Post by Tom Green on Feb 25, 2007 4:21:35 GMT -5
Lesson plan: Sermon on the Mount, Part One
1. Outline of the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew is a writer who likes sermons. There are five long sermons in the book of Matthew, with the sermon on the mount being only the most famous. In this respect Matthew differs most sharply (at least in structure) from Luke: both Matthew and Luke were drawing on essentially the same two books: one that talked mostly about Jesus's deeds, and one that talked mostly about His sayings. In response to this material, Matthew tended strongly to put the sayings material into large chunks. He seems to be aiming for a style that would hold the attention and produce a unified effect from a number of teachings. Luke, on the other hand, tried to put Jesus's teachings next to deeds which would help explain them; he probably believed that these teachings and deeds originally happened together (remember Luke's preface, Luke 1:1-4).
Although Matthew puts similar material together in these sermons, he is not too particular about the structure of them. The sermon on the mount, however, has a more intelligible structure than most. Basically, it is:
5:1-2: Setting on the mount.
5:3-16: Blessings and definitions of the righteous.
5:3-12: Blessings (beatitudes). (Note that vv. 3-10 are neatly ordered couplets, while vv. 11-12 are a more prosaic capstone.)
5:13-16: Jesus's followers are like salt or light.
5:17-48: Expansion of the Law. (Note that all the law dealt with here is mispatim, the "ordinances of justice" (KJV "judgments," e.g., in Deut. 6:1; 12:1). Specifically, these are mispatim relating to the 6th, 7th, and 9th commandments (all dealt with in order), followed by words on enforcement and then a capstone on love. Did Jesus deal with the two other parts of the ten commandments, the misvot and huqim (embracing commandments 1-5) at an earlier time?
5:17-20: Preface: The whole law must be obeyed: plus more!
5:21-26: Expansion of the 6th commandment, "thou shalt not kill": do not even be angry.
5:27-32: Two expansions of the 7th commandment, "thou shalt not commit adultery": do not even lust (vv. 27-30); do not divorce (vv. 31-32).
5:33-37: Expansion of the 9th commandment, "thou shalt not bear false witness": don't take any oaths at all; your word should be your bond at all times.
5:38-42: Expansion of punishment by retaliation: don't exact any punishment; instead, don't resist evil things done to you.
5:43-48: Expansion of "love your neighbor": love everyone; your obedience must be excessive to be perfect.
6:1-18: Warning against an empty religion of show.
6:1: Preface.
6:2-4: Do charity in secret.
6:5-15: On prayer:
6:5-6: Pray in secret
6:7-15: Don't make long showy prayers. (Includes vv.14-15, an excursus on forgiveness, a subject which comes up in Jesus's demonstrative prayer.)
6:16-18: Don't make a show of fasting.
6:19-34: Gather riches in heaven, not on earth (this section is composed of many small individual parts).
7:1-27 Personal obedience is required for God to accept us at the last day. (At this point, the sermon becomes far less well organized, though the final parable, of the wise and foolish men [vv.24-27] is strong.)
7:28-29: Conclusion.
Today we deal with the first two major divisions of this sermon, in which Jesus defines the righteous and expands the law. One of the unfortunate side-effects of the way Matthew puts these sermons together is that many of the parts of them can resist interpretation, due to lack of context. Therefore, I'll frequently be referring to the times when Luke or (sometimes) Mark refer to the same sayings, and see the context they give to them; perhaps that way our understanding of these important teachings can be increased.
2. The beatitudes.
The first think to notice about the beatitudes of Jesus is what they are. Beatitudes are short exclamatory sayings beginning with the words "blessed [Greek makarioi] are they (or ye) who...." They were very common in Greek tradition. One of my favorites is from Euripides' Bacchae:
O
Blessed he who in happiness
knowing the rituals of the gods
makes holy his way of life and
mingles his spirit with the sacred band....
