On Settling Differences

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.  So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gifts there before the altar and go.  First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.  Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”  –Matthew 5:21-26 (ESV).

If only society could follow the advice Jesus gave in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, we could settle differences outside court.  Moreover, we could live at peace one with the other.  We would be putting into practice the eighth Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Mt. 5:9).  But too many in society try to settle differences following their own methods.  Evidently they give little thought or credence to Jesus’ way of settling differences.  The news is filled now with the terrible tragedy in Colorado at midnight on July 20 when a man entered a movie theater and began shooting people at random, killing a dozen and wounding many more.  The widespread suffering of that event to the families of victims and even an entire state and nation is unfathomable.  Much analysis is being spent on why this tragedy occurred.  Somewhere along the line things went terribly wrong in the life of a young man who went on a killing rampage.  I wonder if he had ever been instructed in the tenets Jesus set forth in Matthew 5:21-26? 

Murder was a prohibition of the sixth commandment given to Moses.  Penalty for premeditated murder was the murderer’s life.  Jesus’ hearers would have known well this commandment.  The commandment is grounded in the fact that humans are created in the image of God and life is sacred.  But Jesus took the commandment to the cause—anger in the heart that would cause hatred to the extent of wishing the opponent dead.  Anger carries the unhealthy desire to do harm to others.  And calling someone a fool is closely related to anger.  Both practices could lead to murdering someone.  Jesus warns that anyone who has such animosity and hard feelings toward others is in danger of hell fire.  We are treading on dangerous emotional territory when we harbor any thoughts of anger and murder in our hearts. 

Jesus warns that we should not even make an offering as we worship if we hold hard feelings toward others.  Leave the gift at the altar, and go quickly and make amends with the brother (this could mean a relative or a fellow believer, also called a ‘brother’).  When relationships are right in the life of the worshiper, then the Lord accepts our gifts.  And if we are accused of any infringement of the law and are brought to court, we need to make settlement “in the way” before the differences are brought to trial.  Disastrous effects result from non-reconciliation.  The quarrel could grow and the accuser be put into prison.  In I Corinthians 6:1:  “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?”  Anytime Christians cannot settle grievances peaceably and feel they must take them to court, they are grieving the Holy Spirit whose direction they have not followed..Let us take note.