7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Previous Years: 2020
Preached at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham, WA
Recording
https://moorejesus.podbean.com/e/the-new-law-of-jesus/
Transcript
Thank you to T.W. for editing this transcript.
For the last four weeks, we have been going through Matthew chapter 5, and this is an incredibly important chapter of the Gospels. It is Jesus as the new Moses. So, the imagery here is that Moses, in the Old Testament and the book of Exodus, went up the mountain and coming down from the mountain, he gave the Israelites the law of God. Here in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus goes up the mountain, this is why it’s called the sermon on the Mount, as the new Moses to deliver the new law. Both are laws of God. We might ask, why did we need a new law? Couldn’t God have just given this law originally? The difference is the presence of Jesus. The old law is something of a compromise with fallen humanity. We see, for example, Jesus talks about the laws on divorce and he asks the Pharisees, “‘What does Moses tell you?’ And the Pharisees say, ‘Well, Moses says we can get divorced.’ And he said, ‘Moses only gave that to you because of the hardness of your hearts’” (Mk 10:3-5) The original law is based on the hardness of our hearts. The Lord knew that we were fallen; that we were not going to be able to do very much on our own. And so he begins to teach humanity through the old law. He gives us some initial limits that we can work within. But it’s not the fullness. It’s not the perfection of the law that we get with Jesus.
So what’s the change? What happens between the two? Well, the old law is primarily external. From the Gospel last week, we read, “‘You have heard it said…you shall not kill’” (Mt 5:21). An external action. Here is the external thing that you should not do. And then last week Jesus says, “‘You have heard it said…you shall not kill…But I say to you, you should not even be angry with your brother’” (Mt 5:21-22). It moves the external law to an internal law. It’s the same thing with adultery. You’ve heard it said, do not commit adultery. External action. But I say to you, do not even lust after a woman in your heart. Internal action. The external law becomes internal, because with Christ we now have the assistance of grace. With Christ, our souls are changed—they’re different. We have Jesus in us, acting through us. Previously, it was absolutely impossible to live perfectly as our Heavenly Father is perfect. That’s a ludicrous statement. How could we ever be as perfect as God? And yet the book of Leviticus says, be perfect as God is perfect. We had, as humanity, no chance of living that out. We were utterly lost. That’s why Saint Paul will say in his letters that the law, the old law, is a law of condemnation. It shows us just how short we fall of the perfection of God. We couldn’t even live out don’t kill, don’t commit adultery. How in the world are we supposed to live out don’t be angry, don’t lust in your heart. Well, it’s the presence of Jesus. That’s the difference. Jesus helps us live in a way that is impossible for human beings. Jesus himself is perfect. And the more we live our lives united with Jesus, the more chance we have of living that perfection.
Our Gospel today is a prime example of that. “‘You have heard it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’” (Mt 5:38). In the old law, this is progress. This is justice. The human desire is to hurt those who have hurt us. So somebody plucks out our eye. We get so mad that we want to kill them, which is not proportional. So the old law at least tries to limit human sin. It says, at least stick to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If you lose an eye, then the only thing that you get to do is take their eye. You can’t take their life. You lose a tooth. You can take their tooth, but nothing more. It limits human sin as a compromise to our fallenness. It begins to teach us what justice looks like, but with Jesus, we can go beyond justice to mercy.
Justice is a value of all human societies. We see it valorized by the Greeks and the Romans. It’s one of the cardinal virtues giving to people what they are due. But Jesus today expands on that. The fulfillment of justice is found in mercy. He says, not only offer no resistance to one who is evil, but give them more than they ask. If they hit you, let them hit you twice. If they take your tunic, give him your cloak as well. It’s impossible. Human beings don’t desire that. We desire at least justice. We can see how an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is logical. It’s not logical if someone is evil, to let them continue to double down on their evil against you. But it is Christ-like. It’s the cross. We don’t deserve anything that was given to us on the cross. Jesus went to the cross for sins that were not his own. He went to the cross for our sins. And so when he gives us the fullness of the law today, he’s saying, the fullness of the law is me. The fullness of the law is living like Jesus, being like Jesus. Going beyond what is expected. Doing more than is just. Going into the realm of mercy. Something that is only possible if we live out the life of Jesus in us.
And then he gets to what I think is the hardest commandment in all of the Gospels. “‘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’” (Mt 5:43-44). Again, where have we ever seen this in the history of humanity? I’m listening through a history of Rome. Julius Caesar was known for his magnanimity with his enemies. He would forgive them, and he would make sure that their debts were paid and that he wouldn’t kill them and all those sorts of things. But it was always self-interested. He always knew that that’s how he would get ahead and win influence in Roman society. We don’t win influence with our enemies for praying for them. We’re not giving them something with something expected in return. We’re simply allowing evil to be committed against us (pray for those who persecute you) and praying for them. Again, where have we ever seen this in human society? Only on the cross. From the cross Jesus prays, Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing. He prays for his enemies. He prays for those who have persecuted him. And we as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we can do that too. It seems impossible. It seems strange, but the more we allow Christ to live in and through us, the more we can follow these very difficult commandments.
I should also say, in addition to everything else that Jesus is, he is an excellent psychologist. Because praying for your enemies is the way to forgiveness. When somebody sins against us, when somebody hurts us, the natural human tendency is to obsess about that sin. Whenever I think of, let’s just use the name Jimmy, whenever I think of Jimmy and Jimmy’s sins against me, his thought brings to mind the pain and the hurt and the sin, which effectively means I am enthroning sin in my heart. The space that I’m making in my heart and in my mind is a space for sin. Forgiveness is the process of making less space for sin and more space for Jesus. It’s the process of trying to take the thought of the person who has hurt me and associating it instead with love. As Jesus says, “That you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:45). Even if somebody has hurt us, they’re still a fellow human being. They’re still a fellow human being that God loves. And so, we have to try to think of that person with love not with hatred. A very difficult thing to do. But again, Jesus is a very good psychologist. He knows that the best way to do that is small behavior modification over time, something every therapist will talk to you about. What does small behavior modification over time look like? Well, it looks like when that person comes to mind, instead of associating them with hatred or bitterness, instead of obsessing about the sin that they’ve committed against me, I say a prayer for them. All authentic prayer is for the good of the other person. You cannot authentically pray for their hurt or for their evil. And so, if I think of the person who’s hurt me, I say, Lord, please bless them, please guide them, please convert them. Asking for conversion is the greatest thing you can ask for a person that they would have a life with Jesus. Lord, please bless them and guide them. Please help make them happy. Please bring them a relationship with you. These are all good things to ask for that person and by doing so, I’m making space in my heart. Not for hatred, not for bitterness, not for sin, but for love. I’m making very small acts of love over time to the point that I become habituated to those acts of love. That’s what forgiveness looks like now. I can think of that person, and my first thought is not the sin, it’s not the hatred, but it’s love. It’s forgiveness. It’s their blessing.
The Lord gives us the new law, the fulfillment of the old law, because he knows it is for our good and for our salvation. When we live out this law that goes from externals to internals, when we stop thinking I’m a good person if I don’t kill anybody and when we start thinking I’m aiming for the perfection of my Heavenly Father and I’m going to try not to even be angry or be lustful then you’re going to try not to be bitter or resentful. He gives us this law because living out of Jesus, who is in us, is for our good. It makes us happy. The fulfillment of the law is the fulfillment of our selves. Trying to live like Jesus, as hard as it is, as hard as it appears, makes space for the Lord in us. And the more the Lord lives in us, the more we follow his example, the more we try to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, the happier we will be.
Fr. Moore 