--translation by G. S. Kirk, lines 72-75
Jesus's beatitudes are clearly within this tradition; they differ only in that they give the respect in which each type of person will be blessed (e.g., "for they shall inherit the earth"; "for they shall be filled"). Let's look at the two beatitudes that open and close the series of couplets that Jesus pronounces:
Read Matt. 5:3, 10.
Notice that these two both have the same blessing: "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." In fact, this blessing exactly fits Jesus in the tradition of Greek beatitudes. Other, pagan, gods that had beatitudes used them to express the potential of the god to save in the eternities. The "blessed" were the initiates in the worship of that god; to these initiates the god promised eternal life in the world to come--essentially what makarioi meant. Now, think of how Matthew's readers would have understood this: it tells them that Jesus has power to save in the world to come. He supplants deities in Greek tradition who had promised the same thing.
Let's try now to gain a general impression of the beatitudes. As we read, try to formulate a composite idea of the sort of person who is "blessed" as Jesus describes him or her.
Read Matt. 5:3-10.
What sort of person is the "blessed" person? (A consistent picture is hard to achieve; there seem to be two different types: the blessed person is righteous and spiritual [vv.6-10] and humble or disadvantaged [vv.3-5].)
Now let's look at Luke's version. Luke has only three of these beatitudes, the ones that we see in Matt. 5:3, 6, 4, and 11-12 (in that order).
Read Luke 6:20-23.
Who does Luke say will be blessed? (Luke's picture is much more consistent: those who will be blessed are those who are currently downtrodden. [Especially note the difference between Luke's "blessed be ye poor" (Luke 6:20) and Matthew's "blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3).] Luke says virtually nothing about spiritual purity, though he does close with the same verses as the Matthew account, about dedication in the face of persecution.)
Luke has an antithesis to this passage as well, which is worth reading:
Read Luke 6:24-26.
This passage should give a moment of pause to all of us who are self-satisfied, and especially to those of us who receive the praise of the world. According to Luke, Jesus is not very impressed by the praise of the world.
This comparison brings out one of the essential differences between the ways in which Matthew and Luke understood Jesus. Matthew tended to look at what Jesus taught in terms of righteousness and the law--a view from the Torah, if you will. Luke, on the other hand, looks at Jesus's teachings from a social point of view, asking the question, "how should people help the poor and downtrodden?" This is very similar to the view of the prophets. Neither can be ignored; rather, they are different points of view, both of which we should recognize in our reading--and, of course, in our lives.
3. Salt and light.
Let's move on to the next verses.
Read Matt. 5:13.
Jesus has made his point: His followers are like salt, and they are not to lose their savor. But, if we have to avoid "losing our savor", what is it exactly that we're on guard against? What does the salt "losing its savor" represent? Matthew, as, unfortunately, too often, does not have enough context to answer. Mark and Luke, however, do give some context in their accounts of this statement. Let's look at Mark first.
Read Mark 9:50.
What connection does Jesus make in Mark? (It seems that salt losing its savor is like his disciples fighting among themselves. I can't quite see how these are connected, but that seems to be what He's saying.)
Luke takes a totally different point of view. In Luke 14, Jesus tells a short parable, saying that, if you expect to endure to the end, you must give up everything else in pursuit of discipleship. Then He brings up the "salt" metaphor.
Read Luke 14:33-35.
We're so used to the idea that "salt = the righteous" that it's easy to miss the fact that that's not how Luke sees it at all. Here, salt represents, not people, but things--specifically, the material things that are weighing us down. These things, like salt, are good, but if they have become only a burden in pursuit of a greater good, they are like salt that has lost its savor--so worthless you can't even use it for compost.
So, we have two very different answers to the salt metaphor: Mark says it is a warning against contention, and Luke says it is an admonition to forsake material things. Both good lessons.
Let's move on now to the saying on "light."
Read Matt. 5:14-16.
