Matthew 5:13-20 considers discipleship and the relation of discipleship to the Old Testament.
Matthew 5:13-16 are wisdom sayings of Jesus regarding discipleship.
When Jesus speaks of the difference his people make in the world, he uses two small, often unnoticed, insignificant substances -- salt and light. Today, we come by both quite easily. Some areas complain of having too much light, calling it light pollution. Some of us must limit our intake of salt. Personally, I rarely salt anything anymore, having discovered that most meats have plenty of naturally occurring salt. I have a good friend and colleague who surprised me when I saw him put enough salt on his meat to turn it almost white.
In any case, in the days of Jesus, these metaphors took on a quite different meaning. Light can be very fragile, but even in small quantities it makes quite a difference. During my one experience exploring a cave in southern Indiana, as we descended into the darkness, I looked at the tiny lights we received to shine along our way. They were just miniature flashlights, but in the darkness of the cave they made all the difference. When the darkness is particularly great, one does not need a huge amount of light to make a significant difference.
Bishop Willimon, in a 1999 sermon, said he finds it interesting that when Jesus spoke of us, seizing upon some metaphor to characterize who we are, he did not say, "You are a great army marching into the world." He did not say, "You are a loudspeaker put up in the marketplace to shout my message to everybody." Rather, Jesus said that we are "salt," and we are "light." Small, fragile, and yet both of these substances go a long way. They can make all the difference.
In both cases, light and salt depend upon their environment to have the influence they are to have. The church is not everything you need. Your families, your neighborhood, your work, your government, are all vital parts of your life. Yet, the church has a message and a life that is to enlighten and salt every part of your life.
Matthew 5:13-16 are wisdom sayings of Jesus regarding discipleship. Jesus shows a concern that his disciples have an influence upon the world. He draws a distinction between the disciples and the world that suggests a change of heart and life to be a disciple.
13 From Matthew we read, "You are the salt of the earth; from the material Matthew shares with Luke, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. Such a saying may have occasioned surprise, for salt contained impurities. As I understand it, a first century rabbi stated that just as salt cannot lose its saver, Judaism could not lose what is essential to it. On the lips of Jesus, the saying suggests that the community that follows Jesus is the salt. The saying speaks to the danger of something valuable that loses the essential quality that makes it valuable. Further, salt was not just for flavoring, but also for preserving. Tiny amounts of salt could also fertilize soil that lost its nutrients. One must scatter the salt around for the salt to do any good. Jesus has a concern for the influence of his followers in the world. The saying suggests a distinction between outsider and insider in the sense that Jesus expected his followers to reconsider and live from that they which they previously learned. Of course, the invitation to that change of heart and life is open to all. Part of our problem today with this metaphor is that salt is used for flavoring and is getting bad press anyway. We want a salt free diet. In the days of Jesus, salt was a precious commodity. It was preservative, being the lifeline when fresh food became scarce. It was a fertilizer as farmers worked it into the soil to restore lost chemical nutrients, of course not using too much so that it would be negative in productivity. The image of the earth suggests the fertilizer vision is the most appropriate. Any salt that no longer helps make the land more productive is not fit for anything. Salt is an element that one must scatter over and spread out to be effective. One must sprinkle salt around.
