““You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But 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. “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.” Matthew 5:21-24 NLT
Jesus preached his signature sermon and brought up a whole slew of hearsay of things his audience had heard through the grapevine. Jesus said, “our ancestors were told.” Yep, God told their ancestors (ours by adoption) that #6 on the list of God no-no’s was MURDER. Thou shalt not.
Then Jesus redefines what murder may look like from the hidden, recesses of our heart. Oooo, it looks a lot like anger and hatred! It looks like a caldron of hot, stinky thoughts ruminating around in our head. Maybe under our breath or whispered to a friend we might say, they are an Idiot.
I know it’s a word that’s been cancelled as a demeaning, derogatory term, but believe me Jesus word, rhaka, is so much worse. The word “fool” used here means an empty-headed, numbskull, good for nothing, who acts presumptuously and thoughtlessly. It’s more than the Proverbs word, “keciyl,” which is a slow, silly, careless fool. It’s more like “pethiy,” a person incapable of learning, thus continuing to fail themselves and others. Jesus says that kind of name calling can get you hauled into the court of the Sanhedrim (Hebrew elder board). But actually cursing someone out of anger can cause you to start wearing the cologne of hell, smelling like putrid smoke!
Jesus pulls back the dark curtain of our thoughts, intentions and attitudes to reveal the nasty stuff inside us when our anger is not righteous, but petty and self serving. Then Jesus makes a stunning conclusion. When our anger rages to the point of unbridled hatred towards someone, we’ve murdered them in our heart. Don’t tell me you haven’t wished someone dead! Jesus told them, and us, when that happens you’ve got to take drastic measures to be reconciled to the person your aiming your heart-hatred at.
It’s so important, so critical, Jesus says, that you have to LEAVE your gift, your praise, your sacrifice, your sweet one on one with God to take care of business! Then with a clear, non-murderous heart we can come back to God and give our gift.
Do we do this? No. Do we practice this? No. Do we believe this to be true? No. We don’t disrupt our time with God to make things right between each other. Why? Because it’s hard. It’s painful. It’s humiliating. To reconcile is an admittance of our guilt, our humanness. Our justifications sound like toddlers fighting on the playground, “well he started it!” Can you even imagine all our murderous thoughts and attitudes of all the people who have offended us, wronged us or embarrassed us? And we bring all that trash before a holy God while we pull out our little gift of praise or sacrifice?
Jesus said, LEAVE God’s presence and make things right with our fellow humans that have hurt us! And don’t even think about whining, complaining or tattling on someone before God. He won’t listen. Go make it right. Do the hard job as Jesus commanded. Quit messing around with years of stacked and stuffed anger, frustration and death threats towards others. Make amends.
“But there are so many,” you say. “What should I do then?” Ask the Holy Spirit to bring up the worst and most egregious, the one that darkens your soul and consumes a massive amount of your time just thinking about how MUCH you hate that person. This is such a powerful, yet IGNORED practice. I am convicted just reading this and have to deal with one of those reconciliations today!
Prayer
Dad,
Help me be brave and obey your word! Help me to humble myself and make things right with the person you have brought to mind as I write this. Forgive me for the delay. Amen.