Here Matthew gives us significantly more context. What does Jesus want us to do? (He wants us to share the light that is ours--the gospel, presumably.)
I find it interesting that Luke, in his version of this story, brings up the point that "the light of the body is the eye" (Luke 11:34--Luke then goes on to make an important point, but one which, unfortunately, would lead us on to a different topic). This is, in fact, true: the word for light here, phôs, was not infrequently used anciently as a metaphor for the eye. If we know that, the passage in Matthew reads interestingly--to "let our light shine" means to let our eyes shine--and, if all is well, the brightness of God's love can be seen in them. How many times have you heard people say that they could tell a person's faith just by looking in their eyes? What do people see when they look in our eyes?
4. Discourse on the law: preface.
The rest of the chapter (Matt. 5:17-48) is taken up by a discourse on the law. We don't have time to look at all of this, but I want us to gauge its intention and look at some selected parts, to see the direction Jesus is going with the law. I'd like us to read Jesus's preface to this part of the sermon. Most people read Matt. 5:17, but I think we have to read the whole thing to get the context.
Read Matt. 5:17-20.
How would you characterize what Jesus is doing with the law?
We are often colored by later church history when we think of this passage, so we have to be careful not to read what's not there. Jesus doesn't say here that he has "fulfilled"--as in "superseded"--the law. He says that the law is completely in force (note especially v. 19). Out of all the gospel writers, Matthew is marked by having a soft spot for the law. He appears to be of the opinion that the law was not going to be superseded--not too unlikely a position, given that Paul and Peter went round and round on this very issue (see Gal. 2:11-17--Luke soft-pedals this conflict in Acts 15, but still admits that there were a number of people in favor of retaining the law).
I could talk a lot more about this, but what's important is that we remember that there's no reason we can't disagree with Matthew about this--he may very well have misunderstood Jesus's precise intent. However, on the main point of Jesus's lecture on the law, I think we would agree that Matthew is right: the main point is that the law must be expanded. In fact, Jesus's followers should be so righteous that they must "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees"--people known for their scrupulous obedience to the law.
5. Discourse on the law: swearing.
Jesus then goes on to give a number of examples of how He will expand the law. While the sixth commandment says not to kill, He says not even to be angry. The seventh commandment commands not to commit adultery, but He says that one must not even lust, or divorce.
Let's look in a little more detail at Jesus's teaching on swearing, and we'll get the idea.
Read Matt. 5:33-37.
Jesus quotes an application of the law not to bear false witness, that, when one makes an oath, one must keep it. Now, just to emphasize, we're not talking about what's commonly called "swearing" today--the habit of saying profane or obscene words. We're talking about the taking of oaths and the making of vows. Now, this is important, because we still do this, every time we covenant with the Lord, or, for that matter, testify in court or register to vote. But the key to Jesus's saying here doesn't seem to be in the "not swearing" part. It seems that the key is in verse 37, where Jesus says what we should say. Unfortunately, this part of the sermon is pretty confusing. It seems to me, in fact, that Matthew has not understood it properly. However, there is one place in the New Testament that appears to be a repetition of this same saying, with the added bonus of making sense. It comes from the pen of James, who is always happy to advocate plain talking:
Read James 5:12.
The way James tells this saying, what it means is not so much that oaths are forbidden, but rather that, for the person who is perfectly obeying Jesus's expansion of the law, they are unnecessary: even without an oath, a true disciple will fulfill his "yes" or "no" to which he has promised ("yes means yes, and no means no").
6. Discourse on the law: love your enemies.
Let's now look at the last of Jesus's expansions of the law, which deals with the famous law "love your neighbor."
Read Matt. 5:43.
The first thing to notice here is that only the first half of what Jesus says, "love thy neighbour," is actually from scripture. The other half, "hate thine enemy" is just something that people naturally seem to do--it was never part of the law. Therefore, when Jesus proclaims that this part is utterly wrong, He is not speaking against the law, but rather expanding the law into an area it had not occupied before. Let's look at what He proclaims:
Read Matt. 5:44.