If we apply the saying to the church of recent times, the way salt loses its savor is the process of secularization. It ought not to surprise us that that the world is secular, for that is what it is, and always will be. However, “when the church becomes secular, it is the greatest conceivable misfortune both for the church and the world.” This is what happens when the church wants to be only “for” the world, nation, and culture. It loses its importance, meaning and reason for existence. The secularization of the church, in all its attempts to connect to the world, is its alienation. Some people would take these reflections in a quite liberal political direction, along with a critique of democracy, freedom, and capitalism. However, one can also see that as “progressive Christianity” continues to expand, it keeps favoring current political movements of the political Left, trying to erase the distinction between itself and a part of the culture, and yet, runs the risk of this alienation. The reason, of course, is that if the church is only “for” the world, it is no longer “for” Christ and “for” God.[1]Sometimes, the church may be at peace with the world precisely because it has lost its saltiness.[2] The church may behave in such a way as to provide no objection to the world, making itself invisible, and therefore forfeiting its right to exist.[3] The Christian community has no other task. The task is simple and unassuming. If God wills to accomplish much through its labor, that is the affair of God. The Christian community can neither bring this about nor enforce it. It has no right to ask for successes. It must simply hold itself in readiness for God.[4] The church can grow secular, which means it sets it light under a bushel and loses its saltiness. Yet, Jesus Christ never becomes identical with secular history. Christ in the world remains light and salt, shaming and awakening the church, judging and saving the church. Christ maintains the particularity of the church in relation to all other occurrences in history.[5] One who believes in Jesus Christ is the lighted candle. To believe is also to give yourself as light. One cannot acknowledge Christ privately without also confessing oneself as a Christian.[6]
The United Methodist Church wrestled with the relevance of this notion of influence in the world. As a denomination, it has long sought to learn new ways of being disciples in this world. One can also see that as “progressive Christianity” continues to expand, it keeps favoring current political movements of the political Left, trying to erase the distinction between itself and a part of the culture, and yet, runs the risk of this alienation. The reason, of course, is that if the church is only “for” the world, it is no longer “for” Christ and “for” God.
One author imagines a speech by Jesus to the church of today:
How baffling you are, oh Church, and yet how I love you! How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe! I should like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence. You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand sanctity. I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms. No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, although not completely. And where should I go?[7]
From Matthew 14 "You (that is disciples) are the light of the world. Also from Matthew: A city built on a hill cannot be hid. The light of the city gathers in one place. Many small lights gathered in a community will make light that one cannot hide. The church is to be that hilltop night light for the world. The saying suggests that Jesus seems to have still lived with the prophetic expectation of the end-time pilgrimage of the peoples to Zion as the place of the proclaiming of the righteous will of God. Until that time comes, the community of believers is to bear witness in the nations around it to the rule of God that has dawned as the visible city on a hill that one cannot hide.[8] 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. One must expose the flame to the surrounding air in order to have sufficient oxygen to burn brightly. The disciples are the light that shine in the world and bring glory to God. Matthew had in mind the one room Palestinian home of the common person. The saying becomes a warning to the church. The world is averse to the light. Nevertheless, in its life, the church is to attract people to the light. 16 From Matthew: In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. The disciples will be a light by letting others see their good works and glorify God. Light is useless when one covers it up. Further, the light will not continue to burn if one covers it up and deprives it of its oxygen.
This passage of scripture brings that little song out of me. I remember it well from my Sunday school days. The pastor would lead us in the song often. It continues with “Don’t let Satan blow it out” and “Hide it under a bushel, No.”
A grandfather told this story to a child. Once upon a time in a land far away there was a lighthouse that sat on a rocky shore and helped ships get through the water safely without hitting the big rock. One day the lighthouse operator got sick, and a substitute oversaw the lighthouse. When the intense storm came, he got out a large piece of canvas and covered up the lantern in the lighthouse so it would not get wet in the rain. So, the lantern stayed dry, but no one could see the light to guide them through the dangerous waterway. The boy thought about this for a moment. "That new guy did something pretty silly, didn't he!" The grandfather said, "Honey, Jesus told a story like that once. He would agree with you."[9]
It would not be natural to hide a light when you need it to show the way. It would not be natural for salt to lose its ability to affect its environment. Yet, it seems so easy for disciples to find ways to hide their faith.
I can illustrate the struggle of the church influencing American culture with an article from the New York Times, around Christmas 2010, by Ross Douthat. He begins by discussing the difficulty of being a Christian around Christmas time. This quickly expands, however, into the notion of the changing culture in America, and the difficulty amidst the changes. He refers to two books that have helped him wrestle with this. One book is American Grace by Robert Putnam (Harvard) and David Campbell (Notre Dame). The book is quite technical. It takes much work to mine any nuggets one can find, according to some. As if to spare me the challenging work of reading its 550 pages, he summarizes the book by saying that it examines the role that religion plays in binding up the social fabric of the nation. Society reaps enormous benefits from religious people engaging it, while suffering few of the potential downsides. Widespread churchgoing makes Americans more altruistic and more engaged with their communities, more likely to volunteer and more inclined to give to secular and religious charities. Yet at the same time, thanks to Americans’ ever-increasing tolerance, this country has been spared the kind of sectarian conflict that often accompanies religious zeal.
