GodSprings - 11, March, 2017

Right with God? First be right with Others.

 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.

Matthew 5:23-24

Kramer vs. Kramer is a powerful film which won the Oscar for the Best Picture. Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffmann play the lead role of the couple Ted and Joanna Kramer. Their marriage end in divorce and a bitter custody battle over their son, Billy.

The film includes a recurring metaphor of a closing elevator door.  Near the beginning of the film Joanna leaves Ted, and while she is on an elevator he begs her not to go, to which she replies, “I don’t love you anymore,” and the door closes.  Later in the film after a brutal day in court as Ted boards an elevator Joanna tries to apologize to him for her lawyer raking him over the coals during the custody hearings—he looks at her and says nothing as the door closes.  Although Joanna wins the custody battle she decides Billy would be better off with Ted, and in the final scene of the film Joanna boards an elevator as she goes to tell Billy goodbye.  She has been crying, and her make-up is running, and she asks Ted, “How do I look?”  Ted smiles and replies, “Terrific.”  The elevator door closes and the credits roll.  The film never shows Ted and Joanna riding the elevator together.  There is no reconciliation.

Relationships are a mixed blessing. They can be a source of joy and frustration. Everything in life is about relationships.

Jesus as he continues his first sermon says that, be cautious as your behaviour affects your worship of God. Worship was a major issue with scribes and Pharisees. Their whole life was worship. They were in temple all the time worshiping God and making sacrifices.

Jesus says that God is more concerned with internal things. Our attitude towards others, how we feel about brother, sister, husband, wife, father, mother, neighbor, friends, relatives and so on.

For Jesus, reconciliation comes before worship. The Jews knew the standard of worship. The idea of sacrifice for them was obvious. If anyone committed a sin, a breach came between himself and God. The relation was disturbed. It was to be remedied by a contrite and broken heart. In order to manifest outwardly that inward feeling, he was to bring an animal as a sacrifice. The animal wasn’t the issue. The attitude was. But for the Pharisees it continued to remain only an outward expression.

There are umpteen number of times today also when we come to church having a feeling against somebody else in the church, or a neighbor, or our workmate. We know there is bitterness in our hearts when we come for worship. We do absolutely nothing about it.

Jesus says, there is a direct correlation between our relationships with others and our relationship with God. If we don’t understand this then be prepared to hear, “go away. You offer nothing to God. He is not interested in your worship.”

This is God’s way to remind us of the need for reconciliation when we try to worship Him. Usually, our tendency to compensate for personal gilt is to do greater service for God. Jesus says, He would rather have us in fellowship with those we have offended than give sacrifice to Him.

This Lenten season can we just take initiative to make matters right with those who have been hurt by our attitudes or actions?