[Worship Drama—“Who’s a Murderer?”

     Please stand and join me in reading Matthew 5:21-22.  As is our practice during this Sermon on the Mount series, we’ll read it first in the MOT and then in the NLT:

[Jesus said,] “²¹You heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders shall be liable to the judgment.’  ²²But I (myself) say to you that all the ones being angry with their brothers shall be liable to the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca’ (or “Empty Head”) shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘Fool!’ shall be liable to the Gehenna of fire (Hell).” 

[Jesus said,] ²¹“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ ²²But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

     Let’s pray……………Amen  (Please be seated.)

     Have you ever murdered anyone? Is the sixth commandment the only one you’ve never broken?  Jesus made it a lot tougher on us than Moses didn’t He?  As we move into these next several Sundays, we’re going to find Jesus addressing a number of the Ten Commandments, and other Old Testament laws.  He’ll do it in a way that will show us that even if we have never “technically” committed the sin the commandment or law prohibits—such as murder in today’s text—by Jesus’ standards we HAVE broken the command.  As you watched the worship drama this morning did the conversation ring any bells with you?  Have you ever known anyone who frustrated you?  Who borrowed things and didn’t return them?  Who borrowed money and then “forgot” about it?  Have you ever “murdered” such a person in your mind?  Jesus’ words take the matter even further.  Have you ever gotten angry at a “brother” (or sister) or called anyone an idiot, an empty head, or a fool?  Or should I ask, “When was the last time you got angry with someone or called someone an idiot, an empty head or a fool?

     It used to be that when I drove my car, I broke this command of Jesus regularly.  I mean have you ever seen the way some people drive?  They stop when they should keep going.  They slow down just because the light is turning yellow.  They blow their horns when you were just about to get started after the light turned green.  You know the kinds of things people do.  The natural thing for me to do in such situations used to be to say, “Idiot! Where’d you buy your driver’s license? The five and ten?” (For those of you who don’t know what a “five and ten” is, it’s sort of like a Wal-Mart only a lot smaller.)  God’s been working with me on that.  Now, I only call someone an idiot a couple of times a week, usually when I’m driving down main street here in Saxonburg, and the person approaching is taking their half out of the middle, while looking down and talking on a cell phone.  I’m sure that I’m either going to die, or at the very least have to smash into a parked car or the driving challenged wizard heading toward me.  But did you notice that Jesus didn’t say, “When people really ARE acting like idiots, it’s okay to call them idiots.”?  He said, “whoever says, ‘Fool!’ shall be liable to the Gehenna of fire (Hell).  Don’t you think that’s a pretty serious consequence for calling someone a fool?  Actually, it’s the most serious consequence possible---and that’s precisely the point.  Jesus’ list of consequences escalates as the severity of the offense diminishes.  After all, the 1) punishment for murder or even being angry with someone is judgment; the 2) punishment for calling someone “Raca” – “empty head” or idiot is not just judgment, but judgment before the Sanhedrin, the “Supreme Court” of Jesus’ day.  And the 3) punishment for calling someone a fool is burning in hell.  That doesn’t quite seem right, does it?  Why would Jesus establish such a standard of punishment, one in which a murderer goes to jail, and a name caller goes to hell?

     The short answer to that question is because Jesus is establishing the standard for His followers as perfection.  Jesus wanted each and every one of us to understand that while the Pharisees had manipulated the Mosaic Law in such a way that they could actually live it out flawlessly—if with great difficulty—that no one can live out God’s law in his or her own effort.  As we read through each of the texts over the next several Sundays, we’re going to find out each time that we simply can’t live up to the standard Jesus sets.  So, was Jesus’ goal to depress us, to frustrate us, or to drive us away, because we can’t do what He calls us to do?  Not at all!  His goal was precisely the opposite.  His goal was to drive us to Him.  Jesus wanted us to recognize that apart from Him we’re lost, but with Him anything is possible.

