Good News: God Cares

February 16, 2014

Matthew 5:21-37

Epiphany 6

I'm supposed to say it's the gospel of the Lord,

but it doesn't seem very gospel like!

We continue with Jesus sermon on the mount

We have more difficult instruction here that would make

any good Lutheran a little uncomfortable.

Actually with all the eye plucking and hand cutting,

it should make any good person uncomfortable,

which I think is what it’s supposed to do.

Sermon on the Mount
Brick Testament

We must remember that in Matthew’s gospel,

and sometimes Mark’s, Jesus uses hyperbole to get his point across

exaggeration to make people take notice and listen.

This is the place that it might be most evident

because it never says that any disciple

was ever later encouraged to really cut off a hand or take out an eye.

And for any people who still insist on reading the bible

absolutely literally, ask them about this part of Jesus sermon.

So if we can get beyond the hyperbole today,

we can actually get to the message that Jesus was giving

And the message is actually pretty good news believe it or not.

Because if we can get deep inside,

what Jesus saying is that God cares about our relationships.

By Jesus time, God did not have a very good reputation

With the temple’s demands of money and goods,

the prevailing image of God was of a creator

who wanted more and more offerings

For anyone who didn’t follow the law, even more offerings.

God was a dispenser of blessings for those people

who gave more. And punishments for those who didn’t.

Although the Old Testament does not lead to this understanding,

most people didn’t read or didn’t have time to study

and trusted the religious leaders to interpret things for them.

God Sometime seemed like those Greek gods like Zeus who lived

 a royal life on mount Olympus
and just saw people as something to be used
for their own gains and entertainment.

Or God sometimes seemed only like a brutal judge.

Only there to give out punishments.

But Jesus is using his hyperbole here to say that God is not like that.

God is more complicated than that

and more compassionate than that. God is involved.

Jesus raises the stakes of the law higher each time,

not to show that God is more demanding, or judgmental

But to bring everyone in -- even those think themselves

better than the rest because they follow the 10 commandments

and give all the required offerings.

And also to change people’s understanding

of what God really cares about

And Jesus is saying God cares about us.

Not about offerings and filling the minimal requirements of some law.

But God cares about our little squabbles with our neighbor.
About our strained Thanksgiving dinners with our Aunts and Uncles.
About our marriages and our divorces

about the way we interact with one another.

The part in here about divorce is not to shame people

who have been divorced like some people use it for today,

but to raise the stakes for people then.

Men were dismissing their wives and
leaving them and their offspring destitude for arbitrary and petty reasons

and not losing any sleep over it.

They would just say, well I got a paper, the law says it’s okay.

But Jesus says that it’s not just okay with God.

Marriage is a serious thing to God,

dismissing a person with out support or care is not okay.

God cares about people.

And Jesus tells the people -

contrary to what the ones who were

running the temple were telling the people -

That your offerings of money and goods are not God’s primary concern.

He says, if you are giving your

offerings and not tending to your relationships -

forget about your offering and tend to you relationships first.

Your relationship with one another is more important than

your tending to the church,

or getting worship done in the right an proper way.

I’ll go one step further to say that Jesus meant that

Reconciliation and forgiveness with the people in our life

is our best offering to God.

So don’t just refrain from murder,

                don’t hold on to your anger.

Don’t just not commit adultery,

                don’t hold on to your lust for another person.

Don’t’ just follow the law on divorce,

                care for the ones you promised to care for.

Don’t just swear the right oath,

                let your words be honest and trustworthy.

Jesus is saying how we treat one another

is God’s most prized offering, not money or goods.

No wonder the Chief Priests

and the keepers of the temple wanted to kill Jesus.

It’s always amazing to see

from these 2000 year old texts,

even though some things are so different,

the main things have stayed the same.

 

We still struggle with friends and families and co-workers.

We still have trouble with our relationships

and then come to church and feel that those two worlds

have nothing to do with one another.

People still take relationships for granted,

Some people still thing that God is a cruel judge

with no compassion or care for us.

But Jesus is telling us different.

The God of everything,

the creator of mountains and forests and vast oceans

the one that whole governments and economies rise and fall before,

cares about our relationship with our brothers and our sisters.

About our fights and divorces, about our arguments and discussions.

And when we let God into our hearts and into our relationships,

Good things happen. When we ask God to help us forgive,

help us to reach out to people we’ve shut out.

God helps us.

It would actually be a lot easier to just

have a God who just wanted

a regular offering left on an altar.

But still and all, this is very good news for us.

God cares.