Scripture Matthew 5:33-48
“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.’ 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. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 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 shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
“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.”
Meditation
Be perfect! Even as your heavenly Father is perfect! What could be simpler?
We are back on the mountain with Jesus this evening, that portion of Matthew’s gospel that many consider the heart and soul of Rabbi Jesus, the Christian Magna Carta, our great charter. This portion of it, to be honest, feels challenging in the extreme.
Our passage begins, once again, with paired contrasting statements. “You have heard… but I say to you…” Jesus addresses three items here:
1. Swearing oaths
2. Reciprocal justice, the notion that punishment should be proportional to the crime.
3. How to treat one’s enemies.
1. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said that you shall not swear falsely, but I say to you, do not swear at all.” I saw the movie “She Said” last weekend, about two women reporters who were investigating Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and his pernicious pattern of sexually assaulting women. At one point an audiotape was played, from a recording made by a woman who was working with the police. Weinstein said, repeatedly, “I’m not going to touch you, I swear on my children’s lives,” all the while he was pushing this woman into his hotel room.
That oath really struck me. I swear on my children’s lives. The record shows that his oath was meaningless. I wonder how his children feel about him speaking in such a way. We are at similar risk when we say, “I swear to God.” It becomes meaningless in our mouths, just another tool for persuasion. Jesus recommends that we don’t swear by things we associate with God’s power and majesty at all, but, rather, speak truthfully without embellishment. Your yes means yes. Your no means no. Your words mean what they mean, and no oath is necessary.
2. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer.” Here Jesus suggests some things that sound downright awful, especially in the context of his audience, all living on land occupied by the Roman Empire. But the advice is clever, and, in fact, meant to help those who are oppressed in this situation. By law, a Roman soldier could demand that any person carry their heavy pack one mile. But here’s the rub: they could only demand one mile. If they made a person carry it further, the soldiers would be disciplined. They would get into trouble. Carry it two miles, and what the soldier get his comeuppance.
In the case of the clothing, the person has sued you for your outer garment. If you also give them your inner garment, then they are being shamed by your nakedness. It does not work out so well for them.
As for the slap on the cheek: If I am facing you and I hit you on your right cheek, that means I have backhanded you. I have treated you as if you were my inferior, my servant. If you demand that I hit you on the other, left, cheek, that’s the kind of slap one gives and equal. You are demanding that I treat you as an equal, not an inferior. These three bits of advice are aimed at the people on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. Jesus is giving oppressed people the tools that can help them to be treated with dignity.
3. We come to the advice that’s probably the most challenging. “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…”
Let’s define our terms here. “Love” as Jesus is using it is not about an emotional state. Jesus is not telling us to feel warmly toward those who persecute us. This is “agape” love, love that is an act of the will. This kind of love is a choice to do no harm. Jesus pushes it even further by adding the recommendation that we pray for our enemies as well. Jesus tells us that, if we do this, we will be children of our Father in heaven, who sends sun and rain on the just and the unjust alike.
Jesus is giving us an opportunity to try on God’s glasses, so to speak, and to see the fullness of our humanity and that of others. Why is this person our enemy to begin with? What did this person do to us, or what did we do to them? Doesn’t matter. What matters is what we do now. Now, our job is to love them, which is what God does. Jesus throws in there that, hey, these other people whom you think are unsavory love those who love them. Is that your measure for what you should do? Probably not. You should probably do better than people you don’t respect.
Be perfect.
That word, perfect, is a doozy, especially as it is used here, in this context. Be perfect, as God is perfect. How do you define perfect? I define it as getting 100% on a test—no wrong answers. I define it as graduating Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 average. (I did not.) I define it as my team winning every single game. But that’s not what the original word in the original language means. Instead, it means, “brought to its end; finished; complete; having integrity; whole.”
All these admonitions are drawing us to this place. If we’re looking with God’s lenses on the world, we get the perspective of the One who loves us all—who, in fact, loves our enemies (if we’ve got them) and us with the exact same love.
We are being asked to look through God’s lenses at everything—the way we make promises. The way we respond when someone is harming or persecuting us. The way we think of those we consider enemies. We are being asked to do exactly what we need to do to bring, not harm, but repair. To bring, not an ever greater chasm between us, but an ever closer connection. One way we do that is by being trustworthy without the use of dramatic oaths. Another way we do that is by asserting our own humanity, and the value of that humanity. Yet another is by doing the exact opposite with our enemies of what society tells us to do. Love them. Pray for them. See them, for a minute, in their full humanity, and behave accordingly.
So much of the Sermon on the Mount is about connection. Jesus is trying to help us to build community. He is offering the way God loves as our model. Be perfect—which is to say, stand in the fullness of our own humanity. Be whole, and whole-hearted. And, Jesus reminds us, we will know that we are God’s beloved children. And that is more than enough.
Thanks be to God. Amen.