Jesus on the Law

Sermon preached at Choral Mattins at St Mary’s Lapworth on Sunday 13th February 2011. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8.30 Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton’s 3pm Evensong.
Fourth Sunday before Lent – Year A

Readings: Ps 119: 1-8 Ecclesiasticus 15: 15-20 Matthew 5: 21-37


One of my favourite Winston Churchill quotes relates to the time when he was appointed within H. H. Asquith’s government to be First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. At that time there was widespread concern about the build up of German naval power, and there was a recognition that the Royal Navy would need to be strengthened if it was to retain its command of the seas. However there was political disagreement about how many dreadnought ships should be added to the navy, perhaps four, perhaps six. Then a German warship started to intimidate French shipping off Morocco, and suddenly a political consensus emerged. Churchill later summarised the debate saying, “The Conservatives wanted six; the Liberals wanted four; we compromised on eight.”
I was reminded of this story by our gospel reading today. Jesus was talking about the Jewish law and commenting on different matters, some of which were controversial at the time. The conversations would typically be about how much the Law should affect the day to day behaviour of the people. The Pharisees might say by four degrees, the Scribes might say by six degrees, but Jesus would say by eight! Jesus’ interpretation of the law always seems to go much deeper and be far more far reaching than the interpretation of other scholars at the time. In fact it seems to me that Jesus thinks about the Jewish Law in a way that is quite different from the way that scholars of the time might think of it.
It seems to me that the law given through Moses was an effort to explain what good behaviour was; what it meant to help people to be good Jews, worthy of receiving God promises to his chosen nation. But then, over time, it seems that the Law ceased to function as something pointing people towards God, but became more like a boundary defining what was, and what was not, acceptable behaviour for a Jew. During this period the number of rules increased dramatically, and things like how far you could walk on the Sabbath became very precisely defined.
It seems to me that Jesus did not think of the Law as a boundary at all. For him it was all about pointing us towards God. And for Jesus it was not just behaviours that mattered. What mattered much more was the inner attitudes and values and beliefs that drive behaviours. In the eyes of Jesus, it is essential that attitudes, beliefs, values and therefore behaviours too are orientated towards God, that they draw us towards God. Jesus wants us to know God better, to share in God’s attitudes plans and hopes, to become like God.
And this makes the Law Oh so much more demanding. The letter of the law condemns the killing of a person, but Jesus condemns even being angry with a person, or thinking of that a person is a fool or traitor. The letter of the Law condemns adultery, but Jesus condemns even lust. The letter of the Law has a procedure for divorce, but Jesus condemns divorce. The Tradition says you must not break a vow, but Jesus says don’t even make vows, but always keep your word. And in fact Jesus goes on. It gets even harder in next week’s gospel with “Love your enemies”.
What is very noticeable when we think of the Law like Jesus does, as something that points us towards God, as something which prepares us for an eternal life shared with God, is that suddenly we are completely inadequate. No anger, no criticism of others, no lust, no divorce, no parting from our word…we are all of us hopelessly inadequate because none of us can live to this standard.
What we have to accept is that we are on a journey, a journey towards God, towards the life of heaven. It is a journey and we are not there yet. We are not 100% saints yet. We certainly cannot live to the standard that Jesus expects, we are not yet ready for life in heaven. But we also need to accept that by faith in God, and by the grace of Christ, we will one day complete that journey, we will pass through different purifying experiences and God will make us ready for heaven. Ultimately, as our first reading pointed out we all have to choose between fire and water, between life and death, between heaven and hell. So really we have to choose heaven, and the quicker we make progress on the journey to get there the better it is for everyone.
So we are on the journey towards heaven, but every now and again something happens that reminds us that we still have a long way to go. Perhaps a scripture reading like today’s reminds us that we are completely inadequate. What do we do? Do we give up on the journey because it is too difficult? Do we start to hate ourselves because we know that we are sinners? No. No, we remember that God continues to love us, and we must continue to love ourselves and, like God, we must hope for and work for the very best for ourselves. We must remember that Jesus came into the world precisely to save sinners like us and to bring us to the life of heaven. So we need to confess our sin and our inadequacies and our failings to God. We need to hold them before God and see them as God sees them and become totally realistic about them. And this can be painful, it reminds us that we are not as good as we like to think we are. But, it seems to me, that pain, in conjunction with Christ’s sufferings on the cross, gives us the grace to move forward. It fills us with the desire to move forward. It assures us that we move forward in God’s strength not our own. It helps us to make progress on the journey. We realise that God’s love for us goes much deeper than our sin.
So we hear a scripture reading like today’s and when we hear all about God’s laws, let’s not think of them as a boundary, and worry whether we are inside or out. Rather let’s think of them as pointers to God and to the life of heaven. Let’s be sure that we still have a long way to go before we reach God, but let’s also have confidence that Jesus will walk with us on that journey, and that Jesus, through his death and resurrection has already overcome all our sin. The end of the journey is assured, but we still need to walk it Amen.