Sermon Tone Analysis

How to go to hell

Matthew 5:21–22 (NIV)

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’

22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court.

And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Murder->Anger->Contempt

Death sentence->Court->Hell

(In one sense there’s a silliness about going to court for anger - but then Jesus quickly reveals he’s talking about God the Judge -

God cares about how you speak.

The fence isn’t at murder.

It’s contempt - thinking, feeling and speaking less of a person -

This is worse than you think.

No footnote - what is hell?

Gehenna - a shortened form of the Valley of Ben Hinnom:

It was a place of appalling evil.

God would judge and bring death.

An ongoing, maggoty, rubbish-burning condemnation.

Chucked out and burned up.

(This is a further step from tasteless salt being chucked out).

Jesus, the light bringer.

Jesus, God who has dhown up to take charge.

Jesus, who calls all of us to turn to God - to repent.

He draws the line not at murder, not even at anger, but belittling another human made in God’s image:

I once preached this passage as a sermon on anger, I said true things - but I missed the point - it’s not even about anger - but about belittling other humans.

This is harder and much more serious.

How do you go to hell? - Keep belittling other humans made in God’s image.

[We are not going to talk about righteous anger, or the but what about when God is angry, or when Jesus calls the pharisees blind fools - write a question - because we need to hear Jesus words - we have so ingrained that it doesn’t matter how we speak.

[there are good helps for anger - but we don’t get that here directly…]

So what’s the word from Jesus? Don’t be angry?

Don’t have contempt?

Stay away from murder?

This is the first thing Jesus tells us to do here.

Stop worship - be reconciled

If I were to summarisethe next four verses - 2 words: Reconcile Now!

Verses 23-24 give us the first instruction - don’t be angry, don’t have contempt, avoid hell -

You’ve come all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem.

5 day journey.

It’s a thanksgiving gift for deliverance, or healing, or your farming success -

And then you remember you have personal conflict - or atually, someone does with you -

You don’t decide they should ‘get over it’, move on, it’s their problem… NO

Stop seeking God and seek peace with that person.

You take the first step.

You’ve sinned against them, it is not their problem but your problem.

Don’t raise your hands to God if you haven’t reached out to your fellow human whom you’ve done wrong to.

What’s an equivalent?

Don’t gather happily on a Sunday for church without making amends - don’t wrongly claim peace with God if you won’t make peace with others.

Don’t line up for communion if you happily belittle others in your heart and words (whether to them or about them).

God hates this two-faced behaviour.

He says to Israel:

Given that we are in Lent - this is a sobering reminder -

[But what about?

Abuse - yes, be careful - we’ll talk a bit moreabout this in two weeks when we look at marriage and divorce; can’t make someone else reconcile - NO, but you should seek it]

Can’t we just let bygones be bygones - can’t we just be happy with a truce - a frozen cessation of hostilities -

You will need to make yourself small.

You will need to be ready maybe to face insult your self.

It might include shame.

It will make you vulnerable.

Jesus isn’t just saying this.

Jesus is God come among us as the peacemaker with God’s enemies:

You and I have no moral high ground, and much peace making to do.

What a great word from Jesus - not just ‘don’t be angry’, but be reconciled.

// all these plans - then husband died - no option /

Be Reconciled NOW

Not ‘settle matters’ - be in good relationship with them -

Don’t get caught in the detail.

There’s a chain of conseuqences out of your control.

You don’t have tomorrow.

You have now.

Be reconciled now.

You want an item for your bucket list from Jesus - be reconciled now.

To God - and to others.

[strangely enough - I suggest you will find that seeking peace will fight anger and contempt; seeing others as made in God’s image will bring meekness and humility - and remembering Jesus died for you when you were God’s enemy will remove a moral high horse -

Take the initiative - hold out an open hand -

Who do you need to seek out today?