GodSprings - 15, March, 2017

Is my Yes a Yes and No a No?

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:33-37

At the Inauguration Ceremony for new President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts stood wearing his black robe on the high podium in front of the Capital before over a million people in the Washington Mall and multiplied millions on television. Facing him stood Barack and Michelle Obama. Obama placed his left hand on the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his inaugural ceremony and raised his right hand.

Justice Roberts asked, "Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?" Obama replied, "I am."

Roberts began, "I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear." But halfway through the line Obama interrupted him and began repeating the line. Roberts paused and Obama then repeated the entire first line.

Then Roberts quoted the next line of the oath—but incorrectly. He was supposed to say, "That I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States." Instead Roberts said, "That I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully." He had moved the word faithfully to the end of the sentence. Obama paused to allow Roberts to correct himself, and then repeated the oath as Roberts had incorrectly stated it at first, with the word faithfully out of place. From there onward, the oath was administered correctly.

Why redo the ceremony in order to get the oath exactly right? Because in Constitutional and legal matters, words matter, correctness matters, if things are to be legitimate and legal. So it is with God's holy law, the "constitution" of all humanity. God's commands carry a weight, an importance, and an authority over humankind that is beyond what we can fully comprehend. The stipulations of God's Law cannot be ignored without consequences.

Matthew presents Jesus in his gospel as the King. The Sermon on the Mount is the manifesto of the King. These are the conditions that Jesus puts forward before the hearers if they want an entry into His kingdom.

This passage may seem a bit obscure since we don’t do much of oaths or swearing. So then how do we understand it. Timothy Keller, the renowned theologian and apologist says that whenever the Bible talks about the tongue, or about what we say, we should not only stop and study it but also master it. What we say is a vital thing because it is nothing but the thermometer of the heart (Mat. 12:34, 15:8)

The Jewish Rabbis considered four things that shut a person out from the presence of God namely mocking/ridiculing, double standard, insulting and lying. Though this system was there, the Jews had become an expert in lying during Jesus’ time and Jesus confronts that.

Oaths were not uncommon. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob David and many more made an oath. When they made an oath they were in reality saying, “God, if I’m telling a lie, You bring your vengeance on me.”

In the New Testament the best example is Peter. He had vowed that he will never deny Jesus. But he did three times just as Jesus had told. When the cock crowed he realized and he wept.

The Rabbis and the Jews they would swear by everything. They missed the most important ingredient – ‘unto the Lord’. This was their catch. As long as you swore unto the Lord, you had to do it. But if you swore to anything else you didn’t have to.

It’s similar to what we have done in our childhood. When we say certain things and we don’t do, we say, “I know I told you that, but I had my fingers crossed.” Jesus deals with this in v. 34.

What Jesus is saying is God is ion control of your head. Whenever you touch Heaven, you touch God. Whenever you touch earth, you touch God. You can’t avoid God. There aren’t any compartments. There is no sacred and secular. You can’t tell truth in church and lie in your business.

Simply speaking Jesus was saying that we cant be in His Kingdom if we are indicted on all these counts of lying. When Jesus says that our yes should be yes and no should be no he wants us to live a Christian life.

This Lenten season can we decide to speak truth and live it out? Can we be an oasis in the midst of the world of lairs?