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November 26, 2024 |
| You Have Heard … | ||
The title of this lesson comes from the Sermon on the Mount, which is a passage from Matthew. Jesus covers many different topics in that passage, but they have an overarching theme - problems understanding God in Jewish society at that time. People are thinking wrongly or doing things that are wrong because they don't understand.
They are confused about things like what's important to God and what's the value of a person in society, and what the purpose of life is.
The message is particularly focused on the Pharisees and the scribes because they are the people who should be teaching what is correct and living it themselves, but they aren't.
We're going to focus on a particular section of chapter 5 where Jesus does something interesting. He repeats the phrase, "You have heard" to begin 6 different talks about problems. He doesn't repeat it identically in every case, but the same essence is there. After each, he follows that phrase by saying, something like "but I am saying to you." So he's saying, you've heard this or understand this, but I'm saying this.
That's how he is dealing with these false beliefs. He is doing that because that's part of his mission in his first coming. He's there to correct the people and get them back on the right path. He needs to do that because over time, God's people wander away from him. The nature of man and the action of Satan ensure this.
As they begin wandering away, they begin to collect a bunch of wrong beliefs. Those always go hand in hand. I don't know if one is the cause of the other or how that works.
We know that from our own churches, which have all sorts of wrong beliefs in them. That's more true in some churches than others, but that's the way it is. Prophetically, we are coming to the end of this phase, and we're looking towards the Second Coming. We see what prophecy tells us we should expect to see. God's people have wandered a long way away from him.
In this passage, Jesus is identifying these wrong beliefs and correcting them by his own authority. He says, "But I say," and his listeners are expected to accept that he is somebody who has the authority to say that.
This message is meant for his disciples. And not only the 12 disciples, but also for the other disciples. There are a large number of disciples at this time. They are people who are learning from Jesus. He is their teacher. They are the disciples. He is the master. They do what he says. The 12 are, of course, the main disciples, and they go on to become the apostles. But there is this other group of disciples who are following Jesus around and learning from him.
He has taken them up into this mountain. We know they are disciples because no one challenges anything that he says. He says some things about the leaders and others in society that would be shocking to certain people, and they would contend against that. For example, he says, unless you live better than the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no way enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
I need to mention the people of our time who misunderstand what Jesus is saying in this passage. He says all of these things with the purpose of bringing the people back to God. But some people in our time want to think that he's there to change the law because they themselves don't like the law. They want to think he's throwing out Judaism and replacing it with Christianity.
That's not what's happening here. In fact, Jesus can't do that. He was born of a woman and therefore under the law. A person who is under the law cannot change the law. That means he needs to follow the law. What kind of a Messiah would he be if he had said, I want you to live this way, but when I come to live with you, I'm going to change the law and live a different way. That would mean the law was unjust because no one, not even God, could live that way. So it's necessary for him to live under the law just as the people were living under the law.
| "You have heard" | "But I am saying" | Topic / Reference |
|---|---|---|
| You have heard that it was said to the ancients | But I am saying to you | 6th Commandment |
| You have heard that it was said | But I am saying to you | 7th Commandment |
| It has been said | But I am saying to you | Divorce (Deut. 24) |
| Again you have heard that it was said to the ancients | But I say to you | Oaths / Vows |
| You have heard that it was said | But I am saying to you | Vengeance |
| You have heard that it was said | But I say to you | Your Enemy ? |
This table shows the 6 sections of this passage. It shows the exact "you have heard" kind of wording that starts each one. It also shows the exact "but I am saying" kind of wording. It also shows the topic and sometimes the specific part of the Bible.
You can see that the wording is a little different in each one, but the main idea is consistent. I've wondered if there is some reason for this? Is there some meaning that links or differentiates each of these 6? It seems like there must be a pattern. Why wouldn't you say each one exactly the same way all six times? It's a mystery to me.
The first one is the 6th commandment, which is the murder commandment. You shall not murder. So we know there is something wrong with the way people are understanding that commandment.
