Matthew 5:21–26

Bible Studies for Life

Associate Professor of Religion, Samford University

DISTINCT IN MY APPROACH TO CONFLICT 

Matthew 5:21–26

We continue our unit on the Sermon on the Mount. In last week’s passage Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (two divisions of His Bible). Today He begins to fulfill them.

The title of this week’s lesson is providential, for the writing is being completed on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference had strategies for dealing with conflict: collect the facts, negotiate, purify the self and engage in direct action (see King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” written 52 years ago in April). These Christians based much of their strategy on Jesus’ words and the model of His life.

Nevertheless, today’s passage does not anticipate the Civil Rights struggle outright. Rather it contains some instructions for resolving conflict with fellow Christians and for dealing with someone who is suing you.

Avoid anger. (21–22) 

Murderers were liable to judgment in a court (Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). Jesus says those who are angry (perhaps He means enraged to the point of hate) with a brother or sister are liable to God’s judgment. Verse 22 contains an Aramaic word, “raca,” an obscure insult. The “council” or “Sanhedrin” is either the Jewish high court in Jerusalem or a local court. “Hell” in some translations is “gehenna,” from “Ge Hinnom,” the Hinnom Valley south of Jerusalem, which became associated with a place of posthumous torture for the wicked.

The passage begins what some call the “Antitheses,” based on the idea that Jesus contrasts the Jewish Law with His own radical teaching. Regrettably the title is misleading, as is the claim that no good Jew would ever do something like this. On the contrary, ancient Jews called this “building a fence around the Torah” (“Instruction” is a better translation for “Torah” than “Law”). Jewish students of Jesus’ day expected their teachers to say, “Torah says, ‘Do not do X.’ My torah (“instruction” with a lowercase “i”) says, ‘Do not come close to doing X. And besides, God knows your intentions.’” Jesus has just mentioned pure intentions in Matthew 5:8.

Seek reconciliation. (23–24)

Jesus assumes His followers will continue to engage in worship at the temple, and Matthew’s inclusion of the instructions suggests that he and his readers did so up to the temple’s destruction in 70 A.D.

To make a gift on the altar suggests that one is in right relationship with God. But Jesus says that isn’t the case if there is enmity between you and a fellow believer. Like ancient Jews, modern Christians often think of their prayers, worship and acts of mercy — not to mention their tithes — as gifts to God. Imagine never doing any of these things without first being reconciled to one another. That brings home the difficulty of Jesus’ teaching, doesn’t it?

Resolve differences. (25–26)

Now the instruction shifts to how to deal with nonbelievers (compare James 2:6). In Jesus’ day, His followers were relatively powerless in comparison to Gentiles, who could exploit their social position in the law courts. The judge here also is portrayed as favoring unfairly the wealthy and powerful. The believer who reconciles with the abusive nonbeliever is acting out the character Jesus calls for in the Beatitudes. In our own society, of course, it is Christians who are likely to wield power and hence who stand to be reminded of Jesus’ instructions to relinquish power, in particular when we must deal with others in fairness and God’s mercy.