Matthew 5:
February 6, 2011
One of the songs we often sing in Sunday school is, “This Little Light of Mine.” You surely know it. It is a classic kids Sunday school song. It’s SO simple, repetitive in tune and lyrics, so it’s perfect for kids. But, I have a confession: I like it too. Even though it’s simple and repetitive, I think the tune is catchy. But most of all I’m a big fan of the lyrics. I want us to encourage our children to let their lights shine in this world. I want them to not let the world blow it out, or to hide it under a bushel. When I hear them singing this song, I imagine them as strong people in the world, willing to live lives that challenge the status quo, living their values out loud with the courage to sometimes stand alone in that. I want them to be people who are a light of hope for others – especially those who need it most. I really want their light to shine.
I don’t know what was in Harry Dixon Loe’s mind when he wrote the lyrics, but I think part of the intent of the song is for the kids to think, “even though my light is small – because I’m a small person – I can already let it shine.” “Little” light, means – I’m pretty sure – the light of little people. Even if this wasn’t Loes’ intent, that’s how we hear it now. But with that diminutive word, “little”, and the fact that it’s so ingrained in our heads that it’s a children’s song, I worry that we believe this is only advice for children. In this passage, Jesus tells the disciples they are the light of the world. This is a very adult message. Letting our lights shine is as serious as it gets…it’s all about discipleship.
And according to our reading this morning, letting your light shine means you follow the law – every part of the law down to the jots and tittles. Right? That’s what it says – that’s what Jesus says. Keep the commandments – all of them. He says it right after telling the disciples to let their light shine. In fact, he says, following every commandment – all of the Torah – makes you righteous.
Righteousness is kind of a scary word: sometimes it carries with it negative connotations of someone thinking they are “holier than thou”, thinking they are right and others are wrong. It conjures up images of someone condemning others for not being moral, not living up to a standard. We might think being righteous is the same as being devout in an overly religious way. Many of us also might feel that we fall short of being righteous – it is a standard we don’t, maybe can’t, meet. Think about it: when we describe the things we value about one another in this church, the words we use are compassionate, kind, generous, servant. We don’t really call each other, or see one another as, righteous.
Yet Jesus calls us to be righteous. When that word is used in the bible, what does it mean? Does it mean holier than thou, devout, moralistic, legalist? Well, it depends on who’s saying it.
When the Pharisees said people should be righteous, they meant you were to follow all the rules – all the 613 commandments in the Torah. Righteousness, they believed, had everything to do with obeying the Torah. Further, they believed it couldn’t be more clear what the laws are. Basically there was a list. If you did everything on the list, you were righteous, if you didn’t you were, well, unrighteous. Follow the law; that’s what it means to be a good person, what God wants.
But is that what Jesus meant when he said we should be righteous? In this passage he’s trying to contrast something for the disciples. And it’s not a contrast between good people and bad people. Jesus knows the Pharisees are trying. So why isn’t what they are doing – following all the commandments and requiring others to do that same – exactly what Jesus expects when he says anyone who breaks even one of the commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven?
At first glance, it appears Jesus agrees with the Pharisees. “I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” The law is good, he says. Follow it and you will be righteous. Yet he thinks the Pharisees have it wrong, somehow. He challenges them – he tells his disciples that they need to be more righteous than the Pharisees. That they need to follow every commandment.
I don’t think Jesus thought the entire Torah law should be thrown out…that religious people shouldn’t try to follow the law. Jesus wasn’t anti-religion. He was Jewish to the core. He wasn’t trying to start a new religion or to throw Judaism out. He wanted people to be Jewish – very Jewish. He wanted people to be who Yahweh – the God of Israel – wanted them to be.
