Deut. 19: 15-20, 1 Tim. 5:17:24; Matthew 18:15-20
Tell it to the Church, Last
Sometimes people criticize the Christian faith because of the complicated, confusing, or mysterious things it contains. A good answer to that critique is to admit that the Bible has confusing, complicated, and mysterious things in it; and then to ask this question: if all those places in the Bible were removed, would you be willing to accept all the things that are left?
Of course, if you have been a Christian for more than a few months – and if you’ve given even a cursory glance at the Bible, you’ll have discovered that the confusing, complicated and mysterious parts amount to a tiny sliver of the Biblical text. And, we all know how easy it is to dismiss what is confusing. Far more difficult to handle are the places in the Bible which are not confusing, not complicated, and very nonmysterious. Those are the parts of the Bible that REALLY give us some things to wrestle with.
Like the passage in the gospel for today. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18, verses 15-20 is probably one of the most clear portions of his teaching. It is also a passage that seems almost immune to correct understanding. After we have looked over these simple verses in the next few minutes, we are going to think of dozens of questions of the form “But what about this? or that?” And, we are not going to answer all those questions today. But, I do hope you will carry away with you today a more focused and more accurate understanding of what our Lord was teaching his disciples in preparation for them to assume their office as the Apostles of Christ and the heads of the Church.
The first place where readers go wrong here is the situation for which Jesus is giving instruction. He begins with these words, “If your brother sins against you.”
These words have generated thousands of sermons and no doubt hundreds of books about Church discipline, or how to handle conflict. Those concepts may certainly be related to what Jesus is addressing here, but that’s not what these verses are about. They are instructions on how to handle the situation where a brother in Christ sins against you.
Before going further, let me note in passing the situations that Jesus is NOT talking about here. He is not speaking, for example, of the situation where your brother does something you don’t particularly like. There are a whole lot of things our brothers and sisters in Christ may do which we will not like.
That’s not what’s in view here. Nor is Jesus talking about someone who is sinning, but not against you. That situation is addressed by Paul in the sixth chapter of Galatians, when he says, “ 1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”
Nor is Jesus talking about a situation where one of your brothers thinks that YOU are the sinner. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 5, and his instructions are somewhat different from these here in Matthew 18.
No, what Jesus has in view here is that a brother has sinned, and that you are the one damaged by it.
The next thing to observe here is that everything Jesus says here supposes here is your cause is just: namely that your brother ACTUALLY sinned, that he actually sinned AGAINST YOU. In other words, you have a valid accusation to bring against your brother.
Here is where a knowledge of the Old Testament background of the New Testament is invaluable, and protects us against a host of misinterpretations and misunderstandings of Jesus’ teaching here. In the Old Testament lesson we heard read a short while ago, we heard a passage from Deuteronomy which is roughly parallel to what we find here in Matthew 18.
Moses says in that place: ““One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” One eyewitness to a crime is not sufficient for conviction under the Law of Moses: It takes at least two, better three witnesses to a crime in order to lodge an accusation of sin.
I am always amused at those who accuse the Old Testament Law of being harsh and severe. The truth is this: if the American criminal justice system operated on this single principle of the Mosaic Law – namely, that any indictment of a crime required the eyewitness testimony of at least two people – that principle alone would result in the elimination of over half the courts and slash the prison population by two-thirds. Whether we would like this result or not is another question, but clearly the requirement of witnesses in order to establish a crime is a requirement that greatly tilts the scales of justice toward transgressors.
And, what about the sin against you. Are you the only one who can testify to it? Then you do not have a case, even though you are indeed sinned against. On the other hand, if there are one or two witnesses to the sin against you, then you must proceed as Jesus directs.
And, the first step is to leave the witnesses in the background, and go to your brother alone with your complaint. He might hear you, repent or otherwise make amends, and that is the end of the matter. Or, he might refuse to hear your complaint, in which case, you come to him again with the one or two witnesses.
I have often heard this passage explained this way: that the one or two persons you take with you on the second visit to your brother are there to be mediators, or that they are there to verify that you are following Jesus’ instructions here. Certainly, they may act as mediators; certainly they may later verify what has taken place. But, Jesus’ quotation of Deuteronomy 19 here makes clear that the fundamental purpose of the witnesses is to verify that your original complaint is verifiable. They provide independent testimony that the wrong-doer did indeed do whatever it was wrong that he did.
