Sermon for August 9th, 2026

Matthew 5:21-26 (NT p. 5)

21 ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.” 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Higher Education Part II: Moving to the Heart

One day a woman was driving in heavy traffic, and she was getting really worked up, honking her horn at everyone, swearing in the most foul language, and making all kinds of rude gestures to the vehicles around her. At the next stoplight, she heard a tap on her window, and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He handcuffed her and took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed and placed in a cell. Needless to say, the woman was shocked at this treatment, which seemed a bit over the top for just losing her temper.

After a couple of hours, she was released, and the arresting officer came up to her and said, "I'm awfully sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at everyone else. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' license plate holder, the 'Follow me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the 'God is Love' decal on your back window... Naturally, I assumed the vehicle was stolen."

I think we can all recognize the contradiction here--when the outward signs say one thing, but inside, the heart is filled with anger and rage. In today's scripture reading, Jesus teaches about anger, and what it can lead to. Now I want to be clear at the outset: Anger is a natural, completely normal, healthy emotion. In the Book of Psalms, King David vents his anger in song, and in the gospels Jesus gets angry too, more than once. There are some things in this world that are so wrong, so unjust, that if they don't make us angry, we might be part of the problem. So this sermon isn't about "how NOT to get angry." It's about not letting anger consume you, or the peace and light Jesus calls us to bring into the world.

Last week, we began a series on Jesus' greatest and most profound teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. In his opening words, Jesus spoke to a crowd that probably had a lot to be angry about--many in his audience would have been poor, hungry, dismissed by society, and persecuted at the hands of an oppressive Roman government. But instead of railing against all the very real evils of their world, Jesus paints a picture of a very different kind of kingdom, a world where broken people are lifted up and called "blessed." And in today's scripture reading, he begins to lay out for them (and for us), one step at a time, the long and arduous path to building exactly that kind of world. Spoiler alert: It doesn't start by changing all the horrible people around us. It starts by changing the only thing we really can change--our own heart.

In six consecutive examples, Jesus uses the formula, "you have heard it said..." and then he quotes a key principle from the law of Moses. "But I say to you..." and then he gives them a more challenging (but also more rewarding) take on how to interpret that law. This is actually a common feature of Rabbinic teaching strategy. It's called "fencing the Torah." And the basic idea is that if you don't want to go somewhere you know is dangerous--if you don't want to fall into a hole in the ground, for example--you put a fence around it. If you don't cross the fence, you won't fall into the hole.

Jesus starts, in Matthew 5:21 with the law against murder. That may seem like an extreme case to most of us sitting comfortably here today--you might even be thinking, "I could never murder someone!" But you know who else thinks that? Most people who actually commit murder. Criminological research indicates that between 75% to 90% of murders are not premeditated, but are instead impulsive, spontaneous acts driven by escalated arguments, intense emotions, or situational conflict.

So "fencing the Torah" is kind of like reverse engineering--we start with "Murder is bad." Then, what leads to murder? Escalated arguments, intense emotions, or situational conflict. Ok, let's put a fence there--not because those things in themselves are breaking the law, but because they should give us pause, make us stop and assess where we're going, and look out for the hole we might fall into. In verse 22, that hole is literally a "hell-hole."