This week we have been looking at a
section of perhaps the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached, which we
know today as the Sermon on the Mount. Tuesday, we looked on as Jesus dealt
with the issue of divorce and remarriage.
Jesus quoted from a section
of a letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the Old Testament
called the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 24:1-4, we see the Lord, through
Moses, address the issue of divorce that had begun to occur amongst the Jewish
people. However, the Jewish people of Jesus day had twisted and manipulated the
Lord’s words through Moses in such a way that made it easy for people to get a
divorce. The Jewish people of Jesus day did what we all have a tendency to do,
which is to only quote a part of what the message and teachings of Jesus have
to say in order to justify behavior that may go against what the message and
teachings of Jesus have to say.
Thus, the Jewish people
would only quote the first part of the passage in order to justify getting a
divorce for any number of reasons. Jesus then explained to the crowds listening
that regardless of whether or not a woman had committed adultery, for a man to
divorce her is to portray her as an adulteress who becomes an adulteress if she
remarries. In addition, Jesus points out that the person who marries a divorced
woman, regardless for the reasons for the divorce, commits adultery. Jesus
point is that both the divorced wife and her new husband are guilty of
adultery. Jesus point is that everyone in this scenario is guilty of adultery.
Jesus here is taking an external commandment and is
internalizing the true meaning of that commandment. Jesus here is revealing the
true intent of this commandment as given by God. But this morning, what if
Jesus is making a greater point than the issue of divorce? What if Jesus is
using the issue of divorce as an opening illustration to address an even deeper
spiritual issue? And if that is the case, if Jesus is using the issue of
divorce as an opening illustration to address an even deeper spiritual issue, then
what is the deeper spiritual issue? We see Jesus reveal the deeper spiritual
issue in Matthew 5:33:
"Again, you have heard that the ancients
were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE
LORD.'
Here we see Jesus continue His sermon by quickly
moving from the issue of divorce by quoting from two different sections of two
different letters that are preserved and recorded for us in the Old Testament
of the Bible. First, Jesus quoted from Leviticus 19:12 “You shall not make
false vows. Jesus then quoted from Numbers 30:2 “but shall fulfill your vows to
the Lord”.
When the Lord commanded the Jewish people “You shall
not make false vows” this command refers to failing to do what was promised
under a vow or an oath. Now a vow, or an oath, was a voluntary promise that one
made to another, that once made was binding. The Lord commanded the Jewish
people to make sure that they did not fail to keep a promise or commitment that
they had voluntarily made.
Instead, the Lord commanded the Jewish people to
fulfill your vows to the Lord. In other words, the Lord commanded the Jewish
people to make sure that they kept the obligation that they had made to keep
any promise or vow that they had made. Again, for those in the crowd listening
to Jesus sermon, no one would be surprised at Jesus words here. For those in
the crowd listening to Jesus sermon, no one would disagree with Jesus words
here. For the Jewish people it was a common and accepted principle that a
person who engaged in failed to do
what was promised would certainly be guilty of breaking this
commandment. However, once again, what the crowds listening to Jesus were not
prepared for was what Jesus had to say next. We see what Jesus said next in
verse 34-37:
"But I say to you, make no oath at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth,
for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE
GREAT KING. 36 "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for
you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 "But let your
statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or 'No,
no'; anything beyond these is of evil.
Now to fully understand what Jesus is getting at here,
we first need to understand some things about the culture of Jesus day. In the
culture of Jesus day, when a person made a vow or an oath, they would often
invoke God as the guarantor of their word. We see this happen on occasion
today, don’t we? Isn’t this what we are doing when we say: “I swear to God”? In
addition, to break an oath or a vow after invoking God was to misuse and
profane, or disrespect, God’s name.
As a result, the Jewish people of Jesus day, just like
today, developed a system of innocuous substitutes for the name of God instead
of the name of God. Jesus lists three of those here: by Heaven, by the earth,
or by Jerusalem. In addition, Jesus lists another common substitute, which was
by your head. Jesus here is explaining to the crowds listening, and to us
today, that a person should make no oath at all.
