Matthew 5-7: The Sermon on the Mount (7)

Four Triads on Possessions and Allegiance (6:19-7:12)

Where Your Treasure Is (6:19-23)

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

This third section begins with a traditional teaching in v.19a and the vicious cycle in 19b. The transforming initiative begins in v.20 with an explanation in vv.21-23.

“Heaven,” writes Stassen “is ‘the sphere of God’s rule where his will is done.... To have one’s treasure in heaven’ means to submit oneself ‘to God’s sovereign rule.’ It is this motif that follows in 6.22-23, 24, 33, not to mention the parallels in 5.8, 7.21, and 12.34. The contrast is not this life and the life after, but this life where there is injustice and God’s reign characterized by peace, justice, and joy in the Spirit.”[1]

Thus this seemingly ethereal commandment about heaven turns out to be resolutely this-worldly. The transforming initiative makes a stingy people (those with “unhealthy” eyes, v.23) into a generous community (one with “healthy” eyes, v.22), a distinctly counter-cultural expression of the kingdom of heaven. Our treasures working under God’s rule can be a sight to behold!

Thus a quite practical evidence of the lay of our hearts is the reign under which our treasures are ruled. If the bottom line is more important to us than those at the bottom whom our treasures can serve, we have a problem according to Jesus. Checkbook theology of the most earthly kind. Hans Dieter Betz notes that “one is to accept God’s generosity in the spirit of human generosity....”[2]

It goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, such generosity under pressure is essential for a persecuted, oppressed group’s survival. But even if we are not in that circumstance, generosity is the glue that holds people together.

Who Do You Serve? (6:24-34)

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸ And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³² For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

³⁴ “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

v.24ab, a Jewish wisdom proverb, is the traditional teaching here: no one can serve two bosses. The vicious cycle is the effort to serve both God and mammon (v.24c) with its attendant worry (vv.25-32). More stuff means more worry – that’s not rocket science. You to worry about keeping, cleaning, insuring, and updating all the toys you amass. It’s difficult not to get sucked into the “the one with the most toys wins” philosophy of life. Following this path is a pagan, Gentile way. God knows our needs and will provide for them. He alone can truly discern our needs from our wants. This is our protection against the ever-present temptation to play the game of the rat race.

For its first hearers, threatened with the likelihood of losing their “stuff” for sake of following Jesus (Mt.19:29), such teaching is a matter of life and death. Being without food, a roof over their heads, loneliness were existential threats for these folks. To hear that following him did not mean deprivation of these life necessities was good news indeed. Scary, because we don’t control the supply he will provide, but finally reassuring.

The only way this can happen is given in the well-known transforming initiative of v.33: “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Seeking God’s rule and the right ordering and relations of God’s world (“righteousness”), placing ourselves fully under the reign of heaven, of believing in the gospel, is the way into this reassuring promise.

So “one day at a time” is the mantra to combat worry and facilitate living and loving generously under God’s reign (v.34).

“Judge Not” (Matthew 7:1-5)

¹“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ² For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³ Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

The 13^th triad begins with the traditional teaching along with its result in v.1. The vicious cycle is in vv.2-4 and the transforming initiative in v.5. Remember Jesus is teaching here about excessive righteousness, more than that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20). In the struggle his followers were engaged in sharp and clear boundaries were drawn by all the competing groups. Scribes and Pharisees, especially those most invested in this struggle to define the identity of a true and pure Israel, were quite interested in “judging” the purity of the Jews they dealt with.

“Though we know from history, and from the New Testament itself, that there were many scribes and Pharisees who were genuinely and humbly pious people, the tendency of hard-line pressure-groups – which is what the Pharisees basically were – is always to create a moral climate in which everybody looks at everybody else to see if they are keeping their standards up.”[3]

All this kind of judgment, however, will fail to create the kind of community God wants Israel to become. One can see this clearly in present day America. Both conservatives and progressives rip each other and themselves to bits trying to establish a “purity” that will make this country what each party imagines it should be. This situation is at least somewhat analogous to the situation in 1^st century Israel.

