Unpacking our Baggage

When I go into the airport to service displays for Choice Books, the first time through the security checkpoint is easy for me. I just walk up and empty my pockets and send those few things through the scanner. I don’t have to struggle with all of the baggage that nearly everybody else going through security has. When you are encumbered by all that “stuff” it really can slow you down and make life difficult.

We don’t just carry baggage into the airport, though. We carry baggage into relationships - oftentimes the things that will end a relationship have nothing to do with the relationship - sometimes it is more about the baggage that somebody brings into that relationship from previous relationships.

Baggage has a way of building up if we aren’t careful. We even bring baggage into our relationship with God. Sometimes that is baggage that we brought into the relationship and sometimes it is baggage that builds up over time.

This morning, we are going to continue to look at what it means to turn over everything to God during “These Forty Days,” but we are going to look at a passage of scripture that for many has baggage because of the way we have heard it preached and taught.

Scripture Matthew 5:27–30

Matthew 5:27–30 NRSV

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

Introduction

And there it is: a text that brings baggage. I have heard sermons and been taught lessons from this passage of scripture that have caused more damage than they have done good. I will try not to add to that kind of baggage this morning.

Sometimes we automatically shut down because these verses have been used as a way of making women feel guilty about how they dress when the passage is much more about the attitude of the heart in the one doing the looking than it is about the one being looked at. I’m not going to add to that baggage this morning.

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. Sometimes we even carry guilt with us over something from our very distant past that has been long ago forgiven by God, but yet causes us pain.

Sometimes people come to this text with intense anger because we carry the baggage of watching a marriage fall apart due to adultery.

The truth is, this is a text that is hard to separate from our baggage—but we’re going to 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 Greek word translated as “lust” here is a verb, not a noun. What that means is that the action of lusting emphasizes the fact that it is more than just having certain feelings or emotions.

Interestingly, the word is closely related to the word for “covet.” Covet is a word that when used, we immediately think of the ten commandments. To covet is not just wanting to get something, it is sinful desire to have something that does not belong to you—it carries the idea to be willing to do whatever it takes to get it.

Yet, in our popular music and oftentimes in literature and in movies, what we know as lust is often described as love. But lust and love are nothing alike if lust is connected to the idea of coveting. Since lust is linked to coveting as the Greek root implies, then lust cannot lead to love; it can only lead to sin.

Reexamining what lust means is incredibly important for unpacking the baggage we bring to this text. Jesus constantly spent His time trying to correct the misunderstandings and failures of His society. One way He did this is He worked to change the prevailing ideas of what it meant to be a woman. His culture constantly degraded, belittled, and held women to be of little value. Jesus set out to change that attitude that was so prevalent.

You may know the story of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8. The religious leaders bring a woman to Jesus with the intent of stoning her to death for committing adultery. That was the penalty that was supposed to be administered. But there has always been a troubling absence to this story. If you catch a woman in adultery, then by definition, there was also a man caught in adultery. It has always troubled me that the religious leaders brought the woman, but apparently they let the man go. Jesus sees right through their hypocrisy as well, and utters 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.

There is an even more sordid story from the Old Testament that sheds light on this text as well. We find the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis chapter 38. It’s a story that I would have probably left out of the bible if I were God. In the story, Tamar, who is Judah’s daughter-in-law is widowed. In that culture, they had what we today consider to be a very strange concept that when a man died, his wife would be given in marriage to his brother. Tamar waited, but Judah did not follow through with what was expected at that time. As time passes, Tamar eventually dresses like a prostitute and gains the attention of Judah, her father-in-law, and they have sex. Like I said, I would have left this story out. Tamar becomes pregnant by Judah, and appears before him. He is irate, and decides to have his daughter-in-law burned to death for her adultery when he finds out about her pregnancy. He only backs down when he realizes she is pregnant with his child. This sordid 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.

Matthew 5 seeks to emphasize the shared responsibility of men in adultery in a culture that has a tendency to blame it on the 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 turns that focus from women to the sinful act of men lusting after women. Jesus is calling men to stop treating the women around them as mere objects

Responsibility for Sin

“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.” Well, that escalated very quickly, didn’t it? There have been people who interpreted this as a command from Jesus and have taken it literally, but that is not in line with Jesus’ way of teaching. He often used hyperbole to make a point, and I believe this is one of those places.

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. 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 have this tendency to want to deal with these types of struggles on our own instead of being honest with one another, and that is not healthy. In John and Charles Wesley’s Methodist societies they had what were known as class meetings where they would be held accountable to one another. In these meetings, they would ask the tough questions and answer to one another for their struggles. We have lost this in our modern idea of church and have created this culture in which we repress and push down our struggles instead of dealing with them. A question for us as the church is “how can we create places where people can be open and honest about their struggles without feeling judged and defeated?”I believe that is how Jesus would want the church to operate in these days.

We have struggled with this in the past, evidenced by our tendency to blame victims. Shame on us for allowing that to be the message when this passage says nothing of the sort. I have actually heard men blame women for being raped because of the way they dressed, and somehow twisted this passage of scripture to make their point. Men - we have to be better than that! women are often shamed and blamed for certain sexual ethics while men are applauded and celebrated for the exact same actions. That is part of what Jesus is addressing here.

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.

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 - that women are not worth less than men but are created equally in the image of God. And as such, they should be treated with the same respect and dignity as men. Paul says in Galatians 3:28 “28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

Lent 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. One of the failures of the holiness movement, in my opinion has been the idea that gets interjected sometimes that once we are sanctified we can no longer sin. When we have that idea, we will never be comfortable admitting our sins and failures - we will then refuse to confess or repent. When sin makes an entrance - when we fail to honor God in all things - we must confess, and when we do, we find that God is full of compassion and mercy and forgives and cleanses anew. We often emphasize only a personal relationship with Jesus, but I would encourage you to find others with whom you can confess your sin. People that will hold you accountable.

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.

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 others as humans worthy of dignity rather than as objects to be obtained and conquered. The kingdom of God values people over individual desires.

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?

With this 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.

Conclusion

These verses are not meant to shame. 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. 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.