This step in the procedure eliminates the “he said, she said” sort of argumentativeness. It is a tedious thing to adjudicate these kinds of disputes, and they usually divide a body of Christians faster than anything else.
It goes without saying that each step of the process Jesus outlines here has the same purpose at every step along the way: the repentance of the wrongdoer. He may hear you when you go to him alone. Or, he may hear you when you bring one or two witnesses. If he does not hear them, then Jesus says the whole church is to be informed. Again, the purpose of doing this is to increase the level of persuasion and admonition, hoping that the wrongdoer will hear the Church and repent.
And, if the wrongdoer does not repent? Then there is to be a fundamental change in the way the Church relates to him: he is to be as a heathen or a tax collector. Let us make no mistake here – “heathen” and “tax collector” in this context are not terms of endearment. I’ve heard some commentators say “Jesus loved heathens and tax collectors!” I’m not sure what they’re urging when they say such things.
If they suppose that Jesus is saying, “Oh well, let’s just move on,” they’re sadly mistaken. Those who name the name of Christ, who successfully resist the admonitions of the Church concerning their sin, such people are not to be treated as if they were still in fellowship with the rest of the Church. Historically, such persons were excommunicated, and what that term signifies is this: they were not permitted to join other Christians at the Lord’s Table.
This is what Paul meant when he wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 5: “now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” That instruction not to eat with such a person is odd. Christians do not, as a matter of course, eat with one another except in one situation. And we know what that situation is – the gathering of the faithful around the table of the Lord. “Not to eat with such a person” is simply a way of saying that such persons are excluded from the communion.
The remaining words in Jesus’ instructions are some of the most misapplied of all his teachings. Verse 18, in particular, is misunderstood: “18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” We examined these words last week when considering almost identical words which Jesus spoke to the Apostle Peter. Here, he speaks them to all the Apostles together. In both instances, Jesus is declaring that the judgments made by the Apostles – in this case, disciplinary judgments – will be backed up by Jesus himself in heaven.
There is a fascinating parallel between Jesus’ assurance to the Apostles here in verse 18 and Moses teaching in Deuteronomy 19. Let me reread to you verses 16 and 17 from that chapter: “16 If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both men in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.” Did you catch the appositive in verse 17? The men in controversy are to stand “before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.” The implication here is that standing before the priests and the judges who serve in those days is tantamount to standing before the LORD himself! And, this is no great surprise, for they are acting as the viceroys of the LORD in judging God’s people.
This is exactly the same kind of thing which Jesus is assuring the Apostles, and their successors after them, when he says what they bind on earth is bound in heaven, and what they loose on earth is loosed in heaven.
And, this helps us clear up yet another misreading of Jesus words here – the ones that follow in verses 19 and 20: 19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” These words are not a willy-nilly entitlement to any two or three Christians who assemble together anywhere in time. It is a further assurance to the leaders of Christ’s Church that he is in their very midst when they adjudicate matters in Church life, in particular the disciplinary matters which Jesus has just been discussing.
I must say that there is yet another way to deal with a brother who sins against you, and that is contained in the verses which follow, verses which we will consider next week. As far as a preview is concerned, that other way is to simply forgive your brother and to go forward. We’ll say more about that when we get there next Sunday.
For now, however, I would simply say this: so much of the conflict in the church that gets entirely out of hand does so because we do not follow Jesus first words here – when a brother sins against you, go to him alone. Our impulse is always to go to ANYONE other than the brother who has supposedly sinned against us. It is interesting here that Jesus grants what amounts to an entitlement to a sinner – an entitlement to hear about his sin in private, and from the one against whom he has sinned. We only snarl things badly when we fail to follow Jesus words here.
God grant that we may find grace to do as Jesus commanded, in the expectation that the purpose of this teaching is the peace and harmony of the Church. May be purpose in our hearts, if those hearts be burdened with a wrong done to us by a brother, to bring that burden to our brother in private.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
