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Seek and Find (Matt 7:7-11)

These verses are a continuation of the declaration that Jesus makes when he tells us to seek God’s kingdom above all things. For if we sincerely seek after God’s kingdom as our first priority, we will find it.  And if we knock, he will answer.  Knocking is a way of letting someone know that we are waiting outside for them to give us entry.  So, we need to let God know that we want to enter into his kingdom and he will answer us by making entry possible. Each of us may knock or ask in a different way, but we must all come to that point in our lives that we know that we want to enter his kingdom and acknowledge that he is the one who must open the door. 

But exactly what is God’s kingdom? It is everything that Jesus taught in this sermon.  If this doesn’t appeal to you, than there is little point in asking to enter, but if you are moved by what you hear, than there is no other place you will find such peace except in his kingdom.

For those in Jesus’ audience who might doubt that God would really listen to their needs he compared God to a human father.  He asked what kind of a father would give his son a stone when he asked for bread or a serpent if he asked for a fish?  Of course Jesus knew that there were fathers who did not take care of their children, but notice that he personalizes the question by specifically using them as an example?  He asks, “Is there anyone among you would not help his child?”  Obviously, only a cruel and hateful man would do such a thing, and none of them would admit to such a thing.  So his challenge becomes rhetorical.  

Jesus acknowledges that men, even though they are evil, would still take care of their families.  Then it makes perfect logic that God would be even more likely to take care of us, his own children.  Jesus’ argument is that if evil people take care of their children, how much more would a holy God  take care of his children?

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On Prayer (Matt 6:5-15)

Now Jesus warns us not to pray like the hypocrites, but exactly what is a hypocrite?  The word has evolved in our language to mean someone who says one thing and does another, but that doesn’t seem to fit here.  It is interesting to note that the word hypocrite, ὑποκριτής in Greek, originally meant an actor who plays a role of another person.  It is not truly who he is, but merely an artificial person.  That definitely fits much better because Jesus goes on to say that these hypocrites would put on quite the performance by standing in synagogues and street-corners just so that they could be seen by others.  So again such people have already received their reward. 

Jesus tells us that the correct way to pray is to be quiet and alone where the focus can be on our heavenly Father.  When you pray in this manner you will be rewarded openly.  Here again, I take this to mean that such prayer transforms our character into a more humble person rather than into someone who has become proud and arrogant about their prayers where their focus is more on how impressive they sound to others.

He then tells us that our prayers are not heard because of their eloquence and length for if God is truly infinite he already knows our needs even before we ask.  So then one might ask, “Why then do we pray if God already knows what we need?”  The reason is not that God needs to hear our audible prayers before he answers them, but rather they are spoken so that we can be transformed by putting our needs into words.  Our words complete our ideas and thoughts and also complete the emotion behind them.  I think that we fail to understand just how important the spoken word is to our psyche.

So then when we pray incorrectly like the hypocrites we become the center of attention and importance.  But when we pray with correctly we become humbled in the presence of God as he becomes the true focus of our thoughts and needs.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Jesus gives us an example of how we ought to pray.  We address our prayers to God as our Heavenly Father.  We also proclaim the importance of his Name which is Yahweh (Jehovah).  The importance of this is to make the connection between the identity of Yahweh in the Old Testament with our Father in the New.  Many overlook this intimate connection that is extremely important in understanding the true nature of Christ.  

We must look forward to the coming of God’s kingdom rather than want to postpone it until we finish all our projects and the power of his kingdom will be just as wonderful on earth as it is in heaven.

We only need to ask for whatever is sufficient for this day.  In this way we are encouraged to live during this moment and not be so concerned for the future that we miss what’s happening right in front of us.

We ask for no more than what we are willing to do ourselves.  So when it comes to forgiveness we must be willing to forgive others because by doing that we pass God’s forgiveness on to others through the exercising of our forgiveness.

The next part of the prayer is very difficult for most people because sin is so attractive and its whole purpose is to lead us into evil.  But we are to ask God to take away temptation.  We are not to try to live on the edge of sin like many do.  We must remember that temptation is the beginning of sin.  If we could only repeat these words in this prayer with passionate sincerity we would be so much holier than we are.  Why should we want to be holy?  Because God is holy and so is his kingdom.