All that sounds like the church is being what it is supposed to be, at one level. It is being salt and light in American culture.
Another book, by James Davison Hunter, To Change the World, presents a different picture. The United Methodist Church says it makes disciples “for the transformation of the world.” The problem with this statement of the mission of the church is that the world is passing away. The world is always going its way of focusing upon political and economic power. Its principalities and powers will always do what they do. The mission statement itself assumes a relationship with the world that the church simply does not have. The world is the darkness in which the church must be light. In any case, this author discusses the vain attempts by Christians, whether from the political Left or Right, to engage the culture from a “populist” perspective and have lost. Both groups express themselves in the “language of loss, disappointment, anger, antipathy, resentment and desire for conquest.” Thanks in part to this bunker mentality, American Christianity has become what Hunter calls a “weak culture” — one that mobilizes but does not convert, alienates rather than attracts, and looks backward toward a lost past instead of forward to a vibrant future. He argues that the Christian churches are influential only in the “peripheral areas” of our common life. One of his central theses is that "culture" does not usually change in a populist, bottom up manner. Rather, it changes by the influence of a small network of elites with symbolic power to create and change the institutions in which we live. Churches used to be among such elites. They are no more.
Douthat concludes that believing Christians are no longer the influence they once were, either upon popular culture or upon the elites with symbolic power. The term for this is secularity, as the culture and the political class remove themselves in an increasingly open away from the church. Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that is becoming less friendly to Christians.
Here is my struggle. The church is rapidly becoming a minority movement in a culture it helped create. I would be among those who feel some loss there. Yet, in the process, we may feel more connected to the tiny band of followers to whom Jesus first spoke these words concerning being salt and light.
Light can be very fragile, but even in small quantities it makes quite a difference. The metaphors Jesus uses here challenge Christians to live the Christian faith in all areas of their lives. Indeed, the church has a simple and unassuming task that can make all the difference in our personal lives, those closest to us, and in a world that needs to see as well as hear. Those who are salt and light in the world must stick together, influencing each other to continue to be salt and light in the world.
A reporter once asked a 104-year-old woman, "What do you think is the best thing about being 104?" She replied, quite simply, "No peer pressure." Quite honestly, I am not sure if we are ever free of peer pressure, but I have been reflecting upon its influence upon our lives.
Peer pressure can both help us and hurt us. C. S. Lewis wrote an interesting article entitled, “The Inner Ring.” It suggests why the difference is there. He acknowledges that all have an inner circle of friends. We are social creatures, and we need that inner ring of friends. We care for them, and they care for us. We influence each other. He warns us, though, that the desire to be in an inner ring of a group is sinful. This desire to do and say things to be part of a group is dangerous in that it may block you from becoming the person God wants you to be.
Most of us think of peer pressure as a negative. David Greene, the host of NPR's "Morning Edition," explains that peer pressure can help us by inspiring us to do the right thing. Sit next to a good student in class, and her study habits can rub off on you. Watch your neighbors install solar panels on their roof, and it might motivate you to do the same thing.
The survey also made three conclusions about the effect of peer pressure on drug and alcohol use. It seems that teens with friends who do drugs and alcohol:
+ are more likely to do the same.
+ are more likely to convince their friends to do it too.
+ are more likely to seek out other teens that do the same.[10]
Interestingly peer pressure can also have a negative way if we are with our very best peers. Having people who are a little better than we are inspires us, while having people around us who are a lot better than we are discourages us. Todd Rogers is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has studied the peer pressure that comes from people who are a little better than we are, as well as the pressure that comes from people who are much better than we are. I am sure Pharisees thought of themselves in that category when it came to spirituality. He says that when you or someone else compares you to people who are doing a little better than you are it can motivate. Someone conserving energy might inspire you to use less energy. Someone voting might motivate you to vote. However, if you compare yourself or others compare you to someone who is unattainably better than you are, we have another form of negative peer pressure. Rogers studied more than 5,000 students in a massive open online course. As part of the course, the students graded each other's work and learned from each other. What Rogers discovered was that ordinary students became far more likely to quit the course when he paired them with the best students. The ordinary students grading top-quality papers assumed that everyone in the group was brilliant and this made them feel inferior.