The problem is that taking on such a role is akin to playing God. Thus Jesus calls those who do this “hypocrites,” actors playing a role. We can’t handle the job. Such purity-keepers always fail. Their efforts to define and shape a community in their image always ends up a destructive caricature of genuine community.

A community must have rules and standards, of course. It can’t be a community without them. Just a gathering of like-minded individuals (interestingly a common description of the North American church in our time). And we are to be accountable to one another for maintaining those standards. And all of us will fail at that at some time. But if we treat other’s failures in a godlike manner issuing in condemnations and exclusions we must, of necessity, downplay or ignore our own faults and the sense of commonality we share with others as those called to live faithfully under God and seek his righteousness above all else (6:33) but at times fail as well. We fail at godlikeness just at the point where God is most truly and definitionally God:

“The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children,
to the third and the fourth generation.” (Ex.34:6-7)

God holds his people accountable to him – “to the third and fourth generation” – while at the same time “keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation.” These “hypocrites” Jesus critiques here hold others accountable to the third and fourth generation but fail to keep covenant love for the thousandth generation. They fail to be godlike. They destroy and exclude while ignoring this glaring fault (the “log”) in their own eye.

Later in this gospel Jesus will outline a way of holding others accountable that does not exercise this kind of judgment but holds offenders in the covenant love of their Father God even as they hold them accountable for sin and failure (18:15ff.) – a SoM kind of discipline. A kind of discipline that can build up and strengthen community ties and solidarity (though not every one will accept or choose to live under this kind of discipline). Only those who work to remove the logs from their own eyes are in a position to deal gently, firmly, and fairly with the “specks” in other’s eyes. Remember, the purity we have as Jesus’ followers entails seeking first and only the will and way of the God who has called them and in Jesus Messiah has come among them to demonstrate that will and way in person.

Who Do You Trust? (Matthew 7:6-11)

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰ Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

7:6 is a most perplexing verse (“the most puzzling, mysterious, and indeed baffling of all”[4]). What does it mean? Does it belong with what goes before it or after it? Is it a stand alone verse? Any good commentary will amply demonstrate the variety of opinion it has occasioned. Stassen, whom I have been following, takes it with what follows. He claims the triadic pattern he uses clarifies this riddling statement.

“This verse, he claims, looks like the traditional teaching of a triad. Many traditional Jewish teachings call Gentiles dogs or pigs. Like the other traditional teachings, 7.6 does not begin with a particle. Also like the other traditional teachings in 6.1-7.5, it begins with a negative. All the signs point to 7.6 being a traditional teaching that begins the fourteenth triad.”[5]

The vicious cycle in the latter half of v.6: “or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.” Clear as mud so far, huh?

The transforming initiative is in vv.7-8 with the explanation following in vv.9-11. Now we can make some progress. The meaning of the transforming initiative is clear: we have a gracious generous Father who withholds nothing good from his children. Not unlike a human father who does their best to give their children all good things (vv.9-10), God does in fact give his children all good things. Given that, this God deserves our complete trust and loyalty.

So far so good.

If we go back to the mystifying first verse of this triad, we must not give our trust and loyalty to the “dogs” or “swine.” Both of these are unclean animals. Rabbis called people this who were unlearned, evil, and heathen. Particularly those heathen who comprised the hated Roman empire.[6] Now we’re getting somewhere!

Stassen fills in some necessary details:

“. . . the references from the Talmud and Midrash to swine as Rome fill twice as many lines as do references to swine as the heathen world in general. Furthermore, those references that do refer to the heathen world seem to refer to nations, not merely individual Gentile persons . . . Not one saying in Strack-Billerbeck applies either ‘dog’ or ‘swine’ to an individual Gentile or to a specific group of Gentiles smaller than a nation (Str-B 1.449f.; 725). This suggests that ‘dogs and pigs’ more likely refers to Rome than to particular kinds of Gentiles— for example, those who do not receive the gospel willingly . . .  The number of references . . . points to a widely used image.

