Living Into God's Kingdom

Matthew 5:27–30 NIV

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

In May 2018, in a Connecticut hospital, a group of twelve surgeons worked for five hours to remove a tumor from the abdomen of a thirty-eight-year-old woman. That may seem like a lot of doctors and a long time for a single tumor—until you learn that single tumor weighed 132 pounds! The patient reported that, prior to the surgery, the tumor had grown at a rate of ten pounds per week. That’s forty pounds a month! “Ovarian mucinous tumors tend to be big,” said Dr. Vaagn Andikyan, who was the lead surgeon on the team. “But tumors this big are exceedingly rare in the literature.

It may be in the top 10 or 20 tumors of this size removed worldwide.” The tumor was technically benign, but it was far from harmless. According to Dr. Andikyan, the patient couldn’t walk, she was malnourished because she’d been unable to eat, and she was at extreme danger for blood clots and other blood-vessel-related damage. Her very life was in jeopardy. “When I first walked into the examination room . . . I saw fear in the patient’s eyes,” Dr. Andikyan said. “She was so hopeless, because she had seen several other doctors, and they were unable to help her.”

Can you imagine trying to go about your day with a 132-pound weight dragging you down from the inside? Can you imagine the pressure that must have built up in and around that poor woman—the squeezing, maddening, crushing pressure? But then can you imagine what that patient must have felt like the day after the surgery? The week after? Can you imagine the change that must have taken place after a 132-pound burden was removed? “She’s back to a normal life, she’s back to work,” the doctor said. “And when I saw her in my office, I saw smiles, I saw hope, and I saw a happy woman who is back to her normal life and her family.” Wouldn’t you like to experience that kind of joy? That kind of freedom? I have. And believe me, it’s as wonderful as it sounds.

Vance Pitman, Unburdened: Stop Living for Jesus So Jesus Can Live through You, Baker Books, 2020.

We come to texts like today’s with all of our baggage, which often makes these things hard to read. Sometimes we automatically shut down because of how the words have been used to perpetuate damaging patriarchal ideas about modesty. This baggage can cause us to look at this text through a lens of unnecessary—yet still very real—debilitating shame.

Or sometimes we come to a text like today’s with an overwhelming sense of guilt over things we’ve done or the ways we’ve failed. Maybe it’s something from a distant past that is still close enough to cause unease. Sometimes we come to this text with immense anger because we carry the baggage of watching a marriage fall apart due to adultery. Or maybe because we are a child who was born from an affair, which makes it so hard to read this text without feeling some sort of weight.

The truth is, this is a text that is hard to separate from our baggage—but we should try because there is something here for us to wrestle with, something that is important for us to know. And maybe it is even more important for us to wrestle with because of the ways it has been misused, so we can discover the way this passage should truly be about restoration, love, and respecting the image of God in others. If we take the time to work through this text and what it truly means, maybe we will begin to unpack some of the unnecessary baggage we’ve been carrying as well.

Defining Lust

The dictionary gives us two versions of definition for the word lust. The first is in the case of it being a noun - very strong sexual desire. The second is in the case of it being used as a verb - have a very strong sexual desire for someone.

The Greek word translated as “lust” here is a verb, not a noun. We typically use nouns and adjectives to describe emotions, but a verb describing the action of lusting emphasizes the fact that it is more than just having certain feelings or emotions. It isn’t just a passing glance noticing someone’s beauty, but instead it is a conspiring and planning to possess someone for your own ends.

In fact, the root of the word is the same root as the word for “covet,” which is a strong, sinful desire to have something that does not belong to you—and often the willingness to do whatever it takes to get it. We are forbid to covet in the ten commandments. In fact, Moses forbid the Israelites from coveting a neighbor’s property, which in that time includes a man’s wife.

Our culture often thinks of lust as the beginning of love, but that is a mistake. If lust is linked to coveting as the Greek root implies, then lust cannot lead to love; it can only lead to sin. Jesus calls us to a transformed heart that loves the other perfectly and is not enslaved to a sexual desire that uses the opposite sex to gratify itself, such as in acts of adultery.