Now, here's a question: if we love our friends and love our enemies, is it worthwhile to spend much time deciding which is which? (Of course not.)
For this reason, when Luke recorded this saying of Jesus's, he next moved right into the saying "judge not" (see Luke 6:27-38)--we'll have to wait another chapter for it in the sermon on the mount. "Judging" means different things for Matthew and Luke--we'll talk a little more about that next week. But still, it's clear from these verses that it's pointless to judge others; we only need to love everyone anyway.
I find very interesting the reason that Jesus gives for loving unconditionally:
Read Matt. 5:45.
So why should we not judge? (According to this verse, because God does not judge.)
We know that God loves us unconditionally, but it's very strange to see it expressed in those terms: that He does good to both the good and the bad; that he doesn't reward people according to their deeds. Presumably, this state of affairs with God does not last forever, but Jesus says no more about it--a strange fact that would probably gain His hearers' attention as much as it should ours.
Let's look at the last few verses of this episode:
Read Matt. 5:46-47.
The really interesting thing here, I think, is in verse 47. If you look carefully, you can see that the words "than others" are in italics in that verse, so you know the translators added them. A better translation of the verse is "And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing extra?" This question summarizes well Jesus's attitude toward the law: it is not enough. You have not distinguished yourselves in God's eyes--you have not become, shall we say, a "peculiar people"--unless you have done something "extra," gone that "extra mile." It is not simply obedience to the law that God demands; even once you've obeyed the requirements, you must move on: move on to what? The ultimate answer is verse 48:
Read Matt. 5:48.
This is the core of Jesus's attitude toward the law: just the law is not enough. Today, we live a different law, but I think the same lesson applies. Even if we do everything that's laid out for us, I think Jesus would still be there asking, "What are you doing extra? Have you yet become perfect?" The only answer can be to participate in real eternal progression: a constant state of repentance and rededication, in which we purify our hearts more every day.
1. Outline of the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew is a writer who likes sermons. There are five long sermons in the book of Matthew, with the sermon on the mount being only the most famous. In this respect Matthew differs most sharply (at least in structure) from Luke: both Matthew and Luke were drawing on essentially the same two books: one that talked mostly about Jesus's deeds, and one that talked mostly about His sayings. In response to this material, Matthew tended strongly to put the sayings material into large chunks. He seems to be aiming for a style that would hold the attention and produce a unified effect from a number of teachings. Luke, on the other hand, tried to put Jesus's teachings next to deeds which would help explain them; he probably believed that these teachings and deeds originally happened together (remember Luke's preface, Luke 1:1-4).
Although Matthew puts similar material together in these sermons, he is not too particular about the structure of them. The sermon on the mount, however, has a more intelligible structure than most. Basically, it is:
5:1-2: Setting on the mount.
5:3-16: Blessings and definitions of the righteous.
5:3-12: Blessings (beatitudes). (Note that vv. 3-10 are neatly ordered couplets, while vv. 11-12 are a more prosaic capstone.)
5:13-16: Jesus's followers are like salt or light.
5:17-48: Expansion of the Law. (Note that all the law dealt with here is mispatim, the "ordinances of justice" (KJV "judgments," e.g., in Deut. 6:1; 12:1). Specifically, these are mispatim relating to the 6th, 7th, and 9th commandments (all dealt with in order), followed by words on enforcement and then a capstone on love. Did Jesus deal with the two other parts of the ten commandments, the misvot and huqim (embracing commandments 1-5) at an earlier time?
5:17-20: Preface: The whole law must be obeyed: plus more!
5:21-26: Expansion of the 6th commandment, "thou shalt not kill": do not even be angry.
5:27-32: Two expansions of the 7th commandment, "thou shalt not commit adultery": do not even lust (vv. 27-30); do not divorce (vv. 31-32).