You have heard that it was said to the ancients, “Do not murder”, and “whoever murders is condemned to judgment.” 22 But I am saying to you, that everyone who will be angry against his brother without cause is condemned before the judge, and everyone who will say to his brother, ‘I spit on you’, is condemned before the assembly, and whoever will say ‘You fool’ is condemned to the Gehenna of fire. (Matthew 5:21-22)
This translation uses the word "Gehenna," as do some others. The Greek word is "Geennan," but some translations use a different word, for example, "Hell", "Hades", or something else. To understand what Jesus means, we need to understand Gehenna.
Gehenna was a valley outside of Jerusalem. For people who couldn't afford a grave when they died, their dead bodies were taken out to this valley of Gehenna and burned there. Because Jerusalem had a large population, there was almost always at least one body burning there.
It wasn't only bodies. Garbage and other things were burned there, too. So it was a place of continual, ongoing burning.
So it became a physical symbol of a spiritual reality, a possible afterlife of ongoing fire-like torment. That's how Jesus is using "Gehenna." He's talking about eternal torment, eternal fire, damnation, but he's using a physical reality to hint at this spiritual reality.
The first highlight in those verses is plainly a quote from the 6th Commandment. Just as plainly, the other highlight, "whoever murders is condemned to judgment," is not part of that commandment. Where does that come from?
It appears to be coming from Exodus 21:12. There are other places that say something similar to that, but it is the closest. Though still not identical, it has that same concept in it.
Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:12)
So "put to death" would be "condemned to judgment."
The 6th commandment is the focus, but Jesus ties "anger without cause" and other things to that murder commandment. Many people want to think Jesus is replacing the commandment, but his point here is that the people have missed the depth of the 6th commandment. He does that by adding all of these things that aren't murder, and saying these things are just as bad.
These additional violations are all things that people do inside of themselves. They aren't something that is done, like sticking a knife in somebody.
We've covered the 10 Commandments in other lessons before, so we should understand that every one of the Ten Commandments is a worst-case example of a bigger principle. So murdering would be the worst violation of this principle. So what's the principle?
I don't want to redo that lesson here, so I'll summarize it. The commandment, "You shall not murder," could be fleshed out as "You shall not diminish a person within yourself." The principle comes down to, if you diminish a person enough, you will be able to murder that person, which is the worst example of diminishing the value. If you devalue a person, all of whom were made in the image of God, as you are, that person is effectively dead to you, and it becomes possible for you to actually murder that person.
The problem starts with devaluing someone within yourself. Whether you go as far as physical murder doesn't matter. That step just shows you how depraved you've become.
If you devalue a person enough that you would say, I spit on you, I don't care about you, or you're nothing to me, and that's exactly the heart that Jesus is talking about, and what the 6th commandment was saying. That's not what you should have within you.
So the 6th commandment is much deeper than the actual physical murder. A lot of Christians treat it as though it's a checkbox on a list. At the end of the day, they look around and see no dead bodies, and they say, "Okay, I didn't kill anybody today, big check for that one, I didn't commit adultery today, big check for that one," and on down the list. But the commandments are not like that.
Jesus gives three specific examples of things that you could do that would show you that you have diminished a person within you. If we know that these are examples, then they're also not a checklist. Other examples could be created from that principle. So you wouldn't say to yourself, "Well, I never said, 'I spit on you', so checkmark for me on that one too."
All of these things express an inner attitude that you would have that would be a violation of the 6th commandment. Jesus says, the result of having this attitude will be condemnation by the judge to eternal burning, like Gehenna.
Next Jesus begins talking about the 7th commandment. The problem is not so different from the previous commandment.
You have heard that it was spoken, “You shall not commit adultery.” 28 But I am saying to you, everyone who looks at a woman so as to lust for her, immediately commits adultery with her in his heart. 29 But if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that your one member be lost, and not that your whole body should fall into Gehenna. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members be lost, and not that your whole body fall into Gehenna. (Matthew 5:27-30)
There's that Gehenna again. We understand that now.
Jesus is doing the same thing here that he did before. He refers to a commandment, this time the 7th Commandment. Then he gives an example of something and implies that it is also included in that commandment. The people had missed the depth of the 7th Commandment.
