The Sermon on the Mount - Anger

Recap - Jesus came to fulfill the law

Weve just entered the section of the sermon on the mount where Jesus calls His followers to live in a greater righteousness

This call starts off with Jesus affirming the authority of the Torah and the prophets

Remember that the Torah is the first 5 books of the OT which taught Israel who God is, who they are in God and how they were to live as God’s covenant people.

The prophets were books written after the Torah which reaffirms what the Torah says with calls for Israel to repent after giving themselves over to wickedness and immorality.

In Jesus’ day there were many who were trying to interpret the Torah, which was hundreds of years before they existed.

Many in Jesus’ day, especially the scribes and the Pharisees accused Jesus of not keeping the Torah.

But Jesus affirms the authority of the Torah by explaining how it is more powerful and unchanging than the sky and the earth.

Jesus also explains how He had come to fulfill the Torah and how He would teach others to do the same.

Part of fulfilling the Torah means that Jesus was suggesting that He came to bring about the fulfillment of the Torah and what all of it pointed too, which was Himself.

Jesus then calls His followers to live in a greater righteousness by keeping the commands the way He calls them too.

Introduction to the six case studies

Part of this is understanding why the Torah was given and what the wisdom behind the instructions were.

Jesus now goes on to give six case studies of commands that were given in the Torah but what they actually mean and what God’s wisdom was behind it.

These commandments were not simply a list of “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not’s” but there was wisdom behind these commandments that God tried to get His people to see.

The structure of these sayings starts in the form of, “you have heard that it was said to those of old”.

With Jesus then saying “But I tell you”.

Jesus was not trying to change these commands. But He was trying to show what these commands actually mean.

The commands he touches on are the following:

Murder

Adultery

Divorce and remarriage

Oaths

Retaliation

Loving our neighbor

Today we will start with the first of these case studies which is the one about murder

Text

Matthew 5:21–26 ESV

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 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. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 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. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

What did Jesus mean in saying all of these things?

Jesus first quotes one of the ten commandments which is “You shall not murder”.

Jesus said that it was said to the people long ago. Another way to translate people long ago is “the ancients”. Its important to remember that these people lived quite a long time before Jesus’ time. The 10 commandments were actually given about 1000 years before Jesus’ time

Jesus says that it was said to the ancients that whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

Jesus then goes on to say “But I tell you, that anyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be liable to judgement”. The anger that is being spoken about here is anger that brings about contempt or hatred for someone else.

Anger is not necessarily wrong. But anger that brings about hate is wrong.

Jesus then goes on to say that anyone who says to his brother “raca” will be liable to the court. Raca literally means “empty minded”. This is kind of like calling someone an idiot.

Jesus then finishes this off by saying anyone who says “You fool” will be liable to the fire of hell.

The word “You fool” is the greek word “more” which is where we get the word Moron from.

Jesus then goes on to say that if someone offers something to God but knows that their brother or sister has something against them, they must first go and be reconciled to their brother or sister.

This comes from what he previously said. Your brother or sister rightly has something against you because you insulted them

Valueing life

What Jesus is getting at here is valueing human life, which is what the command around not committing murder is all about

By murdering someone, whether you know it or not, you’re basically saying that that persons life has no value.

Its the same by calling them “empty-minded” or an idiot and also calling them a fool.

By saying these things, we are implying even just for a moment, that someone has no value and nothing to add of value.

But we must remember that every human life is valuable as every human is made in the image of God

Increasing level of punishment

Also notice how the offense seems to go less severe.

It goes from hateful anger, to calling someone an idiot, to calling someone a moron.

But the severity of the consequence gets excalated.

It goes from being liable to judgement in a court, to being handed over to the sanhederin who were like the supreme court of the day to being liable to the fire’s of hell

Jesus’ point is that not valueing human life in whatever form that may be is not what the Kingdom of God is all about.

Application

Valueing human life first starts with undestanding how Jesus valued our lives.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

We had nothing to offer God, we did nothing but rebel against Him and we did evil against Him but He still valued our lives to the point that He sent Jesus to pay the full price for our sin.

We ought to value other peoples lives as Jesus valued ours.