Pastor Dan Eddy
Matthew 5: 21-37
Living the very happy life – Part 3 - Avoiding
Sadness
2-20-11
THE GOSPEL READING………………………………………Matthew 5:21-37 ESV
P: The Holy Gospel according to Apostle, St.
Matthew, the 5th Chapter:
C: Glory to
You, O Lord.
Jesus continues with His sermon on the mount.
21 [Jesus said] “You have heard that it
was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be
liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be
liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
23 So if you are offering
your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something
against you, 24 leave
your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him
to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the
guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the
last penny.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You
shall not commit adultery.’
28 But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be
thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it
away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole
body go into hell.
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his
wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the
ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a
divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to
those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what
you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take
an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is
his footstool, or by
P: This is the
Gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to
You, O Christ.
I.
Introduction
– Setting the foundation for happiness.
Boy, wasn’t that a happy text? What, you don’t feel happy after these words
from Jesus?
I see smiles on your faces but I have a
feeling it wasn’t from the text.
Well living the very happy life is in this Word of God, but the happiness
discovered in Jesus’ teachings is like finding hidden treasures.
Jesus helps us find these treasures,
ironically, by expanding our understanding of the Commandments against murder,
adultery, and misusing His name. He is exerting His exclusive authority as God
to review, restore and offer guidance on how to better following His
teachings. He teaches with certainty and
is emphatic on His points.
And by better following them we avoid the
sadness of sin and enjoy the happiness His commandments give. Yes, following God’s
Commandments gives you happiness.
II.
Commonality
of these Commandments
First, Jesus shows that sins start within
the person through their thoughts then expands to words and deeds. Sadness starts from within us.
In
Mark 7: 20-23 (ESV) Jesus said: “What
comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride,
foolishness. All
these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
How sad?
Second, Jesus shows that these sins are
about a lack of self-control. Happiness is found living the self-controlled
life in Christ.
Proverbs
25:28 ESV “A man without self-control is
like a city broken into and left without walls.”
As many of you know, ancient cities were
protected by wall. If they came down riots and mayhem prevailed. The same can
be said for those who lack self-control.
2 Timothy 1: 7 ESV “For
God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
That
should put a smile on your face, because that means that God is here in our
hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit to help you avoid the sadness of sin and
achieve happiness as His Child with the faith He gives you by His Word. You can not find happiness by yourself.
So let’s look at three ways to avoid
sadness and find more happiness and meaning in your life today.
III.
Avoid
sadness by avoiding murdering others
First in verses 21-26, we may not think
ourselves as a murderers…but Christ, here, says otherwise.
Jesus
expands the idea of murder to ongoing hateful thoughts, and ongoing thoughts
that lead to hateful speech and deeds directed at those inside the Church. The
word “brother” refers to fellow male and female believers, not necessarily a
blood relative. But this seething hatred
toward others can tear a person apart.
Year
ago, I participated in an every member calling program at
This
form of murdering may not involve guns, knives, or even being a part of street gang,
but this hatred, if not confessed before God, will, as the text says, lead to
one losing their salvation and spending eternity in Hell.
It’s
not worth it. The hatred,
this sadness, we have is not even worth close to the forgiveness Christ gave us
from the Cross as a result of His murder. The murder we committed as our sins
put Jesus on the Cross.
This
anger brings a sadness and prevents a life of happiness in Christ. Think about
what you say, who you say it to, how you say it. Negative and sarcastic
comments. Think how your words may look in an email, a post, a text, a tweet,
and/or on your Facebook page. Do they show love? Do they build up others? Or
could they be seen as murdering one’s reputation and their human spirit?
We’re focused on the cyber-bullies and the bullying in schools but how much of
that do we do ourselves?
Jesus offers a happy solution for us, expanding
the idea of what it means to reconcile and offer forgiveness to a fellow
believer in Christ that can also be applied to others as well.
The offering gift Jesus was referring to
in verse 23 was the animals brought to the temple to be killed and burned to
receive forgiveness of sins, which symbolically pointed ahead to the ultimate real
sacrifice Christ made at the Altar of the Cross. Here Jesus is saying…don’t put
the sacrifice on the altar expecting to be forgiven if you are still harboring
hatred, grudges, or ill feelings toward another person. Go and make peace with
them.
In today’s context…if you’re coming up to Holy
Communion this morning angry at what someone has done to you or holding a
grudge, don’t receive the Sacrament…go
and reconcile the best you can. Don’t stand before His altar with malice
in your heart and dare ask for forgiveness if you are not willing to extend forgiveness
to a brother with whom you have a conflict, or, for that matter, others outside
the Church.
Christ has paid the last penny of your
sin, and if you do not accept His forgiveness in forgiving others…than the
total debt of sins will have to be paid by you. That’s something you will never
be able to do even if you did good works every second for the rest of your life.
Keeping your faith in Christ keeps the total payment, the total redemption, He
paid for you.
Reconcile and again bring true happiness
to your life with the assurance of His forgiveness. Those moments when we have
reconciled our difference with others are times of enormous happiness.
IV.
Avoid
sadness by avoiding committing adultery
The next area for avoiding sadness is
avoiding committing adultery. This is
not merely an act of a spouse having physical relations with another person
outside of marriage.
Clearly from this context adultery starts
with thoughts, prompted by looking at someone that is attractive to us. Now
being attracted to someone is not wrong….it’s what you do with the attraction
that’s the problem. It’s when the imagination goes into dark areas. And it gets
worse when we look in the wrong areas like with pornography, or sexting,
Years ago people laughed at President Jimmy
Carter when he admitted that he lusted after another woman in his heart. I
remember as a kid hearing him say that and admiring him for admitting something
many of us have done or are doing.
And Jesus is so emphatic that we do what
we can to make sure that those thoughts don’t become sinful and expand to physical
deeds that He exaggerated this point with the imagery of gouging eyes and
cutting off hands. The urgency to avoid sexual sins is so great that Paul uses
the phrase in 1 Corinthians 6:18 to “Flee
from sexual immorality.” The verb “flee” in the original Greek is used here
in the sense of how quickly one runs out of a burning building.
Again the implication is that if one does
not seek to correct these types of sins…we could undo the grace God gave us
through Christ Jesus by faith. And that spells everlasting doom.
Here Satan sets a great trap trying to
convince us that the pleasure of lust is important for us to be happy. But as
many of us have realized…it’s a pleasure that follow much sadness and despair.
God wants you and me to experience happiness within the marriage union between
one man and one woman…just like He gave Adam and Eve.
Jesus is not saying that adultery, lust, and fornication
are only the sins of males to female…but the scope of Scripture expands it to
lust by anyone for anyone.
That is why Jesus, in verses 31 and 32,
re-established the importance of commitment in marriage by discouraging
divorce. Most divorces in Jesus’ day were instigated by men. And many husbands
were divorcing their wives for some of the most terrible reasons. A man could
conceivably divorce his wife if he didn’t like her cooking. The result was a
growing number of divorces. So here in this text and in Matthew 19 Jesus re-established God’s intended view of
marriage.
Christ here is
not saying that all divorces are improper but nor is He saying that all
divorces are right. He is making it more difficult to people to divorce while
still allowing for a condition of divorce. Here the context is divorce that is
allowed among believers.
Paul adds to the
conditions for divorce in 1 Corinthians 7:15 as he was speaking about unbelieving
partners abandoning the marriage…either physically and/or spiritually. Paul’s
context is among households containing believers and unbelievers. Abandoning a marriage
is not just a matter of physical presence but includes unrepentant sin… like,
for example, physical abuse. Again the goal is not to look for reasons to
divorce but ways of seeking reconciliation…and that when they can’t be done, separation
and the dissolving of the marriage are allowed.
Unfortunately when
divorce is allowed outside of what Scripture says, then Jesus is saying in
verse 32 the adultery is passed into the next marriages…without confession of
sins and the receiving of God’s absolution.
However, as Luke 7:50 points out, adultery is forgiven as completely as
any other sin for those who desire it. There Jesus forgave a prostitute. Read
Luke 7: 36-50 sometime and see how happy this woman was for Christ forgiving
her adultery.
Let’s admit some of the greatest joys in
our lives come when we are in a right relationship with God as expressed in the
good relationship we have with our spouses, because that reflects the image of God’s
intended purpose for marriage.
V.
Avoid
sadness by avoiding making bad oaths
The last area for avoiding sadness in our
lives has to do with oaths. It’s the promises we make before God and others.
Now in verses 33 to 37 Jesus here
reiterates Old Testament passages where the wrongness of making oaths is
wrought with deception
However, Christ expands the idea of what
it means to swear. It’s not just promising something false. Rather, Jesus is
looking at the overall way you make promises in general.
Nothing can be worse than when someone questions
your credibility and the only way you think that you can assert the
truthfulness of your words or actions is to say something like “I swear on my mother’s grave.” Or “I swear on my children’s lives.” “I swear
on my car or bank account.”
What is prohibited
here is making oaths or promises thoughtlessly or in uncertain or unimportant
matters…using Heaven, Earth or other places or objects, or people, or even
God’s name in cheap or meaningless manners.
Jesus is saying we can make oaths by
affirming what it is true, because He is the ultimate embodiment of Truth.
That’s what we are saying when we testify to the truth in court. We follow the
example Christ set at His own trial. Jesus affirmed under oath in Matthew
26:63-64 to the High Priest Caiaphas
that He is indeed the Son of God.
He didn’t need to swear on His mother’s or
His Disciples’ lives or even on His Heavenly Father. He affirmed His promise to
you and me that He is who He says He is. He let His yes be yes as your Savior
and His no be no to not condemning you to death.
That’s how we use oaths when we install
officers in the congregation or ask for the commitment of sponsors at baptisms
or affirm the faith for those at their confirmation. We say “I
do with the help of God.”
I like the way the Holy Spirit spoke through
the writer of Hebrews in chapter 6 verses 16 and 17:
“For people swear by
something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final
for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of
the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an
oath.”
And that should brings happiness to our
lives, knowing that the Lord means what He says through His Word and says what
He means.
Let your words be a testimony of the faith
you have in Christ.
VI.
Conclusion
– true happiness starts with humility
In
our walk with Jesus, true happiness starts with the humility of recognizing our
broken nature as we engage in the discomforts and difficulties of our sins. But
with faith in Christ…fed by His Word and put into practice by avoiding the
sadness of future sins, we, with the help of Christ, can bring about truly living
the very happy life in Jesus. Amen.