Sermon Notes 12th February 2023
Desiree Snyman

In November 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen accidently discovered the x-ray. Few inventions have had such an immediate impact on human wellbeing. Within a year of Roentgen’s discovery, x-rays were an established part of medical practice. One of the first x-rays that Wilhelm took was of his wife’s hand. Anna Bertha Roentgen was so upset by the image of her skeleton complete with wedding and engagement rings, that she said to him: “I have seen my death”. I doubt she would ever have stepped into his lab again. 

In Matthew 5. 21-37 it is as if Jesus is performing an x-ray on a selection of commandments. By putting these laws under the x-ray, we can see through to the bones of what each law means in practice. The
x-rays are startling. In the same way that x-rays can reveal disease hidden to the human eye, so too does Jesus’ x-ray examination of Judaic law reveal the disease that causes the law to be needed in the first place. 

The opening example has to do with murder. “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you…” Jesus then points to the root cause of murder, anger, which is the tumour that can cause murder. Anger against another is also liable to judgement because anger is the germ from which murder breeds. 

To be clear, it is not anger in and of itself that is a problem. We are to discern between holy anger and unholy anger. There is a perception that Christianity prohibits anger. Suppressing or not acknowledging anger is unhealthy. In fact, an holy anger can be our greatest spiritual gift, anger can be a form of spiritual direction. Holy anger is often linked to justice; it is the energy that empowers us to rebalance the scales of injustice. Anger can come as a teacher. If we fear anger, suppress it, or feed it, we lose the opportunity to hear what anger’s message is. However, it takes a whole, integrated, holy person to wield the force of anger. The kind of anger that is death dealing to oneself, one’s relationships and in extreme cases to other people, is anger that is allowed to lie rancid, unused, unacknowledged, simmering away, turning its owner bitter. It is for this reason that Jesus takes even anger and puts it under the x-ray too.

Deeper than anger is contempt that lies beneath it: “Whoever shall say to his brother or sister, 'Raca,' shall be liable to more serious judgement.” Raca is an Aramaic expression of contempt. The attitude that gives rise to contempt is the refusal to give others the sort of respect that is due all members of our family. This final x-ray seems to have the worse punishment of all, eternal damnation.  Whoever murders is liable to judgement, but whoever says ‘raca’ to a brother or sister is liable to serious judgement, but excluding others is liable to eternal damnation. 

In other words, Jesus has x-rayed murder and examined the anger that causes murder. In performing an x-ray on anger, Jesus uncovers the contempt that causes anger in the first place. In looking deeper through contempt Jesus reveals exclusion, the assumption that another has little to contribute and should not be taken seriously. Our law even today expects that murder is a crime that should be punished. However, Jesus sees murder as only the last in a series of immoralities. Jesus affords the greatest punishment not to anger that gives rise to murder, not to the contempt that gives rise to anger, but to an attitude.

A lawyer may rightly argue that the escalating sanctions are ridiculous. How can we hope to understand what Jesus is trying to teach where murder is only judged, but anger is more seriously judged  while exclusion is liable to eternal damnation? We shall explore an answer to why Jesus radicalises the law at the end, for now let us look at some other laws Jesus scrutinises. 

Thus far we have put murder under the x-ray, and I understood it in the light of the microscopic analysis that follows. Similarly, we place adultery under the x-ray and make sense of lust – the point at which (in the view of Jesus) adultery actually begins. David McKay: 

“If I have committed myself to you, heart and soul, to live and die together, each for the good of the other, and I look at another with accepted and relished desire, I have surely violated that commitment. If my unfaithfulness goes as far as divorce, then I make your covenant null and void as well as mine. The Church is compassionate with divorce and remarriage because we believe that God is compassionate… and also because, according to the view of Jesus, the heartbreak of divorce is simply the end result of an initial betrayal that began before and has gotten out of control. Condemnation and punishment of divorce is like closing the stable doors after the horses have bolted.”

We come to the end of our reflection and in placing all our x-rays on a light box we ask why Jesus uses the triplet of worsening punishments, where murder contracts a simple judgement and exclusion of another acquires damnation. The scale of worsening punishments makes sense in the context of covenant, our covenant with God and our covenant with each other, our love connection with God and love connection with each other. In the context of our love connection with God and each other the betrayal of trust is a greater evil than anything it might lead to. The first betrayal is the one that counts, what follows is like a set of falling dominoes.

It is that seriousness and wholeheartedness of commitment that is to be protected at all costs, because once it is lost, the whole relationship begins to disintegrate and fall apart – this doesn’t always end in separation – but it does mean that instead of being salt and light the relationship will lose its taste of heaven and will fail to shine with the splendour of the love of God –it will be a travesty, a deception, masquerading as something it is not. This is why the Judaism of Jesus’ day was in such trouble – instead of being a vehicle for the fullness of God’s blessing, preparatory to the arrival of the Messiah, it had become a vehicle for nothing more than its own pretentious self-image, and in consequence more of a curse than a blessing – as Paul says, citing the prophet Isaiah, “For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." In this context we must ask about the Church. The following wisdom of an unknown source but attributed to Gandhi summarises the intention behind Christ’s teaching:

Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

(Sources used: McKay, David: 2013. Glimpses of Jesus in Matthew. St Boniface Press: Bunbury).