     Have you ever heard that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you?  I’ve said it many times over the years, but do you know there’s no place in the Bible where we’re told we need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus.  You can read the book from cover to cover and you’ll never find a place that it says, “You need to have a personal relationship with Jesus! You need to have a personal relationship with Jesus.”  What Jesus said we need to do is ABIDE in Him!  Do you see the difference?  Let me give you an illustration.  When I was in seminary I had a close, personal relationship with Andy Ross.  In fact, Andy and I were together every day.  We went to class together.  We prayed together.  We played racquetball and ping pong together.  We hung out together with our wives.  We had a great personal relationship.  In fact, it was one of the closest personal relationships I’ve ever had.  Then we graduated from seminary, and Andy and Michelle, his wife, moved to the state of Washington, while Nancy and I moved to Ohio.  In the twenty-four years since our seminary graduation, I’ve seen Andy a half a dozen times.  I’ve spoken with him on the phone and e-mailed him several dozen times.  The last time Andy was in Pittsburgh, we got together and our personal relationship was just as close as ever. We picked up right where we left off.  I miss Andy.  I think of him regularly, and pray for him when I do, but I’ve lived quite well without his personal relationship being an integral part of my life for the past twenty-four years, even though I spent nearly every day with him for three years.

      The same could be said of a personal relationship with Jesus.  Jesus is a great friend. He’s always there.  He listens.  He responds, but if all we have is a personal relationship with Him, then when we get busy and involved in other things it’s no big deal, really.  We may miss Jesus, but it’s just a relationship, so we get along, and mostly we get along just fine.  But if we are ABIDING in Jesus, remaining in Jesus, if Jesus is the “vine” in our lives and we are a “branch” springing from that vine, as Jesus put it in John 15, then that’s something altogether different. In fact, if we’re ABIDING in Jesus, then we realize that every good thing that ever happens in our lives happens because Jesus is doing it in us.  If we’re abiding in Jesus, He empowers us by His Holy Spirit to live out His commands and experience victory in the daily struggles of life. 

     Here’s the question:  Are you abiding in Jesus, or do you just have a personal relationship with Him?  It’s so easy to tell.  When someone acts like an idiot, do you scream “Idiot!”?  Do you say, “Idiot!” under your breath?  If you do, then you aren’t abiding with Jesus, at least not in that moment.  Jesus sets such high standards for His followers, because He is ready and willing to give us the ability to live up to those high standards.  When Jesus told us in John 10:10b, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” NKJV do you think He was telling the truth, or was He just setting us up for disappointment? (Which one?)  He was telling us the truth!  So, if we want to live the abundant life of Jesus, we must ABIDE in Him.  We can’t just have a personal relationship with Him, meaning we’ll call on Him when we remember, and muddle along, or get along quite well without Him when we forget.  We must ABIDE in Him. 

     In this year of Back to Basics messages our goal has been to help each of us regardless of where we are in our walk with Jesus—new believer, “toddler,” “teenager” or mature follower of Jesus—to move to the next level in our walk with Him.  Jesus doesn’t want a piece of us.  Jesus doesn’t want a couple of hours on Sunday morning.  Jesus doesn’t want the “religious” part of our lives.  Jesus wants US—all of us—every minute of every day of every week of our lives.  As we work our way through the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll find some of the most practical teaching ever when it comes to living as a follower of Jesus.  In fact, we’re going to read a few more verses that Jesus offered in Matthew 5, as an application to His teaching on murder in just a minute, but The reality is unless we make the commitment to ABIDE in Jesus, reading His teachings is pointless.  That’s because as I said last Sunday we’ll either try really hard and fail, which will frustrate us, or we’ll “succeed” which will lead us to being filled with pride, or we’ll just say, “We don’t have to do any of this stuff, because after all Jesus died on the cross for us, so all our sins are forgiven, and it doesn’t matter what we do.

     Here’s the point, the “punch line,”:  Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins—AND He lives in us, so we can live the abundant life He offers, but only if we ABIDE in Him.  Abiding in Jesus is nothing more or less than calling on Him constantly to fill us with His Spirit and then living under His Lordship and control. As we do that our lives become more and more like His.  As we fail to do that our lives remain the same as everyone else’s.

     Let’s see the practical application Jesus offered in concluding His teaching on murder.  Please, read His words with me from Matthew 5:23-26:  ²³Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave the gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother, and then returning offer your gift. ²⁵Be well disposed to your opponent quickly while you are with him in the way (road); otherwise he may deliver you (the opponent) to the judge and the judge to the attendant, and you will be cast into prison.  ²⁶Truly, I say to you, by no means will you come out from there until you have repaid the last quadrans. ( a copper coin worth 1/64 of a denarius)  MOT 

     ²³“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, ²⁴leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. ²⁵“When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.

