Save a life...

Matthew 5: 21-26

21 ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.”²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. 

There are many ways to problem solve. Not all of them are Jesus centred and biblical. Some people concentrate on the outcome of life and however you get there at least there is a good end point. Others live life keeping a set of rules and the outcome is left to take care of itself. There are others who weigh up the situation taking into account all the variables and then decide what is in their interest. But what does Jesus teach? End orientated ways of life; rules orientated ways of life or situational orientated ways of life? Perhaps all three? The Sermon on the Mount is where Jesus teaches His disciples the transformation needed personally and communally to be authentic participants in the Kingdom of God. Jesus is teaching us that for rules and outcomes to be Christian they have to be transformative not just individualistic and legalistic. The outcomes we expect are not guaranteed by rules or situations but by transformative practices. We become the person God created us to be through the transformative process of hearing and doing the teachings of Jesus. The means matter, the situation matters, the end matters and the only way to cope with these competing demands is to be transformed and changed into the people of the Kingdom.  In this section Jesus is associating the ongoing anger and resent that can characterise our lives with the ending of the object of our anger’s life. We kill and take the life of others through perpetual anger, lack of forgiveness and resentment; all of which are obviously associated with actual physical murder also. But what is the solution, what is the transformative act? Go to your brother or sister and talk it over; be reconciled don’t try and win but be reunited; be one. Make peace quickly or it’s to the prison of anger, resentment and community division we will all go. Murderous anger is not caused by some personal injustice, that’s our rationalisation; anger is our habitual way of responding to each other; it’s an addictive vicious circle and it has to end or it will end us and our community.    In Celebrate Recovery we have a Principle 6 ‘Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others.’ Today is God’s day of salvation from the power of anger and resentment in our lives through the transformative practice of obeying Jesus; ‘go make amends’ and save a life; your own and your brother’s and sister’s!  

 “Happy are the merciful.” (Matthew 5:7): “Happy are the peacemakers.” (Matthew 5:9)