Shroro

The Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest - June, 2005

Bible Study - Commentaries
Matthew Chapter 5: 18-24 

from Kaniyamparmabil Achen, the Great Teacher of Malankara

Verse 18: “I say to you , until heaven and earth passes away, one iota or one letter shall not pass from the law, until all shall be fulfilled.” 

The Law referred is not the scribe’s law that we just described. The Holy Church teaches that the Old Law ( of Moses ) was the image of the New Law ( by Lord ) and the new one is the completion of the Old Testament. When we say fulfillment, it means giving the essence of the Law to the world. 

Our Lord summarized the essence of the ten laws into two. What we understand from His words is: 1) Devotion (passion to God and His Name and to His day) 2) Devotion to ones parents. Respect for life, persons, objects, and the truth. We should be indebted to ourselves by keeping away from adulterous thoughts. Righteousness means fulfillment of our duty to God and human. 

Verse 5:19: “Whoever shall break one of these small commands and teachers others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven"
[Refer: Isaiah 2:3, 42:4, 42:21; Micah 4:2; Romans 3:31; Heb 8:10] 

From this we can learn three things:
1) Do not loosen Lord’s words for selfish reasons 
2) Teach the Lord’s word without watering it down
3) One who preaches should practice, too
4) He is blessed in the kingdom of heaven

Verse 5:20: “Unless your righteousness shall abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”

It is possible that many of them were living a good life. But their devotion was merely external (Refer Matthew 23:3-7 and 13:33-41). The Disciples of Christ should be different; they should do what they preach. 

Teaching about anger:

Mat 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, you shall not kill, and whoever kills shall subject to horrible 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 Sanhedrin . But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

[Refer : Det 5:17, Mt 5:21, Mt 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, Rom 13:9, James 2:11]

This is the 6th commandment (Exodus 20:13). Our Lord approaches the act of killing the same way to the anger that could prompt a killing. An act comes from an emotion. Lord refers to anger, disparaging, and insult (all the three). The Jews taught that an adulterer, one who insults his neighbor, and one who brings bad name for his neighbor, were all doomed to go to hell. But they never thought that the act that brings all this thing is equivalent to the emotion that could lead to these acts. Our Lord’s words were new knowledge for the people who regarded the Old Testament Laws literally. 

Anyone who gets angry for no reason and a murderer has the same punishment (Matthew 5:21-22). St. James (1:20) and St. Paul talks about anger. (Colo 3:8). 

Why is that anger shown with such severity? It is because it’s always unforgiving, simmering (smolder), and waits for revenge.

Lord then says that even the two words that come out of anger, Raka (an Aramaic term of contempt), and fool, are also punishable. Both anger at heart and in words are also prohibited. 

[ In modern English – fool, stupid , idiot and other disparaging words are very common ] 

Sanhedrin (the council): The supreme council and court of justice among the Jews. It had 3, 7, or 23 members depending on the importance of the place. This council administered court of justice. 
[ More reading http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13444a.htm / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin]

Hell-fire: The word used is ‘Gehenna’ which means hell. This is a place of all wicked people (Matthew 5:22, 29, 30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5, James 3:6).

There was a place in the Hinnom Valley near Jerusalem. Here the bodies of people who were stoned to death and other desecrated (unholy) things were burned. That place was named ‘Gehenna’. In short in those times people considered killing as a sin. But our Lord said bad acts are punishable, but similarly even our bad thoughts are also punishable. Anger that prolongs is bad. A word that abuses others is forbidden. Disparaging someone’s good name is most forbidden. 

Verse 23-24: “If therefore you shall bring your oblation to the altar, and shall there remember that your brother has any offence against you, leave there thy oblation before the altar, and go first and be reconciled with thy brother; and then come and present thy oblation.”

Ordinary Jews offered young bull, male lamb, two young pigeons (all without any defect), or ‘grain offering’, or ‘unleavened wafers’ (bread), etc. as oblation. But there are many other sacrifices, too. The objective is: 1) It will be an aroma pleasing to the LORD (Levi 1:9) 2) it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him (Levi 1:4) 3) It will remove the impurity. 

They believed that their offering would be fruitful immediately. But they never thought about their spiritual state at the time of offering. Our Lord showed that heart is the source of all acts and taught that for one to do good acts he needs a good heart. If you read from Isaiah 1:11 onwards we can see that God dislikes the offering of anyone whose heart is not pure. When Samuel talks to Saul he says “obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). Solomon says “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice” (Proverbs 21:3) 

One thing is special note here. The verse is “remember your brother has something against you”, not ‘if you have something against someone’. How noble is that! [If your brother has something against you, you might have done something appropriate]. How beautiful is the teaching that says go ahead and reconcile with your enemy who may have doubts about your innocence.

Presently, a priest of the Holy Church seeks the blessing of the people 1) Before the preparatory prayers for the Holy Qurbana 2) Before the start of the Holy Qurbana and 3) Before par-taking the Holy Qurbana. During Holy Qurbana, the congregation exchanges the kiss of peace. Before entering into the Great Lent there is a ‘Subkono’ prayer service. All this are based on this biblical teaching and is very meaningful.

Unless man reconcile with others and change his wicked (bad or wrong) ways, he cannot please God.