But 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 

 

In Saturday reading, 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." According to my study Bible, this repeated formula but I say to you is a statement of total, divine authority (Matthew 7:29).  As He is the Creator of human beings, and the Author of the Law, Christ speaks with this authority.  While there is anger which is not sinful, my study Bible comments (Psalm 4:4; Mark 3:5) here Christ forbid sinful anger, and identifies it with murder.  The council was the supreme legal body among the Jews.  Hell (in Greek γέεννα/gehenna) is the final condition of sinners who resist God's grace.  Raca is identified as an Aramaic word essentially meaning "empty" but giving the connotation of lacking intelligence, and being therefore worthless.  It was an insult in Christ's time.  The term for fool in Greek is μωρός/moros.  This word has evolved to be used in modern Greek as a term meaning "baby," but likely comes from a usage here indicating dullness or stupidity, underdevelopment.  It's the root of the English word "moron." 

 

"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."  My study Bible notes here that peace with other believers is a requirement for worship (Mark 11:25).  The liturgical "kiss of peace" at the beginning of the eucharistic prayer is a sign of reconciliation and forgiveness, preparing the faithful to offer the holy gifts at the altar (1 Corinthians 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 says that St. Luke places this teaching in the context of the end of the age (Luke 12:57-59); here it is in the context of the Liturgy.  It says that delay in reconciliation allows for the spread of animosity and other evils (Ephesians 4:26-27).  

 

 Anger can do many damaging things to our lives.  In this context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses the examples of dismissing a person with insults; perhaps we should see the difference between the two that He lists here as one that is an actionable public insult which can be brought to the Council, but the other is a total dismissal of a person as a human being, even as a soul.  If we keep in mind that Jesus is speaking to disciples, then in the context of the body of the faithful, this name-calling terms another person's faith as worthless.  In that light we consider His teachings on receiving children in the Church, or His constant reiteration of the need for care of "the least of these" in His Church as care for those who are liable to receiving such treatment, including the simple and humble.  See Matthew 18:1-9 for His warning to the disciples about abuses in the Church.  I recently had an encounter with anger that led to murder in which a wife is now accused of murdering her ex-husband, after fighting a custody battle in which she wished to deny him access to his children, which she'd previously agreed to.  This angry and vindictive battle escalated over many things and culminated in his murder by conspiracy.  It was these teachings of Christ which first came to my mind as I heard the facts of that development among a couple I had once known fairly well; there are now two ten year old children without a father, and a mother who is in prison.  Where those children will go is still in question.  Nothing has suggested to me more Jesus' warning here about reconciliation, especially this teaching:  "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."  Of course, Jesus is speaking metaphorically of prison, and is referring to the judgment of God.  My study Bible points out that there is such a thing as righteous anger, which Jesus sometimes embodies in His compassion for those who suffer.  Perhaps what this indicates to us is our deep need for discernment at all times, a discipline that comes from love of God, and practicing what Christ teaches.  In another commentary on this passage, St. Augustine cites a passage from the Epistle of St. James.  St. James writes, "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.  But no man can tame the tongue" (James 3:7-8).  He comments if no human being can tame the tongue, we must take refuge in God, who will tame it, for just as no animal can tame itself, so human beings also need God to tame the tongue.  So, therefore, we take refuge in God.  In this way, he points once again to the deep theme contained in the Sermon on the Mount, and that is the foundation of the love of God, which is the beginning of righteousness.  God extends love to us, and we return that love.  In a deep communion with Christ who is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, we find our righteousness.   In Christ, then, and the work of the Holy Spirit, we find the capacity to "tame the tongue," to develop discernment, and to temper our anger.  While the Law could condemn, it is Christ who saves.  Let us pay attention to what He tells us.

 

 

 

But 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 currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  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."  At this stage of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will repeat the formula "but I say to you..." My study Bible says that this repeated formula is a statement of total, divine authority (Matthew 7:29).  As the Creator of human beings, and also the Author of the Law, Christ can speak with this authority.  As there is a type of anger that is not sinful (Psalms 4:4; Mark 3:5), here Jesus is forbidding sinful anger, and identifies it with murder.  The council is the supreme legal body among the Jews.  Hell is translated from the Greek rendered Gehenna (γέενναν); which is itself a transliteration of the Hebrew term, Gêhinnōm, meaning "the valley of Hinnom."  (See also Matthew 10:28.)  This term is also also referred to as the "lake of fire" in Revelation.   It is the final condition of sinners who resist God's grace.  

