Crying Wolf
Matt. 5:33-37
5/27/07
PSCOC
Introduction: Ed Harris story.
Last week I traveled to Austin for a seminar. As we were waiting for our bags to arrive you just won’t believe who we saw walking out of the bathroom, but I promise you it was none other than Ed Harris. I swear he wasn’t anymore than 20 feet from us, wearing a cowboy hat, glasses, and boots. I didn’t want to do it, but I had never seen anyone as famous as Ed, so I walked up to him and just introduced myself. He was actually very nice and asked me why we were here. I told him that we were all preachers (there were about eight of us at the time) and were here for a seminar. To my shock he said, “Why don’t you come to dinner with me tonight?” We had to eat, so the next thing I know the van is following Ed’s Mercedes out to a place called Salt Lick.
Now you wouldn’t believe how this place was out in the country. I promise you it was the best Barbeque I’ve had in years! I promise as sure, as I’m standing here, that I was going to pass on cobbler. But then Ed insisted, so we all ate dessert. Ed was pretty quite, but he asked us questions about our work and told us about being in the movies. We were there about two hours, and at the end he bought T-shirts for us all from the Saltlick that said, “I didn’t get to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian.” I promise that’s what it said. Well, finally this unlikely experience came to an end and we went our separate ways at the end of the meal.
Now how many believe my story? Okay, how many believe some of my story? None of it? In reality much of my story was true. I did go to Austin for a seminar. We did see Ed Harris at the airport. We did eat at a restaurant, in the country, called “Saltlick.” It was the best Barbeque I’ve had in a long time. I was going to pass on dessert. And the t-shirts said exactly what I stated. In fact, everything that I prefaced with a “promise” or an “I swear” was absolutely true. The rest was absolutely fiction.
And what would you think of my trustworthiness in general, if I constantly told lies, and when I really wanted you to believe me I used a oath or promise, but if I really needed to I could just cross my fingers and nullify my promise? In your ears, I would become the boy who cried wolf too many times. Soon nothing I said could be trusted. But this is very much the world we live in.
Move 1: A world of dishonesty.
I remember well that when President Clinton was impeached for perjuring himself, and that he did whatever you think of his politics, that his approval ratings went up. What did that tell us about the state of our nation at the time? Could it be that many of us believe we would’ve done the same thing had we been in Clinton’s position? Had we just become too comfortable with a certain level of dishonesty?
It hasn’t gotten any better. Whether it’s the Enron scandal or the latest political scandal, dishonesty continues to spread. Sports have become forever tainted with sport’s figures either lying under oath about the use of steroids, or their refusal to answer under oath, but denying their involvement to the media. It seems that if lying might save you from public ridicule than it is not only okay to do so, but wise and expedient.
Of course, we see it among many religious leaders today. They cover years of marital unfaithfulness with lies to their spouses and to their flocks. Even the everyday Christian accepts ‘little white lies’ as a way of life. We don’t know if we can trust someone even if they say I promise or I swear. Kids learn to play the game early. They say little oaths to one another with a promise, “cross my heart, hope to die…” Of course, it doesn’t count if they cross their fingers behind their back. Hmm…I wonder where they learned that.
So, in this world of decaying integrity, we are forced to wrestle with a few questions. How can we know whom to trust? Or maybe more importantly, how can we truly be trustworthy in a society where lying is accepted as the norm, and clever lying is actually applauded? Jesus calls his disciples to integrity. What does that look like? Read text.
Move 2: Jesus’ world of dishonesty.
Before we can understand what Jesus is teaching here, we need to understand how things were in his world. The Mosaic Law permitted oaths, as long as you fulfilled them. Even God participated in solemn oaths. But the Pharisees and others began using them more frequently and developed a hierarchy of oaths. For example, if you swore something by the temple, then you didn’t really have to keep it. But if you swore something by the gold of the temple, then you had to. If you swore by the altar, you could break it, if by the gift on the altar then you better keep it. Jesus addresses this hypocrisy in Matt. 23:16-22. We can assume a similar context here.
Apparently, some believed that you were okay as long as you were not swearing by God. So, you could swear by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or your head and it wouldn’t be terrible if you broke the oath. Jesus is saying that whatever you swear by it goes back to God. Jerusalem is his city. Heaven is his throne. The earth is his footstool. You can’t make an oath by anything and think it is separate from God. All belongs to God. We are not even sovereign over our own heads.
So, what had happened in Jesus’ world is exactly what has occurred to today. Even the people of God could not be trusted. They were simply a little cleverer in deceit than others, but it was deceit nonetheless. How can people know the God of truth when no one can find representatives of truth on earth?
