. He would amplify the importance of certain laws ("gezerot") but commending them or ranking them for his followers. Sometimes, like our passage this morning, he would expand the meaning of a law, to renew it or give it new life ("taḳḳanot"). Later still, he would introduce new rites and practices ("minhagim") such as the eucharist and the washing of feet, rituals that his follows did to honour the teacher or the teacher’s message.

And all of this, of course, reinforces what we read last week. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And he added what certainly seems like another one of his ‘hard sayings’ to say that “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

“You have heard it said” but “I say to unto you.” Call it the ultimate intensification that our righteousness must surpass that of the experts and the religious elites. And just to go a step further, we need to surpass them just as Jesus surpassed them: “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.” (Mark 1.22)

In other words, be like Jesus. And just when the task seems impossible and the bar is set too high, we have C.S. Lewis to assure us. Lewis said we can share in the life of Christ, and he added this:

Jesus “came to this world and became a [person] in order to spread to other [people] the kind of life He has—by what I call "good infection." Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”

Not Christ, but a little Christ. More than a follower, more than a disciple—we are to become little Christs. It’s another intensification. “You have heard it said ‘come and follow me’ but C.S. Lewis said we are to become little Christs. It is the way we can surpass the teachers of the law without trying to be Christ himself.

St. Paul said we “put on the mind of Christ,” meaning we use Jesus lens to see the world, we live his values and try to love the people he loved. So being more than the other teachers, more like little Christs, we put on his mind and meet the world we know.

“Happy are those who keep your decrees, the psalmist said, “who seek you with their whole heart.” Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:23 AM