Reconciled Relationships - Matthew 5:22-26 Series

Matthew 5:19-26 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the Scribes, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. 23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. 25 "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Introduction

The heart and soul of this passage is in verse 24: Go and be reconciled to your brother. There are two different kinds of relationships between human beings – good ones and broken ones. When there is love and harmony and peace and goodwill between two souls, that is how a human relationship is supposed to be. But when something happens to introduce anger, animosity, resentment, discord, or hostility – then it is broken and needs to be fixed (reconciled).

And Jesus is pretty straightforward about it here. Basically He says, “When a relationship is broken, fix it or go to hell.” Now, I don’t know if there were people who got up and walked off in the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, but if they did, I am guessing this part right here was where He lost some folks, because when Jesus commanded this He was commanding us to do the exact opposite of what everything in us wants to do when we are angry at someone. When someone has hurt you, is angry with you, hates you, you hate them – the last thing you want to even think about it pursing friendship with them. In extreme cases you want to hurt them, in less extreme cases you just want to keep your distance from them, but not very often is our desire to restore closeness with that person.

And yet Jesus not only commands it, but He does so in some of the strongest terms imaginable – threatening hell. God’s people are Christ’s Bride, and one thing that is essential to the beauty and loveliness of His Bride is unity and harmony and peace in our relationships. And if you want to know how important that is to Him all you have to do is think of the price He paid to get it. According to Ephesians 2:14-15 Jesus died to abolish the hostility and bring about peace among His people. He paid a steep, steep price for our harmony with one another.

Psalm 133:1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil

God loves peace and oneness of heart and love among His people.

And it is easy to understand why that is if you have ever loved two people who hated each other. If the two people you love most in this world are your wife and your child, but they hate each other, that is a source of tremendous grief and pain for you. You cannot just live with that. You want them to reconcile.

Have you ever had someone say these words to you: “I hate you”? That can be incredibly painful. But it is even more painful to hear someone you deeply love say that to someone else you deeply love.

The reason God requires us to have reconciled relationships in the Church is because He really, really loves you – and He really, really loves that person you are at odds with, and He hates it when you don’t love each other. He will not tolerate it. He commands us to reconcile. But He knows it is not easy for us, and so in this text He gives us three motives to help us be willing to reconcile broken relationships.