Brief synopsis of the readings: We begin in Sirach where the reader is promised life to those who keep God’s commandments. We have before us the choice of life and death, good and evil. God understands our deeds and never commands us to act unjustly. Matthew’s Gospel continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But here he warns his listeners that their righteousness must surpass the scribes and Pharisees. Furthermore it’s not enough not to kill someone: “But I say to you, whoever is angry with is brother will be liable to judgement.” Additionally, not only are forbidden from committing adultery, “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Finally, do not swear or make oaths. “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘no.'”
Well, that sermon took a turn. Last week Jesus told us that we are the salt and the light and that we have the power to bring flavor and illumination to our world. Now we hear it’s not enough to do what we’re told, it sounds like we can get into trouble for everyday feelings. Is it really true that we can be guilty of murder by being angry with someone or guilty of adultery by having “impure thoughts” about someone?
I certainly hope not; if this was our standard, even Jesus would be liable to judgement when he knocked over the moneychangers’ tables outside the Temple. This sounds unduly harsh but on the other hand I don’t want to go too far the other way and communicate the message that Jesus didn’t really mean what he said.
But I do think this gives us an understanding of the limitations of simply following the rules. The Old Testament doesn’t give us just the 10 Commandments, it gives us 248 positive commands (you must) and 365 negative commands (you must not) for a total of 613. Here’s the thing with commandments: they are generally reasonable and we have the ability to obey them without help. But if we simply measure ourselves and others according to obedience to the rules, are we asking enough of ourselves and others?
I don’t think so. I think God wants more from us than that, and I hope we want more than that from ourselves. But that’s really all the scribes and Pharisees cared about and it’s little wonder there was friction between them and Jesus. They were the experts but they were experts in a narrow world. When Jesus tells his followers that their righteousness must surpass the scribes and Pharisees it must have sounded intimidating. But Jesus didn’t say their knowledge of Scripture or intelligence must surpass the scribes and Pharisees. When Jesus used the word “righteousness” I think he told his audience, and us, that he required more than our own ability.
The Hebrew word “Shalom” ordinarily means welcome or peace but it really means something deeper. It also means righteousness, harmony and right relationship with God and each other. Now obviously we cannot achieve complete harmony with God without God’s help but we also can’t achieve complete harmony with each other. From our earliest days as humans we’ve made agreements, written contracts and passed laws that allow us to live together. But to truly love one another comes only from harmony with God’s love.
And I think that’s how God wants it. If we believe what we say we believe about the Incarnation we need to know that God loves us so much he can’t stay away from us. God doesn’t want us to do our flawed best and then show him our results. God wants to be a participant and wants us to do better than we can do on our own. If we think about it we’ve all had experiences where we were amazed at our wisdom or our creativity or our courage. Those are the times when we’ve known we didn’t do it alone.
So let’s get back to the Gospel, to anger and lust. Despite what we may have been told as children, anger isn’t a sin, only what we choose to do with our anger. Oftentimes, as we saw with Jesus and the moneychangers, anger finds its root in a valid demand for justice. We even call it “righteous anger.” God’s help comes in when we see our anger and ask for direction, ask for a way we can achieve the justice we want. Too often our anger, when left unchecked, leads us to destructive behaviors that don’t advance justice. Jesus isn’t telling us to never get angry, but to ask for God’s help in finding the righteous path beyond the anger.
I find a similar understanding with lust. Lust is wrong because it objectifies the other and reduces that person to body parts. But with God’s help we can move beyond this to love and appreciate the beauty of another. God has given us a tremendous gift in allowing us to participate in creating life and tying it intimately to mutual attraction and love. If our first reaction on seeing someone attractive isn’t completely pure, it doesn’t need to be our only reaction. Not only is there nothing wrong with appreciating the beauty of another, it’s downright holy and righteous.
We need to look at this Gospel not in terms of what’s expected of us on our own, but what we can do with God’s help. If we see every experience of anger or lust as yet one more way we fall short of God’s law, well we doom ourselves to the life of the Pharisees. That’s a tough way to live and I’m struck that when Jesus encounters them, Jesus appears joyful and they appear angry.
If we see anger and lust as an opportunity to seek God’s help and choose to live in God’s love we move beyond our own abilities and our own strength. We recognize that true discipleship is a group event that calls us to our best selves with God and with each other.
And that allows us to be salt and light.