“Turning to the NT, in Mark’s story of the healing of the demon-possessed man in the Gerasene region, a Gentile region (Mark 5.1-13), Jesus asks his name. He answers: ‘My name is Legion,’ as in Roman Legion. The unclean spirits are sent into a herd of pigs, who rush into the sea, as many Jews wished the Roman Legion would do. The association between pigs and the Roman Empire— and demon possession— is transparent . . . The conclusion is irresistible that we are here encountering imagery meant to call to mind the Roman military occupation of Palestine.”[7]

Now we can start to pit the puzzle together. If God is the only fully trustworthy giver of good gifts, one whose people can “ask, seek and open the door” for, then God’s people must not give their trust and loyalty (the “holy” and “pearls”) to the militaristic Roman empire. Failing to so, however, made one liable to being “trampled underfoot and mauled” (v.6).

This is, of course, exactly the setting we have seen that Jesus is addressing in Matthew. Everything in the SoM is designed to foster this kind of radical and risky trust in God in an Israel under the heel of the pagan empire. Prayer to and communion with (“a lifestyle of focusing on and doing God’s purposes”[8]) the unfailingly and inexhaustibly good God is the only resource sufficient to make and keep such a commitment.

The Golden Rule (7:12)

¹² “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”

Jesus began the SoM claiming that not even a smidgen of the law or prophets would fail to be fulfilled by him. Here he rounds off that claim by teaching his followers that they ought to behave toward others as they would have others behave toward them. This, Jesus says, constitutes the law and the prophets! He’s been as good as his word.

This is another of those passages that suffers from overfamiliarity. It rolls off the tongue while our minds and hearts remain on neutral. Peter Leithart helps us recover the Golden Rule’s radicality.

“This is so familiar to us that we don’t see just how radical Jesus is being here. He has been talking throughout the sermon about the righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. He’s been talking about the justice of the kingdom throughout the chapter. And He’s still talking about justice here. But this doesn’t look like justice. Justice, we think, means giving people what they deserve, paying what people are owed. Justice is about giving in return what people have done. But this is not the justice of Jesus. That justice doesn’t restore the world. That kind of justice might bring the world back to where it started. But it doesn’t move the world to something new. Jesus’ justice is a restorative justice, a redemptive justice that advances the kingdom and brings humanity and the world closer to the consummation.”[9]

None of us, I’d venture, wants to be treated simply according to our just deserts. Nor do we  want to treat others simply on that basis. We have received life as a gift and want our lives to be a gift to others. And we hope to meet and fellowship with others whose lives are gifts to us. We are trending toward a world where even the bare minimum of just deserts is contested and often withheld from others. Jesus here identifies what Leithart calls restorative justice as the gift our lives can become for each other and our world. We are to treat others as they are created to be and will in the end be in Christ. That is, as

-immeasurably valuable and precious,

-uniquely gifted to create and produce beauty,

-giving and receiving love, and

-sharing in and contributing to the common good.

While we must work to assure everyone is treated fairly as a minimum baseline, our obligation to others is only fulfilled in restoring them to function as the images of God they are made to be. As we would want others to treat us. The Golden Rule.

Two Warnings and a Parable (7:13-29)

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus you will know them by their fruits.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ ²³ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

²⁸ Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹ for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Two Gates (7:13-14)

Jesus concludes his SoM with two warnings and a parable. The first warning concerns choosing one’s way carefully. We have seen the struggle Jesus was involved in to define the nature and shape of God’s true Israel viz-a-viz other competing visions within Israel and the overlordship of the Roman empire. A crisis was coming. Fervor for revolt was at a high pitch.

