God's Gift
Posted on Feb 12, 2017 by David Whetter
My guess is that most of us have an image of God in our heads. I suspect that our image of God is based a lot on what we have come to expect from God. For some of us, we might think of someone like a judge. You know, a person in a robe, sitting at a desk with a gavel. In the U.S. we might think of God like a Supreme Court Justice. Still others might imagine an old man with a white beard, or with a long white robe. Some Christians might imagine a young man with long hair, a beard and a robe. Still others might imagine something more like the Holy Spirit. So how do you imagine God?
If I were a betting man, though, my guess is most people, especially Christians, have an image of God as a law-giver and one who is strict on enforcing the rules. I can imagine that for most of us our image is of an old man pointing his huge finger at us, or others as if to be calling us out and passing a judgment on us and today’s lesson would do nothing to change that image would it? I mean, seriously, Jesus takes the law as it was given and restates them in ways that seem impossible for me to believe we could follow. “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire” (5:22).
You know, when I was in third grade, we moved to Atlanta for a short period of time. One day when I was on the playground, my friends and I were goofing around and I called one of my buddies a fool. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, my teacher grabbed me by the shirt collar and began dragging me into the principal’s office. I had no idea what I did, but she was furious. With fire in here eyes, she looked at the principal and said “young Mr. Whetter needs to learn how to speak properly of others. He called one of his friends a fool.” I learned that day that for a young southern women the word “fool” was not a word to be used, at all! God’s law can be very hard to follow and it can create impossible situations.
But, before we get too far down that path, I think we need to take a closer look at God’s intention for God’s law. First and foremost, God gave the law to God’s people as a gift. God had freed the people from slavery. God had lead them into the wilderness and claimed them as God’s chosen and then God gave them “the law.” The law was never intended to be a set of ways to become God’s people or to “earn” God’s love, but instead God gave the law because God already loved God’s people.
Secondly, God gave the law so that the people might know how to live in community peacefully. The people had never lived as a free people, they did not know how to live in community and so God provides them a life-giving gift.
And lastly, the law was given to not only strengthen the community but to teach us to focus on our neighbor first. The law is not about meeting our individual needs, but that of the community. Instead of focusing on self, God says, focus on the community.
Unfortunately, somehow, over the millennia, the law has gone from being a life-giving gift that helps us live peacefully in community to a set of rules to be followed so we might judge each other and cast each other out of our communities. This way of looking at the law was in full swing in Jesus day, as well, and that is what Jesus is trying to address when he offers these “new” overly strict interpretations of the law. In these words from Jesus today, he is trying to get us to focus on our neighbor. If you have an issue with someone in your community, deal with it yourself and don’t leave it hanging out there. If you do, healthy relationships cannot exist and therefore our community is less than is intended. If you are having bad thoughts about another person, or if you are doing something you shouldn’t, find a way to stop. Now, I don’t think Jesus is really advocating for self-mutilation here, but I do think he is saying whatever it is in your life that is causing you to do the wrong thing, find a way to get rid of it.
The purpose of God’s law is not about having a set of rules to earn our way to heaven, or to be able to rate ourselves against others. It has always been and always will be about teaching us to care for our neighbor, so that we can strengthen the community, so that all of us can serve as a blessing to the world. The law is God God’s gift to the world so that all God’s children might be cared for and protected. In essence, God’s law says, we can’t harm or exploit each other, we can’t hoard what we have for personal gain, we can’t discriminate or exclude each other, for if we do these things then our community is weakened and we cannot be the light and salt God has created us to be.
With this in mind, I wonder if maybe your image of God might be a little different now. Martin Luther understood this clearly and so, when some of his students asked him to describe his image of God, he said, “When I think of God, I think of a man hanging on a tree. Because in the cross of Christ we see God’s loved poured out for the whole world and are reminded that God will go to any and all lengths to communicate just how much God loves us so that we, in turn, may better love one another.” And to that I say AMEN!