Life Under Oath - Matthew 5:33-37 Series

Matthew 5:33-37 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Introduction

When I was a kid I had a buddy who I hung out with all the time, and like other best friends we developed some of our own unique ways of communicating. We invented a few of our own words, and we both knew what the other one meant by certain things, and we even established some standards for truth. We were often kidding each other or teasing or joking or flat out lying, but once in a while you really need to know for sure if the other person is telling the truth, or you really want the other person to know for sure that you are telling the truth, and when that happened we would say, “I promise to God this is true.” I lied a lot when I was a kid, but never once did I ever lie when I had promised something to God. I didn’t do it often, but when I did it was something I took very seriously.

I was a great little Pharisee. I did not know it at that time, but that is exactly the same system that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had developed. And Jesus condemns that practice in today’s text.

Context

We are studying through the Sermon on the Mount and throughout this section I have been telling you that Jesus is interpreting the Old Testament Law. But it occurred to me this week that what Jesus is focusing on here is not mostly interpretation, but application. He is showing them the correct way to put the Law into practice. (And that is a great lesson for those of us who are teachers. When you teach the Bible do not ever become a walking commentary that just dumps information on people. Jesus told people what the Scriptures meant and then He showed them how it was to be put into practice.)

And so Jesus says, “You want to know how to obey the 6th commandment (about murder)? Do not get angry, and do not call people fools, and reconcile broken relationships immediately. What to know how to apply the seventh commandment (about adultery)? Do not look in order to lust, and do not divorce your spouse.” And now He is going to tell us how to obey two more – the ninth and the third commandments (do not give false testimony and do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain).

Importance

33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.'

A number of you were very eager the past several weeks to get all your questions about divorce and remarriage answered. And I doubt very many people looked ahead in the Sermon on the Mount and said, “I’ve GOT to make sure I come today, because I need to get all my questions answered about oaths. Oaths probably do not make it on the top ten most important issue list in most people’s minds. And so maybe the first thing we need Jesus to teach us here is about how important this subject really is. Of all the things Jesus could have addressed, He talks about oaths. For Jesus it is right up there with murder and adultery. It is funny - divorce and remarriage is such a complex topic with so many variables and we have so many questions, and Jesus gives it two verses – 34 words. Then He speaks about oaths and goes on for 82 words. And in the book of James, when he is approaching the end of the book, out of nowhere he quotes Jesus’ words here.

James 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear--not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.

This is a subject that is of great importance.

The problem

And like most of the things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount this passage has created difficulty for interpreters because it sounds like Jesus is contradicting the OT. The Pharisees’ teaching - 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord' - that is pretty much exactly what the OT teaches about oaths. But Jesus says, “No, that is the wrong approach. The correct approach is do not swear at all.” In a formal sense it looks like Jesus just flat out contradicts passages like Dt.10:20.