Reexamining what lust means is incredibly important for deconstructing the baggage we bring to this text. Jesus is trying to humanize women in a culture that often dehumanizes them.

A helpful story for us, in wrestling with this text, is the narrative of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The religious leaders bring a woman to be stoned for committing adultery. We all know it takes at least two people to commit adultery, yet only the woman is held accountable according to this text. Jesus says the famous words, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” and in response, the leaders drop their stones.

Another helpful story to contextualize this text is the Old Testament story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. While there are many complex ethical questions worthy of attention in this story, what’s important today is the fact that Judah knowingly has sex with a woman he presumes is a prostitite, then seeks to have his daughter-in-law burned to death for her adultery when he finds out about her pregnancy. He only backs down upon discovering the children are his, from his own sin. This Old Testament story illustrates once again how a patriarchal society is eager to lay blame solely at the feet of women for the sin of adultery.

In Matthew 5, Jesus seeks to emphasize the shared responsibility of men in adultery in a culture that has a tendency to scapegoat women. These are just a couple of examples, but there are other biblical examples as well. Patriarchal societies often hold women responsible for the sexual ethics of the men around them. In Matthew 5 Jesus shifts that focus from women to the covetous act of male lust toward women. Jesus is calling men to stop treating the women around them as mere objects.

Responsibility for Sin

Let’s take another look at verses 29 and 30:

Matthew 5:29–30 NIV

29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I also want to read these in the Message paraphrase:

Matthew 5:29–30 The Message

29 “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. 30 And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.

That puts it in a bit of plain English for us doesn't it!

“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.” Consider these words. They seem like incredibly harsh words, and they are often interpreted as hyperbole, but when we examine them in the context of the definition of lust, they seem far less exaggerative.

These are drastic words intended to prevent a tragic act. Coveting another human (lust) leads down a path toward rape or other forms of sexual violence, abuse, manipulation, and control. Friends - it happens all around us, we often just aren’t noticing it since we are not looking for it. In fact, did you know that Green Bay is one corner of a fairly significant human trafficking triangle between Minneapolis and Chicago? Jesus’s harsh words here show the lengths to which someone should go in order to prevent inflicting their own sin upon others.

While the hyperbole isn’t meant to be taken literally, the meaning behind it absolutely is: if your desires are leading you to victimize others, do whatever you need to do to keep that from happening.

This is one area where we struggle as a culture. Instead of helping people find freedom from their sin, we often cause them to push their desires down deeper, repressing them, pretending they don’t exist. Then we are caught off guard when “heroes” of ours are found caught up in sexual sin even though we haven’t created any sort of “eye-gouging” systems for them. We must create spaces for people to talk about the places they are struggling, in order to address the root of the problem.

What if the church truly became a safe space for confession? Where we confessed individually and corporately in ways that helped us not to bury things within us (which never leads to good), but instead where we were confessional by our very nature and rallied around each other in prayer and accountability? These safe spaces I’m referring to also include accountability systems, mental health resources, systems of corporate confession, encouraging true repentance, and systems of restitution. A culture must be created and fostered that humanizes others and roots out the type of toxicity that leads to lust in the first place.

We have struggled with this in the past, evidenced by our tendency to blame victims. Modesty culture that focuses on women is an example. Another example is the way women are shamed and blamed for certain sexual ethics while their male counterparts are applauded and celebrated for the exact same actions. These are not new—these patterns and systems are evident in biblical narratives too. Ever heard the term “boys will be boys?” We cannot stand for attitudes such as this!

It’s important to note that the blame for lust lies with the one who is lusting— not the objects or victims of that lust. The verse is speaking to the sinner: “gouge out your eye,” not “ask your victim to cover up.” This is an incredibly important distinction. We are responsible for our own sins. We are responsible for the consequences of our actions, however, we would much rather blame others than deal with our own sins.

If we take following Jesus seriously, we will do what we can to care for others. Jesus affirms repeatedly, with both his words and his actions throughout the Gospels, that women aren’t objects or worth less than men but are created equally in the image of God. Thus, they should be treated with the same respect and dignity as men.

