Matthew 5:21–32

Associate Professor of Religion and Director of Ministerial Formation, Samford University

The Heart of the Matter
Matthew 5:21–32
The three teachings from the Sermon on the Mount regarding anger, lust and divorce underscore one of the keys to following Jesus. The core message of the sermon is that discipleship begins in one’s inner life, that is, one’s thoughts, impulses and attitudes that others might not see but which the Lord always sees. With each of the following statements, Jesus is taking familiar Old Testament laws and “interiorizing them.” Not only does Jesus know our actions, He knows our hearts as well. We must, therefore, get our lives right on the inside as well as the outside.

Know Your Heart (21–26)
Is Jesus condemning anger per se? Clearly the Bible does not condemn the emotion of anger; rather it condemns the mishandling of it. Paul said, “Be angry but do not sin … do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph. 4:26). Jesus is applying that principle here, particularly as it relates to holding grudges. The Greek verb for angry (orgizmenos) appears in present tense here, denoting continuous action. Jesus is referring then to one “who is continually angry with his brother.” The New English Bible offers the most helpful translation here, referring to “everyone who nurses anger in his heart.” Anger becomes dangerous when it is nurtured, justified and encouraged. We must heed the multiple warnings in Scripture to simmer down by sundown (Eph. 4:26, 31; Col. 3:8; 1 Tim. 2:8; James 1:19–20).

Often the chief victim of a grudge is not the object of our anger but ourselves. Frederick Buechner acknowledges that savoring anger is “in many ways … a feast fit for a king.” However, he continues, “The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

Guard Your Heart (27–30)
Again we see Jesus taking an outward action (adultery) and internalizing it to deal with a sin of the heart, that of lust. It must be acknowledged that in context, Jesus is most concerned about men lusting after women (“… everyone who looks at a woman lustfully … in his heart”). Often the women were treated as property. Indeed a man did not violate his own marriage or commit adultery against his own wife by having relations with another man’s wife; he violated the marriage of the woman’s husband, as that husband’s wife was his property. Many assumed that unconditional fidelity was demanded only of the woman in marriage. The incident with Tamar and Judah recorded in Genesis 38:24–26 vividly illustrates this attitude. The Roman world reflected this chauvinism as well. With His teaching concerning lust, then Jesus did more than call all persons to sexual purity; He also elevated the place of women in society.

Consider Your Actions (31–32)
Here Jesus condemns the abuse of divorce by men who exhibited superficial commitment to their wives. He refers to the law found in Deuteronomy 24:1–4, which states that a man can write his wife a certificate of divorce if “she finds no favor in his eyes” (v. 1). Men were abusing this law by divorcing their wives for unjust reasons. (As I heard an old preacher say, “Men could divorce their wives for burning the cornbread if they wanted to.”) Again Jesus directs His words to the male listeners: “… who divorces his wife … makes her an adulteress …”

Once again, Jesus is elevating the status of women; however, it would be a grave mistake to see this as His only concern here. In the sermon and in other passages (Mark 10:2–12; Luke 16:18), Jesus makes it clear that divorce is a sin. The primary Greek word for sin is hamartia, which means “to miss the mark.” Divorce is hamartia, because it misses the mark of God’s original intention for marriage, that of permanent, monogamous covenant relationship. There is good news, however, for those whose lives have been impacted by divorce: it is a sin, yes — but it is not the unpardonable sin. God can take even the most painful effects of divorce and move them toward redemptive purposes. The church must be intentional about being agents of grace for those in need of moving toward such redemption.