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But I say to you....

 

But I say to you....


5 times in Matthew 5, the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "But I say to you." These are are called the "antitheses" by commentators and they each follow Jesus quoting from the Law. The five occasions are 5.21 “You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.’"  5.27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’" 5.33 “You have also heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do.’" 5.37 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’" and 5.43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies.’"

To each of these "You have heard ..." Jesus says, "But I say to you..."  

"Don't just not kill or murder.... don't even be angry.

Don't just not commit adultery, don't even have a lustful thought.

Don't just not break your promises, don't even make these extravagant vows.

Don't take an eye for an eye, turn the other cheek.

Don't hate your enemies ... love them."

Jesus calls this fulfilling the law. He isn't just saying, "Look at my life I have externally done all the law requires."

Nor is he saying, "The law doesn't matter". 

What Jesus has done is to make the law impossible to keep.
This is not moral teaching... it's making us reassess what we mean by being moral altogether.

Morality is all well and good as a target to aim for. But it's clear from Jesus that we will always miss the real target, which is to change what's happening  on  the inside 
so that 

  • we no longer nurse our anger but deal healthily with it  
  • we dismiss lustful thoughts as soon as they appear 
  • we can simply say "yes, yes, no, no" because they should be as good as any promise
  • we don't fight back but show strength is accepting what people do to us
  • we don't hate, we love

And all this is impossible... if we're honest... and that's the whole point of the sermon on the mount.
Jesus is moving us to get beyond a moral teaching to a reformed and renewed inside, a mind that is being changed to be more like his so that our actions leave moral codes way behind.

The "punch line" of the whole sermon is coming up in a few verses ... Jesus says,"Therefore, be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

We can't be perfect, yet Jesus tells us we .... can?!

That is both liberating and terrifying at the same time. And that's the Gospel.

And we can begin the process by deep prayer ... the kind of contemplative prayer that we call Centring Prayer.
 

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