A common example many preachers use is Mother Teresa. Her life and words will preach well. Yet, the danger of such an example is that what she did can seem unattainable for us “average” Christians raising families and working in the world.
In my sports life, tennis is an example. When I played against someone incredibly better, it was dispiriting. I wanted to give up. I had a friend in Seminary, Don Thorsen, who was a little better than I was. He would usually win, but the games were close. It taught me a lot to watch him toss the ball in the air for a serve. He inspired me to play better. I think I was that person for my first District Superintendent, Bill Clayton. In a separate way, when I went to Brownstown, I had a member of the church who was much older than I was but who regularly beat me, largely because he was so consistent in getting to balls and getting them back.
Such observations make me wonder about the effect of the Pharisees upon the people of their generation. Even Paul was proud of the fact that he was “as to the law, a Pharisee.” This is exactly the effect of the Pharisees on the people around them. Those within the inner circle of Judaism knew they were superior to others regarding adherence to the Law. Those outside the inner circle knew it as well – and it may well have dispirited them! It may well have led them to give up on even to try being faithful to the covenant.
Our passage raises the question of what the people of God look like. What kind of influence should they exert upon each other? Together, what kind of influence should they be in the world?
First, they look like salt. In the ancient world, salt was a valuable commodity used for sacrifice, purification, seasoning and preservation. Christians are to play all of these roles in the world and are to remain salty by staying true to their mission and avoiding contamination. If salt were to lose that which makes it salt, one cannot restore it. Note that Jesus does not say, "Try to be the salt of the earth." He does not say, "It might be good for you to catch some classes at Salt and Light University to learn how to be salt." He does not say, "Go to the rabbi and elders and have them lay hands on you to beseech God to grant you saltiness." He does not say, "Take 30 minutes every morning to meditate and try to reach, and to be in touch with, your inner saltiness." His comment is quite straightforward. "You are the salt of the earth. This is what and who you are. Don't forget it." His statement is not a command but a description. Too often, we are afraid that we are not "salty" enough, and when we get agitated like that, we are essentially making this all about ourselves instead of about Jesus. Whatever Jesus actually had in mind when he said, "You are the salt of the earth," we know that salt as an element has no value to itself. It is not about making salt better salt. Salt is salt. The value of salt is in its application to other things. No wonder Jesus calls us "salt." We exist for others.
Jesus reminds us that our witness in the world can weaken. This fact should not surprise us. We know we are sinners. We know we are not perfect. Yet, it should sadden us that sometimes, the salt does not taste like it should. Sometimes our light does not shine as it should. We blend in too well at times with our surroundings so that others could not tell much difference between the world and us. The philosopher Spinoza once said:
I have often wondered that persons who make boasts of professing the Christian religion - namely, love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all people - should quarrel with such rancorous animosities, and display daily toward one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than the virtues which they profess, is the readiest criterion of their faith.[11]
Second, they look like light -- lighthouses, spotlights, flashlights, lamps, candles in the darkness. Once again, being light does not involve sitting through a college class, reading literature on the subject or meditating about it. Jesus' statement is a description, not a command. Moreover, like salt, light does not exist for its own benefit, but for the benefit of everything it illuminates. Light provides warmth and energy to the world around it, and encourages life and growth. We do the very same thing when we act as the light of the world, and when we reflect the light of Christ to others. We do not hide light, but rather, put it in a place where it can push back the darkness. The influence of our lives as the people of God depends on doing whatever we can to be lights to each other and to the world around us. We are –
+ To be open and honest instead of hiding in the dark,
+ To offer other people warmth and encouragement instead of being cold and discouraging,
+ To be an energy source for others, so that together we can advance the mission of Christ in the world.
Our challenge is to shine as a Christian community so that others will see what a life of love and faithfulness looks like. One way to think about what is happening in our country today is that Americans have become a self-righteous lot. We have certain code words that suggest I am more American than you are; I am more progressive than you are, or I am more conservative than you are. If we are to be salt and light, our focus needs to remind people that their first responsibility is to be among those who give priority to righteousness as viewed by Jesus, that of love to God and neighbor. By being such persons, we will help people overcome darkness, loneliness, and isolation. Darkness, loneliness, and isolation are all around us. Righteous Christians can truly be a light to the world -- beacons of peace and reconciliation in a world that is so often full of conflict. If we perform such good works, people will see them, says Jesus, and "give glory to your Father in heaven" (v. 16). We will not be such persons by focusing upon rules and regulations in order to meet the standards of a new inner ring of righteousness. We will not be such persons if we forget the mission, the vision, or the value of genuine love of God and neighbor.
