Matthew 5:23-26
The teaching of Christ that we are looking at today needs to be considered within the context in which it was given. Christ is speaking to people who know nothing of a relationship with God but only of religion. And there is no way they can ever keep the whole law and feel like God loves them and accepts them. They are always in the deficit with no hope of ever getting back on top. Add to this the fact that they are under the terrible yoke of the Roman Empire with taxes to pay that are totally unfair and exorbitant. It is breaking their backs. They are hated by the Romans and considered dogs to be mistreated.
But Christ tells the people that He has come so that they might have not just life, but an abundant life. He has their attention. Then He begins to tell them how their lives can be blessed. He shares with them the secrets of His kingdom. What Christ teaches them is not adding to their burden but lifting their burden and setting them free. Many of the people were dealing with a deep bitterness that came from unforgiving hearts. They were bitter both at the Romans and at their own leaders, many of whom were in cahoots with the Romans. Christ knew that bitterness and an unforgiving spirit is devastating to one’s well-being. Bitterness causes a loss of many of the blessings of the normal Christian life, including emotional stability and peace and joy. It is a destructive mental attitude that triggers a wide range of other sins, including hatred, antagonism, self-pity, an unteachable spirit, vindictiveness, and arrogance. An article from a group of doctors in Hamburg, Germany, tells of a study that is being done on a connection between post traumatic stress and an unforgiving spirit. And in an article from Mayo Clinic written by Dr. Katherine Piderman, a host of possible side effects are listed as a result of an unforgiving spirit, such as high blood pressure, stress, anger, elevated heart rate, risk of alcohol and substance abuse, depression, chronic pain, isolation, anxiety, deteriorating relationships and poor mental health.
Jesus knew what He was talking about when He told the people to be reconciled to their brothers before coming to worship. I want to emphasize again that Christ wants them to discover life at its fullest. He told them that if they are bringing their gifts to the altar and remember that their brother has something against them, they were to leave their gifts before the altar and go back to their brother and be reconciled; then they could come and offer their gifts to God.
Christ is speaking about something with which they were well acquainted. The idea behind the offering of a sacrifice was simple. If a man sinned by breaking the law, his relationship with God was disturbed until he came and offered a sacrifice for his sin. The sacrifice was meant to show his repentance for the sin he had committed and his desire to put God’s laws first in his life.
But there are two things that are important for us to note. An opinion was never held that a sacrifice could satisfy the guilt that came from a deliberate sin or one they called “the sin of a high hand”. If a person committed a sin unintentionally or if he was swept into sin in a moment of passion and loss of self-control, then a sacrifice was effective in freeing him of guilt. But…if a person deliberately, defiantly, callously, and with evil intent committed sin, then a sacrifice was powerless to atone for his sin.
Secondly, to be effective, a sacrifice had to include confession of sin and true repentance, which meant that the sinner made an attempt to rectify any consequences his sin might have caused. Even the Great Day of Atonement could only cover a person’s sins if he had first been reconciled to his neighbor. The breach between man and God could not be healed before the breach between man and man was healed. For example, if a man was offering a sacrifice to atone for a theft, the offering was considered completely ineffective until the stolen item was returned and restitution was complete. If it was discovered that the thing had not been returned and restored, the sacrifice had to be destroyed as unclean and burned outside the temple. The Jews understood that a man had to do his utmost to put things right himself before he could be right with God.
The sacrifice was offered as a substitute for sin. The sinner would place his hands on the head of the sacrifice, as if to transfer his sinfulness and guilt to the animal, and then he would pray, “O Lord, I have sinned and have acted against your law. I have rebelled and committed this sin, but I am coming in repentance, and let this be for my covering.”
Jesus is quite clear about this basic fact—we cannot be right with God until we are right with our fellow man; we cannot hope for forgiveness until we have confessed our own sin, not only to God but also to men, and until we have done our best to remove the practical consequences of our sin. Sometimes we wonder why there is a barrier between us and God and why our prayers seem to go no higher than our own heads. The reason may well be that we ourselves have erected that barrier between ourselves and God by not first erasing the barrier between ourselves and our fellow man. Those barriers can be between husband and wife, between parents and children, with people at work or in our community or within the body of Christ.
Christ continues his discourse by telling the people that they need to get things taken care of before they start piling up. Nip it in the bud! The longer it goes, the more difficult it is to deal with. Bitterness breeds bitterness. Unresolved conflict often becomes a generational sin and, in some cases, has become so severe that it has split churches. How sad that the world ought to know us by our love for one another, and yet the church has a reputation of not being able to get along among themselves. During my growing up years in the church, I thought it must be normal for churches to constantly fight, because that is all I had ever seen. And the pastor usually found himself smack dab in the middle of the fray. I can’t think of anything that would cause Christ to sorrow more than to see His body in such disarray. It is an anathema to everything He is. If at the very beginning one of the parties had had the grace to apologize or to admit fault, a grievous situation that brought dishonor to the name of Christ would never have needed to develop. When personal relations go wrong, in nine cases out of ten immediate action will bring a solution. But if it is not taken care of immediately, the bitterness will spread in an ever-widening circle.
