I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment

 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' Shall be in danger of the council.  But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.  Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny."

- Matthew 5:21-26

We are reading the Sermon on the Mount, which will continue through chapter 7 in Matthew's Gospel.  Jesus began with the Beatitudes, then  He taught His disciples that they are to be the salt and light of the world, and said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven."    On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

  "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' Shall be in danger of the council.  But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire."  My study bible says that "But I say to you indicates Jesus' authority (7:28-29).  Jesus, the Son of God, acting with the Father, created human nature and gave the Law of the Old Testament.  As the Old Law is fulfilled in the New Law, so human nature is healed by Christ.  Jesus forbids sinful anger (see Ps. 4:4 and Eph. 4:26 for anger, or righteous indignation, that is not sinful), identifying such anger with murder.  The council is the supreme legal body among the Jews.  Hell (Greek Gehenna; see 10:28) is the final condition of sinners who resist God's grace."  "Raca" literally means "empty head" in Aramaic.  Interestingly, in the Greek the word for "You fool!" is the same root for the word Jesus uses of salt that has become enfeebled, or lost its savor in the earlier reading on the salt and light of His disciples. 

"Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."  A note tells us that "peace with other believers takes primacy over duties of worship (Mark 11:25).  In early Christian worship the liturgical 'kiss of peace' at the beginning of the Communion prayers -- not after -- was a sign of reconciliation and forgiveness, preparing the Church to offer and receive the Eucharist (1 Cor. 16:20; 1 Peter 5:14)."

"Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny."  My study bible tells us, "Luke 12:57-59 places this teaching in a context dealing with the end of the age; here it is in the context of reconciliation.  In both cases, it is clear that quarrels must be settled quickly, not allowed to continue.  Delaying reconciliation and good works gives room for the working of more evil (Eph. 4:26-27)."

In today's reading, Jesus comes first to the subject of anger in His expansion on the Law.  He takes the statute against murder and expands it for us to understand more deeply.  To my mind, Jesus doesn't just expand "sinfulness" to include our thoughts, but rather expands an understanding of what leads to sinful acts -- especially here, murder.  To provoke others to anger unnecessarily, to assassinate others' character without a cause, to unjustifiably accuse, all of these things are akin to murder in our hearts in some sense.  Moreover, reason tells us that these things are the roots that lead to violence.  A quarrel that begins out of nothing can escalate to include the violence of murder.  We have only to witness the statistics on murder here in the United States, where most often the culprit may be a member of our family, our household, one of our neighbors -- this becomes more likely where there are weapons of violence at hand, which proves the point that Jesus is making here.  But there is a deeper level of murder in the heart, and that is a hatred without a cause, the unrighteousness that Jesus points out here.  There's something else similar to this type of murder, and that is a form of envy that simply wants to cut out the other person, substituting oneself in their place.  I believe that Jesus speaks of these things not out of a spirit of condemnation of each of us for what is in our hearts, but more out of a sense that He is teaching us what it takes to make for peace.  It's interesting that my study bible points out that His final teachings in verses 25 and 26 appear in Luke in connection with the end of the age.  We find a similar connection with the intent to teach on peace in Luke's Gospel when Jesus laments over the fate of Jerusalem:  As He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes."  (See My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.)  Jesus expands the teachings on righteousness for us to understand that righteousness is right-relatedness.  Peace isn't simply a matter of two people agreeing, or even the absence of violence, rather it is a situation of reconciliation that includes God, that includes Christ, because true right-relatedness or righteousness includes much more than we think it does.  It goes more deeply into the heart of us than a mere focus on the outside of the cup, or what toeing the line of the letter of the law would include.  If we really want to get to the roots of our own violence, we need a kind of self-awareness that allows us to understand and to take responsibility for how we contribute to it, what we do to incite a bad situation rather than heal it, and more especially to examine our own role in what goes on around us.  Peace isn't just something between people, it's also a state of mind -- of reconciliation -- within ourselves, and in this Sermon Jesus will also teach us about prayer as a kind of reconciliation, a way to deal with our own pain and hurt and even anger, placing it in God's hands.  For today, the focus is on a kind of righteousness that is willing to practice accountability, and encourages us to be aware of ourselves.  Where do you stand in the things that make for your peace?  How does God help you with the kind of righteousness Jesus asks of us here?