His point is that lust is also a 7th Commandment violation. The physical adultery example of the covenant is only the worst case, the visible evidence that you have sinned. Even if it doesn't go so far as to become physical, it was already a sin.
As we saw with the previous commandment, there could be additional examples of adultery that could be drawn from that basic principle. You will have to look at that Ten Commandments lesson to see why that principle is: honoring covenantal relationships. Once you understand that though, you see that any kind of covenant breaking is included under this commandment, and you see how many other examples there could be.
In this case of sexual adultery, the marriage covenant is being broken because a marriage covenant is required for a sexual relationship.
Jesus listeners have now heard him say that the 6th Commandment is an example of a deeper principle and that the 7th Commandment is an example of a deeper principle. If they didn't get it the first time, Jesus is implying that all of the commandments are examples of deeper principles. They've been treating them as check boxes. This is sometimes called keeping the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. He could go through the other commandments one-by-one, but his listeners have the idea.
Then Jesus spends some time explaining how important it is to get that lust out of you. He talks about cutting out your eyes or cutting off your hands. He doesn't mean that literally. Jesus is using hyperbole, an extreme statement, to emphasize how important it is that you get that out of you. He uses the word profitable, which means: as great as the loss of those would be to your current life, you would still be "making money" over the other choice of spending eternity in eternal torment.
Sin happens inside of you. It isn't what you do, although what you do often is the result of what is inside of you. The problem is in you and needs to be addressed in you and needs to be gotten out of you.
Next, Jesus talks about divorce. Therefore we know the people have a misunderstanding about divorce.
It has been said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce.” 32 But I am saying to you that everyone who divorces his wife, apart from the report of fornication, he causes her to commit adultery, and whoever takes her who is divorced is committing adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)
Very few people understand all of what Jesus is saying here. We're going to spend a bit of time digging into this one. The verse reference here is not immediately obvious, unlike the commandments that we know by heart.
Jesus has taken a snippet out of Deuteronomy 24:1-4. He expects that his audience already knows the verses. We don't however. So I'm going to summarize them into a piece with enough detail for us to understand.
If a man divorces his wife, giving her notice in writing, and she marries another and he divorces her also, then the first man cannot marry her again; she is defiled.
Jesus said pretty much the exact same things at a different time when he was talking to the Pharisees. This was a quote that people were using at that time.
Jesus brought it up because there was a problem with their understanding of those verses. They had gotten the idea that a written notice made a divorce possible. In our verses, Jesus was saying that is not right. Divorce leads to a mess of sin and adultery.
They had misunderstood and misused those verses. I think we know why. They wanted divorces. When Jesus talked with the Pharisees about this, he talks about Moses making it possible because they sometimes couldn't get along with their wives, and they would want to divorce them rather than trying to figure out a way to make it work. So they found a verse and twisted it into what they wanted.
They did this by thinking the verse begins with "if," so then it must be possible for a man to divorce his wife, and the way to do that is to give her a writing of divorce. So, the verse said:
If a man divorces his wife
and they made it into:
Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce
Deuteronomy 24 is actually talking about how bad divorce is. That's the part they were blind to. It says the first man cannot marry her again because she becomes defiled. If you put some thought into that, you would start to ask some good questions. Exactly when did she become defiled? How did she become defiled? Why did she become defiled? Who else is defiled? Remember how defilement works. If a defiled person or thing comes in contact with a person or thing that is undefiled, the undefiled person or thing becomes defiled. Defilement gets passed on.
So, this defiled woman is out there defiling other people. The next question you would ask is: whether this defiled person is aware of this? The answer is: no, she isn't, because she thinks she was divorced, and the guy who took her thinks that she was divorced too.
Deuteronomy 24 says that she was defiled and would become a source of defilement for others because of the divorce. It's saying that if you divorce a person, you create a terrible situation where you have a defiled person who is defiling other people, and if you marry her again, you yourself will become defiled. Is this what you want?
So, the Bible never supported giving a divorce certificate. Jesus wasn't changing the law. He was rejecting what they were teaching about the law.