Christ said, “If you remember that your brother has something against you…” But you may say, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I can’t help it that he doesn’t like what I’ve done.” A large number of conflicts arise from misunderstandings. If the two people in question got together and listened to each other, things could be settled. But I confess that in my heart I have said, “It’s not my problem. They are going to have to learn to deal with their own emotions.” But it was my problem! Even though I did not feel I had done anything wrong, Christ said, “If someone has something against you…go!”
We cannot afford to let bitterness build up within the Body of Christ! Our power to accomplish God’s purposes here on the earth comes from our unity. We’ve talked before about the battle we are in between the forces of Satan and the forces of God. We will win the battle if…we pull together in unity. I’ve used the analogy of a tug-of-war many times. If both teams are about equal, it is basically a standoff. But if a couple of members of one team are sidetracked by their own little conflict, they dilute the power of their unity, and they will lose the battle. It doesn’t take much to diminish that power.
Years ago, a church asked me to come and hold some meetings for them. The pastor warned me ahead of time that there was trouble brewing among the people in the church. When I walked into the church the first evening, the tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. This was a church that had been thriving and reaching out into their community and bringing people to Christ. But now they were in the midst of a decline, and it was no mystery as to why they were declining. I can’t imagine being a new person coming into that atmosphere. It would be stifling. Yet each of the people in the conflict felt he was right. This was the same church where the pastor’s wife said to me, “These people are so small-minded that I have a lady that comes into the church bathroom every week to turn the toilet paper around backward so that it rolls out from the backside. I have to change it back the right way each time! Can you imagine?”
The people Christ is speaking to have a genuine cause to be upset. Their world is being turned upside down. But what they didn’t understand and what Christ is trying to teach them is that they are the ones who are being hurt by their bitterness. They aren’t hurting the Romans, and they aren’t hurting their own self-serving leaders. They are hurting themselves, and Christ wants them to discover life in its fullest dimension. They will be hurt mentally and physically and spiritually. They will be the ones to pay the price for their bitterness. Bitterness doesn’t fix itself. I remember reading about an eagle that swooped to the ground, picked up a weasel in his talons and ascended into the air. A man watching the eagle circling suddenly saw it drop to the ground like a lifeless doll. The weasel had sucked the blood out of the eagle and literally took the life blood out of him. That is exactly what bitterness does.
Will you take a minute and evaluate your own heart? As you are worshiping God today, is there anyone whom you remember that has something against you, whether real or contrived? Have you gone to them and humbly asked for forgiveness or asked for a clarification of your shortcoming, and have you done everything in your power to heal the sore between you?
Christ was able to see the big picture. Paul said, “Glory be to God, Who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do more than we would ever ask or dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayer, desires, thoughts or hopes, and may He receive the glory…” Christ saw the potential of the Church. He said, “Greater things than these shall you do…” But those things won’t happen if there are bitterness and division. What does your heart say today?
-QUESTIONS-
1. Explain to someone what is meant by having a “relationship with God” rather than a “religion”. Is religion all bad? Explain your answer. When someone says, “I’m really religious,” what do you think he means?
2. Look at John 10:10. What did Christ mean, that He “...came that we might have life and have it more abundantly...”? How is the Christian’s life more abundant than the non-Christian’s? Is it possible that some Christians never discover the abundant life, and if so, why?
3. What are some things that cause people to become bitter? Is some bitterness justified? Is bitterness compatible with the Christian life? Why or why not? What is the antidote for bitterness? Is it possible that bitterness is a generational sin?
4. Why were the people to whom Christ was teaching bitter? Did they have just cause for their bitterness?
5. What is meant by the statement, “If a man sinned by breaking the law, his relationship with God was disturbed...”? Does that mean he “lost” his salvation? Why didn’t a “blood” sacrifice remove the guilt of a deliberate sin? What would remove the guilt of a deliberate sin, or was it unforgivable?
6. How does Satan use bitterness to disrupt a church? Why is bitterness such an anathema to God? Study Ephesians 4:12-16, using a Living Bible if possible. Study John 13:35. What does this tell you about God’s goal for the Church?
7. Using a mental picture of a tug-of-war, talk about some of the things that could cause people to become distracted so that they were not giving themselves fully to the effort of pulling together. Why is unity so important in the Body of Christ, and how does bitterness thwart unity?
8. What if I remember that someone has something against me, but I know in my heart of hearts that I was not at fault? What is my responsibility? What are some possible repercussions when bitterness piles up?
9. What is the best way to approach someone who has something against me? See Matthew 18:15-18 and Galatians 6:1-3.
10. Elaborate on the statement, “They are hurting themselves, and Christ wants them to discover life in its fullest dimension.”