The Pharisees of the Bible cannot be our role models for righteousness. The Pharisees may have been the spiritual superstars of their day, but their righteousness was rooted in rules and regulations. Jesus respected their passion for the law but criticized their failure to put it into action. He encouraged his followers to do what the Pharisees "teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach" (23:3). They neglected the justice, mercy and faith that are part of a right relationship with God and neighbor. Nor can the 21st-century Pharisees who are alive and well in the church today, people who make other Christians feel unworthy through an excessive focus on religious rules and regulations. Such persons want to reduce Christianity to a code given in the past and that remains binding on us today. It will never have the freedom of the Spirit to move into new areas and welcome new persons.
Quite famously, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism in the 1700’s, said that Christianity is a social religion. If we turn it into a solitary religion, we destroy it. He continues by saying that Christianity cannot exist without relating to others. He even declares that Christians dare not limit their relationships to only other Christians. Rather, how can Christians be salt and light if they are not thoroughly involved in the lives of people around them? [12]
Legalism is never a good path for the church. Legalism inevitably sets up barriers between the people who need salt and light on the one hand, and we who are to be that salt and light on the other.
We have only one role model for righteousness: Jesus Christ, the one who invites us to be salt and light. He did not set himself above us in an unapproachable position. He is among us as one who serves. He offers us the best peer pressure, that which inspires us to rise to the challenge of advancing his mission in the world. As salt, we can talk with openness and honesty about who we are as Christians. As light, we can bring warmth and energy to the world around us.
We need to be willing to see where the challenge of our time is. A man lived in the capitol city of Nazi Germany, Berlin. He chose to make his home one of the stops for people who got into trouble with Nazis, and that included many Jewish people. After the war, he simply said, "The affirmation of faith that needed to be heard today is: Jesus was a Jew." Another church leader became a chaplain for Hitler's government. He was quoted as saying in an interview: "I believe all the creeds."[13] It is possible to believe all the right things, and still never be the witness to the world that we need to be.
Light can be very fragile, but even in small quantities it makes quite a difference. The metaphors Jesus uses here challenge Christians to live the Christian faith in all areas of their lives. Indeed, the church has a simple and unassuming task that can make all the difference in our personal lives, those closest to us, and in a world that needs to see as well as hear.
Many of us can remember a time when the relationship between church and culture felt easy. It may not have been as easy as we felt it to be. In any case, we need to recognize that the culture has changed. The culture is not going back to the way it was. The church needs to figure out how to be salt and light in this new setting. You and I need to figure out what it means to be salt and light in the lives we touch. Frankly, someone was salt and light for you, and you found your way into this Christian community.
Now, for whom are you that person of salt and light?