In verse 14 Jesus addresses forgiveness as being directly related to our forgiving of others.  This is not as though we are earning forgiveness by the act of forgiving others; it is rather our accepting the principle of forgiveness as being part of God’s character.  This fits nicely into our belief that the source of our transformation is not in anything that we do but is in God himself and that only by our love for him can we be transformed into the image of Christ.  If we do not forgive others, we are not letting our love for God work within us and by not forgiving others our faith becomes mere religious ritual. 

To better understand what Jesus is saying we first need to understand more about what forgiveness is.  According to the usage in this prayer forgiveness is not the same thing as when we forgive someone when they say they are sorry.  The forgiveness Jesus is speaking about is a response to a moral debt owed to us by another.  This is the general theme throughout this sermon: we must be prepared to show mercy to others if we expect God to show mercy to us.  By so doing we give others a chance to actually practice repentance by changing their behavior.  How do we forgive them and to what extent?  In the same manner that we want God to forgive us.  

When we consider forgiveness under these terms it eliminates the possibility that man can accomplish this by means of his own will. The source of our forgiveness than is not the human will, but the love of God.

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Giving to the Poor (Matt 6:1-4)

In these verses Jesus gives us advice on what holiness looks like when it comes to giving. But this advice can also be used when it comes to the value that we place upon money and other material things that we receive from others as well.

If we give for the purpose of having others see how generous we are or even for that good feeling we have about ourselves when we give, we are in jeopardy of losing our true reward which comes from our Father in Heaven.  When we give so others see us, or give because it gives us a warm feeling inside, these things puff us up so that we place a material value upon our generosity. This takes us away from the purity of heart that brings us closer to our heavenly Father.

If we receive the praise of the world, it overshadows that praise that comes from God.  What exactly is this praise from God?  It is the way that true giving transforms us into the image that God wants us to be.  The end result of humble giving is true holiness.  I don’t believe that our holiness is based upon God keeping track of how much we give to the poor, but rather it is in the results that proper giving has upon our character where the holiness takes place.

Those who gladly receive people’s praise for their generosity have already received their reward for it has enlarged their self-importance.  So all those wealthy pastors who receive the treasures of this world for their Christian duty have already received a worldly reward instead of a spiritual one.  Heaven may be very disappointing for such people.

So Jesus tells us that when we give to others, whether it is financial or even pastoral, we must not keep a mental record of what we do.  Just give our offering and forget it as though the left hand does not know what the right is doing. That’s when we receive the eternal reward from our Father and this reward is the transformation of our soul from being worldly to becoming more spiritual.  In this state we become more aware of God’s truth and presence in our life.  John tells us in his first letter:

1 John 2:3 (KJV)
3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

So when we obey and do things the way that Jesus taught us we become more assured and confident in his presence in our lives.

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Retribution (Matt 5:38-42)

Retaliation or retribution can come in many forms.  Jesus tells us something here that many think is absurd.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek you should turn to him the other cheek.  Now under the law we are certainly entitled to take an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth and this is what we tend to do from childhood to adulthood.  But Jesus is making a distinction here; yet, he is not contradicting the law.  Lex Telionis (law of retribution) stands as a law, but it is not necessary that man takes this action on his own accord.  If we choose not to retaliate we are choosing to show mercy instead.  Even God showed that he was a merciful God, especially when Jesus forgave those who put him to death on a cross.  Those who repented for their sins always received mercy.  So we can see here that there is a distinction between Moses’ retaliation and Jesus’ mercy.  By turning the cheek or giving the cloak in addition to the coat to the man who sues us we are showing him true charity. 

According to the law we are almost dutifully required to retaliate at least legally, but Jesus is telling us that we must go beyond the law that was imposed upon the flesh and live by the new law imposed upon the spirit.