Galatians 3:28 is a helpful reminder for us here.The kingdom of God includes women and men together, as equals.

Galatians 3:28 NIV

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Lent is a season that is designed to “gouge out eyes.” It is a time of self-reflection and examination to root out sin that often goes overlooked. It’s important for us to take time to examine ourselves to find where there is sin, and remove it. Fasting, prayer, and Bible reading all help with this, but so do times in community, counseling, and discipleship groups.

When we find sin, it is important not to ignore it but to confess it. Often we view confession as being between us and Jesus, but we also need to rediscover and reaffirm the value of corporate confession. When sin is allowed to be private, it has space to fester and grow. Find others with whom you can confess your sin.

When others confess their sin to us, it’s important to be gracious—but also not to ignore it. We can forgive and be gracious while also seeking wholeness and wellness for others. If someone needs counseling (whether spiritual or mental health), that needs to be addressed.

At times, there are deep consequences for sin. If lust has caused someone to harm another person or could cause someone to harm another person, that needs to be directly addressed. It is our responsibility to prevent and keep people safe, as much as is within our power. There are numerous and terrible stories of the way sexual sin has been the downfall of Christians because of secrecy, dishonesty, and a lack of confessional spaces. These sins, once exposed, must not be dealt with secretly, and there must be consequences. Victims live with immense consequences. We must not protect those who create victims. Offering grace does not mean forgoing consequences.

Living in the Kingdom of God

It’s important to read this text in light of Jesus’s larger sermon in Matthew 5–7, which is all about what it means to live as a citizen of the kingdom of God. Citizens of the kingdom of God exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. Citizens of the kingdom of God live lives of love.

Sexual ethics is also part of the kingdom of God. These verses are not meant to be separated from the larger conversation about living in the kingdom of God. The sexual ethic commanded by Jesus includes keeping covenants, and adultery goes against the covenant of marriage.

But at the same time, Jesus’s sexual ethic, and what he commands for citizens of the kingdom of God, is broader than fidelity in marriage. It is centered around the humanity of others, respecting others, taking responsibility for our own sin, viewing ALL others as humans worthy of dignity rather than as objects to be obtained and conquered. The kingdom of God and by extension those of us that claim to be Jesus followers value people over individual desires EVERY TIME NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

It could be said that the qualities of the Beatitudes could even fit here. What do sexual ethics look like for someone who is meek? Who is pure of heart? Who is merciful? Who seeks to be a peacemaker? The greatest and second-greatest commandments from a few verses earlier should be applied here too. What do sexual ethics look like for those of us who seek to love God with our whole beings, and to love our neighbors as ourselves? These questions certainly give us much to ponder.

With this here and now kingdom-of-God view in mind, these verses bloom into something more than just a quick comment about keeping our sexual thoughts and actions in check. Instead, we realize they are about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

In The Good and Beautiful God, James Bryan Smith describes a new Christian he happened to know who came to him one day feeling dejected. He was so excited to be a follower of Jesus, but he just couldn’t shake an addiction that had developed prior to his becoming a Christian.

Carey, you see, struggled with pornography. He was in sales and so part of his job was traveling from city to city, staying in hotel rooms. The temptation was always there. When Carey became a Christian, he thought this temptation would go away but it didn’t. When they met, “Carey’s face suddenly looked sad. I really need your help,” he said. “I will if I can” Smith replied. “Well, I’m really conflicted in my walk with God right now, it seems the harder I try the worse things get. My family is fine, and my work is going well, but in my relationship with God, I’m at the end of my rope. ‘Usually a good place to be, I said, but he gave only a puzzled glance.”

After a bit more talking, Smith interrupted, “who are you?” He asked. “Well, I’m a Christian.” “What does that mean? I asked”

“Well it means that I believe in Jesus and am trying to follow his commands. I go to church, study the Bible and have devotional times when I can find an hour here or there. I try not to sin, you know; I try to be a good person, but I know that deep down I’m still just a sinner.” “I have no doubt that you’re trying, Carey,” I said. “And I also sense that you’ve been trying quite a while, with all of your effort, but it isn’t helping.” “Exactly” he said.”