5:33-37: Expansion of the 9th commandment, "thou shalt not bear false witness": don't take any oaths at all; your word should be your bond at all times.
5:38-42: Expansion of punishment by retaliation: don't exact any punishment; instead, don't resist evil things done to you.
5:43-48: Expansion of "love your neighbor": love everyone; your obedience must be excessive to be perfect.
6:1-18: Warning against an empty religion of show.
6:1: Preface.
6:2-4: Do charity in secret.
6:5-15: On prayer:
6:5-6: Pray in secret
6:7-15: Don't make long showy prayers. (Includes vv.14-15, an excursus on forgiveness, a subject which comes up in Jesus's demonstrative prayer.)
6:16-18: Don't make a show of fasting.
6:19-34: Gather riches in heaven, not on earth (this section is composed of many small individual parts).
7:1-27 Personal obedience is required for God to accept us at the last day. (At this point, the sermon becomes far less well organized, though the final parable, of the wise and foolish men [vv.24-27] is strong.)
7:28-29: Conclusion.
Today we deal with the first two major divisions of this sermon, in which Jesus defines the righteous and expands the law. One of the unfortunate side-effects of the way Matthew puts these sermons together is that many of the parts of them can resist interpretation, due to lack of context. Therefore, I'll frequently be referring to the times when Luke or (sometimes) Mark refer to the same sayings, and see the context they give to them; perhaps that way our understanding of these important teachings can be increased.
2. The beatitudes.
The first think to notice about the beatitudes of Jesus is what they are. Beatitudes are short exclamatory sayings beginning with the words "blessed [Greek makarioi] are they (or ye) who...." They were very common in Greek tradition. One of my favorites is from Euripides' Bacchae:
O
Blessed he who in happiness
knowing the rituals of the gods
makes holy his way of life and
mingles his spirit with the sacred band....
--translation by G. S. Kirk, lines 72-75
Jesus's beatitudes are clearly within this tradition; they differ only in that they give the respect in which each type of person will be blessed (e.g., "for they shall inherit the earth"; "for they shall be filled"). Let's look at the two beatitudes that open and close the series of couplets that Jesus pronounces:
Read Matt. 5:3, 10.
Notice that these two both have the same blessing: "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." In fact, this blessing exactly fits Jesus in the tradition of Greek beatitudes. Other, pagan, gods that had beatitudes used them to express the potential of the god to save in the eternities. The "blessed" were the initiates in the worship of that god; to these initiates the god promised eternal life in the world to come--essentially what makarioi meant. Now, think of how Matthew's readers would have understood this: it tells them that Jesus has power to save in the world to come. He supplants deities in Greek tradition who had promised the same thing.
Let's try now to gain a general impression of the beatitudes. As we read, try to formulate a composite idea of the sort of person who is "blessed" as Jesus describes him or her.
Read Matt. 5:3-10.
What sort of person is the "blessed" person? (A consistent picture is hard to achieve; there seem to be two different types: the blessed person is righteous and spiritual [vv.6-10] and humble or disadvantaged [vv.3-5].)
Now let's look at Luke's version. Luke has only three of these beatitudes, the ones that we see in Matt. 5:3, 6, 4, and 11-12 (in that order).
Read Luke 6:20-23.
Who does Luke say will be blessed? (Luke's picture is much more consistent: those who will be blessed are those who are currently downtrodden. [Especially note the difference between Luke's "blessed be ye poor" (Luke 6:20) and Matthew's "blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3).] Luke says virtually nothing about spiritual purity, though he does close with the same verses as the Matthew account, about dedication in the face of persecution.)
Luke has an antithesis to this passage as well, which is worth reading:
Read Luke 6:24-26.
This passage should give a moment of pause to all of us who are self-satisfied, and especially to those of us who receive the praise of the world. According to Luke, Jesus is not very impressed by the praise of the world.