     Jesus offered two scenarios for our application.  We come to worship on a Sunday morning, and as we prepare to put our tithe or offering into the basket we remember that someone has something against us.  Let’s say there’s someone who’s angry with us, because of something we did at work, or because of a misunderstanding in the family.  Whatever it is—the person has something against us.  So, in that moment we leave our offering on our seat, we slip out quietly and go find the person and reconcile with him or her.  After we’ve reconciled, we come back and put our offering in the basket or the offering box, and go about the rest of the day and the new week serving Jesus.  Do you have someone who has something against you right now? Is the list of people who have something against you short or long?  If we want to have victory in Jesus, if we want to live that abundant life He calls us to live, then we need to keep “short accounts.”  We need to address those situations, ask forgiveness if we’re at fault, and reconcile if possible.  We have to recognize that some folks aren’t going to reconcile with us.  The Apostle Paul made a powerful statement about this in Romans 12:18:  ¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do you see Paul’s meaning?  Sometimes you can do everything you can to live in peace with someone and they just won’t.  In that situation, make the effort to reconcile and then move on, knowing that you’ve done what Jesus commanded.

     Jesus’ second application example is a bit extreme, and isn’t likely to be directly applicable in our day.  Here’s what He said, “²⁵Be well disposed to your opponent quickly while you are with him in the way (road); otherwise he may deliver you (the opponent) to the judge and the judge to the attendant, and you will be cast into prison.  ²⁶Truly, I say to you, by no means will you come out from there until you have repaid the last quadrans. ( a copper coin worth 1/64 of a denarius)  MOT  In Jesus’ day, if you had an “opponent,” a legal adversary, and He took you to court, and you lost the judgment, you were liable to pay whatever the judgment was.  If you couldn’t pay, you were thrown into jail.  You weren’t put there to make license plates as a means of repayment. You were tortured.  Jesus’ point is if you have a legal opponent, BEFORE you get to court, go to him quickly and do whatever you can to resolve the matter.  I said that Jesus’ words aren’t directly applicable, because folks generally aren’t thrown into jail and tortured these days, but the PRINCIPLE is applicable:  Do whatever you can to resolve conflicts promptly.  We live in a culture where folks sue one another over anything and over nothing.  As followers of Jesus, we’re called to a different standard.  We’re called to reconciliation.  The culture says, “Don’t get mad, get __________(even.)”  Jesus says, “Don’t get mad, find a way to reconcile.”  That may mean swallowing our pride, admitting our wrong, asking for forgiveness.  At times it may mean that we would rather be wronged than seek judgment from another believer.  The reality is if we always demand our rights, and if we never accept responsibility and blame, we will never make an impact on our culture, because that’s precisely the way our culture deals with injustice whether real or perceived.  If we’re to keep the sixth commandment: You shall not murder, as Jesus defines it, then we will find ourselves constantly drawing strength from Him.  Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves liable to judgment, to the “Supreme Court,” even to the fires of hell. 

     In closing, let me point out that as followers of Jesus our goal is never to do the least amount we can do to get by and still live in righteousness.  Our goal is to live as our Savior and Lord—to serve others, to go beyond what is expected, to help those who would hurt us, and to love those who hate us.  Is that easy? No!  Not only is it not easy, it’s impossible in our power.  That’s why we must abide in Jesus. That’s why we must remember that a relationship with Jesus isn’t enough to live in victory in the middle of all the struggles of everyday life, only abiding in Him is!  Here’s TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will abide in Jesus, so I may live abundantly even when people do me wrong!  It’s easy to abide in Jesus when everyone is driving the right speed, the right direction on the right side of the road.  It’s tougher when they don’t.  It’s easy to abide in Jesus when no one has anything against us, but only by abiding in Jesus can we overcome when folks hold grudges against us, or falsely accuse us, or act like jerks around us.  Jesus never told us following Him would be easy.  He only told us that if we abide in Him we will do greater things than He did! 

      Please stand with me, and if today’s challenge is the desire of your heart, say it with me:  TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will abide in Jesus, so I may live abundantly even when people do me wrong!  Let’s pray……..  Amen.