JESUS, THE LAW-GIVER

Homily for June 13^th, 2019. Matthew 5:20-26.

Today’s gospel continues our reading of the Sermon on the Mount, which started last Monday. Speaking about the moral law, based on the Ten Commandments, Jesus shows himself to be not an interpreter of the law, but himself the law-giver. Because perfect observance of all ten Commandments eludes us, interpreters prior to Jesus made exceptions to avoid an overly rigid, literal interpretation. Jesus regards such traditional interpretation not as false, but as inadequate.

He starts with the Commandment, “You shall not kill.” Note how he proceeds: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors.” The one who had said that was, of course, God. As a pious Jew, Jesus was unwilling to speak the sacred name of God. So he uses the passive: not “God said,” but “it was said.” His Jewish hearers understood that what he really meant was: “God said.”

Jesus then shifts the ground from the act of killing to the emotion that precedes and causes it: anger. With the words, “But I say to you,” Jesus is speaking as only the giver of the law can speak. Modern psychology says that suppressed and unacknowledged emotions can cause neuroses and other mental illnesses. A modern understanding of Jesus’ teaching, therefore, is that we should acknowledge anger, but not act it out. Instead Jesus counsels us to seek reconciliation.

All Israel’s prophets had taught that there could be no true worship without justice. So Jesus gives a concrete example. “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Then he gives a kind of “worst case scenario,” describing the possibly disastrous consequences of failing to reconcile. This too has a modern parallel in the example of the wise lawyer who advises his client to “settle out of court.”   

Jesus will go on, in tomorrow’s gospel reading, to deal with the commandment prohibiting adultery. There he sets the bar so high that few indeed can clear it. He thus makes clear that no one has a claim, in strict justice, to salvation. We cannot stand before God  appealing to our good conduct record. Instead we pray, as we do at the start of every Mass, “Lord, have mercy.”