RULES OR RELATIONSHIPS?
One of the ideas I suggested with reading the Gospel of Matthew with was that of family.
Matthew starts his Gospel showing Jesus family link to Abraham. Angels, part of God’s family, have helped Joseph and Mary navigate the dangerous path of raising Jesus to adulthood. God the Father and God the Spirit announce the start of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus stands tall against Satan. The boy, not just any boy, has become the Man of God.
What we have not read are many stories of Jesus’ power. We are fairly quickly thrown into this long discourse of Jesus’ teaching about how family members are to behave.
In some ways it is a corrective. The family has drifted into rules-based living. We’ve seen Jesus go straight to our motives, to our hearts, to draw us back onto how the family of God is to live.
Today we come to what appears at the surface, to be more rules. Rules such as don’t judge.
Yet I want to suggest that just as in chapter five Jesus was challenging us to look through the rules into our hearts, today he is challenging us to look through the rules outwardly into the eyes of others.
Today, Jesus is teaching us about the complex web of relationships we have in life.
Note the difference in audience between verses one through five, and verse six. One is about brothers and sisters, and one is about dogs.
For those in the family, Jesus is especially concerned that we show grace and not judgment. Think of the Jewish family of Jesus’ day. The religious authorities were all about rule-keeping. It was like a game, a serious game, about navigating every day without violating one of the thousand rules that have come into existence. Every day was a day to be judged by a family member. Jesus suggests we stop.
Yet he then, without spending a lot of time on it, makes this comment about dogs. He is talking about people whose hearts are hardened to the message of God.
It seems harsh. It seems as if we have judged these people. But consider it from this perspective. Are there people in your life who criticize you and push at you and possibly even ridicule you for your faith?
If there are such people in your life, later you will read Jesus tell you to treat them the way you want to be treated. He will even say, “Love your enemies”. Here he is saying something very specific.
He is saying, stop actively spending your energy to be in battle with them. Why do I say this? Look at the verbs. We are to stop giving holy things and stop throwing pearls. If we are to “stop” that means we must have been “doing” an action.
Our Lord simply says, “Stop beating your head against this wall, it is not good for you, it is not good for the relationship you need to have with them.” A relationship where you are constantly trying to ram down their throats your belief isn’t going to get very far.
He is not saying cut them off. He is not saying hate them. He is not saying vilify them. He is merely suggesting you keep focused on following God, following Him. Later he will tell you that you should expect attack. When it comes, after you have sought to engage them with the Gospel, and after they have rejected it, move on.
This is hard. We don’t want to abandon people. For many, we are talking about our family. They look at us as religious nuts.
Jesus understands. He is not saying abandon them. He is saying stop arguing with them. They will take what you are offering and attack you with it. Instead, love them.
Which is why in verses seven through eleven he tells us to keep all this close to God in prayer. Notice the words: ask, seek, knock. Folks who know their English grammar quickly see these words are in something called the “imperative”.
When something is “imperative” it is and urgent command. Think about that for a moment. In the middle of teaching us about relationships (because there is more) Jesus commands us to pray.
What relationships do might you bring to God in prayer?