Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Sirach 15:15-20, & Matthew 5:21-37
First, First Alternate, & Gospel Reading for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
The Deuteronomy passage—in which Moses tells the people of Israel that obeying God’s commands will bring blessings, but disobedience will bring death—popped up yesterday in a devotional book that I am reading. And the gist of the reflection was the standard to which Moses calls the people was unattainable, but that it was intentionally unattainable because it all eventually points to Jesus.
It didn’t sit right with me. I know that it is a riff of something that Paul does where he discusses how a person’s inability to follow God makes one aware of their sin. Yet that also makes it look almost like a long con on God’s part. As if God knew the mistakes that were going to be made, let them play out for a few thousand years while human beings suffered just to make the point that they couldn’t do it. It seems insulting to the Jewish people who genuinely tried to follow God to make them props in a massive point.
And maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like when Moses says “Choose” or when Jesus says “Follow me” that this is a legitimate offer on the table. It’s not just a setup to demonstrate how messed up we are but a calling to be the Good that we are intended to be. That capacity exists within each person because they are made in the Image of God.
Now will we always choose the right? Good Lord, no. In the Gospel passage, Jesus raises the stakes and says that calling a person a fool is like murder or lusting after someone is akin to adultery. He does not just want his followers to take the high road, he wants them to take the highest road. I am inevitably going to fail at those attempts sometime. Yet again, I don’t think Jesus is saying this just to show that I’m a screwup. I think he is legitimately calling each of us to this way. He wants us to strive and try to do good in the world. We will mess up, but then he wants us to choose it again and again and again.
What I am saying is I do need Jesus to follow him as he asks. I am going to screw up. And yet Jesus wants me to try again and again; offering grace for when I stumble and fall. But I do not like this idea that this is a choice merely intended to set us up for failure. We are intended to seek God as we try to follow these highest roads.
I want to close with Sirach 15:15-20, because 1) it is always fun when the Apocrypha makes a guest appearance and 2) I love how this choice is phrased in that passage:
If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your choice.
He has placed before you fire and water;
stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
Before each person are life and death,
and whichever one chooses will be given.
For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
He has not commanded anyone to be ungodly,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin.