Friday April 26 Easter 4
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Psalm 51
I have committed evil acts and I long that God will wash me clean. If I am forgiven, I will tell everyone of God’s goodness. I would have given expensive sacrifices, but what you want, O God, is that I change my priorities. Then God will be pleased with us and our religious practices.
This psalm is often used on Fridays, the anniversary of the death of Christ through which forgiveness is possible. Our world would receive new life if we were as committed to changing direction in matters which are bringing death to the planet.
Exodus 34.18-35 What’s Exodus about?
This second set of commandments which God gives to Moses after he destroyed the first to symbolize the people’s faithlessness, emphasizes various sacrifices and especially the observance of the sabbath. It may be that we are hearing the memory of the temple priests from a much later time for whom these concerns were central.
The commitment to the Sabbath meant that once a week the people would re-enact God’s completion of creation—on the seventh day nobody, not even animals, are to be slaves to anyone.
The command not to cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk may be an insistence that even for animals certain relationships must not be violated, or it may be that in neighbouring religions this was a ceremony involved in worship and for Israelites to do so would be to abandon the God of Sinai, the God of justice.
Moses’s intimate encounter with God leaves him glowing. Our lives also glow when we are touched by the justice and commitment that are God’s central character.
Matthew 5.27-37 What’s Matthew about?
Jesus continues, in Matthew’s understanding, to proclaim an improved version of the Ten Commandments.
In those days divorce was entirely different than now—the divorced woman (who was simply dismissed arbitrarily by her husband so he could marry someone else) would then have no home and be forced either into prostitution or into living with some man to avoid prostitution. Jesus says in this case the former husband is responsible for the consequences, not the woman. This would have been an astonishing stance at the time. Jesus is demanding respect and equality for women who would otherwise have no recourse against arbitrary divorce.
Jesus continues his call to the highest standards of mutual respect. His advice to amputate any parts of one’s body which do not express respect is not to be taken literally, but almost humorously but as a way of challenging us to be absolutely committed to respect and justice in our relationships.
In a society in which 90% of the population is illiterate, taking an oath about something was the equivalent of our signing a legal affidavit. But with few written records, oaths were easily made falsely to deceive and take advantage. Jesus condemns this unjust practice and forbids his followers to make such oaths in case anyone might assume they were abusing someone. His followers should have the reputation of being so fair that a simple Yes or No would be all that is required to know they are telling the truth. Justice and truth are the foundations not only of God but of all aspects of the world, including our own bodies—they are never to be used to deceive.
This week’s collect:
O God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
by the blood of the eternal covenant,
make us perfect in every good work to do your will,
and work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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