No wonder Jesus warns his hearers to choose carefully and soberly their way. The “wide gate leading to destruction” (v.13) are the many competing visions for Israel we have seen. Jesus’ vision for his people was the only one offering a hope for escaping the calamity to come. Bit that choice as its own difficulties and most in Israel will not take it (v.14).

Preaching this text as a general warning about becoming a Christian amid the welter of other alternative spiritualities and ways of life runs the risk of losing the “bite” of this warning. The most appropriate context, in my judgment, for North American churches to hear this passage is its own struggle to be a faithful community amid the many different visions of “church” today available today.

As we have seen, we too have our compromisers with the status quo and prevailing powers that be that want the church to be the chaplain on the Good Ship America. And those who claim that only strict adherence to the Bible will make the church the people of God it should be. And those who advocate withdrawal into a “holy huddle” apart from the world to nurture the kind of spirituality we need. Finally, we too have those who want to aggressively take the fight to the godless humanism they believe robs America of its Christian heritage. As Jesus’ vision did not fit with any of its 1^st century competitors, neither does it fit with any of their contemporary analogues.

We must choose. That is inescapable. The ways other than Jesus’ may be easier (the “wide gate”) but lead to destruction. His way has its struggles and hardships. But it is the way to life. The only viable way for a community seeking faithfulness to Jesus in our time and place.

This, in my judgment, is how the church here today needs to hear this text preached today.

False Prophets (7:15-23)

Jesus’ way is difficult, as he just said. Much of the difficulty lies at the feet of false prophets. Those who want to lead the people to adopt one or another way of being God’s people for their own purposes and agendas (v.15). Their words may be powerful and persuasive. But the question is, as it has always been for prophets among God’s people, what does their behavior and practice of the faith show? Do they look like Jesus? Do their lives invite one into the difficult journey of his way? What are their fruits? (vv.16-20)

These false prophets claim to follow Jesus’ way and speak in his name. Even do powerful and impressive works. But their way does not actually follow his. They lead the people astray. And Jesus will disavow them at the time of judgment (v.21-23).

This stark warning is our gauge of how serious Jesus’ warning is. For his time and for ours. The issues are similar, the stakes the same.

A Parable (7:24-29)

²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

²⁸ Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹ for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Jesus rounds off his sermon with a story about house building. If you’re going to build one, Jesus says, make sure you build it on a rock and not on sand. Otherwise it will not withstand the storms that will surely come. And Jesus’ word is that rock. That’s about all the casual reader will get out of it.

But we are no longer casual readers of the SoM after all these posts on it, are we? No 1^st century Jew hearing this story about a house could fail to think first of all about Israel’s house, its temple. Israel’s treasured prize, this house was the place where its God has promised to live and meet with his people. And from where he would rule the world. And to top it off, Israel’s house was built on a rock, Mt. Zion!

Still the irony in this story would not be lost on them as it may well be to many of us. Jesus’ claim that failure to attend to his words brings about the collapse of the house built on sand hits them right between their eyes – he’s claiming their national house, their temple, is in reality, built on that sand not the rock on which it physically stands!

Later in this gospel Jesus tells his disciples that the temple edifice they are admiring will be completely thrown down (24:1-2). With this statement he confirms that it really is built on sand because its leadership has turned its back on him and his words. A more powerful warning to the nation can hardly be imagined!

And the crowd gets it. Jesus’ authority convinces them. Here is not a mere scribe! He teaches with power and conviction (v.29)!

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[1] Stassen, “The Fourteen Triads,” 288.

[2] The Sermon on the Mount (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 432.

[3] Wright, Matthew for Everyone Part 1: 1391.

[4] Stassen, “The Fourteen Triads,” 289.

[5] Stassen, “The Fourteen Triads,” 290.

[6] Ulrich Luz, Matthew,1.419.

[7] Stassen, “The Fourteen Triads,” 291-292.

[8] Stassen, “The Fourteen Triads,” 292.

[9] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 2533-2538.