I think when Jesus says the Pharisees aren’t getting it, he was saying that the Pharisees were missing some very important laws from their list, as well as misunderstanding the laws they were already following. Jesus doesn’t just say he has come to fulfill the law, he says, “I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets.” Jesus adds the prophets to the law – which is no small addition. The prophets are not a part of the Torah, yet they were clearly a part of the sacred, authoritative texts for Jesus. And one of the things the prophets were always doing was interpreting the law for the people. They were correcting them when they wandered from the Torah – and their corrections always centered on how the least of society were being treated.
In another passage from our lectionary today that I didn’t have David read, the prophet Isaiah is reinterpreting the laws about fasting for people. It seems like they are following the laws of the Torah when it came to fasting. They are doing every on the list. But they were missing something…an important part of God’s law and so they were practicing fasting in the wrong way. Here is a portion of that passage. God is speaking to the people who are fasting, the people who believed they were following the law:
“Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. 4Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 6Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless and poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
Sure, God says, fast, but it’s only true fasting – it’s only obeying the laws of Torah – if it leads to caring for the poor, the oppressed, the homeless. Righteousness to Jesus means justice – it means the justice of which the prophets spoke.
If this is the case, what does it mean for us today – to follow the law, to be righteous? Look around, justice is not always the order of the day. The world could use our light. Our righteousness. So many people believe they are being religious, following the rules, doing what Christians are supposed to do. But are we completely missing the boat?
We need to constantly reinterpret our laws – our scriptures – in such a way that following them leads to justice. We already are always interpreting our scriptures, just like the prophets, just like the Pharisees, just like Jesus. But we have to apply a test – the test of the prophets who called for justice. But, if our interpretations don’t pass the test of righteousness as Jesus saw it, then they are wrong.
Our lights shine not when we are holier than thou or follow all the rules of the church and the letter of the law in the bible. Our lights shine when what we do – here in worship in our daily Christian practices lead to justice.
Jesus is Jewish – he is not breaking from his religion when he reinterprets the Torah anymore than we cease to be Christians when we reinterpret the bible today. The goal is to always be evaluating whether our understanding of the law, of the gospel, of Paul’s instructions to the church lead to oppression or to life for the least and the marginalized.
The difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was not between old and new covenant, or between law and law-lessness. It certainly wasn’t between Jewish and non-Jewish. It was a difference of interpretation of their scriptures. When interpreted rightly – righteously – interpretation should lead to freedom, release, hope, healing. The same should be true of our interpretations of the bible and our understandings of Jesus’ life. Being light to the world, being salt of the earth, is about interpreting our scriptures in such a way that the practice of religion leads to righteousness…justice.
Now, I suspect many of us feel more sympathy with the children’s song than we like to admit. Even if we understand that letting our light shine means seeking justice for others and the world, we feel like our lights are little. We feel like we don’t shine bright enough to make a difference. We don’t trust that our light is needed. $10 here and a gas voucher there doesn’t seem to make a difference: is this really what Jesus had in mind? That doesn’t sound like a lot of light in a fairly dark world.
But remember, Jesus was talking to the disciples – not just one person. And when Matthew included this in his gospel, he wants his readers to understand that Jesus is talking to them…as a church. Matthew is concerned with the church…with what the church is in this world. Is it can be a city on the hill shining brightly with God’s light, or it can be an oppressive religion that leaves people poor and dying. He’s not really concerned with individuals except as they contribute to the whole.
When we, in whatever small way we can, let our lights shine as Jesus understood it, our light is seen by others. But what Matthew is getting at is much, much bigger than that. He’s talking about religion – the whole church – all disciples being righteous. When we join together as a church to fulfill the law and the prophets, our light shines brightly. It shines as a beacon of justice and hope to people living in poverty in this city, for example. We become, in Matthew’s words, the city of God. When we are the city of God, emanating light to the world, people will flock to us for help, compassion, and justice. And we will know we are fulfilling the law and the prophets.
Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” May that be so for us. May we shine forth with justice and hope for people living in darkness. May our little lights join together and become the light of God, in this time and in this place. Amen.