"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."  My study Bible comments here that peace with other believers is a requirement for worship (Mark 11:25).  The liturgical "kiss of peace" at the beginning of the eucharistic prayer is a sign of reconciliation and forgiveness, which prepares the faithful to offer the holy gifts at the altar (1 Corinthians 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 notes that Luke places this particular teaching in the context of the end of the age (Luke 12:57-59).  Here in Matthew's Gospel it is in the context of reconciliation surrounding the Liturgy.  To delay in reconciliation means allowing or the spread of animosity and other evils (Ephesians 4:26-27).  

In today's excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about the failure of reconciliation, and He places the responsibility for this on the one who causes offense, the one for whom a brother has something against them.  He begins with the admonition against provocation and name-calling.  But even that starts with His teaching on anger.   He begins with the law against murder, and likens a particular type of anger to it.  Note that this, according to my study Bible, is not righteous anger, such as Jesus' response to the hardness of hearts of those who would forbid a healing in Mark 3:5.  But even in that case of an anger begun by a reasonable grief at those who would refuse someone a healing, Jesus does not respond with a rash act, but with a good one:  His response is to heal, regardless of the actions and motivations of the religious rulers in the synagogue.  What that teaches us is a meditation on what Jesus means by meekness, such as when He taught in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (in this reading).   For Christ's kind of meekness was on display when He healed the paralytic in Mark 3:1-6 although the religious leaders would certainly accuse Him of violating the Sabbath.  Meekness, as my study Bible noted in the commentary on the Beatitudes, is not passive weakness, but rather strength under control.  This aspect of self-control or self-mastery is central to the entire history of Christian spiritual teaching.  It is the key to the historical monastic practice of seeking dispassion.  That is, not to be ruled by our passions.  It is in a true sense the way to unlock the meaning of discipleship.  This is because our passions can simply take their own way with us, surpassing all manner of what we might do or think in calmer circumstances and a cooler frame of mind.  Passions are those things, in effect, that overwhelm us and therefore render us truly weak and passive.  So the kind of self-control that is in this aspect of what Jesus calls "meekness" is all about not letting anger or other passions get to oneself, not letting the things that seek to push our buttons send us over the edge into out-of-control unbalance or lack of equanimity.  This "meekness" is all about the strength of self-mastery, so that we keep our cool when we need to, and respond to even highly stressful circumstances, such as when we're provoked even to righteous anger, get the better of us -- and so that we can respond in the way God would call us to do, as did Jesus.  This is a lost understanding in a modern cultural world in which so many seem to take cues from social media that it is appropriate to vent, to act out.  Our films tend to praise the heroic in ways that prize action over sober assessment or discernment.  What we want is the right action of righteousness instead.  Sometimes our own social ailments are caused by a very poor response to passion in ways that seek to blunt it; for example, using drugs or other substances, or to direct such energy into things that ultimately harm us or someone else.  But simply channeling emotion elsewhere or suppressing it or numbing it is not the answer.  This kind of meekness means that we are able to feel what we feel and yet still choose an appropriate response, and that is the aim of true spiritual discipline.  Those who seek to live in prayer and spiritual discipline in fact seek to cultivate this approach to life and to service to God.  It is the true heart and aim of historical Christian spiritual life and practice.  It is what a prayerful mind seeks to achieve in response to life.  So Christ is teaching us in this gospel of the Kingdom about what it means to be truly and fully human, as creations of God meant to fulfill the image and likeness in which we were created (Genesis 1:26-27).  Even in the Garden, and before the first sin made its appearance, human beings were clearly meant to be creatures who would learn and grow.  In this context, to be truly "natural" in theological terms means to bear the likeness and image in which we were created.  At the present state of the world, this need is more clear and -- in the context of the salvation offered by Christ -- even dire.  So this gives us an image in which we're asked to use the potentials for discipleship within ourselves, which includes the capacity both to know our feelings and to choose wisely how we will express them.  Christ is calling us to a deeper order of community, one that includes God and neighbor, as well as our own hearts and minds in that communion.  But He has given us help to do so.  Let us live the fullness of that life to which He calls us, with all the help He gives us to do so -- a prayerful life, and one in which we allow God to shape us through all the varied means we're given in the fullness of the Church and the Kingdom that dwells within us.  This is the fulfillment of the righteousness of faith.

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?