Matthew 5:17-20 is a saying that has the theme of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law. Most scholars today think of these verses as reflecting a controversy in the early Christian community over whether the Law was still binding on Christians. The relationship of Jesus to the Mosaic Law is in debate here. At the same time, when one surveys the teaching of Jesus, one hardly sees a trace of the preservation of a Jewish-Christian legalistic way of interpretation. This fact agrees with the view that Torah-observant Jewish-Christians were a marginal group of which we know little today. Matthew makes it clear by their position ate the beginning of the main part of the Sermon on the Mount before the antitheses that they are for him foundationally important. They are among the most difficult in this Gospel. In my view, one goes down the wrong path of one interprets them in such a way that it contradicts both Jesus and Matthew![14]
From Matthew: 17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. The history of interpretation has taken two different paths. Marcion wanted to eliminate the verse. Ptolemy and Irenaeus interpreted it as the perfection of the Law, and by extension, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. He distinguishes between the ceremonial Law from the moral Law. Origen compared the development from the old law to the new with the development of a child into an adult, during which the child is changed but not destroyed. Grace is added to the Law. In the time of the Reformation, the verse again became a central text in the struggle with the Anabaptists. No longer is the perfection of the law of the medieval exegesis but its correct interpretation by Jesus now in the center. The application to the time of Calvin is obvious. In contrast, the Anabaptists defended the thesis of the fundamental difference between the Old and the New Testaments. The Sermon on the Mount is for them more than an interpretation of the Old Testament; rather, between "the office of the law and the office of Christ, in which there is a wide difference. We must at least say this. The early church accepted the canon of the Synagogue. Early Christians added the New Testament, enlarging a canon already given, extending it as a new action of God. The early church did not try to adopt the sacred writings of other religions as such a “preface,” an approach that would have made the missionary task much easier. Yet, the canon of the synagogue is not just a preface or introduction to the New. It is Scripture.[15] This saying suggests neither Jesus nor his followers have the goal of dissolving Judaism. The saying accepts it. It does not even require that followers of Jesus must abandon or replace it.[16]18 From the source common to Matthew and Luke: For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away (meaning never), not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Given the regard this passage shows for the smallest letter of the Hebrew Bible, “we must be on our guard against trying to say anything different.” These words belong to revelation and their writing by the Spirit.[17] 19 From Matthew: Therefore, whoever breaks in the sense of transgressing and invalidating one of the least of these commandments, the rabbis distinguishing between light and weighty commandments in a way that suggests the effort demanded of the believer and the reward promised for keeping it, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Does the distinction between great or least in the rule of God mean there are various places in heaven? The fulfilling of the Torah in verse 17 has its basis in verses 18-19. Faithfulness to each individual commandment of the Torah would appear to be the goal. The mission of Jesus consists exactly in his establishing of the Torah through his obedience, up to the last and least commandment. The point seems to be that Jesus exercises his lordship in such a way that the Torah remains valid.
The next verse may conclude the section begun in verses 17-19 or it may be the heading for the antitheses in verses 21-48. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. This notion of “entering” contains a future element to the teaching regarding the kingdom. The decisive element for Matthew is that the love commandment becomes the center of these intensified individual commandments. Based on the antitheses, the higher righteousness of the disciples is not only a quantitative increase of the fulfilling of the law - measured on the Torah - but also primarily a qualitative intensification of the life before God - measured on love. Matthew obviously does not sense the tension between the qualitative fulfillment of the will of God in the antitheses, which the love commandment infinitely intensified, and the obedience toward all individual prescriptions of the Torah, which verses 17-19 seem to demand. The transition takes place smoothly and inconspicuously. In practice, the Matthean community has subordinated the many individual commandments of the Torah to the love commandment as the center. Matthew provided this introduction to ensure that no one would interpret the following antitheses as antinomian or as a break with the heritage of Israel. The concept that Jesus fulfills law and prophets completely and perfectly means that for Matthew there is no longer any other way of access to the Bible of Israel than by way of Jesus. Therefore, the preamble to the antitheses has at the same time the effect of a reprimand of Israel. Matthew, who fixes the authority of the Bible through Jesus, can do no other than measure the scribes and Pharisees by the standard of the higher righteousness that Jesus sets. Measured by this standard, which is not theirs, their righteousness is not enough. In the history of interpretation, the verses rarely became significant outside of threats to the continuing validity of the Old Testament.[18] Although Jesus accepts the Law, he does demand that the followers of Jesus should go a new way in its exercise, a “better righteousness,” than did its greatest champions.[19]
Christian faith involves action in the world. Among all the Reformers Calvin gave the law most clearly a central, positive place in his thinking. With all the differences, there is here an analogous basic structure between the theology of Matthew and that of Calvin. It led both to a practical piety that took seriously the existence of the community in the world. Hans Denck (d. 1527), a Bavarian theologian of the Reformation, had deep concern over the thesis that "Christ has fulfilled the law so that we do not need to," which leads to the devaluation of Christian action. He knows that "No law was ever understood and written so highly but that it is and must be fulfilled in the body of Christ.” He was concerned about the life of the community, and in that he is a theological brother of Matthew.
