Sermon: Murdering Our Hostilities
Date: August 17
Scripture: Matthew 5:21-26; Numbers 35:16-28
Speaker: Paul Walker

Murder was a serious offence in the Torah. (Numb.35:16-28) To deliberately kill another human was punishable by death. Even if the killing was unintentional, the guilty person would need to flee to a city of refuge to escape retaliation. Simply put, the Law tried to limit murder from getting out of hand by addressing the act of murder. Jesus enters into this discussion about murder with the first of his antitheses statements. “You’ve heard it said.. but I say to you”. Jesus reveals a fuller expression of God’s will for God’s people. In Jesus, we discover that the prohibition of murder is the surface expression of a deeper divine intent: Anger is counterintuitive to being people of reconciliation. If one master's anger, murder will never occur. Jesus is telling his followers that right-relationships matter even more than a sacrifice offered on the altar (V23-24). To follow Jesus is to be quick to reconcile with those who “have something against us”(v23). As we at DMC seek to follow Jesus— what might it mean to put to death our hostilities? What might it look like to be active agents in reconciliation?

Desired Outcome: To challenge folks to actively pursue reconciliation by putting to death their own anger, hostilities, and brokenness.

Quotable Quote: “In the future Kingdom of God, when all is consummated and when heaven comes to earth, anger will vanish because loving fellowship will flourish. The prohibition of anger here is not so much hyperbolic as it is a foretaste of Kingdom realities.” - Scot McKnight, The Sermon on the Mount