Jesus then exposed the ridiculous nature of using such
innocuous substitutes for the name of God instead of the name of God by
explaining that Heaven, earth and Jerusalem are inseparably linked with God.
Heaven, earth, and Jerusalem are inseparably linked to God as they are all
places where God dwells and are His creation and His possession. Jesus also exposed the ridiculous nature of
using such innocuous substitutes as your head instead of the name of God by
explaining that not only are we His creation, but we have no power over the
color of our hair. While we may try to control the color of the hair we have
with dye, the reality is that it is God who determines to color of hair since
He is the Creator and sustainer of all things.
Jesus here is exposing the reality that all such oaths
are superficial and irreverent to God. All such oaths are superficial and
irreverent to God because God requires truthfulness. And because of that
reality, Jesus, in verse 37, states “But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or
'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.” Now if Jesus was giving this
sermon in 2017, this phrase would have sounded something like this: “But let
your words be your word. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Anything that
goes beyond a simple yes or no is evil.”
Jesus point is
that our word should be so trustworthy that oaths are unnecessary. Jesus point
is that God’s expectation is that people are so trustworthy in keeping their
vows and promises that oaths are unnecessary. Once again Jesus is addressing
the temptation that we all face, which is to look at the message and teachings
of the letters in the Bible as though they simply address external behavior.
Jesus here is addressing the temptation that we all face, which is to make our lists and charts for what we believe is spiritual
and what we believe meets God’s standard of obedience, while missing the
reality is that our lists and standard looks nothing at all like God’s
standard. Jesus here is taking an external
commandment and is internalizing the true meaning of that commandment. Jesus
here is revealing the true intent of this commandment as given by God.
And it is here that we see Jesus reveal for us a
timeless truth about the true nature of what it means to obey
the message and teachings of Jesus and the true nature of a lifestyle that is
living a right relationship with Jesus.
And that timeless truth is this: We misrepresent
God’s promises when we fail to keep our promises.
You see, once again, Jesus is confronting us with the
timeless reality that our words and our actions are the overflow from what is
going on inside of our hearts. And because of that reality, we are guilty of misrepresenting
God’s promises when we fail to keep our promises. We are guilty of
misrepresenting God’s promises when we fail to keep the promises that we make
in marriage. We are guilty of misrepresenting God’s promises when we fail to
keep the promises we make in marriage because marriage is designed to be a word picture to the world
around us of the eternal covenant relationship that Jesus has with His
followers. And because of that reality divorce mars and misrepresents God’s
promise and God’s covenant commitment that He makes to His followers.
We are guilty of misrepresenting God’s promises when
we fail to keep a promise or commitment that we have voluntarily made. We are
guilty of misrepresenting God’s promises when we break a promise after invoking
God so as to disrespect God’s name. We are guilty of misrepresenting God’s
promises when we develop and use a system of innocuous substitutes for the name
of God instead of the name of God so as to try to avoid any consequences from
God when we fail to keep our promises. And we are guilty of misrepresenting
God’s promises when we lack the ability to be so trustworthy that oaths are
unnecessary.
So, with that in mind, here is a question to consider:
Do you represent God’s promises by keeping your promises? Are you a person who
says what you mean and mean what you say? Are you a person of your word who is
true to your word? Are you so trustworthy in your word that oaths and vows are
unnecessary? Are you a promise maker and a promise keeper?
Because,
as Jesus points out, we misrepresent God’s promises when
we fail to keep our promises. We misrepresent God’s promises when
we fail to keep our promises because Jesus is not simply concerned with our external
behavior.
We
are guilty because at the end of the day Jesus is concerned with our internal
heart condition. Jesus is concerned with our internal heart condition because
Jesus knows, and human history has shown, that eventually what is in the heart
will spill out. Human history has shown us that when we fail to keep our
promises, we misrepresent God in a way that will ultimately spill out into other
aspects of our lives and in a way that will hinder our ability to be a part of
God’s kingdom mission in the world…
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