Next Jesus talks about taking oaths and taking vows in the name of Yahweh or in the name of anything that Yahweh owns. Therefore we know there is a problem with their understanding of oaths and vows.
Again you have heard that it was said to the ancients, “Do not lie in your oath, but you will fulfill to the Lord Yahweh your oath.” 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, not by Heaven, for it is the throne of God 35 Neither by the earth, for it is his stool for his feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make in it a certain hair black or white. 37 But your statement shall be, “Yes, yes” and, “No, no”; anything more than these is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37)
At the lowest level, Jesus is saying, don't make oaths and vows. So we say, "Jesus said not to, so I won't." But that leaves unanswered the question of why the people of that time were making oaths and vows according to the Bible.
Jesus is quoting a verse, but there is no verse that says exactly that. There are a couple of verses that each say part of what he says. It seems, then, that the people have combined parts of two verses into a phrase that they commonly use as though it were a quote from the Bible. The same thing is done in our time.
If a man makes a vow to Yahweh or swears an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. (Numbers 30:2)
So whatever you vowed to God that you were going to do, make sure you do that.
If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth. (Deuteronomy 23:21-23)
Deuteronomy 23 says the same thing at the start, but then expands on that. Vows can be a source of sin. Verse 22 is the key. "If you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty." That's what Jesus is talking about.
There's an "if" again, in both verses, like we talked about before. The people determined that they should make vows to God because of these verses, but the verses are not saying they should make vows.
But Jesus says you don't even have control over the hairs of your head. Therefore how can you know if you will be able to fulfill a vow? You can't. Unforeseen events could make you a sinner. So what should be a person's strategy for making oaths? It's "don't."
The Bible has a good example of a failure in this area.
Similar to what we saw in the previous section, the verse says "if" as a warning not to step into that minefield.
Jesus also talks about swearing by Heaven, or Earth, or other things. He says those things all belong to God. We know everything is God's. The message is that you don't control them any more than you control the hair on your head, so don't swear by anything.
Then Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh and said, “If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, 31 then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.” […] 34 Then Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.
Next Jesus talks about vengeance. Therefore we know the people had a misunderstanding about vengeance.
You have heard that it was said, “An eye in exchange for an eye, and a tooth in exchange for a tooth.” 39 But I am saying to you, you shall not rise up against an evil person, but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other. 40 And whoever wants to sue you and take your coat, leave for him also your cloak. 41 Whoever compels you to go one mile with him, go with him two miles. 42 Whoever asks you, give to him, and whoever wants to borrow from you, do not refuse him. (Matthew 5:38-42)
Again we want to look at the verses Jesus is referring to. It appears that he's talking about these verses because they contain the phrase Jesus uses. That phrase seems to be something of an idiom because parts of it appear in other places in the Bible as well. As an idiom, it means to repay equally.
And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband will set for him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. 23 But if there is any further injury, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound. (Exodus 21:22-25)
You can see how those verses could be misunderstood as a general statement that every injury must be repaid equally. If we read it carefully and think about it a little bit, we'll notice the circumstances. The men were fighting and accidentally injured a pregnant woman.
We need to look at another verse that specifies the "eye for an eye" retribution.
If a man strikes down the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death. 18 And the one who strikes down the life of an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. 19 If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.
The cases in these verses are about intentional death and injury. No one just strikes down an animal, like a sheep, unintentionally. The punishment for these is life for a life, eye for an eye. So this is a different type than we saw with the pregnant woman and isn't what Jesus is talking about.
We're going to see that this "eye for an eye" retribution only applies in certain cases. It isn't a general principle. We don't see anything in the Bible saying that every wrong that's ever done to you should be repaid in this fashion. We see other cases of injury in the verses that precede and follow Jesus' quoted verse, but these do not have the "eye for an eye" retribution.
And if a man strikes his male or female slave … (Exodus 21:20)
And if a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave … (Exodus 21:26)
A man is allowed to strike his slaves. But if he injures his slaves to certain degrees, he has to do certain things to make it right, but that "eye for an eye" retribution is not part of it. So, plainly, it's not a general principle.
