Epiphany Week 7

Psalm: Psalm 119:33-40

Old Testament: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

I hope I can get this post written today and actually published. It has probably been a year since I have actually sat down, on a Sunday, and written the blog. I tend to get them done, but sometimes they are a week or two late. This week I really want to draw our attention to the reading from Matthew. The Sermon on Mount contains some of the most difficult teachings from Jesus. The reason for this is of course the fact that in these 3 chapters he deals almost entirely with ethical issues--how we are to behave. He gets right at the heart of proper human behavior. No one likes to be told how to act and we especially don't like to be told to do things that are not in our own self-interest. And this is something that was as true for Jesus' audience as it is today. Jesus' audience had the same human fears, desires, motivations, and all the emotions that we do. Human nature doesn't change.

With that in mind, let us look at the text. Today we get to the heart of the Sermon on the Mount and it contains perhaps its most difficult teaching. Jesus continues with his ethical teachings and intensifying the Law of Israel and the traditions of man. He even tells his audience that a Roman law, which they no doubt resented and resisted, should not just be followed, but even exceeded. He tells the Jewish listeners that when a Roman soldiers demands that you go with him for 1 mile, go with him 2 miles. Like we saw last week, Jesus is asking his audience to not just outwardly follow the Law, but rather, out of love and compassion, serve others in ways beyond the bare minimum setup by the Law or traditions.

I do want to draw our attention to one more saying from Jesus in these verses. He tells his followers to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. For his audience, the answer to who their enemies were was obvious, the oppressive Romans, and he had just told them to "go the extra mile." But, in our context today these words need to be heard afresh and taken to heart. We live in a culture where we perceive enemies everywhere: other races, the poor, the immigrant, the refuge, democrat or republican. Not to mention the various terrorist groups that our country is actually at war with. Our leaders and the media feed this fear and we become consumed with it. Rather than extending the loving hands of Jesus, we retreat to our base instinct of fight or flight. We insulate ourselves and seek self-preservation. All of this is natural, and even rational to perceived threats. We can argue if the threats are real, but when they are perceived, natural human response is self-preservation. But Jesus calls his follows to something else entirely. He has a way of asking us to become something more. He asks us to pick up our cross and follow him. To lay down our lives for each other. And to love our enemies. These are all things we cannot do without the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls us to some pretty radical counter-cultural and even counter-natural stuff. Some day we may have time to ponder the question if indeed Jesus is calling us to become fully human. Calling us to actually be who we were created to be before the Fall messed everything up. But that is for another day.

I do just want to bring up one more thing since I did some reading on it this week. Verse 5:48 causes a lot of people consternation: "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This is a quote from our passage in Leveticus 19:2 and I was doing some research on this verse and it is interesting how the language changed. In the Hebrew Bible the word used is qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ), or holy. The Hebrew Lexicon defines this word in this usage to mean: "separate from human infirmity, impurity, and sin." The root word is about separation between that which was sacred and that which was profane. In the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Hebrews Bible, this word is rendered agios (ἅγιος). Again, this word had a very cultic meaning of something set apart and dedicated to divine service. This can refer to a place, a tool, or even a person or angel. Of course, the word is also used to define who God is according to his divine separation from creation. The interesting part is that when Jesus quotes Leviticus, or at least how Matthew records it, he doesn't use qadosh or agios, he uses the word teleios (τέλειος). This word is from a family of words all meaning things like completion, reaching a goal or end, and also perfect (perfectly fulfilling the purpose). Jesus used the verb form of this word on the cross when he declared, "It is finished." (John 19:30)

What are we to make of this? First, Jesus probably spoke these words in Aramaic, so I think focusing on the "telos" aspect in Matthew tells us more about Matthew than it does about Jesus. I am just going to assume that Jesus meant the more "qadosh" or even "agios" meaning here. I think there are two aspects at work her: 1. Israel was to be set apart to God, and 2. In Israel, some people and things were to be even more set apart, i.e. the priests, the Temple and all the cultic garments, and tools that went along with the sacrificial system. I think that perhaps what Jesus is doing here is calling all Jews to the second meaning and by extension the Gentiles who follow him as well. This is a radical message for his audience. For one, they were Israel. They already were the holy people of God based off all their peculiar rituals and traditions. And demanding they go even deeper and become more holy didn't seemed to be appropriate either since that was the role and purpose of the priestly class and the Temple. But as we see in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus defines holiness and separation in different ways than the Law prescribed. He called his audience to a life of love, pure holy actions, and holy motives.

Well hopefully some of this makes since. I'm struggling to get all my ideas out in the space restraints and maybe I bit off a bit to much for this post. But, as we continue to read the Sermon on the Mount, let us be diligent to reflect how this speaks to us today. May we wonder how we can follow Jesus' teachings today in our context. May the Spirit help is in this task.

Grace and peace.