We have to understand that this is not just an isolated commandment by Jesus, but an entire different way of living life. It is a new attitude towards others, ourselves and even God.  We have to remember that Jesus was not destroying the law that was imposed upon the flesh, but that he was fulfilling the law within himself. This new kingdom is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. Those who want to live in such a kingdom must abide by these new commands aimed at perfecting the spirit.

The lesson here is that we must always be prepared to show love to everyone including those who would take advantage of us.  We will see in the next verses that Jesus even extends this to our enemies.  We will discuss that next.

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Taking Oaths (Matt 5:33-37)

How valid is our promise that we make to others and even to God?  Jesus warns us that we might be thinking to highly of ourselves when we take oaths.  There is nothing that man has that God does not already own.  There is nothing that anyone can offer to God that he would have to forfeit if he broke his oath, except perhaps his own soul.  And this is the very thing that man refuses to offer to God.  So the point that Jesus is teaching us here about oaths is that all we have is our word and we ought to be very careful when making an oath or even a promise especially to God since we really don’t have the power to keep it.  Circumstances can change of which we have no power to control.  For this reason James rephrases Jesus words in his epistle as follows:

James 4:14-16 (KJV)
14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Therefore we should not think too highly of ourselves to think that we are independent of God and that we possess anything including the hair on our heads that can make our word any more credible or reliable.

We have no right to use anything for collateral to support the truth of our word than our word itself.  So we should make it a practice to consider answering only “yes” or “no” and adding the phrase “If the Lord wills . . .”  

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Divorce (Matt 5:31,32)

According to Matthew 19:4-6 marriage is a sacred relationship that one has between a man and a woman. Yet, Jesus teaches us that according to the Mosaic Law all a man had to do was write down on a piece of paper that he wanted a divorce and it was official.  He tells us that this was done because of their hard hearts meaning that men wanted what they wanted not what God wanted.

In 2 Co 11:2 and Ephesians 5:22-33 Paul tells us that marriage is symbolic of the relationship that man has with God.  Paul teaches us that the church is the bride of Christ. Only in the case of adultery where the member of the church falls away from God and goes after other gods such as lust and selfishness does he commit spiritual adultery against Christ and will therefore be liable to separation (divorce) from Him. 

So when we enter into marriage we need to see our marriage in the light of such advice and do all that we can to make it work. I believe that when Paul tells us in Romans 12:18 that as much as lies within us we must live peaceably with all men, we must also submit to the same devotion to do all we can to make a marriage work for a good marriage to our spouse symbolizes our good marriage to Christ.

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Adultery and Offense of the Eye (Matt 5:27-30)

Adultery is a crime of selfishness and lust.  It involves a betrayal of fidelity. According to the Old Testament adultery was punishable by death, but in his sermon Jesus gives us a deeper understanding of adultery.  Jesus contradicts the common idea that the act of adultery takes place at the moment of intercourse.  According to Jesus the sin begins with selfishness and lust within the heart of men that finally consummates in intercourse. 

It begins with the lust of the eye when it looks upon a woman with desire.  At this point the fidelity of marriage is already broken.  This is the spiritual sin that takes place prior to the physical one. Many cannot believe that Jesus really means what he says here.  The claim is that no one can go through life without lusting after another person—at least not in our society where advertising is based upon the very idea of lust.

Jesus makes it very clear that this is not some exaggeration that is supposed to somehow scare us into holiness or is aimed only at monks, priest, and saints.  In the very next verse he tells us that if our eye or hand offends us we must cut it off and throw it away for it is better to enter heaven with one eye or one hand then enter hell with two.

This is not an exaggeration.  It is an example of how serious we must take the commission of sin.   When war vets enter into war against our enemies they know that they might lose an eye, a hand, leg, or even their lives. They are given metals for bravery when such things happen and looked up to by society as heroes.  But when Jesus asks this same dedication of us towards our enemy of sin we turn away and want to believe that he is exaggerating.  Why would we be willing to offer more for our country than for our Lord and God?

So the main point to take away from this commandment is the seriousness and pervasiveness of sin in the human heart.  This is where evil begins. The only remedy for such a sin is faith as we shall see later.