If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."

- Matthew 5:27-37

The readings from this week have been from the Sermon on the Mount, and today we continue. In yesterday's readings, we read Jesus' expansion on the law against murder. Jesus is taking us deeper into what it is to be truly righteous - He is drawing us in to an understanding of the depths of ourselves, and how we work at righteousness in terms of not only what we do but also what we say and what we think. See You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder'. Jesus has taught in this Sermon that His disciples' righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees - and today He continues with His exposition of what this entails.

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." It's important to understand what Jesus means here by "lust." This is not a simple mutual and natural attraction between men and women that He is referring to. Jesus is talking about cultivating a desire with intent. In short, it's about covetousness - a feeding of a personal desire. He takes us from the forbidden action to the thinking that starts behind it, and taking us into the territory of righteousness that "exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees."

"If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell." Here is the great teaching on what it means to really watch our thoughts, to structure our "inner selves" so that the outer self is taken care of, and to practice the kind of righteousness He desires from His disciples. He's taking us from action to the inner self, the thoughts we nurture and cultivate within ourselves (as illustrated by the example of "lust" above). He uses the body as a metaphor for our inner lives, our "inner body" if you will. Things that poison our minds with what we don't need must be discarded, "plucked out", "cut off" or "cast away." It's our own thinking that can harm our soul, our spirit.

"Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." Jesus repeatedly preaches throughout the Gospels against an easy divorce of the type that was used during His lifetime. This left women in a truly defenseless and powerless position in the society, and denied the power of real relationship in marriage - one made in sacrament to God. The clause "except sexual immorality" teaches us that divorce is not out of the question in cases of abuse of the relationship. The early church would expand the grounds for divorce, but the theological understanding behind the concept of all relationship is that it can either be strengthened or destroyed depending on our choices, especially in a spiritual context. That which is spiritual at its heart - such as the sacrament of marriage - needs spiritual nurturing and can be destroyed by our carelessness, and this is what Jesus is teaching here about "causing adultery."

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." This is a teaching about what it means for our words to have meaning, our intentions to be true, our inner life reliable. It's not worthy of our relationship with God - or anything else that we love - that we would bind an oath with it. This is what it is to "swear." None of it is really "ours" to swear by. Rather it is our inner integrity, the truth or falseness of our promises, that really makes our word worth something. If we really think about it, what is it that you need in your relations with others but the ability to trust? So He asks us to cultivate our own integrity. My study bible says, "Jesus teaches us to live in the simplicity of the present moment."

That's quite a marvelous thought, don't you think? To live in the simplicity of the present moment is a remarkable thing. It implies integrity and strength -- minus all the rest of the things that we don't need: covetousness, the nurturing of desires that aren't good for us and destroy relationships, the overbearing drama of swearing by one thing or another that is unnecessary and troublesome, the destruction of relationships only to enter into others just as shallow and with the same lack of understanding of real relatedness. Let us think, then, about what it is to waste our time with diversions from this simplicity, from the straightforward and pure heart He seeks for us. Rather, Jesus asks us to cut out the unnecessary, the things we don't need -- and to construct and build on the positive. "To speak the truth and keep our promises," my study bible says. When Jesus preached that we are to be the "salt of the earth," a great deal of that meaning is about covenant -- our ability to seal relationships, to keep promises. It is all about an inner integrity, beginning with our commitment to God who is love, and the promise of how that means we relate to neighbor. Can we start first today by thinking about the meanings of truth, and how an inner truth reflects our integrity? We recall that Jesus' greatest condemnation comes for hypocrites - in the original Greek, meaning "actor." Let your 'yes' be 'yes' and 'no' be 'no' teaches us about our honest truth. We can "cast away" whatever stands in the way. What is your truth today, right in the simplicity of this moment? All the extraneous things we wish to add we'd best stay away from - and stick to the things we truly love.