Some scholars have called todays gospel reading the key to the whole gospel of Matthew. Since we will be reading from Matthew’s gospel throughout this year, that’s a good reason to pay attention.
What’s more, in the 20th Century, Mahatma Gandhi led a spiritual and political revolution from this chapter of the Bible, Matthew 5. It was the chapter he focused on as a Hindu disciple of Jesus. And when Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer published one of the few books he was able to publish, before being martyred by Hitler and the Nazis, he chose discipleship as his theme and Matthew 5 as his lead Scripture passage.
Which is pretty surprising, because this passage seems to contradict others. Now we know that the Bible speaks with many voices, some of which are easier to hear than others, so we don’t need to work on trying to bring them into unison but where there seems to be disharmony, it signals something important. A paradox. A paradox is an apparent contradiction which invites us beyond the wisdom of the human mind into the wisdom of the Spirit.
[Whenever a paradox occurs it reminds me of the song in Pirates of Penzance…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXhJKzI1u48 1:55 – 2.13]
We can delight in paradox because we know it draws us deeper into the mystery of the Spirit. So the paradox here is that the apostle Paul spent a lot of time and energy developing his theology of how Jesus had come to abolish the law; that we are no longer under the law but are free. To take one verse at random, Romans 10:4 says “For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” You see how this is the opposite of “until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
Obviously, Paul did not have the advantage of reading Matthews Gospel which was written at least twenty years later than the Letter to the Romans. But I don’t think we can push this away by saying it’s an example of how Christian thought developed differently in different Christian communities. We are the heirs of both Matthew and Paul. We get to enjoy the paradox.
In the gospel passage, Jesus tells “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This must have been a deeply shocking statement to his hearers and profoundly disruptive and insulting to these religious leaders – after all, as writer Brian McClaren says, “the scribes (or religious scholars) and the Pharisees were seen and saw themselves as the guardians and paragons of personal piety, goodness, morality, uprightness, decency, justice, and fairness (all of which seem to be wrapped up in the complex and pregnant word righteousness). It would be scandalous, perhaps even ridiculous to suggest that the Scribes and Pharisees are not entering the kingdom and that those who wish to enter the kingdom must do better than they.”[1]
So on the one hand we have Jesus through Matthew telling us we have to behave better than the religious leaders, and Paul telling us we are free from the law.
So can we think differently about Jesus fulfilling the law? What we see in his life and teaching is love, forgiveness and healing. Is it possible that the original intent of the law and the prophets was just that? Is it possible that keeping the commandments was intended to be not an end in itself but living one’s love for God? With compassion and healing for one’s community?
If we listen to the words from Isaiah that John read us this morning, we hear God talking to Israel about a different way. It seems that the people were focused on seeking God and practicing the things that they believed led to a spiritual life, but it didn’t draw them closer to God. Why not? Because they were not loving their neighbor. All their keeping of the commandments and worshiping God were hollow because they continued to oppress the poor.
People of God, this is something we need to take very seriously. God says it’s not about doing great liturgy, it’s not about getting the words right and crossing ourselves at the right time. It’s not even about religiously turning up for worship. Worshiping God is just 50% of the picture. The other 50% is about solidarity with the poor. About getting alongside those who are suffering and lifting them up. Which is remarkably difficult. Yes we can provide our neighbors with clean laundry or hot meals from time to time but they are still needing clean laundry and hot meals. How can we change things so that they have homes and enough income that they no longer need our service? How can we help the people who are starving in Somalia? They too are our neighbors. How can we prevent starvation? And as the planet changes? how can we stand alongside those who have less and less?
And what about the ways we are realizing that we have benefited from past and continuing oppression? How do we level the playing field with our neighbors, with Black people and indigenous people, whose suffering has led to our advancement?
There are no easy answers to any of these questions. They are questions that we cannot ignore, questions that lead us forward. If I read it right, Isaiah calls us to expand our consciousness, to think differently about the world, realizing that the sin matrix is embedded in our history, our institutions, our everyday life. And to take the small steps we can to bring about transformation of our society and of our selves.
What if the fulfilment of the law that Jesus brings is us being transformed into a new people, a new humanity – one which Jesus shows us, a humanity whose relationships are characterized by love and forgiveness and service? If Jesus fulfils the law and the prophets then following his teaching and becoming like him is following the law, and so Paul is right that we do not need to spend hours like the Pharisees parsing out the meaning of each commandment, for as we love and embody God not just in our worship but in our actions, we are free to let the law take care of itself.
This requires an internal transformation. And this is at the heart of the paradox.
The prophet Ezekiel, speaking to the people being sent into exile, gave this promise, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ez. 36:26,27).
This is the transformation. This is the new life that Jesus offers. This is the gift that move and inspired Gandhi and Bonhoeffer. The spirit of Christ within us.
We have much to do in this time of transition, this time of celebration, leave-taking and discernment. But however well we do it, however well we follow the guidelines and do the work, it will be empty unless the spirit of Jesus is moving among us bringing both personal and corporate transformation.
Because this is at the heart of the paradox. We can follow the letter of the law and completely miss the point. We can come to church faithfully and cook for People’s Kitchen and still completely miss the point. Because without the new heart and the new spirit we are just good people doing our best.
But with the new heart and the new spirit, people of God, you are a resurrection church, being transformed by God into God. You are the salt of the earth which will never lose its taste and you are the light set on a hill; your lives poured out as a blessing to Los Osos and beyond, indeed a blessing to the entire planet.
Alleluia!
Photo by Virendra Kadam
[1] McClaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, Ch 14
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