Epiphany 6

Epiphany 6 (Matthew 5:21-37) “You have heard that it was said”.

Common knowledge is not necessarily common sense.

God had revealed ten basic common sense laws to Moses. Almost immediately, people looked for the loop holes.

The purpose of the Law is to restrain the power of sin in society and to convict the individual of the need for a savior.

By the time Jesus came to Earth, religious leaders had “tamed” the Law. They had invented the loop holes. They had formed a variety of religious institutions based on common knowledge and designed to preserve and advance the power of the elites. And, they had used their power to debase and exclude everyone else.

The religious elites in Jesus’ day were not of the same mind. They argued amongst themselves constantly. They fragmented the Judaism of their time into competing and conflicting sects. The more extreme among them actively subverted those they disagreed with. The most radical among them practiced assassination to terrorize their rivals for power.

They had tamed the perfect holiness and life giving love of the law. They used the law as a club to threaten each other and especially the masses of the working poor. And, they subverted the two underlying principles of the Law.

They abused the law to magnify their power. And they denied the reality embedded in the Law that all people everywhere are lost and need a savior.

In his preaching, teaching and example Jesus restores the Law to its divInely ordained position. Where the religious elites managed to subvert the commandments to give the illusion of righteousness Jesus raises the standard of the Law so high that the illusion is shattered.

Clearly, what Jesus is teaching is threefold. First: the Law is holy and good. Second: all human beings are lost in separation from God. The evidence of this state is our inability to keep the Law as written. Third: the Good News is that God himself reaches out to us in Jesus Christ to save us from separation, sin and death.

The religious leaders in Jesus’ day were horrified when they heard his teaching on such things as anger and marriage. To their credit they understood very well that if Jesus spoke the truth then their religious system was sterile, stagnant  and counterproductive.

Sadly, most of them could not endure the challenge and the Good News of Jesus’s teaching They simply did not want what he said to be true. Having tamed the extent of the law and subverted its power to convict us of sin, they refused to accept a different way of understanding God.

There are two basic distortions of the Law that human beings create. One is rigid uncompromising inflexible legalism. That way always leads to conflict and hypocrisy. The other distortion is self-indulgent libertinism. Both distortions derive from that place in the human soul that separates from God in order to seize the power to command and control.

Jesus does not give this teaching on the Law to condemn anyone. Neither does he expect any of us by our own will to power to live up to the standard. Jesus reveals the Law to be the Perfect Mirror of God.

As we look into that perfect mirror we see where and how we have separated from God. We see how pride and despair distort our relationships with each other and with God. And, because it is Jesus himself who holds that Mirror up to our souls, we also see the Good News of a new and different Way.

The Way of Jesus is the Way of Truth, the Way of Love and the Way of personal transformation.

No one will ever be righteous according to the standard of the Law alone. In union with Jesus we can and will claim the power of the law. That power is the Way of conversion.

Jesus accepts us as we are. Jesus invites us to be better than we are. The Law as held by Jesus is a guide to keep us moving and growing and transforming in grace.

All of us fall short of the standard of the law. By our own self-will we can attempt to tame the law and pride fully declare ourselves righteous. Or, we can fall into a self-indulgent despair that says: what does it matter?

The third alternative is the Way of Jesus. It is the Way of grace that loves unconditionally and transforms unfailingly. It is the middle way between ego based pride and despair. It is the Good News of the new life in Christ and the new way of living by the Holy Spirit.