“So let me see if I have this right. You’re a Christian, but you’re also a sinner. Is that right? Yes. So if you’re a sinner, then what behavior would be normative for you? I asked “Well, I guess sinning. But that doesn’t seem right. “And it certainly doesn’t feel right, either, I suspect. The reason, Carey, that it doesn’t seem right or feel right is because it isn’t right. Your approach is consistently failing , right?” Right, he concurred.

Maybe there’s another way…and that other way is what I want to talk with you all about this morning. The focus, ultimately, is about the stories we tell ourselves about our identity. Are we, first and foremost sinners, or, as our scripture text told us, “new creations, where the old has gone and the new has come?” In order to get there, we need to continue to put to death the language of “I’m just a rotten sinner” and replace it with “I am a new creation”.

I think a part of the issue here is that we are so aware of our sinfulness, and if we’re not, it’s probably because we are a sociopath, that it feels better to refer to ourselves as just a “lousy sinner,” or even a “forgiven sinner”.

This way, we feel as though we are being honest about our shortcomings. But the problem is that when we use that language all the time, inside our heads, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and so we find ourselves like Carey, stuck in our sins.

As Smith has accurately put it: “the teaching that we are fundamentally sinners leads to failure.” And this is hard for us because many of us come out of traditions where pastors spend their entire sermon yelling at the church to get their acts together, that they sinners and that God is angry at them. The preacher who yells at his church may have a lot of remorseful Christians feeling guilty at the end of the service, but they don’t have any tools to change, so ultimately they will go back to the same struggles they started with.

Now don’t get me wrong, sin is a problem…in fact, it is most of the problem when it comes to our lives. There are churches that will gloss right over sin as though it doesn’t exist, and that is a problem too.

But when we start with our sin nature, when we focus on it incessantly, then it can become very difficult to avoid doing it. It’s kind of like if I tell you not to think of an apple. What’s the first thing you are going to do: think of an apple because I just put it in your mind.

So, we need to shift our perceptions. We need to shift our stories, and our scripture text gives us a good idea of how to do that. After spending a couple of months meeting with James Bryan Smith, his narratives, his story began to change. Instead of seeing himself primarily as a sinner, he saw himself as a child of God. A couple years later James ran into Carey and it was clear his life had been transformed. He told James “The day I got it was when I was preparing for a trip out of town. I used to get nervous, and I would pray, “Lord, I don’t want to fail you again. But this time I had no anxiety.

“When I got to the hotel room, I walked to the television, closed the doors of the console and smiled. I whispered to myself, “I know who I am. I am a child of God. I house the fullness of God. I was never tempted to turn the TV on, I’m not prideful, I know that sin remains, as you taught me. But it doesn’t reign anymore. I used my free time to read and rest. I knew I could sin, and I knew God would still love me. But I didn’t want to sin. That when I knew it had finally taken root in me. I never knew it could be this easy.

Brothers and Sisters, you too house the fullness of God. You are not defined by your sins but by your existence In Christ. Our job is to change the stories in our heads to match that reality.

Stuart Strachan Jr., Source material from James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows (The Apprentice Series), InterVarsity Press.

These verses are not meant to shame, but unfortunately that is often how they are taught. They are not meant to give more control to a group of people who already have a lot of control. These verses are about how we live in light of the kingdom of God, as citizens of the kingdom of God—the love and respect we extend to those around us, and the responsibility we must accept for our own sin. In Christ we are new creations - new creatures made new in Christ Jesus. Lent is the perfect season to work through these hard words, to unpack the baggage they may bring up for us, and allow them to challenge us to be better disciples of Christ. May we take the time to examine our hearts well so that we may more faithfully live as citizens of the kingdom of God in all aspects of our lives.

Song - O Come to the Altar

COMMUNION

RITUAL

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.

All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.

In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:

Holy God,

We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.

On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

EXPLAIN ELEMENTS

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.