Friday of the First Week in Lent
(Matthew 5:20-26)
Twenty-five years ago Jim had a coronary bypass. It was radical surgery but the discipline that his doctors imposed was even more extreme. A heavy smoker since he was a teen, Jim had to give up cigarettes cold turkey. A professional in a demanding administrative job, Jim had to take time to exercise every day. Overweight, he had to shed excess pounds. In short, if he was going to live much longer, Jim he had to turn around many his life’s habits at the age of fifty. Jim’s brother died shortly before Jim’s bypass reminding him that the doctor’s instructions were not professional drivel. Jim is alive and well today at seventy-eight. He may not be as thin as his doctor would like, but he doesn’t smoke and walks daily.
In the gospel Jesus calls for a change of life-style every bit as radical as Jim’s although on a spiritual, not physical, level. We are no longer to get angry with or make fun of a brother or sister. Here Jesus refers not so much to our blood relatives but to the men and women of our church. If the Christian community is to be “the light of the world,” which Jesus calls it shortly before he issues these commandments, its members will have to constantly give good example. Refraining from demonstrations of anger and from acts of mockery (“Raqa” means empty-headed) are but obvious ways to show respect for others.
Is it then permissible to curse or deride people who don’t belong to our church? Such literal distinctions are what Jesus is steering his disciples away from in this Sermon on the Mount. The Scribes and Pharisees would split hairs in this way so that they might indulge their passions while still sensing moral superiority. In truth Christians through the centuries also have acted in this way. But Jesus is calling for a new righteousness that, as he says, will exceed that of the self-righteous. We are to see in everyone a potential sister or brother and to treat her or him deferentially.
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