I got into a political disagreement on Facebook yesterday. Blah blah opinion. Blah blah rhetoric. Blah blah propaganda.
I got so heated by a few comments that I wanted to defriend all of the people involved, block them from my feed or call them out and then delete my whole Facebook account.
The cherry on top? It was nearing my bedtime and I could not calm down.
I put something funny on TV, but that didn't distract me. My heart would start racing again during commercials, when I had a chance to think about the opposing opinions.
So I turned everything off, vowed not to look at my phone again for the night and tried to go to sleep.
Still fired up.
So I prayed.
Before I could even ask for a way to forget the whole thing, God laid this on me: Matthew 5:17.
Now, I don't know this verse by heart. I wasn't even aware of how potent this scripture is. I just got this blinking vision of Matthew 5:17 in the heart of my eyes. Or the eyes of my heart. I'm not sure, it was all pretty transcendental.
I looked it up right then and there. Here's a transcript from The Message version of the Bible. This is Jesus talking:
17-18 "Don't suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures— either God's Law or the Prophets. I'm not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working.
(Picture of Mars from earlier this month. This has taken us lifetimes, but imagine how much larger the whole universe is?!)
19-20 "Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom.
I could make it my life's work (or at least a week's work) to dissect every word in those verses, but let me parse out some cliff notes:
- Jesus emphasizes God's Law. He asks us to understand that we cannot understand how the 'big picture' is going to play out. I think that's a call to faith and obedience.
- Jesus wants us to take it seriously and SHOW others how to live within God' Law. SHOW not TELL. Live it out, be the best example. No finger-pointing.
- The Pharisees were a political party or group of like-minded individuals who saw the world through political eyes. Like them, the Sadducees were sorta their opposition.
Not to parse it further, but we should visit what "God's Law" is exactly? Welp, it's the 10 commandments. But I love how Jesus sums them up with 2 themes in Matthew 22:
34-36 When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: "Teacher, which command in God's Law is the most important?"
37-40 Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."
Brilliant, yes? So freaking serendipitous!
Anger is not loving. Judgement is not loving. Rebuke outside of the context of a relationship is not loving. Argument for the sake of being right is not loving.
Right or left. Democrat, Republican or other. Pharisee or Sadducee. Are you living well? Are you loving well? I know Christians on the Right and on the Left that could use a heart-check.
I'll be first in line for heart-check screenings.
I welcome your thoughts, guys.
