Romans 13. 8-end; Matthew 18. 15-20
I wonder what you are thinking after just hearing that gospel reading. I doubt that any of you are thinking that you would like a change to the penitential rite in the Cathedral’s liturgy, so that after we have made a corporate confession of our sins, and before the priest pronounces absolution, we might have a time where people can come up to this microphone, so that they can publicly tell the church about those people who have sinned against them.
So, what is Jesus talking about?
It all sounds a bit petty, or perhaps even a little vindictive. An impression we might get especially from Our Lord’s instruction that, if you tell the church about someone’s sin against you, and that person still does not listen, then we are to let them be to us as a Gentile and a tax-collector.
In other words, it sounds like Jesus is saying, go on really give them a piece of your mind, and if they don’t listen, then to hell with them! It might sound like he is saying that when someone sins against us, the important thing is not reconciliation, but merely that we have the chance simply to get things off our chest, and that we need not bother with the other person anymore.
But that phrase, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector, is not the flippant remark that it might at first appear. Like so many of Jesus’s sayings and parables, it is a provocation which invites us to think about the matter at a deeper level.
It’s a bit like when he tells people, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Only a fool would think that Jesus is recommending a serious course of action here. His provocation is designed to get people to reflect on the reality that the cure for human sin is not a question of superficially chopping bits off a fundamentally healthy person, but starts with a recognition that we are infected with a disease at the most fundamental depths of our being.
And so, in the gospel reading today, what are we being invited to reflect upon by Jesus’s provocative remark, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector?
Well, we can answer this by asking another question: how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax-collectors?
How about Zacchaeus, the tax-collector, the traitor to his nation, the one who is colluding with the foreign imperial power of Rome, and lining his own pockets at the same time? When he encounters this man, who is stealing from his own people, Jesus offers him the gift of friendship, and goes to stay in his home.
What about the Gentiles, those whom the Jewish people regarded as outside of the Law of Moses and the covenant of God with Abraham? In relation to those deemed to be Gentile sinners, like the demon-possessed man in Gerasenes, a Gentile territory near Galilee, or the Roman centurion in Capernaum, whose servant is paralysed, Jesus draws them into the healing and restorative love of God, and uses his encounter with these people to proclaim that in the kingdom, people of all nations will sit and eat with Abraham, whilst those who claim a narrow special privilege will find that they are on the outside.
In other words, the way that Jesus treats Gentiles and tax-collectors is by showing them abundant generosity, mercy, and love, even though they have no natural human ties of community, mutuality, or affinity with him, by which he might expect them to give him anything. To those who, by the world’s standards, are not friends, not equals, not those with whom we are bound with mutual ties, Jesus simply shows them love.
And so, this puts a different light on his instruction in the gospel reading today.
When human relationships break down, our goal must be reconciliation and restoration, and not retaliation and point-scoring. If someone sins against us, we must seek to heal that rupture in the relationship, and restore the bonds of mutual trust and respect. However, we might find that the other person is not prepared to undergo this, often challenging, process. We might find that the restoration of mutuality is impossible. In such cases, we must not flippantly give up on the person, but we must go above and beyond the demands of natural justice, and try to give them the undeserved gift of mercy. As we heard from St Paul last week, we must repay evil with good.
I know that that must sound painfully simplistic, and, of course, in reality, this is not a straightforward, linear process. Dealing with those who have hurt us will often involve appropriate boundaries and a certain degree of self-protection. But repaying evil with good is the way of Christ towards which we must strive.
However, a note of caution must be added here immediately.
Because earlier in St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has already told the crowds, do not judge, so that you may not be judged, and, why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?
In other words, he has warned them that our powers of moral perception are compromised by our own self-absorption and self-importance, so we must be careful when pronouncing upon other people’s sin.
And so, we must exercise great discernment if we are going to follow Jesus’s teaching in today’s gospel. If our goal in our interactions with those who have sinned against us genuinely is reconciliation and the restoration of mutuality, and if we think that there is a good chance of this happening, then it might be right to speak honestly with those who have hurt us. In some serious cases, this might rightly involve other people acting as witnesses or supporters.
The ultimate standard by which we must test all of our intentions in such situations is what St Paul says in the epistle reading today: owe no one anything, except to love one another… love does no wrong to a neighbour.
Of course, this way of life is above and beyond our natural human powers. It goes against the grain of our fallen human desires and passions. But in sending his Son, God has re-made our human nature in Jesus Christ, and filled it with the power of his supernatural grace.
And so, for those who are living through the difficulty and complexity of broken human relationships – which I expect is all of us in one way or another – we are invited to receive God’s very life at the Altar this morning. We are invited to receive God’s mercy, forgiveness, and redeeming love, that this might flow into our lives as it flows out of our lives and into our relationships with others.
As St Paul puts it: Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day… not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.