All of these verses, including Jesus' quote, are not about injury. The context, again, here is that it's about murder, devaluing someone so much that you would not have proper concern for their lives or property. The point of this is that you are responsible for intentional injuries, for sure, but also unintended consequences of your actions. Even though you didn't mean to cause any harm, you were reckless with other people's lives and need to make it right.
The problem that Jesus is addressing here is that the Jews of his time had turned it around. Where the Bible gives it as instruction to the person who caused the injury, the Jews who felt injured in any way were demanding it. They were applying it to get even and even to gain an advantage.
Jesus' point here is that you shouldn't have a heart that tries to get even or gain advantage. Leave justice for God to repay. And you shouldn't. If you look at the examples Jesus gave for this, I think you'll see that's what he means. But, though Jesus doesn't say it, you should have a heart to make right any injuries you have caused.
Jesus point is seeking vengeance. We have other verses, New Testament and Old Testament, that have this same idea in them.
Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to rage, for it is written: “If you will not execute judgment for yourself, I shall execute your judgment, says God.” 20 And “if your enemy hungers, feed him, and if he thirsts, give him a drink, and if you do these things to him you will heap coals of fire on his skull.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good. (Romans 12:19-21)
Paul is quoting from two Old Testament verses, which I've placed below.
Vengeance is Mine, and retribution (Deuteronomy 32:35 paraphrased)
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 for you will heap burning coals on his head, and Yahweh will repay you. (Proverbs 25:21)
Going back to Jesus' verse for this section, we see that he is reteaching the people what their Bible, the Old Testament, had already been teaching them, but they had decided they weren't going to do. They had focused on the eye-for-an-eye idea because they liked getting even and playing the victim. They weren't prepared to leave vengeance to God.
The last point that Jesus makes is about who your enemy is. This means the Jews also had a misunderstanding in this area.
You have heard that it was said, “Show kindness to your neighbor and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and bless the one who curses you, and do what is beautiful to the one who hates you, and pray over those who take you by force and persecute you. 45 So that you will become the children of your Father who is in Heaven, for his sun rises on the good and upon the evil and his rain descends on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what benefit is it to you? Behold, do not even the Tax Collectors the same thing? 47 And if you pray for the peace of your brethren only, what excellent thing are you doing? Behold, are not even the Tax Collectors doing the same thing? (Matthew 5:43-47)
At first this sounds similar to the previous section, but it's a little bit different.
He's saying that God treats everybody fairly. The sun rises on the good people, just as it rises on the evil people. The rain descends on the good people, just as it does on the unjust or the evil people. Some people wish it weren't that way.
Then he says, it's nothing that you do nice things for your friends and loved ones. Any human being does that. Jesus says that God wants better from you. He wants you to be the person who loves everybody, loves your neighbor, and loves your enemy, not hates your enemy.
This "show kindness to your neighbor and hate your enemy" quote must be a saying from that time. Like the sayings from our time, they have a touch of the Bible in them and a touch of evil. The "show kindness to your neighbor" part, that's in the Bible. But the "hate your enemy" part, that's not there. We'll look at some verses that talk about showing kindness to your neighbor.
You shall not take vengeance, and you shall not keep your anger against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 19:18)
We want to ask where they got this idea from, but there is no certain answer. Maybe they decided this verse only applies to "our own people" and "my neighbor", which they defined as anyone who isn't their enemy. Remember the question that Jesus was asked, "Who is my neighbor?" That was an unanswered question of the time. Whatever they were thinking, they twisted some verse really badly to get that hate to come out.
When your enemy falls, do not be glad, and when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice; 18 lest Yahweh see it and it be evil in His eyes, And turn His anger away from him. (Proverbs 24:17-18)
The instruction has obvious value. Don't be so evil that you would celebrate your enemy's stumbles, and God would turn his anger on to you.
We see here that Jesus is again correcting the Jews of that time. They appear to have come up with a saying that sounds Biblical but isn't. Instead of hating those who mistreat you, Jesus is saying we should love them.
Jesus corrected these 6 false beliefs in the same way. Somehow they became sayings that were being used in society.
These are the sayings that Jesus addressed: