My Master’s Instruction: Sermon on the Mount Part 5c

During the past year we have been revisiting Matthew’s account of the Good News, and making our way through Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount. As I have told you before, certain renowned rabbis have been recognized across history for their signature teachings. One rabbi might be known for his emphasis on a particular aspect of the Torah, another perhaps having a unique interpretation of a great event like the Exodus, and yet another may have emphasized a certain attribute of God’s nature. What we need to understand is that it has always been expected that every disciple should be able to articulate his rabbi’s teaching. More than that; his life is supposed to reflect that teaching.

Messiah Yeshua also has a specific body of teaching attributed to Him. The essentials of it are contained in what we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount. This is His ‘signature teaching’. We, as His talmidim (disciples), are expected to know this teaching inside and out, be able to recite it, be able to unpack its meaning for others, and to reflect it in the way we conduct our lives.

Outline:

I. Blessed are they… (The Beatitudes, part 1) (5:1-9)

II. Blessed are YOU… (The Beatitudes, part 2) (5:10-12)

III. Who we are and aren’t (5:13-20)

IV. You have heard… But I say (Yeshua’s Torah) (5:21-48)

V. When you… (give, pray, fast) (6:1-18)

VI. The futility of materialism (6:19-34)

VII. Things that could keep you out of Heaven (hypocrisy, following the crowd, false teachers, refusal to act on Yeshua’s teaching) (7:1-29)

In our last installment, we began the section often referred to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ but which Rabbi Loren and I prefer to call ‘The Disciples’ Prayer’ since it was to us that Yeshua gave this guideline for how to properly pray.

Here’s what we’ve already covered: Pray, then, in this way…

Our Father, who is in Heaven… (Who it is we’re praying to)

Hallowed be Your name… (Our approach to Him should be reverently)

May Your Kingdom come… (Longing for Yeshua to return)

May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven… (My part in all this)

Give us this day our daily bread… (Thanking Him for all He give us)

Today we resume at verse 12.

And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors…

The Greek word ophilima is only used twice in the New Covenant, and the word means ‘debt’ in the more general sense; but in this context has a more specific meaning of owing someone because of a wrong done to them. In other words, it wasn’t an issue of having borrowed and now having to pay back. This is a moral debt which arose from having wronged someone. It is punitive. This is a plea to God for the forgiveness of our debts, because He is the One we have wronged.

Let’s talk for a moment about the nature of sin. First of all, there’s a false notion going around that all sin is the same – that one sin is just as bad as another. I think what people really mean when they say that is that even the smallest sin, unatoned for, is enough to send a human being to eternal judgment. But to suggest, for example, that murder is no worse than stealing a candy bar, or that telling your little sister she’s dumb is just as bad as adultery is not only unbiblical, it’s nonsensical. There’s a reason that there are different Hebrew and Greek words in Scripture to describe differing severity of sin.

There is a sense in which the gravity of an offense is commensurate with the stature of the one offended. Showing up 15 minutes late for a meeting with Rabbi Glenn may be impolite, but it just doesn’t rise to the level of showing up 15 minutes late for a meeting with a head of state. According to Scripture, all sin, either directly or indirectly, is an offense against God. Realize, then, that even the smallest offense, multiplied by an infinitely holy God, carries infinite consequences. That’s a lot of debt!

We often hear about God’s unconditional love, but as far as forgiveness is concerned, according to Yeshua it is very much conditional. Otherwise, why would He instruct us to pray, “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors…” In fact, as we will see later, this is the only petition within the Disciples’ Prayer on which Yeshua elaborates.

What we are asking is for God to dispense mercy from Heaven in direct proportion to the mercy we give others here on earth. And why would we expect it to be any different? He is not a God of double-standards. We all agree that Adonai deals with us on the basis of mercy, rather than giving us what we deserve. But on the matter of forgiveness, we get precisely what we give out. We’ll talk more about that in a few minutes. Let’s continue:

And do not lead us into temptation…

Have you noticed that everything is prayed from the first person plural? Give us… forgive us… do not lead us… deliver us When the Lord saved you and me, He saved us individually, but He also saved us to become part of the Messiah’s Holy Community. Evangelicalism, while rightly emphasizing the need for one to personally place his or her faith in Messiah, has along the way lost something of the Jewish sense of a Faith community.

I have to admit, this phrase used to trouble me. Why would we need to pray for God not to lead us into temptation? Doesn’t it seem like it would be way out of character for the righteous, holy and merciful God to lead us into temptation? How should we understand this expression?

First, we need to know that God is absolutely not the instigator of temptation. Rabbi Paul, writing to the Messianic Community at Corinth, said, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). We all share the same fallen nature, so it’s no surprise that temptation comes to every one of us. But the last thing you should ever do is shift the blame onto Adonai. As we just read, He is faithful, and He is the One who provides a way of escape from it – if we’ll actually take Him up on that promise. We need to own responsibility for our actions.

James, known also as Yaakov, wrote: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust (James 1:13-14).

The word peirasmos can mean ‘temptation’ and it can also mean testing. That allows us to see this as not merely referring to the temptation to do evil, but rather being (more generically) tested. It could even be understood in an eschatological sense, a plea in advance for the strength to maintain our confession of Yeshua even in the face of persecution or death – “Lord, don’t let us fail when the time of our testing comes!”

God does not tempt people to do evil, but He does allow men to be tested, and has allowed some to be tested even to the point of martyrdom. Knowing how weak we are in our own resolve, it isn’t wrong to ask the Father to shield us from situations where we would be vulnerable to apostasy out of fear for our lives. And, to me, that understanding seems to make more sense in conjunction with the next phrase:

But deliver us from evil…

The NIV translates this: But deliver us from the evil one… Does anyone here doubt that we live in a fallen, satanically-controlled, dog-eat-dog world? Sin has so marred this otherwise beautiful and wondrous creation, and become so pervasive that we need locks for everything; the doors of our houses, our cars, gym lockers… this church building! We need secret codes for ATM machines, we need to frequently change the passwords on our computers. Banks and businesses have special procedures in place to try and stop counterfeiting. All of this to stem the tide of stealing, which is rampant. We need police departments, lawyers and courtrooms in every city and town. Credit card fraud and identity theft are out of control. Young people are dying (albeit in slow motion) through addiction to drugs, all the while making millionaires out of the cartel bosses. War has overtaken the planet and, it would seem, our 24/7 news cycle. Every day we hear of the slaughter of Christians and Jews around the world. But apparently none of this is as serious as someone refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple in Indiana. Can you understand, then, the desperate need of this prayer: deliver us from evil?

And to think, all of this evil began with the rebellion of a single archangel.

The theme of God’s deliverance is woven through the fabric of the entire Word of God. From time immemorial the Jewish people have been singled out for persecution, enslavement and death. Before the Ayatollah there was Hitler, and before Hitler there was Herod, and before Herod there was Haman, and before Haman there was Pharaoh…

But for mankind it all started in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, who were two very real individuals, rebelled against the command of God, and by that single act, joined the rebellion of Satan and his fallen angels. And just like leaven that’s pinched off from one batch of dough and leavens the next, and pinched off from that batch and leavens the next, this invisible but 100% lethal virus the Bible calls ‘sin’ has been transmitted across every generation, so that the world has never known shalom from that day.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake (Psalm 79:9).

We are instructed to pray for God to deliver us from evil. This wicked generation has, for all intents and purposes, declared open hunting season on those who call on the name of the Lord. Do you get the sense that we have been running on vapors, and things are going to change dramatically for the worse? The last remaining vestiges of a once godly nation are eroding before our eyes. Entire church denominations have declared homosexuality to be good, and at the same time declared Israel to be an evil “Apartheid state” supposedly getting in the way of peace in the Middle East. Muslim terrorists are rampaging around the world, killing Christians, killing Jews, killing fellow Muslims, but somehow it’s stillIsrael’s fault. The leaders of our own country behave and speak as though they are clueless to the nature of things. And gone is civil discourse in the public square. There is precious little honestly as people debate issues. It is all rage, accusation and threat.

Lord, deliver us from evil, and while we’re at it, Maranatha! Come, Lord Yeshua! We long for You to return and establish Your righteous kingdom, and all the more as we find ourselves increasingly strangers and aliens in this dark world. And that brings us to the last phrase of the Disciples’ Prayer.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

All of the above prayers are predicated on this very truth. We may confidently bring all these petitions to God the Father, through the agency of His Son – precisely because He alone has the power, the authority and the righteousness to bring it about! Now, this last phrase doesn’t appear in the earliest manuscripts that we have of Matthew, but its prevalence in so many manuscripts and the obviousness of its truth make it fully appropriate to include in your Bible translations.

Yours is the kingdom… The Kingdom of God will be ushered in at Yeshua’s Second Coming, and as it is written, He will reign as King and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the earth; and this is the name by which He will be called; Adonai Tzidkeinu – ‘The Lord our Righteousness’ (Jeremiah 23:5-6).

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas (Isaiah 11:9).

Like a woman experiencing labor pains, things are going to become much more difficult for the people of God in the days leading up to Messiah’s return. And I believe that is soon. So we ought to pray at all times, and according to the pattern Yeshua taught us, and we should keep watch. But just as the joy of holding her newborn child overwhelms the memory of the pain, so those days of Yeshua’s one-thousand year reign over the earth will be so glorious and prosperous that it will all but erase the memory of the pangs that preceded it.

But not everyone who claims to follow Yeshua will be there. In verses fourteen and fifteen there is a warning; a caveat.

Verses 14-15

“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Here’s something to think about: throughout the rest of this section, Yeshua has said, “When you give…” “When you pray…” “When you fast…” These are all considered a given. Of course God’s people give and pray and fast. But apparently it’s much less certain that we will forgive. Within His teaching on prayer, Messiah inserts a conditional clause, and it’s disconcerting. We frequently hear people talk about God’s unconditional love. But that is a separate issue from forgiveness. God’s forgiveness isn’t unconditional. Whether or not you will be forgiven by Him depends on whether you forgive others. I am not at all saying that salvation can be earned. But I am saying, really Yeshua is saying, that a heart that is cold and unforgiving is a sign of unbelief. And He told a parable to drive home the point. I’m going to ask you to turn with me to Matthew, chapter 18.

The parable of the merciless slave (Matthew 18:21-35)

Then Peter came to Yeshua and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Yeshua answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy sevens. Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him (one talent was about 75 lbs. of silver, roughly the equivalent of 16 years’ wages, so 10,000 talents would work out to well over $5 billion by modern measure). Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii (a denarius was a silver coin weighing about 4 grams – one day’s wages). He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Forgiveness isn’t optional, if you hope to go to Heaven. It is mandatory. Considering the size of the cosmic debt you owed to God for your moral offenses, which in His mercy He forgave, you have no excuse for holding grudges against fellow human beings for their comparatively minor offenses against you.

But there is an important distinction between forgiving someone from your heart, and telling that person you forgive them. This is a situation requiring discernment, and it’s important. Please hear me out.

If someone has wronged you, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and it is brought to their attention and they admit it and ask for your forgiveness, absolutely you should forgive them and tell them so. If, however, someone has wronged you, and it is brought to their attention, but they refuse to admit it, you still need to forgive them from your heart, but in that situation it would be a mistake to tell them so.

Why? In a word: pride. If they are unwilling to admit doing wrong, and you tell them you forgive them anyway, you come off as self-righteous. It’s like insisting on having the last word. “Well, even though you won’t admit it, I forgive you anyway!” It’s obnoxious, and that’s not likely to make them want to repent. In fact, because of human pride, in order to save face they may become even more resolute in their denial. Inadvertently you may end up short-circuiting the possibility of their doing personal introspection and realizing what they did. And even if they do come to realize they were wrong, you’ve made it that much harder for them to come back to you and apologize and still maintain some dignity. So again, if your brother or sister acknowledges having offended you and apologizes, forgive them from your heart and tell them so. If they refuse to acknowledge any offense, forgive them from your heart, but say no more about it. Perhaps they will come to you later. Perhaps not. You still must forgive.

Let me say two more things about the matter of forgiveness. First, when you genuinely forgive, it means you’re letting it go forever – relinquishing your right to ever use it against that person. In that sense, make sure you do your own introspection; make sure you really have forgiven them. You’ll know you’ve forgiven them when it fades from your memory, and there is no more sting associated with it.

Second, it is important to note that forgiving someone who has committed a serious offense doesn’t mean you automatically restore them to their area of responsibility. As Rabbi Loren mentioned, if someone in a position of financial oversight is found to have stolen money, you can forgive them, but it would be terribly foolish to entrust them with finances in the future. Likewise, a person previously convicted of sexual offenses should be forgiven if they have repented, but should never, ever be tasked to work in a children’s program.

The last three verses are less intense. Yeshua returns to an earlier theme.

Verses 16-18

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Messiah Yeshua reiterates the principle of not wearing your spirituality on your sleeve. If you are serving God, let it be between you and Him. If you are putting on sanctimonious airs and trying to impress people, you will have no reward with Adonai. In fact, Yeshua described such people as hypocrites, and that Greek word was commonly used in the First Century to describe an actor or imposter.

This is my Master’s Instruction. Lord willing, we will complete this series in the Sermon on the Mount before long.

We have a high calling. Messiah set the bar very high for His followers, and these teachings are difficult to attain to. But to be a disciple of King Messiah Yeshua means to live out His teachings daily. No one said this was going to be easy. As G. K. Chesterton observed,

“Christianity hasn’t been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”