Before we look at the Lord’s solution, we need to understand that once again Jesus is not throwing out the Law of Moses, or laying down new legislation. He’s not trying to say that one can never take an oath in the court of law or for some other sacred reason. God himself made oaths to mark sacred occasions. Jesus responded under oath in 26:53 to the Sanhedrin. Paul continued to call God as his witness on several occasions (cf. 2 Cor. 1:23). We make vows on our wedding day, any time we sign a contract, or give information under threat of prosecution if we perjure ourselves. Jesus is saying that to make vows in our every day speech or to use certain vows as the real vows and devalue others is evil. Oaths were originally made to bind someone to God and they had become abused. It is that behavior that Jesus is not only criticizing, but condemning.
Move 3: Jesus calls his disciples to integrity.
Jesus solution to rampant dishonesty is not difficult to understand. He calls on his disciples to stop with the vow making. No more promising and crossing the heart. No more swearing on the temple or the gold of the temple. No more getting animated in an argument and pleading your case with “I swear to God,” as if that is the only way to know that you are speaking the truth. No the disciple of Jesus will allow their Yes to be Yes and their No to be No!
Disciples simply allow their word to speak for itself. Their honest is so transparent that eventually people will stop asking for their oaths altogether. If they have said it, it will be so. There is no trickery, no white lies or other deceits, just the simple truth. Though in court a disciple may make take a solemn oath to satisfy the courts, the disciple is no more likely to lie if he or she was not under oath. It simply doesn’t matter. The disciple always speaks the truth.
The disciple does not weigh the expediency of the truth. Sometimes the truth will get you killed. Even then the disciple will speak the truth. We are not trying to imagine every possible scenario today where not telling the full truth might be appropriate. Someone might bring up the classic example of what if you’re hiding Jews in your house and the Nazi’s stop by and ask if you have any Jews in the house. Well that’s another sermon, and since I don’t think any of you are hiding Jews from Nazis right now, I think we will just state with Jesus, “Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No.” The simple fact is that when we lie it is to serve self and no one else. Jesus says not so for the disciple.
Jesus’ disciples would stand out in their society as both salt and light. They would become truthful in heart and their righteousness would surpass that of the Pharisee. It must, if they were to enter the kingdom of Heaven. What Jesus essentially does is raise every spoken word to the level of a sacred vow. There will be no differentiating between when a disciple is speaking the truth or covering with a false vow. The disciple doesn’t need a vow, because her every word is on that level.
Move 4: Today’s disciples create a new culture of honesty.
One man in Japan attempted to find out if Christians really kept their word. When the LST team came to help people practice their English in his country he entered the program. He knew that the LST team would be using the Bible for their one-on-one classes. But he decided to test them to see if they would help him with his English, if he refused to use the Bible. So that’s what he did. He found out that the LST team were people of their word. They helped him anyway. The man became a Christian.
People are tired of not knowing the truth from deception. They are attracted to whatever they know is real. Disciple of Jesus today have a great opportunity to create a society of honesty, and people will find that so refreshing. Your honesty will be a plunge into a cold pool of water and demonstrate to them that there is truth in this world and it is found in the people of Jesus.
Conversely, there is nothing worse than for us to be found false. We are the last beacon of truth in this world, because we have the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And if our actions and deeds fail to communicate that, then they will give up hope and believe that the world must only be darkness and deceit. For every lie you tell, even half-truth uttered, every deception achieved, the father of lies rejoices. When we cry wolf people do see a wolf, but the wolf is in our hearts.
But alas we serve the God of all truth. If we tell people we are going to do something, we do it, because we belong to the truth, because we are disciple of Jesus Christ. We don’t give evasive answers just to avoid conflict. We speak plainly. That doesn’t mean rudely or without tact, and certainly not without love, but it means that people know the answer of our hearts and they can count on our word.
The Sermon on the Mount is not a collection of random teaching of Jesus. They are all linked together by what Jesus taught in 5:1-20. In that section, he told his disciples that they are salt and light. There is no greater way to be salt and light than to heed Jesus’ call to truthfulness in every word. Darkness is deceit. Light is truth. We are light!
So there is no more need for us to be mixing vows and promises in our common speech. When we speak to one another we always speak on the level of a sacred vow. We speak the truth because the Truth lives in us!
Invitation: Responding to truth!
I speak the truth to you today that there is no other ultimate truth beyond Jesus Christ. He is the Truth and he beckons you to come to him today. He will give you eternal life, if you will yield to him. It is also the truth that eternal life does not exist apart from him. Let Jesus make you salt and light today as you give your life to him.
