You have hear that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother , ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool! will be in danger of the fire of hell.’
Radical Jesus has always turned lives inside out by contrasting God’s true expectations of us with the human constructions that we build up in support of our desires for the way things should be. The Law told humankind not to murder and we built an elaborate scaffolding of intricate rules surrounding the act in order to justify numerous life taking events. Jesus doesn’t work on the outside though. He sees through the constructs that we use to hide the hatred in our heart and confronts us there.
Murder, hate, racism, anger; all of these start in the heart and Jesus calls us to a radical reordering of our lives that starts there, instead of taking the easy route of simply addressing the outside of the cup. Cleaning the inside begins with rediscovering the source of Love and allowing that love to work on our heart, working out the hate that coats it and softening it towards our brothers and sisters.
Radical Jesus never makes things easy does He? He is not interested in looking back at His followers following Him to the base of the cross and seeing bright, shiny outsides with corrupted insides. Jesus demands that we start our transformation on the inside and that we start with our broken hearts that lack love for our fellow man and woman. A better sacrifice than television this week is to take the anger and discord in our hearts to the altar, don’t you think?
LOVE | ACCEPT | FORGIVE 