One of my colleagues (around 2015) posted that the Bible is simply a human word. The phrase came from author and frequent speaker at United Methodist events, Marcus Borg. I want to be quite careful here, for many of my colleagues would agree with this assessment. Most UM pastors, including this one, recognize the human dimension of the Bible. The books, letters, wisdom, and poetry of the Bible occur in historical contexts and written by people. Yet, the Bible has always had a special role in the church. The “authority” of the Bible does not mean the Bible is "perfect." I have come to appreciate that Karl Barth suggested the alternative that we give precedence to the word of God. Giving priority to the Bible simply means that the pastor and church have a responsibility to lay their lives alongside what we read in the Bible and allow the Bible to check their views of God, self, and others. They recognize that their way is not always best, and in fact, that they often get God and discipleship wrong, if left to their devices. To accept this special role for the Bible is to have a degree of humility concerning your life. Whatever guidance you need as to who God is and who you are to be does not simply well up from inside you. In fact, you admit that the guidance you most need comes from outside you. The reason is that you recognize in the Bible a special working of God in Israel and in Jesus Christ. Such witnesses to what God is doing in history and in human lives become that “check,” that external reference that gets you out of yourself and directs you to God.
Consequently, when I read one of my colleagues (and assuming that many others agree) concluding that the Bible is simply a human word, I find myself in different terrain. Some of this feeling arises from personal experience. The beginning of my journey involves a testimony that as a mid-teen I started studying the Bible, beginning with Romans. The Bible has been my companion ever since. Thus, it feels like the person is saying that the Bible is more like an opinion piece in the newspaper, or insight from poetry, or providing debatable philosophical points. Regardless, if I understand correctly, it means the Bible is not a reliable witness to what God wants in the world. The pastor and the church of today would then have much freedom to pursue their own understanding of what God wants. Quite likely, pastor and church today may go directly against the Bible, having no check or reference outside themselves to correct them.
The challenge that I see here for the pastor and church today is that we need to exercise great care with Scripture. I find it one of my great responsibilities, sometimes with fear and trembling, to stand before people and share the Word of God. The church always wrestles with what this Word means for today. Pastors do so in a quite personal and public way.
[1] Barth, (Church Dogmatics, IV.2 [67.3] 688)
[2] Barth, Church Dogmatics (IV.3 [71.5] 619)
[3] Barth, Church Dogmatics (IV.3 [72.3]
[4] Barth, Church Dogmatic (III.4 [55.3] 487)
[5] Barth, Church Dogmatic (IV.3 [69.3] 225)
[6] Barth, Church Dogmatic (IV.1 [63.2] 776)
[7] (Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes.)
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 494.
[9] (Emphasis, Ja-Fe 1993, 42-43.)
[10] --Stacy Zeiger, "Statistics on peer pressure," Love to Know Website. teens.lovetoknow.com. Retrieved August 13, 2016. The Monitoring the Future Survey ... found that approximately 30 percent of eighth graders have used illicit drugs.
[11] (Spinoza, Ethics, Chapter 6)
[12] (Sermon 24 [I.1, 5-7])
[13] (Dr. Douglas Hall, Newscope Lecture Series, February 1990).
[14] In the view of some scholars, Matthew has received a Jewish-Christian tradition that demands the keeping of all individual commandments of the Torah and excludes content critique of Torah commandments. He has not only received it but also intensively emended it redactionally and placed it in a prominent place in his Sermon on the Mount. They extract an unusual perspective, suggesting one must observe the most trivial regulation, metaphorically represented by an iota and the serif. Here the historical situation of the evangelist has to be taken into consideration. He belongs to a Jewish-Christian community that is characterized by traditions with fundamental observance of the law. However, his community also knew the Gospel of Mark, which stood rather free toward the Law of Moses. Matthew thus nullifies the relaxed attitude of Jesus toward the Law, the centrality of the love commandment, and the repeated distinction between the qualitative fulfillment of the will of God and the formal observance of the Law, especially the ritual Law. Such an impulse arises out of Jewish-Christian impulses that intensified by the end of the century. This view of these verses is even a contradiction verses 21-48. I must say, however, that I puzzle over how Matthew could not only contradict Jesus, but also contradict himself, in such a pervasive way.
[15] Barth, Church Dogmatic (Church Dogmatics I.2 [19.2] 489)
[16] Barth, Church Dogmatic (IV.2 [66.3] 551)
[17] Barth, Church Dogmatic I.2 [19.2] 517)
[18] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Vol 2, p. 328)
[19] Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.2 [66.3] 551)
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