Message: January 15, 2012: Matthew 5:1, 2, 27-30 – Jesus on Lust
5:1 Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Jesus had a knack for saying things that make us feel exceedingly uncomfortable. If you think that Jesus was all about sweetness and light and warm feelings, all you have to do is read the Gospels and you will discover how quickly he can make you squirm. This passage today, and Jesus’ follow-up comment on divorce which we will look at next time, are good examples of that.
In last Sunday’s verses on anger Jesus taught us that God judges the orientation of the heart as well as the behavior that flows from it. If we wish to justify ourselves before God and make ourselves acceptable to Him, it is not enough to make our behavior conform to the letter of the Law, we must also purify our heart which is the source of our behavior. Of course, that is impossible to do. If you have ever tried you know just how hard it is to change deep-rooted habits of behavior. How more difficult it is to change our inner character?
If Jesus is telling us the truth and God actually expects us to deal with the orientation of our heart which the source of our behavior, then we may as well give up right now. Even the best of us might as well throw up our hands and say: “I have a hard enough time managing dealing with my bad habits. If God holds me accountable for the thoughts and fantasies of my heart just as much as He judges my behavior, then I am toast. There is simply no way that I can ever please Him.”
In today’s passage Jesus reinforces his teaching that the heart much be made pure: “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” To reinforce how important this is, Jesus twice solemnly declares, in so many words: “unless you deal with the sinful orientation of the heart you run the risk of eternal judgment.”
Do you see what I mean when I say that Jesus can make us squirm? If his words make you feel uncomfortable, then welcome to the club. Jesus intends to make us feel uncomfortable. He does not intend to lay upon us a heavy burden of guilt which we can never escape. Far from it. Instead, he wants us to see that we can do nothing whatsoever to make ourselves acceptable to a God Who is infinitely holy and righteous. This understanding is the very first step toward salvation, and it is something that all religious people need to remember.
Even in our Protestant churches we are wired to believe that we are saved by doing stuff, such as going to church. The Jews who were listening to Jesus believed that. They thought that as long as they obeyed the letter of the Law and followed the traditions of the elders they were okay with God. But is that true? Jesus uses the 7th Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), to show them just how wrong they were.
I believe that Jesus chose to discuss this commandment because the most striking way in which the Law of Moses set apart the people of Israel from the pagan cultures that surrounded them – and also from neo-pagan cultures such as our own – was God’s command regarding sexual behavior. Nothing reveals the corruption of the human heart and our helpless inability to do anything about it more clearly than the temptations to sexual sin which every healthy man or woman will sooner or later experience.
According to the Law, God ordained that men and women are to satisfy their need for sexual intimacy and pleasure within the context of one man and one woman who commit together to a binding, lifelong, covenant relationship called marriage, which is publicly sealed before God and their community in a ceremony of some sort. This is God’s way for us men and women to fully enjoy sexual and emotional and even to a certain extent spiritual intimacy with another person.
The Law is very clear that God authorizes no other form of sexual acting out. Casual intimacy such as one night stands or hooking up, or shacking up without benefit of marriage because we are in love or engaged or we plan to get married some day, or intimacy in exchange for money, intimacy with members of one’s family, intimacy with animals, intimacy with members of the same sex, were all decreed out of bounds by God in unmistakable language.
I know that this sounds impossibly strict and old-fashioned to us. Like the ancient pagans outside of Israel, we assume that our bodies belong to us, and that we have the right to do whatever we want with them. If the average modern American or European suddenly found himself plunked down in ancient Judea or Galilee, he would probably feel oppressed and bitterly resentful of the restrictions that God’s Law imposed on his freedom to do whatever he chooses with whomever he chooses to do it.
The people of Israel were very different. The Jews in Palestine in Jesus’ day all agreed that the Law of God was good, and their culture reflected that. When Jesus said: “You shall not commit adultery”, the Pharisees and scribes and the crowds who were listening all agreed with him that adultery is wrong, and they were confident that God approved of them because most of them obeyed the letter of that Commandment in the most superficial, legalistic sense: “I have never committed adultery. Since I have kept this commandment I am a righteous person in God’s eyes. I can stand before God now, and when I die I can expect the gates of His kingdom to open wide to let me in.”
Since most of them had never actually committed the act of adultery, they also felt that they were qualified to condemn without compassion or mercy those who did. Remember the story in John 8 about the shabby way that the scribes and Pharisees treated the adulterous woman who was caught in the act. Worse than that, in their self-righteousness they even condemned Jesus because he accepted the hospitality of sexually immoral people such as prostitutes.
The Pharisees and people like them had forgotten that obedience to the letter of the Law can never bring anyone into fellowship with God if the heart is far from Him. That is why Jesus said (v. 28): “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” God sees through the masks that we wear into the depths of the secret places of our hearts and our character where our behavior takes root. In God’s eyes the orientation of the heart is as serious as the behavior which flows from the heart.
To reinforce just how important this is, Jesus goes on, and in extravagant language shows the utter seriousness with which God looks upon the illicit desires of the heart (vv. 29, 30): “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Jesus uses this language to shock people out of their comfort zone and teach them that it is better to endure the temporary inconvenience and discomfort of self-discipline and self-denial in exchange for fellowship with God now and eternal joy in the life of the world to come, rather than to indulge our pleasure now and lose it all at The Judgment which is also to come.
In this sermon, Jesus raises the level of purity required by God far higher than the Law of Moses ever did. When they heard this, the Pharisees and others and even Jesus’ disciples probably thought to themselves: “If I am accountable to God for my thoughts, then I am a goner for sure.” Some of you may be thinking along those lines yourselves. If you are, if you are troubled by the kind of sexual desires and fantasies of the heart that Jesus speaks of in this passage, what are you supposed to do about it?
As I said last time regarding anger: remember that Jesus is not laying down a law. He is not demanding that you first try harder to purge all sexual thoughts from your heart before you can be accepted by God. Jesus is preaching this sermon so that we who are his disciples will understand that we are saved by God through His gracious choice alone. That’s what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)
Second, negatively do everything that you can to avoid occasions that stir up sexual temptation. Our culture is so saturated with sexual imagery and opportunities that this is very hard, but if you are tempted this way you need to remember that you do have more control than you think. Stay away from provocative web sites and movies and other visual stimulants. Avoid bars or parties where you are likely to be tempted. Avoid the kind of company that puts you in those situations. None of this is easy, but that’s what Jesus meant when said that it better to experience difficulty and inconvenience for a time now in exchange for the assurance of a clear conscience and joy in the life to come.
Third, positively cultivate a healthy character and healthy relationships. Read and meditate on the Word of God. Pray and ask the Lord to give you whatever you lack so that this area of your life will be pleasing to Him.
If you are young and single, consciously choose friends who share your beliefs and values. Cultivate a few close friends who can help you with accountability. If you are married make sure that you are actively working to keep your marriage healthy and strong. How often do you tell your spouse: “I love you? I’m proud of you? You look good to me? I’m glad I married you?” These things are the cement that bind a marriage together for a lifetime.
Finally, when you fail remember that if your faith in Jesus is authentic then you are 100% saved, 100% accepted by God, and 100% adopted into the household of faith where you can now address God as Jesus did, as: “Abba” which means “Dear Father.” Nothing can change that, not even your failures. When you fail in your struggle to be more Christ-like, you need not despair or grow discouraged or think that God has rejected you. God remains your dear Father Who delights in forgiving you and helping you, if only you will humble yourself before Him and ask for His forgiveness and help.
