SOTM: Matthew 5:23-24 (Be reconciled to your brother)

(Mat 5:23-24 ESV)  23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,  24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Jesus speaks in terms of his audience. He was speaking to Jews under Torah, and so he speaks in Torah terms.

Shortly before Jesus’ time, Judaism had been heavily influenced by two great rabbis, Hillel (the Elder) and Shammai. They disagreed about some core issues, including  which of God’s commands is the highest. Shammai considered the Temple observances to be of the greatest importance, whereas Hillel taught that loving for one’s neighbor is a higher command. Thus, when a conflict arises, the higher command is the one to obey.

The Parable of Good Samaritan can be read as a commentary on this very issue. Shammai would have told the priest to stay away from a man near death, because if the man were to die as the priest was touching him, the priest would become unclean and could not perform his duties at the Temple. Hillel would have told the priest to love his neighbor first — but not if the neighbor was a Samaritan. Jesus thus taught a higher ethic than either.

In Mat 5:23, Jesus says it’s more important to be reconciled to your neighbor than to offer a sacrifice at the Temple. He elevates love for one’s neighbor above the Temple — in contrast to what Pharisees and scribes who followed Shammai would have taught.

In effect, Jesus is saying that God is far more concerned that you have peace with your brother than that you go through Temple ritual — even an atonement sacrifice. Reconciliation — making peace — is even better.

So, to Christians, what is equivalent to “offering your gift at the altar”? Well, in one very true sense, our entire lives are sacrifices to God. But Jesus’ point is not so much about sacrifice as ritual. In modern terms, Jesus would likely say something like, “Before you go to church, go and be reconciled … .” It’s more important to God that you be at peace with your brothers than that you show up in church — and when we teach that church attendance is the highest mark of being a good Christian, we miss the point. We make the same mistake as Shammai. There are more important things.

(Hos 6:6 NIV) For I desire mercy [chesed], not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

(Isa 1:11-17 ESV) 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.  12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?  13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations — I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.  14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.  15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.  16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,  17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

(Jer 22:3-4 ESV)  3 Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.  4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people.

(Mic 6:6-8 ESV) 6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?“

Now, notice that in this passage the burden is on the offender to bring about shalom. I’ve know a number of young Christians — ministers, actually (none presently on staff at my church) — who read Mat 18:15-17 as requiring the offended party to go to the offender first. And so the young minister felt no obligation to make peace, insisting that the person who took offense at his action must make the first move. It’s a convenient interpretation for the proud.

But Jesus here tells the offender to take the first step. And he tells the offended party to take the first step in Mat 18:15-17. In short, both parties are to be peacemakers, and neither is allowed to proudly insist that the other go first.

The goal isn’t that a legalistic process be followed. The goal is shalom.

Once again, notice how squarely Jesus confronts the worst elements of an honor culture. For an offended party to take the first step is contrary to honor. Honor requires that the innocent party do nothing — but hold a grudge, I suppose. Honor puts the burden on the offender. But Jesus reverses the cultural requirement.

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in the Middle Eastern culture, it was unthinkable for the father to rush out to the offending son. Honor required that the father sit inside, waiting on the son to abase himself. To run to the son would have been a humiliation, showing that his feelings for his sinning son were more important than honor — pride.

Jesus teaches that God — the offended party — not only goes first, but he rushes to do so at the expense of his reputation. He suffers humiliation to restore relationship with his sinning child.

In short, in this passage, Jesus isn’t asking us to do anything that God hasn’t already done for us.