This comparison brings out one of the essential differences between the ways in which Matthew and Luke understood Jesus. Matthew tended to look at what Jesus taught in terms of righteousness and the law--a view from the Torah, if you will. Luke, on the other hand, looks at Jesus's teachings from a social point of view, asking the question, "how should people help the poor and downtrodden?" This is very similar to the view of the prophets. Neither can be ignored; rather, they are different points of view, both of which we should recognize in our reading--and, of course, in our lives.
3. Salt and light.
Let's move on to the next verses.
Read Matt. 5:13.
Jesus has made his point: His followers are like salt, and they are not to lose their savor. But, if we have to avoid "losing our savor", what is it exactly that we're on guard against? What does the salt "losing its savor" represent? Matthew, as, unfortunately, too often, does not have enough context to answer. Mark and Luke, however, do give some context in their accounts of this statement. Let's look at Mark first.
Read Mark 9:50.
What connection does Jesus make in Mark? (It seems that salt losing its savor is like his disciples fighting among themselves. I can't quite see how these are connected, but that seems to be what He's saying.)
Luke takes a totally different point of view. In Luke 14, Jesus tells a short parable, saying that, if you expect to endure to the end, you must give up everything else in pursuit of discipleship. Then He brings up the "salt" metaphor.
Read Luke 14:33-35.
We're so used to the idea that "salt = the righteous" that it's easy to miss the fact that that's not how Luke sees it at all. Here, salt represents, not people, but things--specifically, the material things that are weighing us down. These things, like salt, are good, but if they have become only a burden in pursuit of a greater good, they are like salt that has lost its savor--so worthless you can't even use it for compost.
So, we have two very different answers to the salt metaphor: Mark says it is a warning against contention, and Luke says it is an admonition to forsake material things. Both good lessons.
Let's move on now to the saying on "light."
Read Matt. 5:14-16.
Here Matthew gives us significantly more context. What does Jesus want us to do? (He wants us to share the light that is ours--the gospel, presumably.)
I find it interesting that Luke, in his version of this story, brings up the point that "the light of the body is the eye" (Luke 11:34--Luke then goes on to make an important point, but one which, unfortunately, would lead us on to a different topic). This is, in fact, true: the word for light here, phôs, was not infrequently used anciently as a metaphor for the eye. If we know that, the passage in Matthew reads interestingly--to "let our light shine" means to let our eyes shine--and, if all is well, the brightness of God's love can be seen in them. How many times have you heard people say that they could tell a person's faith just by looking in their eyes? What do people see when they look in our eyes?
4. Discourse on the law: preface.
The rest of the chapter (Matt. 5:17-48) is taken up by a discourse on the law. We don't have time to look at all of this, but I want us to gauge its intention and look at some selected parts, to see the direction Jesus is going with the law. I'd like us to read Jesus's preface to this part of the sermon. Most people read Matt. 5:17, but I think we have to read the whole thing to get the context.
Read Matt. 5:17-20.
How would you characterize what Jesus is doing with the law?
We are often colored by later church history when we think of this passage, so we have to be careful not to read what's not there. Jesus doesn't say here that he has "fulfilled"--as in "superseded"--the law. He says that the law is completely in force (note especially v. 19). Out of all the gospel writers, Matthew is marked by having a soft spot for the law. He appears to be of the opinion that the law was not going to be superseded--not too unlikely a position, given that Paul and Peter went round and round on this very issue (see Gal. 2:11-17--Luke soft-pedals this conflict in Acts 15, but still admits that there were a number of people in favor of retaining the law).
I could talk a lot more about this, but what's important is that we remember that there's no reason we can't disagree with Matthew about this--he may very well have misunderstood Jesus's precise intent. However, on the main point of Jesus's lecture on the law, I think we would agree that Matthew is right: the main point is that the law must be expanded. In fact, Jesus's followers should be so righteous that they must "exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees"--people known for their scrupulous obedience to the law.
