February 12, 2023
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Matthew 5:21-37
Be Reconciled
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Both of our Bible readings today reflect on the commandments. In the reading from Deuteronomy, Moses and the Israelites stand on the border of the Promised Land. They’ve completed their 40-year exodus journey from Egypt.
Moses assembles the people and addresses them. As they enter into the land of Canaan and settle into their new life, he leaves them with one final exhortation. Before them stretch two pathways. One leads to life and prosperity. The other will direct them to death and adversity.
Walking in God’s pathway, following God’s commands, will lead to life and goodness. But to diverge from that way will only bring them woe. Moses doesn’t say this as a threat: do this or else. He says it merely as a statement of truth.
One of the chief purposes of God’s commandments – the 10 commandments – is to promote life and harmony. They set us in right relationships – with God and with our neighbor. When we live our days according to God’s will for us, then our relationships thrive, they remain healthy. We revere God, we honor our neighbor, treat our neighbor as we ourselves would like to be treated. This sets us on a path of beauty and harmony.
While on their 40-year exodus, the Israelites had received God’s good commandments at Mount Sinai. And now as they prepare to enter into this new life in this new land, Moses exhorts them to walk in God’s pathway for them. “Choose life,” he says. The commandments are life.
Then in our reading from Matthew’s gospel, we encounter Jesus giving his Sermon on the Mount. We hear him expound on the commandments.
Hmm, talking about the commandments, sitting on a mountain, gee, it sounds very similar to the scene on Mount Sinai when God gave the commandments to Moses! But this time, this exhortation on the commandments is coming straight from Jesus’ mouth. And he’s speaking as one with authority:
“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times… but I say to you.” He’s proclaiming about the holy commandments on this mountaintop with the authority of God!
Jesus expounds on the commandments. And he takes them beyond the superficial level. In every case, Jesus digs down and reveals the full length and breadth of their reach. For instance, murder isn’t just the taking of a physical life. We can also murder the inner spirit. Calling someone a derogatory name slays them. There aren’t blood and guts, but to demean a person with an offensive name or insult cuts them to the heart. The many ways we can demean a person according to their race or ethnicity, disparaging their gender or gender identity, these things cut us to the quick.
In the other commandments, Jesus broadens the reach of adultery in a way that speaks to our modern-day addiction to pornography. Bearing false witness isn’t just about telling a lie. There aren’t shades of truth or alternative facts.
All of these commands deal with our relationship to our neighbor, the second table of the law. In all things, God intends that we have life, and have it abundantly. This was God’s plan from the beginning of creation. This was God’s plan in revealing the commandments. This was God’s plan in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord. This was God’s plan through the fresh breeze of the Holy Spirit. THIS IS GOD’S PLAN! Life, life, and abundant life.
God wills that we should dwell in God’s abundant life. The commandments are our pathway. They reveal how our relationships with God and with others can release the fullness of our life together.
And in our life together, Jesus expounds on the importance of reconciliation. He urges us to prioritize mending our broken relationships.
He says, “When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”
In this scenario, offering our gift at the altar is connected to our relationship with God. It’s our worship, it draws us into closer connection with the divine. But Jesus is saying that when we’re out of sorts with our neighbor, mending that rift should take precedence over our connection to God. Our relationship with our neighbor is more weighty than our relationship with God. Or to put it another way, our connection to our neighbor deeply affects our connection to God.
How can you have life and abundantly so if your heart is consumed by anger towards your neighbor? You can’t. Forgiveness frees the granter of forgiveness as much, if not more, than it does the one who is forgiven.
This is something Nelson Mandela knew very well.
Before he became the first president of South Africa after the fall of Apartheid, Nelson Mandela had spent 27 years in prison. The majority of them were spent on Robben Island, the Alcatraz of South Africa. During the days he engaged in hard, physical labor. At night he lived in a 7 x 8 foot cell.
Eventually he was released, and with the fall of Apartheid he was the first elected president in a fully democratic South Africa. He knew the country desperately needed healing to recover from its years of racial oppression. He instituted a Truth and Reconciliation committee to facilitate that healing.
Mandela always had a calm equilibrium about him. He remarked about his own ability to leave behind the suffering and anger he felt and how he moved from resentment to freedom.
“As I stand before the door to my freedom, I realize that if I do not leave my pain, anger and bitterness behind me, I will still be in prison.”
Buddha made a similar remark:
“Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
Jesus spoke truth when he stressed the importance of reconciliation with our neighbor. It’s critical that we engage in the hard work of forgiveness. It may take time, it may require us years to accomplish, but we must engage in the hard work of forgiveness. Forgiveness brings life. It brings new life out of the dead. This doesn’t mean that the restored character of the relationship needs to be exactly as it was before. This doesn’t mean that victims return to the same former place of dangerous circumstances. It’s not the old life. We can never return to the old. Forgiveness is new life, resurrection life. Something entirely new is born. God is making all things new.
Jesus pronounces these words in his Sermon on the Mount. These words come from the one who will later climb to the top of another hill, the mount of Golgotha. And there he will be lifted upon his cross. And from that elevated position, he proclaims words of reconciliation, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
He will be lifted upon his cross to bring about the reconciliation of the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In his dying, he takes our old and shattered and gasping life with him. And when he arises from his tomb three days later, he ushers in the realm of his new life, abundant, new life, the life that cannot be overcome.
As Moses said to Israel: two pathways lie before us, the good and gracious pathway of God and the broken way of worldly selfishness and rage. Choose life, he says. Choose life.
There’s a traditional Cherokee story called The Two Wolves. An elderly Cherokee man has a conversation with his grandson. “There’s a terrible fight going on inside of me,” he says. “There are two wolves who are fighting.”
The grandson’s eyes widened. “Two wolves, Grandfather?”
“Yes, Grandson. One wolf is Evil. He’s filled with all kinds of wicked things: rage, selfishness, lies, pride, self-pity. The other wolf is good. He’s filled with compassion and peace, trust and kindness and hope. And Grandson, there are two wolves fighting inside of you, too.”
The Grandson looked fearful. He asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”
The Grandfather replied, “Grandson, the one that you feed.”
