First Go…

Day 6

First Go…

(Guest Post by David Campbell)

‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.  

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.’

Matthew 5:23-26

 

In our garden, it is now clearly visible that we have a stinging nettle problem. These weeds that ‘bite’ and leave a painful rash are beginning to sprawl across the surface of our garden beds. I looked into expensive weed killers, but discovered that these might also damage  the flowers that are trying to grow among the nettles. The advice we have received is that the only way to deal with them is to dig them up by the root by hand ourselves. 

The nettles will grow if they are allowed to. Only getting dirt under our fingernails will change this.

Yesterday we saw the expectation of covenant righteousness; “You shall not murder”, and the vicious cycle that cultivates a subculture of violence; anger, disrespect, treating people as less than human. Today we look at the transforming initiatives, the way of the Kingdom that brings change: The ‘dirt under fingernails’ action required to dig up this problem at its roots.

The first thing we need to remember to grasp the message of this passage is a little bit of grammar. The Cambridge online dictionary says of imperative clauses that; “We use imperative clauses when we want to tell someone to do something.” When a Jamaican mother in the inner city tells her child to go and catch water for her to cook, she is issuing an imperative. It is a command … and her children will recognise this in the tilt of her hips, the flaring of her nostrils, and the seriousness of her gaze.

If we take these four verses and put the imperatives in bold, it looks like this;

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

Jesus is not offering vague suggestions about whether we should worship God while a brother or sister has something against us, going to be reconciled first is something He commands us to do. He is not offering vague suggestions about conflict that could lead to legal action, settling matters quickly is something He commands us to do.

Jesus knows that subcultures have developed where we do not operate like this. He has talked about the vicious cycle and the immense cost that it leaves behind. He knows that it is easier to be angry with someone than it is to take initiative for reconciliation. He knows that it is easier to think of someone as not being worth it, than it is to go to them and be reconciled. He knows that it is easier to label them as a fool, than to get together with them, listen to their grievances, outline yours, and find a way to resolution.

That is why the imperatives to His followers are so clear and unambiguous; be proactive about reconciliation, about settling disagreements and disputes.

These are the initiatives that break the vicious cycle.

While there are no guarantees that every attempt at reconciliation will be successful in the short term, there are guarantees that God will bless obedience to His way. I have seen many instances where people have found the courage to pursue reconciliation, and God has met and blessed their efforts in ways that went beyond their hope and expectations. I have also seen many instances where people have had to persevere, sometimes for years, in hope of reconciliation before they have witnessed any fruit.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” When we live as His children, doing what the Father commands even when that is hard, even when it takes perseverance, and even when it is something we may not really want to do and to keep doing; the strongest guarantee is that He will not forsake us.

Glenn Stassen, the ethicist and theologian who wrote about this three part pattern in the Sermon on the Mount, said that Christians needed more than an ethic of “just say no” to war, and critiqued the damage that Christians had brought about in the world through the “just war” ethic. His conviction was that the Sermon on the Mount pointed to an “ethic of proactive peacemaking”.

Stassen himself chose against a career in nuclear physics because he did not want his work to contribute to nuclear weapons. As a theologian, he was attending a conference in Germany where there was a delegation of Russians, and they began to discuss Jesus’ commands in the context of nuclear proliferation. This led to him being engaged in the international disarmament movement, and subsequent dialogue between people in the US and in Russia that was instrumental in nuclear disarmament.

I have seen school principals in inner city Kingston who have negotiated peace between rival gangs and prevented further bloodshed. I have seen people who don’t like conflict at all step us courageously and get people together who needed to be reconciled, and I have seen God blessing their efforts.

A little with Jesus has always been a lot.

This is the direction of the Kingdom, the way of being proactive about peace in a world that invests so much in being ready for conflict. The hope of the Kingdom is that a day will come when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2:4

 

 

 

Journaling The Journey

What strikes you most about this passage? Sit with it awhile.

What does it say to you about God’s heart?

As you think about your relationships is there someone who “has something against you”?

How does obedience to Jesus’ words call you to respond?

 

Today’s Mountainside Photograph was taken by David Campbell at Trestle Mountain in the Kunanyi Mountain Range,  Southern Tasmania.

 

The Author

My Guest Author, David Campbell (my husband) lived and served in Kingston Jamaica’s Inner-city communities for close to 30 years. The charity he established there is Fusion Jamaica.