We’ve been in the book of Isaiah for some time, which points ahead to Jesus as the coming Savior and King. As we return to Matthew we read the portrait of this King, beginning with His lineage and birth, and now His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon outlines the kingdom culture, a kind of “kingdom manifesto.” Jesus began with the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12), the metaphor of salt and light (5:13-16), and then He explains that He has not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (5:17-20). Verse 20 presents the startling claim, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” That sets the scene for this week’s passage.
You Shall Not Murder
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’”
Jesus begins by quoting from the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:13). This is an old law that everyone would agree is proper. Most of us have no problem obeying that law. However, Jesus doesn’t stop there.
22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
As God incarnate, Jesus had the authority to change and add to the Law that God had declared to Moses. No one else could simply come along and make something up and expect people to obey. In this case, He adds inappropriate anger and insults as carrying the same consequences as murder. Such words and thoughts weren’t merely frowned upon, but liable to judgment and damnation.
The King meant serious business. Jesus didn’t set aside the old laws, but expanded them to their fullest expression. In the kingdom of God, the values of respect, patience, kindness, and forgiveness are paramount. Anything that violates those values is unacceptable. This expansion of the Law might seem unreasonable to us, but if we jump ahead to the end of Matthew 5 we see that it gets even harder: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v. 48). The point of Jesus’ whole sermon is that humans actually cannot live up to the demands of the Law. We may be able to avoid the most obvious of sins, but we’ll never live up to God’s perfection. We tend to rank which sins seem worst because they hurt the most people, or because it enables us to look down on other people. But in God’s economy, any sin separates us from Him and brings us under judgment.
Two Illustrations
23 “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”
Remember that Jesus was speaking primarily to Jews who were accustomed to taking their offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. They may have to travel several days to make their offering. So to leave the offering to go reconcile with a neighbor before returning might require a couple weeks of their time. This wasn’t a simple matter of walking across the sanctuary or picking up the phone.
All Have Sinned
The commands that Jesus gave were hard to hear and even harder to obey. None of us are capable of the perfect obedience that is required. We don’t need better rules, we need a Savior. In Romans 3 the Apostle Paul gives this explanation:
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was preparing people to see their need for a Savior and the gift of His own death to provide salvation to all who would follow Him. Paul makes it clear that through faith in Jesus Christ we can be made right with God. Jesus took on our sin so that we can receive His righteousness. We aren’t morally better than any other people. We are simply trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice and standing in His perfect righteousness. This should lead us to humility, gratitude, and freedom. We don’t look down on others with self-righteousness, but we continue growing in Christlikeness. Because God has loved us, we can love and forgive others rather than hold onto anger and contempt.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God… In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:7, 9).
Discussion Questions
1) Do you tend to be hot tempered or cool under pressure? What types of people or situations provoke you to anger? Have you noticed growth in your level of patience and tolerance the longer you’ve been a Christian?
2) What else does Scripture have to say about anger? Consider Proverbs 14:29, 29:22; Ecclesiastes 7:9; James 1:19-20; Galatians 5:19-23; Romans 12:17-21; Ephesians 4:26-32; Colossian 3:5-10.
3) In 1 Corinthians 12:21-26 we read that Christians are one body that should have no division in it. Are there people in our church or nearby churches that you need to pursue reconciliation with?