5. Discourse on the law: swearing.
Jesus then goes on to give a number of examples of how He will expand the law. While the sixth commandment says not to kill, He says not even to be angry. The seventh commandment commands not to commit adultery, but He says that one must not even lust, or divorce.
Let's look in a little more detail at Jesus's teaching on swearing, and we'll get the idea.
Read Matt. 5:33-37.
Jesus quotes an application of the law not to bear false witness, that, when one makes an oath, one must keep it. Now, just to emphasize, we're not talking about what's commonly called "swearing" today--the habit of saying profane or obscene words. We're talking about the taking of oaths and the making of vows. Now, this is important, because we still do this, every time we covenant with the Lord, or, for that matter, testify in court or register to vote. But the key to Jesus's saying here doesn't seem to be in the "not swearing" part. It seems that the key is in verse 37, where Jesus says what we should say. Unfortunately, this part of the sermon is pretty confusing. It seems to me, in fact, that Matthew has not understood it properly. However, there is one place in the New Testament that appears to be a repetition of this same saying, with the added bonus of making sense. It comes from the pen of James, who is always happy to advocate plain talking:
Read James 5:12.
The way James tells this saying, what it means is not so much that oaths are forbidden, but rather that, for the person who is perfectly obeying Jesus's expansion of the law, they are unnecessary: even without an oath, a true disciple will fulfill his "yes" or "no" to which he has promised ("yes means yes, and no means no").
6. Discourse on the law: love your enemies.
Let's now look at the last of Jesus's expansions of the law, which deals with the famous law "love your neighbor."
Read Matt. 5:43.
The first thing to notice here is that only the first half of what Jesus says, "love thy neighbour," is actually from scripture. The other half, "hate thine enemy" is just something that people naturally seem to do--it was never part of the law. Therefore, when Jesus proclaims that this part is utterly wrong, He is not speaking against the law, but rather expanding the law into an area it had not occupied before. Let's look at what He proclaims:
Read Matt. 5:44.
Now, here's a question: if we love our friends and love our enemies, is it worthwhile to spend much time deciding which is which? (Of course not.)
For this reason, when Luke recorded this saying of Jesus's, he next moved right into the saying "judge not" (see Luke 6:27-38)--we'll have to wait another chapter for it in the sermon on the mount. "Judging" means different things for Matthew and Luke--we'll talk a little more about that next week. But still, it's clear from these verses that it's pointless to judge others; we only need to love everyone anyway.
I find very interesting the reason that Jesus gives for loving unconditionally:
Read Matt. 5:45.
So why should we not judge? (According to this verse, because God does not judge.)
We know that God loves us unconditionally, but it's very strange to see it expressed in those terms: that He does good to both the good and the bad; that he doesn't reward people according to their deeds. Presumably, this state of affairs with God does not last forever, but Jesus says no more about it--a strange fact that would probably gain His hearers' attention as much as it should ours.
Let's look at the last few verses of this episode:
Read Matt. 5:46-47.
The really interesting thing here, I think, is in verse 47. If you look carefully, you can see that the words "than others" are in italics in that verse, so you know the translators added them. A better translation of the verse is "And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing extra?" This question summarizes well Jesus's attitude toward the law: it is not enough. You have not distinguished yourselves in God's eyes--you have not become, shall we say, a "peculiar people"--unless you have done something "extra," gone that "extra mile." It is not simply obedience to the law that God demands; even once you've obeyed the requirements, you must move on: move on to what? The ultimate answer is verse 48:
Read Matt. 5:48.
This is the core of Jesus's attitude toward the law: just the law is not enough. Today, we live a different law, but I think the same lesson applies. Even if we do everything that's laid out for us, I think Jesus would still be there asking, "What are you doing extra? Have you yet become perfect?" The only answer can be to participate in real eternal progression: a constant state of repentance and rededication, in which we purify our hearts more every day.